Early. Great week. Check your bank accounts, its payday friday and morning joe starts right now. I ran for this office in part to end our war in iraq and welcome our troops home and thats what weve done. As commander in chief i will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in iraq, and so even as we support iraqis as they take the fight to these terrorists, american combat troops will not be returning to fight in iraq. Because there is no American Military solution to the larger crisis in iraq. Good morning. It is friday, august the 8th. Katherines 11th birthday. Happy birthday, kate, with us on set to set brat. You always want weird uncle john around for the birthdays sara
eisen, and the washington columnist for the weekend update, David Ignatius. A shame we have david in this morning, absolutely nothing going on overseas. We may be asking him about the washington and huge news. New york times headline of course talking how the president s allowing air strikes against iraq rebels. A force that continues to grow. And threatens instability obviously not just in iraq but across the middle east. So american planes are back over iraq with packed food and water. Others armed with weapons of war. Its the first in a new u. S. Mission to provide to refugees help, and also to strike terrorist targets. Should american lives come under threat, president obama authorized the operation following new advances by the islamic militants poised to attack one of the biggest cities in the north, an american consulate and hundreds of u. S. Citizens and military advisers. The potential air strikes coincide with a humanitarian
push to help thousands of iraqi citizens hiding on a mountaintop from the suni gunmen below. They forced women into marriage, left women dying of thirst in the dying heat. President obama says its genocide waiting to happen. Ive therefore authorized targetedary air strikes if necessary to help forces in iraq as they fight to break the siege and protect the civilians trapped there. Already american aircraft have begun conducting humanitarian air drops and food and water to help these desperate men, women and children vivsurvive. Earlier one iraqi cried to the world, there is no one coming to help. David ignatius, New York Times, peter bake. Great analysis right off the top says in sending warplanes back over the skies of iraq president obama found himself exactly where he didnt want to be, hoping to end the war in iraq, becomes the fourth brpresident
a row to order air strikes for the president of imbusiness. So it goes and so it goes. I dont think with isis he had any choice. Exactly right. This is a day president obama must have hoped would never come on his watch. He spent so much in the extraction of the United States from iraq, and from the wars overseas, talked repeatedly about turning a page in American History and now that page flips back again. He spoke emotionally about the potential danger of genocide, Strong Language for a president , emotionally about people stranded on that mountaintop who were waiting for someone to come and help them, and i think in military terms, what happened over the last few days is that the kurdish peshmerga, waiting to do along the Islamic Stateforced into retreat, outgunned by isis militants and that has forced the u. S. To take action, both humanitarian air drops and preparing to air strikes on the Kurdish Center of erbil will u. S. Forces are based. This is an extraordinary fluid terrorist operation that the wall street journal said this morning they call it the islamic, its a dynamic messianic outward moving force. Bring in from beirut bbc correspondent kim katassp one of the reasons the president cant sit back is because these terrorists we certainly would call them here in the United States are ruthlessly efficient. They are just moving and swallowing up everything in front of them, and theres, doesnt appear to be any end in sight, unless america gets involved. Just how much of a threat, growing threat, is this operation . Reporter well, theres been a real sigh of relief in the region, i can tell you. Particularly in lebanon where weve seen a few very bloody incursions by isis over the last ten days. The army, the Lebanese Army fought back, sustained heavy losses, but it does fear have pushed them out of lebanon for now, but there has ban real see sigh of relief in lebanon, in iraq and no doubt other places as well to see that finally something is doing something about the advance of these bloodthirsty rather savage militants, and it has been quite perplexi perplexing, i have to say, joe, to watch the lack of action and apathy over the last few weeks and months since isis first went on a rampage and took mosul. So there will be a sigh of relief, but as david pointed out, as the New York Times wrote, this is a very reluctant
move by president obama and to some extent it is also a half measure. This campaign, whether its air strikes or humanitarian drop, is not going to solve the problem. The problem is much more complex which is probably while it took president obama a while to make this decision. And so much going on across the world. We have planes being blown out of the sky over the ukraine. Of course, the middle east, all eyes were fixed on what was happening in gaza. All the while, you talked of Foreign Policy leaders who would say these are all tragedies, but the real danger is whats going on in iraq right now with isis. This is a dangerous force. One other thing the wall street journal says this morning, perhaps history will mark this as the week that president obama recognized that evil unimpeded will devour everything before it. Gideon . The thing that i am trying to understand is, how come the u. S. Didnt see the collapse of the peshmerga . Now theyre outgunned. Why wasnt it predicted . Now isis is threatening the only remaining peace at that part of the middle east which is iraqi and what could be a u. S. Ally. How did the world not see any of this coming . They moved with such speed out of syria. It is extraordinary. Youre right. There was a false hope over the past several weeks somehow the kurds were going to be able to hold them off, but theyre tearing through. Right. So i think the action the u. S. Is taking now is a nobrainer, throw in air strikes and try to support the kurds but the about the only nobrainer there is. After this, how do you
reconstruct the Iraqi Government or try to account a counterforce and the influence in iran in all of these areas is going to be a spoiler. And what we talk about, talking about israel, gideon, the threeday ceasefire between israel and hamas obviously over. That started up. The president has to worry about that today. I dont know if hamas is thinking about being too distracted to think of hamas in gaza. It agrees to the ceasefire. Sat down, tried to, held the talks in cairo. Got nowhere. A place they dont want to go, by the way. Of course not. Israel has kind of got what it wanted out of the first round of fighting, to destroy the hamas tunnels. Hamas got nothing, and the israelis are able to say, look, hamas broke the ceasefire but have given no concessions on the conditions hamas wanted removing the troops. Before all this began in july, the terrible month of jubl began, the question, at what
