Those that really have in some ways suffered the most are those that are the families, and thats the kids the wives, the husbands, the parents. Woodruff those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Lincoln financial. Youre in charge. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff for the first time in 14 years, no american troops were involved in major Ground Combat on a memorial day. President obama took note of that in his appearance at Arlington National cemetery. He laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns, and said the site is more than a final resting place for fallen heroes. Each simple stone marker, arranged in perfect military precision, signifies the cost of our blessings. It is a debt we can never fully repay, but it is a debt we will never stop trying to fully repay. By remaining a nation worthy of their sacrifice. Woodruff another wreath laying in kabul, paid tribute to more than 2,200 americans killed in the afghan war. Some 10,000 are still stationed there as advisors and trainers. Vice President Biden sought to reassure iraqs Prime Minister today after a dustup over fighting the Islamic State group. In a statement, white house officials said the Vice President s phone call, recognized the enormous sacrifice and bravery of iraqi forces. That came after defense secretary ash carter had blamed the loss of ramadi on iraqi troops who ran away. They withdrew from the site. And that says to me, and i think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the iraqis to fight isil and defend themselves. Woodruff iraqi leaders condemned carters statement and a Top Commander in iran charged today that, in fact, the u. S. Lacks the will to fight isis. Theres word that cleveland has reached a settlement with the Justice Department over alleged police abuses. The New York Times reports it involves a pattern of excessive use of force and unconstitutional actions. On saturday, a judge acquitted a White Cleveland officer in a shooting barrage that killed two unarmed black suspects. The governor of texas declared disasters in two dozen counties today, after a weekend of catastrophic flooding and tornadoes. And, the Severe Weather continued early today, as a storm blasted a mexican town just across the texas border. The people of ciudad acuna awoke to the ravages of a tornado that tore through just after daybreak. Authorities reported more than a dozen people were killed. Farther north, lightning lit up the kansas sky overnight, and outlined a twister moving across the open plain. Together, they were the latest outbreaks from a massive weather system that stretched all the way from the gulf of mexico to the great lakes. In its wake, came not only tornadoes, but severe flooding. Oh my god. Woodruff Central Texas bore the brunt, with creeks and rivers rapidly swelling sweeping cars away. At least a dozen people were missing after flash flooding sent the blanco river rising 26 feet in an hour. We do have 12 missing persons we are actively searching for. We have additional concerns where we are gathering information from reporting parties to make sure that residents, are missing or are not missing. Woodruff across texas hundreds of homes were destroyed, and nearly 2,000 people were forced to move to higher ground. Theyve lost everything. Their cars, their furniture, everything. And, its just amazing. I cant even begin to let it all sink in. I dont think i want to know just yet. Woodruff severe flooding also hit the dallas area, and the governor warned texas is not out of the woods yet. Powerful message to anyone in harms way over entire state of texas as we see ongoing rain and that is the relentless tsunami type power that this wave of water can pose for people. Woodruff and the rain did keep falling, in houston and elsewhere, further damaging apartments and homes that had been torn open by a tornado on sunday. The storms are blamed for at least three deaths in oklahoma and texas. In india, there was no break in extreme heat thats killed more than 500 people in recent weeks. Temperatures in one Northern State reached 116 degrees on sunday. People suffering from dehydration inundated hospitals that were battling power outages. And, streets in several major cities were abandoned as people sought out shade. National police in malaysia report theyve found 139 mass graves, and signs of torture, in more than two dozen camps where traffickers once held migrants. Investigators carried away body parts today from one site at the border with thailand. Its believed Rohingya Muslims whod fled myanmar were kept there. China sharply criticized the u. S. Today in a diplomatic row over the disputed south china sea. Beijing complained after a u. S. Reconnaissance plane flew over the spratly islands, where the chinese are Building Bases despite international protests translated the u. S. Military aircrafts spying on chinas islands could easily cause miscalculation, and was very dangerous and irresponsible. I want to emphasize that chinas determination to protect its National Sovereignty and territorial integrity is as firm as a rock. Woodruff a tabloid owned by the Chinese Communist partys official newspaper went even further. It said war with the u. S. Is inevitable, unless washington backs off. Former israeli Prime Minister ehud olmert was sentenced today to more jail time. He got eight months in prison for taking illegal payments from a u. S. Businessman. It happened when he was mayor of jerusalem. Olmert had already received a separate sixyear sentence for taking bribes. Back in this country, anonymous threats targeted airliners bound for new york. U. S. Fighter jets escorted one airfrance flight