Dont call beijing. They dont call moscow. They call us. Logan its the biggest story on wall street. Alibaba, the chinese internet giant, went public to become one of the most valuable companies in the world, and its all the vision of this man, jack ma. If you want to invest in us, we believe customer number one, employee number two, shareholder number three. If they dont want the buy it, thats fine. If they regret, sell us. Logan in the u. S. , the shareholder is usually first. Yeah. And i think theyre wrong. Im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Im bob simon. Im lara logan. Im bill whitaker. Im scott pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 minutes. With a control pad that can read your handwriting, a widescreen multimedia center, and a headup display for enhanced driver focus. All inside a newly redesigned cabin of unrivaled style and comfort. The allnew cclass. At the very touch point of performance and innovation. At the very touch point of performance and innovation. 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Ill worry about the economy more than a few times before theyre grown. But its for them, so ive found a way. Who matters most to you says the most about you. At massmutual were owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. Ready to plan for your future . Well help you get there. How do commercials work . You need a team, working together, doing all kinds of jobs. See these people . Theyre not acting. Theyre real professionals. And we hired them all on the site where more people get jobs than anywhere else. Indeed. The worlds 1 job site. Kroft last week was a long and momentous one in the presidency of barack obama. On monday, he began a Bombing Campaign with members of an International Coalition against isis and other terrorist targets in syria, while continuing air strikes in northern iraq. On wednesday, he addressed the United Nations and laid out his case in the strongest terms for International Action against muslim extremists. By thursday, his antiisis coalition had grown to more than 60 members, ranging from the saudis, jordanians, emiratis and europeans who flew missions, to the irish and swedes who wrote checks, to the bulgarians and egyptians who wished us well. On friday, he was back in the white house where he met us in the diplomatic Reception Room for a conversation that ranged from Terror Networks to the american economy. A lot of things going on in the world right now. A lot of them bad. You run into people on the street and they say the world is falling apart. You got syria. Youve got iraq. Youve got ukraine. Youve got ebola. Is this the most difficult period of your presidency, the biggest challenge of your presidency, this period were in right now . President obama its a significant period. But if you think about what i walked into when i came into office, we had not only two wars still active, but we also had a world Financial System which was becoming unraveling. And we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. So, you know, weve had challenges before. And weve overcome them. Thats not to downplay the serious challenges that we do face right now, mostly internationally. Kroft you spent most of your time in office trying to get the United States out of military entanglements. And last year at the United Nations, you noted that we were out of iraq and unwinding our position inin afghanistan. And this year, it. And in your state of the union message, you said, i quote, america must move off of permanent war footing. But it feels once again like we are on one. President obama well, i distinguished, steve, between counterterrorism and the sort of occupying armies that characterized the iraq and afghan war. Thats very different from us having 150,000 troops in iraq on the ground or 60,000 in afghanistan. Kroft are you saying that this is not really a war . President obama well, what im saying is that we are assisting iraq in a very real battle thats taking place on their soil, with their troops. But we are providing air support. And it is in our interest to do that because isil represents sort of a hybrid of not just the terrorist network, but one with territorial ambitions, and some of the strategy and tactics of an army. This is not america against isil, this is america leading the International Community to assist a country with whom we have a Security Partnership with, to make sure that they are able to take care of their business. Kroft two years ago, in the. In the white house, in this building, you told me. You talked about al qaeda being decimated. You talked about al qaeda being back on its heels. Two years later, youve got al qaeda affiliates and al qaeda offshoots controlling huge chunks of both iraq and syria. And you have militant. Militias, Islamic Radical militias in control of libya. President obama if youll recall, steve, you had an International Network in al qaeda between afghanistan and pakistan, headed by bin laden. And that structure we have rendered ineffective. But what i also said and this was two years ago and a year ago is that you have regional groups with regional ambitions and territorial ambitions. And what also has not changed is the kind of violent, ideologically driven extremism that has taken root in too much of the muslim world. And this week in my speech to the United Nations general assembly, i made very clear we are not at war against islam. Islam is a religion that preaches peace and the overwhelming majority of muslims are peaceful. But in the muslim world right now, there is a cancer that has grown for too long that suggests