Violence against women and allowed our culture to act as though this is something we can deal with later or in a hush hush way. We got to confront it, we should use this opportunity to confront and change something that is too readily accepted and excused. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton, have a great weekend. Hardball starts right now. Night of the generals. Lets talk hardball. Good evening, im Chris Matthews in washington. Does this new war in iraq and syria make sense to you . Does it sound right to you, that a campaign of air strikes will bring down a zealous army of 30,000plus fanatics . That our pilots can kill enough of them to get the rest of them
to give up the fight . Also tonight, the pollsters get it wrong in scotland. The people over there vote overwhelmingly to stay in the uk. And Roger Goodell takes questions from reporters and but comes up with no answers. So why is he talking . Lastly, a look at the greatest bill cosby who made history again and again and again. But a start with the war against isis, the up in the air war. What if a pilot gets shot down, doesnt coming in low create a far fettered target for missiles against us. What if the enemy gets hold of one of our pilots, what then . Which army will grab the positions we bomb into submission . Again, does this new american war in iraq and syria make sense to you, personally . The American People tell
pollsters, they dont think it will succeed. Should we be fighting a war we dont think will work from the outset . All the bombing will achieve is that the u. S. Will tell the United States its standing up against isis. Doesnt that increase their recruitment, allowing them to match every casualty we inflict on them . I want to start with the general. What do you make of an air war where were counting on the people on the ground, in iraq and syria to somehow go in and grab the land . How do you see this working . Well, air power has a strength of its own. The air power, this is not your grandfathers air power. We have 24hour surveillance with drones that have missiles
on them. Your assumption that a pilot could get shot down is correct. We have a method for going in and sending search and rescue teams in to get them. We also could coordinate, depending on the circumstances, with the available ground forces, either from iraq or the kurds that could get them. But anything could happen, chris. I think people need to feel assured that where we are now is not where we might be in a couple weeks from now. I think the strategy, the way its been portrayed, one of using air power, by trying to use that first, i think the discussion by general dempsey that thats his recommendation, that he made his best recommendation to the president. The president has the option to change later. Look, as long as the why is consistent, and the why is, isis has to be stopped. They cannot be allowed to form inside iraq and syria where they
become a dominant country. Number two, the what has to be done. They have to be degraded and they have to be controlled. And the third, the how. How its done has been described by the president with a restriction on boots on the ground. That could change based on circumstances. Remember, chris, we got two campaigns. One is syria, one in iraq. Both of these are complex at best, but you got two great generals, dempsey and austin. When i was on the joint staff as a twostar, dempsey worked for my boss, and austin worked inside of my division. So both of them have been there before, and there was a little lady over at the white house named susan rice at the time. She had the desk at the state department. So you got a team of people who have been there and done this before and they will work with the president and get the effect they need to get. General, back to you in a moment. The president has said again and
again, american troops will not play a Ground Combat role. No boots on the ground, he keeps saying. He repeated that promise again last night. Lets listen to the president on how hes limiting this type of campaign. The American Forces that have been deployed to iraq do not and will not have a combat mission. Their mission is to advise and assist our partners on the ground. So i told our troops yesterday, we can join with allies and partners to destroy isil, without american troops fighting another ground war in the middle east. Earlier this week, the president s top general Martin Dempsey gave a very different take. He said, there could come a time when we would recommend boots on the ground. He would. Listen to this. My view at this point, is that this coalition is the appropriate way forward. I believe that will prove true. But if it fails to be true, and if there are threats to the United States, then i would go back to the president and make a
recommendation that would include the u. S. Of military ground forces. Thats a position from not just general dempsey, but others have that view. Quote, flashes of disagreement over how to fight the Islamic State are mounting twb president obama and u. S. Military leaders. The pentagon wants to retain the option of deploying small numbers of forces at the front lines to help the proxy troops to call in air strikes from close range. Were seeing a little bit of a difference here, but its been profound and consistent. The generals i dont know if the word is hawkish. Are they hawkish . Or are they saying, to win this war, we have to go about it more grandly with real action on every front . As our other guest knows, generals dont like to be told what they cant do, whats off the table. Because their number one duty is not only to execute the mission,
but to protect their troops. For that purpose alone, there will be boots on the ground, im convinced. The real argument is over how you define what a combat mission is. The president said there will be no combat mission. That doesnt mean there wont be a lot of boots on the ground and that they could be get drawn into something that would be combat. And im not entirely sure that either the white house or the pentagon minds that this is a public dispute here. Its not a vicious dispute how does it help the president to be seen as criticized by his generals . No, i think that the general is doing him a favor by expanding the definition of what could be allowed, without technically violating what the president is committing to by way of a combat mission. General, help us with the definitions here. It seems to me, if you have advisers like in vietnam in the early 60s and late 50s, theyre in there advising, working in combat, maybe come out on some of the fire fights