to kennedy airport, after claims of a chemical weapon on board. That plane was eventually searched and cleared. Then, authorities searched a flight from Saudi Arabian airlines because of another call. An American Airlines flight from england was also threatened. And, comedian anne meara died over the weekend, after a long career in tv, movies and the stage. Meara and husband Jerry Stiller were a hit comedy duo in the 1960s before she went on to a series of acting roles. In 2006, she joined son ben stiller in the movie night at the museum. Anne meara was 85 years old. Still to come on the newshour the fight to beat back Islamic State forces in iraq. Whats next for rules governing u. S. Surveillance. The week ahead in politics with amy walter and tamara keith. Why startup tech entrepreneurs are moving business to pakistan. Plus, three stories for this memorial day, on the longest war in u. S. History, the struggles at home for loved ones of soldiers redeployed, and memorizing the names of the fallen in afghanistan. Woodruff we turn now to the fight for iraq, and the growing tensions the rise of the Islamic State has roiled up. Joining me is douglas ollivant. A former military planner in iraq who served on the National Security council under president obama and president george w. Bush. Hes now a senior National Security fellow at the new America Foundation and partner at mantid international. Doug ollivant, welcome back to the newshour. We have the comments from the secretary of defense over the weekend saying iraqi troops ran away, that they didnt have the will to fight. But then today you have the vice President Biden calling the iraqi Prime Minister to say, no, iraqi troops are doing a great job. Which is it . Just a few weeks ago we had secretary kerry saying that he was sure that ramadi was going to be reclaimed. So clearly we have secretary carter as an outlier in the u. S. Government position which sometimes just means youre saying inconvenient things people continue want to hear. Clearly problems with the iraqi earnings they need to be addressed, but the counterpoint is also true, the iraqi army was in ramadi for a year and a half and did fight off the Islamic State there for a year and a half, and if were to believe the accounts, really were at the receiving end of a wellplanned wellexecuted attack by the Islamic State that involved a number of very, very large explosive car bombs, some of which were said to be the sides of those in the Oklahoma City bombing leveling blocks or at least large buildings an assault any military force would have a hard time with. So there is some truth to what the secretary is saying but, at the same time the indignation on the part of the iraqis is very valid. Some of these soldiers have fought very well. Woodruff in terms of whether they were well supplied whether they had the training they needed, where is the answer to that . Because weve looked at the u. S. Has been providing support and yet these troops still are not able to do the job. Thats undeniably true. There has been a lot of support given. These troops in mohammedy had not been trained by the United States, but you would hope the iraqis would be able to generate their own training devices at some point. But there are clearly problems with leadership. We heard rumors the soldiers had not been paid. Very systematic problems with the Iraqi Government still. Its a relatively new government, only been around for a decade or so, only truly sovereign for the last three years since we departed and theyre still learning how to do this. Woodruff we know there is criticism coming up from all quarters in terms of whether the administration approach is the correct one and whether the traition ought to be the administration ought to be doing more or something different. How do you read all this . Certainly, theres a lot of criticism. Anytime you have setbacks criticism is inevitable. It is clear the Islamic State had a good weekend last weekend in the retaking of ramadi and of course, that does call for you to reflect. But i think in general the administration is on the right path. We need to be training we need to be arming, we need to be supporting. We may need to do a little more of all of that but in general we need to continue to work through the iraqis to get the Islamic State out of iraq, having us do it might be more efficient but there are so many negative second order effects of that, that its just undesirable. Woodruff so, douglas ollivant, is it just a matter of being patient . I think in some ways thats exactly it. Its going to take time to get the Islamic State pushback out of iraq. Prime minister abadi said hes going. Take ramadi back in days, i think thats an exaggeration, but it wouldnt surprise me if they took it back in four to eight weeks, the time they used in the tikrit attack. Weve had a series of successes in tikrit and other areas. Youve had the various Iraqi Security forces and or militias pushing back the Islamic State out of the key bourbon areas. Woodruff i think its hard for people to keep track of where shings stand with regard to the sunnishia split that exists in iraq, put do you have the sense that Prime Minister abadi is doing the best he can to get the sunnis engaged with this fight, or is there still this sort of unbridgeable divide between the two . Well, i think Prime Minister abadi is very much reaching out to the sunni, trying to reach across the aisle, trying to make the deal, so much so that hes often accused by his shia arab base of aband abandoning them and their concerns and being more concerned about the 20 minority of arab sunni than the 60 or 65 that are arab she. I cant but he is