that it is acceptable to kill innocent people who worship a different god. And that kind of extremism, unfortunately, means that were gonna see for some time the possibility that in a whole bunch of different countries, radical groups may spring up, particularly in countries that are still relatively fragile, where you had sectarian tensions, where you dont have a strong state security apparatus. Thats why what we have to do is rather than play whackamole and send u. S. Troops wherever this occurs, we have to build strong partnerships. We have to get the International Community to recognize this is a problem. Weve got to get arab and Muslim Leaders to say very clearly, these folks do not represent us. They do not represent islam and to speak out forcefully against them. Kroft i understand all the caveats about these regional groups. But this is. This is what, an army of 40,000 people, according to some of the military estimates i heard the other day, very welltrained, very motivated. President obama well, part of it was that. Kroft what. How did this get. How did they. How did they end up where they are in control of so much territory . Was that a complete surprise to you . President obama well, i think our head of the intelligence community, jim clapper, has acknowledged that i think they underestimated what had been taking place in syria. Kroft i mean, hehe didnt say that. Just say that, we underestimated isil. He said, we overestimated the ability and the will of our allies, the iraqi army, to fight. President obama thats true. Thats absolutely true. And i. And. And. Kroft and these are the people that were now expecting to carry on the fight. President obama well, heres what happened in iraq. When we left, we had left them a democracy that was intact, a military that was wellequipped, and the ability then to chart their own course. And that opportunity was squandered over the course of five years or so because the prime minister, maliki, was much more interested in consolidating his shia base and very suspicious of the sunnis and the kurds, who make up the other two thirds of the country. So what you. What you did not see was a government that had built a sense of national unity. And if you dont have. Kroft or an army. President obama an army that feels committed to the nation as opposed to a particular sect. Now the good news is that the new prime minister, abadi, who i met with this week, so far at least has sent all the right signals. And thats why it goes back to what i said before, steve, we cant do this for them. We cannot do this for them, because its not just a military problem, it is a political problem. And if we make the mistake of simply sending u. S. Troops back in, we can maintain peace for a while. But unless there is a change in how, not just iraq, but countries like syria and some of the other countries in the region, think about what political accommodation means, think about what tolerance means. Kroft and you think we can teach them that . President obama well, i think theres going to be a generational challenge. I dont think that this is something thats going to happen overnight. They have now created an environment in which young men are more concerned whether theyre shia or sunni rather than whether they are getting a good education or whether they are able to, you know, have a good job. Many of them are poor. Many of them are illiterate and are therefore more subject to these kinds of ideological appeals. And, you know, the beginning of the solution for the entire middle east is going to be a transformation in how these countries teach their youth. What our military operations can do is to just check and roll back these networks as they appear and make sure that the time in space is provided for a new way of doing things to begin to take root. But its gonna take some time. And in the meantime, what i can. Kroft youre saying. Youre saying buy them time so they can get their act together . President obama yeah, but in the meantime, its not just buy them time, its also making sure that americans are protected, that our allies are protected. Kroft youve acknowledged or you said that the Iraqi Government, the new Iraqi Government is making great progress or making some. President obama some progress. Kroft . Progress. President obama i wouldnt say great yet. Kroft they have a new prime minister. They have a new administration. What its not produced is any sort of enthusiasm or much enthusiasm on the part of the disaffected sunni majority. President obama its going to take. Its going to take time. Kroft theyre not. Theyre not. They havent. Theyre not lining up to go and join the iraqi army. President obama well, look, the mistrust has been built up over time. His instincts are right. Whether he can pull it off is something that is going to be a great challenge. And weve got to give him all the support that we can in this process. The good news is that you have an unprecedented International Coalition that is serious about this. Not only do we have arab states participating in air strikes for the first time in a very long time and being very serious about their commitment but youve got the united kingdom, youve got france, belgium. Kroft i think everybody applauds the efforts that youve made and the size of the coalition that has been assembled. But most of them are. Most of them are. Have contri. Are contributing money or training or policing the borders, not getting particularly close to the. To the contact. It looks like once again we are leading the operation. We are carrying. President obama steve, thats always the case. Thats