that are nearby. Theyre encouraging and training. They dont just stay back at the base, do they . What does it mean to be an adviser . Does it mean you dont go near the fighting . Well, no, you get close enough to advise at the brigade level, youre inside artillery range. Which means you are giving them the technical means to be able to call for fire, be able to call for jets, being able to call for bomber. Chris, let me tell you this, were evolving in this as we go. But remember the old phrase that edward r. Morrow and Walter Cronkite might have used to describe a friday night on the eve of a war, has changed. The biggest thing happening is high school football, tomorrow it will be college, and sunday it will be pro. The people are going about their business. Theyre expecting the president and the military to handle this. The country is not under serious threat of an attack. That being said, they want us to
do this, get it done with the minimum exposure of our troops, get the job done, where inside of iraq, they can handle this with their neighbors. That being said, i think if theres any discussion as to what we going to do it and how we going to do it, lets leave that in the mind of the enemy, isis, to figure out what were going to do. A little ambiguity is not bad. Do you think thats the president s plan to keep it ambiguous when he says no boots on the ground, doesnt mean no special ops. The discussion were having 30 years ago would be between washington and his congress. World war, president s and multiple generals. Same thing in the korean war. So the idea that how we going to do it is of discussion. The healthy thing, we know this discussion is going on. When its unhealthy, is when you dont know discussions are going on and thats when we really
make bad mistakes. I agree. General, im a believer that we doesnt have enough discuss before the iraq war in 2003. The generals, it seemed to me, were very skeptical. It was the people around george w. Bush, including dick cheney, pushing that war. The generals knew it was a strange thing to jump us into a country, that was a secular, nonthreatening country, just because we didnt like his face. Get rid of saddam hussein. Then we find this al nusra in syr syria. We keep bringing down governments and letting them be replaced with anybody, and were not there. We had Armed Services on this morning. He said if we had kept a residual force in iraq, we wouldnt be facing this. But that doesnt answer the problem. If we kept a residual force there, they would be fighting
isis right now. Right. And in the president and the pentagons thinking as well, if you keep your troops in there, if you keep taking the lead, if youre the point, the kurds and the sunnis and the shias and so on, are never going to take the lead. Theyre going to watch friday night football. Theyre never going to take the lead themselves. I think general dempsey, the pentagon, basically agrees with the president that the others have to do it. Theyre not just proxies. That others have to do it. What general dempsey is saying publicly, though, is, look, its going to require more american troops than you think. We dont want them to take the lead any more than you do, mr. President. But he said it may well take more troops than you think its going to. And i think hes trying to set expectations for that. General dempsey is. Do you think baghdadi is thinking hes losing over there . The isis leader . I think hes in good shape. Hes got us engaged in attacking him, which makes him look good. Sat the same time, weve said,
were not going all in against him. Not having been on the receiving end of an american air strike, im not sure. But those are pretty thank you for joining us. Thank you both, gentlemen. Have a nice weekend. The nfl commissioner concedes this afternoon, i got it wrong. Roger goodell faced the music today a bit. I still dont know what hes arguing in the wake of the leagues bad behavior, which hes talked about again and again with no explanation. Plus, no country of their own. After a dramatic campaign, they went to the polls, they vote to stay a part of the uk. Alan cumming said, they shouldnt do it. The promovement lost by ten points. Thats a wipeout. And 30 years ago one of the most famous tv fathers ever made his debut. Youre afraid to try, because youre afraid that your brain is going to explode and its going to ooze out of your ear. Im telling you, you are going to try as hard as you can. And youre going to do it because i said so. I am your father. I brought you in this world, and ill take you out. And theres a new biography of the great bill cosby. It says the cosby show paved the way for the election of obama. Finally, when we go into syria, we know were going to come out. And when we do, the people that remain there, including isis, are going to call the shots, not us. This is hardball, a place for politics. We know were not the center of your life, but well do our best to help you connect to what is. Whenwork with equity experts who work with regional experts who work with Portfolio Management experts thats when expertise happens. Mfs. Because there is no expertise without collaboration. New numbers in the Colorado Senate race. A usa today poll has gardner ahead of udall by one point, 4342. Take a look at the latest quinnipiac poll it has gardner with an 8point lead over udall. Well be right back. If energy could come from anything . Or if power could go anywhere . Or if light could seek out the dark . What would happen if that happens . Anything. Welcome back to hardball. After going silent for ten days, nfl commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the media late today. In that time by the way, the plague of violence in the league has gone from bad to worse. In addition to those horrible images of ray rice knocking out his wife, the league has been confronted by new charges of other players engaging in violent acts, including of course against children now. And the latest came wednesday when Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer was benched after he was arrested on charge