reaching across. The question is does he have the Political Capital to continue doing that and can he hold his own base while reaching across the aisle. Woodruff whats the thinking in terms of what more the u. S. Could do to help these iraqi troops . I think continuing to provide weapons, continuing to get more missiles. The iraqi forces in ramadi didnt have the antitank missiles they needed to stop the vehicles, the explosive car bombs from attacking their positions. It wouldnt hurt to have more unarmed surveillance drones. If we were to push those then the iranians wouldnt have to provide them, thats a way for us to use a chess move against the iranian influence in iraq which we need to be concerned about. So there are app series of things we can do, but essentially its more of what were doing equipping training and intelligence support. Woodruff douglas ollivant, thank you. Thank you, judy. Woodruff now, we look at whats next for the rules governing u. S. Surveillance. Over the weekend, the senate failed to extend three key provisions of the patriot act set to expire in a week. They left town for a recess, leaving little time left to come to consensus. To help us understand what lies ahead, newshour political director lisa desjardins. So, lisa, what happened . There into the wee hours saturday morning and this is the patriot act hanging by a thread . This is a test for new majority leader Mitch Mcconnell, he took a Strategic Risk something that worked in the past both sides and set a high stakes vote when congress was going out of town. It dipped not work this time blocked by rand paul sand some democrats particularly one from oregon and other conservatives as well. It came to the midnight vote and they could not get 60 votes for any one kind of agreement. It is important to note that on the major votes that happened in the midnight session, one vote turned out better than the other, the vote for the revised version of the surveillance powers, one that would limit what the n. S. A. Could do, the freedom act. That was a few votes short verse an extension with 15 votes short. The division in the Republican Party on these votes was on geographic lines. We looked at southern senators midwestern senators wanted a straight extension. You looked at senators in the southwest, they were willing to revise. Woodruff clearly, Mitch Mcconnell didnt want this to happen. What went wrong . I think it was really just a showdown over how the senate works. Rand paul was able to use the power of a single senator and a few other senators. The truth is a single senator can hold up the senate for three or four days. Mitch mcconnell could have kept the senate going for three or four days and run the clock but he didnt. Woodruff quickly they will come back sunday and have a sunday session at the end of the memorial week break. What needs to happen then and, meantime, the government has to start planning to cut back on surveillance. First of all senators need to buy their plane tickets and senators who are coming back sunday at 4 need to plan now. But we have talks starting wednesday, thursday, to see if they can come up with a deal. Judy, theres no known solution right now. Its possible we could see the provisions expire at least for a short time. Completely unknown now. Woodruff well be watching, lisa desjardins. Thank you. You got it. Woodruff the patriot act is one of handful of topics popping up this week in the president ial race. So no better time for politics monday. Joining me our weekly wrap are regular guests, amy walter of the cook political report, and tamara keith of npr. Welcome to you both and thank you for being here on this memorial day. So the patriot act, ive just been talking to lisa about what happened in the coming, but its also something the president ial candidates have to deal with. Amy, how much are they talking about this or are they talking about this out on the campaign . Yeah, they are talking about it in relation to one person in particular, the person that lisa brought up, rand paul. Rand paul is on an island by himself now. The one person saying we need to get rid of this program altogether. He is a known libertarian, somebody who has been taking this cause on for a good long time. And the other candidates are trying to show sort of their hawkish muscles of accusing him of being soft on terrorism. Woodruff is that working, tamara . One thing that is working for rand paul is that while he was doing his filibuster, while he was doing in, hes fundraising. Hes obviously being intellectually consistent here. This is an issue he cares about and has cared about. Also excellent for raising a president ial candidates profile and he had young people taking selfies of themselves, watching him on television, and tweeting that out saying they stand with rand. His campaign was sending around a petition to get people to sign on saying they supported his position on this so hes leveraging it. It. Woodruff so most of the candidates think its important to have a position on this at this point . They have to have a position. They had to vote on it. What youre seeing is its interesting, of the three tea party candidates, they came in in 2010, ted cruz, rand paul. Rand paul is off by his own. Ted cruz wants to reform but not get rid of the program altogether. Marco rubio the most muscular saying not only keep it going but even stronger. Chris christie and jeb bush also have been talking about having a very strong surveillance system, how important it is for trim. If youre how important it is for terrorism. If youre chris christie, governor of a state impact bid 9 11, it gives you an opportunity to talk about how the governor