always the case. America leads. Wewe are the indispensable nation. We have capacity no one else has. Our military is the best in the history of the world. And when trouble comes up anywhere in the world, they dont call beijing, they dont call moscow, they call us. Thats the deal. Kroft i mean, it looks like we are doing 90 . President obama steve, there is not an iss. When theres a typhoon in the philippines, take a look at whos helping the philippines deal with that situation. When theres an earthquake in haiti, take a look at whos leading the charge and making sure haiti can rebuild. Thats how we. Thatthats how we roll. And thats what makes this america. Kroft but youve said that we are not going to be the shiite air force. Were not gonna be the Kurdistan Air force. Im not gonna be the iraqi air force. But, in effect, with the allies, thats what we have become. We have become the iraqi air force. President obama with the allies, with their ground troops, and if we do our job right and the iraqis fight, then over time our role can slow down and taper off. And their role reasserts itself. But all that depends, steve. And im. Nobodys clearer than i am about this. That the iraqis have to be willing to fight. And they have to be willing to fight in a nonsectarian way shia, sunni, and kurd alongside each other against this cancer in their midst. Kroft what happens if the iraqis dont fight or cant fight . President obama well. Kroft whats the endgame . President obama im not going to speculate on failure at the moment. Were just getting started. Lets see how they do. I think that right now, weve got a Campaign Plan that has a strong chance for success in iraq. I think syria is a more challenging situation. Syria is more challenging because the u. S. Has few viable allies on the ground there. The regime of Bashir Al Assad is fighting isis but the u. S. Wants assad deposed for committing horrific crimes against his own people and other opposition groups like the al nusra front and a terrorist cell called khorasan, which was plotting attacks against europe, and are both affiliated with al qaeda. The coalition is hoping to train 5,000 moderate syrian fighters in saudi arabia. Kroft is there a moderate Syrian Opposition . President obama there is. But right now, it doesnt control much territory. It has been squeezed between isil on the one hand and the assad regime on the other. Kroft these are the people that you said, the farmers, the doctors, the pharmacists, who stood no chance of overthrowing the government. President obama well keep in mind two years ago, that was absolutely true. This is in response to the mythology thats evolved that somehow if we had given those folks some guns twoandahalf years ago, that syria would be fine. And the point that i made then, which is absolutely true, is that for us to just start arming inexperienced fighters who we hadnt vetted, so we didnt know and couldnt sort out very well whos potentially isil or al nusra member and who is somebody that were going to work with. For us to just go blind on that would have been counterproductive and would not have helped the situation. But we also would have committed us to a much more significant role inside of syria. Kroft you said that we need to get rid of assad. And while we saying. While were saying we have to get rid of assad, we are also bombing and trying to take out some of the. His most threatening opponents andand the. President obama i recognize the. I recognize. Kroft and the beneficiary of this is assad. President obama i recognize the contradiction in a contradic. Contradictory land and a contradictory circumstance. We are. We are not going to stabilize syria under the rule of assad, because the sunni areas inside of syria view assad as having carried out terrible atrocities. The world has seen them. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. Millions have been displaced. So for a longterm political settlement, for syria to remain unified, it is not possible that assad presides over that entire process. On the other hand, in terms of immediate threats to the United States, isil, khorasan group, those folks could kill americans. And so. Kroft theyre more important than assad at this point. Thats what youre saying. President obama what im saying is that theyre all connected, but theres a more immediate concern that has to be dealt with. Kroft you know, youve said no american group. No americans. No american boots on the ground. No combat troops on the ground. Weve got 1,600 troops there. President obama we do. Kroft some of them are going to be out. Embedded with iraqi units. President obama well, theyre in harms way in the sense that any time theyre in war theatre, its dangerous. So i dont want to downplay the fact that theyre in a war environment and there are Hostile Forces on the other side. But. Kroft and they participated in combat operations. President obama well, theres a difference between them advising and assisting iraqis who are fighting versus a situation in which we got our marines and our soldiers out there taking shots and shooting back. Kroft when we come back, president obama looks at americas troubled relationship with russia, his own economic record and his partys prospects in the midterm elections. Weve heard that over 4 hundred million Vacation Days go unused every year. Thats the stupidest thing ive ever heard. Theyre paid Vacation Days. If you guys agreed to travel more well all do better in school. Well have a better understanding of other cultures. I will learn to parler francais. Oui oui. 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