of aggravated assault. The New York Times reported according to Court Documents released thursday, back in july, he headbutted his wife, fractured her nose and threw a shoe that hit his sons stomach. Have you considered resigning at any point throughout this . I have not. Im focused on doing my job and doing the best of my ability. I understand when people are critical of your performance. But we have a lot of work to do. Thats my focus. Weve been busy in the last couple weeks. We have results to show for it. We talked about some of them in my statement. But im proud of the opportunity that we have to try to make a difference here, and do the right thing. Sports columnist with usa
today and Dan Shaughnessy writes for the globe. Why did he have the damn thing today anyway . What was the point besides pr and some kind of notion of timing and letting the heat out. I didnt hear anything from him today. What did you hear . Im still trying to figure out why he was there in the first place either. He said really nothing new. He spoke from the press release which they sent out. He apologized a lot, yeah, thats great, but theres nothing concrete that said we know we have to get a handle on this and heres how were going to do it. Theyre going to call in a lot of experts and theyre going to get this right. What do you think of this mueller thing . Put the story to bed, create a committee, hire lawyers and stenographers, they take forever when you could do it in two hours. Go to the nfl headquarters and ask every nfl executive and say,
did you get this tape sent to you or not . It takes an hour to do that, an hour. This is pr, its timing, its the old trick, bury the ball, let it sit there until the thing cools down. Im not saying politicians dont do it. Bill clinton did it with monica. Finally when its cooled down, the word gets out, and you survive. Dan, what do you think of this . Maybe you have a different view. Im not going to disagree with anything youre saying there, chris. And again, they can ride this out, ratings were up last week, its a Great Television program. It continues to be that. People want to see their games, want their fantasy football. Hes out there taking the bullets. Id like to see the 32 owners take a press conference and answer these questions. Hes taking the hit. 44 million to take the hit. He was charming enough. No reason to hate him. But he didnt answer anything. Anheuserbusch, of course budweis budweiser, pepsi, mcdonalds, campbell soup, visa, marriott, and other says who spent hundreds of millions on the league have all sent warnings. And my wife is the executive vp of marriott, just to make it clear. And heres what anheuserbusch said the other day. We are not yet satisfied with the leagues handling of behaviors that so clearly go against our own Company Culture and moral code. Weve shared our concerns and expectations with the league. Dan, i know money talks. Weve heard that. But money talks. The fans of football who pay for the tickets and have the season tickets and go out every sunday and watch it every sunday, they dont seem to be changed in their viewing habits. No. But the other people out there, who just buy beer or go to hotels, buy campbells soup,
those people seem to be talking through the money people. And that message is getting through. I guess thats why he had the press conference today, to take the heat. I dont think the league loses anything with those people, those arent the fans to begin with. And the sponsors, its great pr for them. In minnesota, it did affect what the vikings did with peterson. I havent seen campbells soup or the 1. 2 billion anheus anheuserbus anheuserbusch, they sent a pr delivery, and made a threat, but they wont pull away. And until they do, nothing happens. What could work . I mean, i guess hes talking, he didnt even know what the definitions are today, Roger Goodell. Every time someone asked him a question, thats the kind of thing we have to look at. He couldnt even start on a scale of one to ten, whats worse, drug use or knocking out your wife . How many days suspension for drug use and how many for knocking out your wife . Or turning your kid into a grilled hotdog with a tree branch . Dont they need to come up with a code of whats acceptable and whats not, and write it down . Yeah, they do. Thats why im wondering what theyve been doing for the last ten days. I was hoping hed say, if you do this, you get this many games. When you get arrested youre coming to new york to sit down with me. But we got none of that. Theres no more clarity now than there was two weeks ago. He said something like, state laws differ. Is that his cover story . Federalism is his problem . Everything is being put off. Theres the whole due process issue. Theres the players association. Again, they are just riding this out. And they will be able to ride it out, i believe that, and they know that. Let me ask you about the
culture. Guys go to college, play football. And the old thing, i got to tell you something. When you watch football on sunday, in pennsylvania, penn had bigger crowds than the eagles on sunday. But the whole idea was your a collegiate person, you went to college, got some polish, some education, then you went pro. That notion that you somehow lost some of the bad habits, the Street Corner behavior, is that still true . Or is that too ticklish a question . It goes into several levels, chris. I dont think this is an indication of people playing a violent game who cant turn it off when they get home. I think its a societal issue. Im not sure its more in the nfl than it is in society. But those players need to be sanctioned. The idea of going to college, do your homework, go to school, put a coat on before you went to
a game. That whole idea of sports as being a gentlemens game, is that gone . Is sports for gentlemen now or not . Its become a semi pro game at the college level. Look