point does it make sense for netanyahu to give not hamas because the palestinian moderates something to keep the extremists in check . I think that moment has arrived, joe, in theofthat at talks it of cairo, thousahow to the palestinian authority, more moderate headed by mahmoud abbas, in control of at least some of the governance in gaza to control the crossing points from egypt into gaza, for example. Thats been a real push by secretary of state kerry, and hes right. And its been resisted by israel, i think unwisely, because the only way youre going to break from the status quo in gaza so you dont end up with another war in another year or two is to some some different nonhamas authority in charge there. So well see. The fact that fighting is resumed today has to make you pretty pessimistic that that kind of breakthrough is
possible. Sara, the chaos in the middle east, obviously harks to impact the markets, has to impact the economy, has to Impact Energy costs. Is this all factored in by now or is it a bad situation getting worse have an impact what well paper at the gas front . Having an impact. Brent rising. Kurds have oil. Most of the output is in the Southern Region in iraq and not disrupted. Why you havent seen an absolute spike in the price of oil, but clearly the negative impacts are making their way into the markets. The dow closed yet at its lowest level since april. S p 500 80,000 something. May were pulling back. The market is you haver ab ervu. Look at gaza, ukraine does have an economic impact, sanctions on russia and countersanctions, theres uncertainty, and theres not a quick end. It only seems to be escalating, getting further and investors
dont like uncertainty, and were seeing skittishness and the markets and, yes, the price of energy is going higher. Because of this. And may only get worse. Lets go from Foreign Policy to domestic politics and the question this morning everybody in washington has to be asking is whether were seeing the death of the tea party. Senator Lamar Alexander completed the clean sweep for establishment candidates First Time Since 2008 that no gop incumbent senators lost in a prime marry. Alexander received more than 49 of the vote against joe karen and six or candidates. Beating seven incumbents including the top two republicans. Establishment went 6 for 6 against tea party challengers. The only bright for the tea party came in june, upsetting eric cantor. Unfortunately, John Heilemann, the tea party didnt get involved in that. All of these people. Are karl rove was standing on the likes in 2012, give me a gazillion dollars and we will
beat barack obama and a complete failure. Look club for growth, all of these other organizations what they did, they were going to take down these establishments. Guess what . We should be playing the Empire Strikes back. This is Haley Barbour, they won. We asked that this morning. Is this victory the sign of something larger or an anomaly. Now we can say with confidence, an anomaly. Eric cantor had specific problems in his district with his style of leadership. Dave bratt took advantage of those but not saying john cornyns in trouble, theyre all in trouble. None of them lost. And part of it is that the tea party may turn out, again, look back on this, within the grand ark of history by the media. And the tea party itself. Why not . If the medias bidding you up, the lady saying im not a witch has a chance at being senator shes going to take that publicity. All true. Going to your Haley Barbour point, all of these guys saw what happened in 2010 and 2012 in some of the primaries and were ready this time. An establishment girded for war. The tea party wa no longer an alien force that could strike in the night. Girded for war actu. Actually, business got more involved, doubling down on some of the establishment, they look at these probusiness republican businesses and say we want to fund the Establishment Party and make sure. Look at the number, senator alexander, 9. 9 million. Way more than his challenger, just a little over 1 million. The chamber played a huge role. The key moment, the shutdown. Much of the Business Community looked at that and said they blamed the tea party. Weve had enough of this and are now going to do something and flex our muscles and make sure that they really did, and you probably remember it. Yeah. But the alabama race, went down to bradley burn, just complete crackpot running against bradley burn. Everybody thought he was going to win. The chamber, i think the rickets, everybody says, enough is enough. Enough is enough. Were takingary par arour pa and they won. Undefeated. Pretty crazy. Did you see this . Do you have any plagiarism in your do you write your own stories . If you do, dont run for senate. Right . Yeah. Holy cow wikipedia has become a giant killer, or even a nongiant killer. Just a killer. Democratic senator the times came out with an
exhaustive look on the paper incorrectly or failed to contribute material. One page lifted from a harvard paper and more passages from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the senator backed away postcombat stress may have been a factor. From washington, youve got the editorinchief of roll call, christiana belatoni. Thanks so much. The top ten most vulnerable senators up for reelection, number one with a bullet is no more. Go through the list . Reporter right. I dont know that arkansas senator mark pry zer aor is hap about it. The new number one. Pryor number one. Reporter exactly. John walsh always in a precarious spot, appointed to fulfill the spot. A more republican state. You have a member of congress in
steve danes, represents the at large seat running against him. So the republicans liked their chances here in, as youve been talking about, a pretty favorable year for them anyway. They have the candidate that they like. But when this came out, you know, and credit to the New York Times, this was a very big deal, and roll call noticed, our partners at the cq members team noticed discrepancies on his education as well. Something we put out there when he was appointed. He eventually just says, im not actually going to run for the seat. Democrats have maybe a fighting chance if they get a candidate in there that they like. This was right at the end of the deadline. So now youve got the rest of the top ten. Were going to bump that up. Well have the person who would have been number 11 and number 10, probably thats going to be senator mark warner in virginia. Again, thats pretty, a long shot, but you never know. Put up the list again. John heilemann. You see the list, pryor at number 1 now. Mary landrieu, kay hagan. Mark bagitch. In a real fight, the smart money says mcconnell holds the seat. Always the case, democrats had a lot more of these seats vulnerable, why people think republicans have a chance of taking back the senate. On that list, pryor, landrieu, hagan, tough races. Were living in two ultimate realities, in this show and many other shows in the past month, chaos that could come to our doorstep. Out in every one of those races over the past month, nobody was talking about gaza. Nobody was talking about whats going on with the isis. You heard kim from beirut say, everybodys kind of glad i mean, its surreal that a decade ago, everybody said, get out of our business, and now it seems
like, a lot of people are thinking, america is sleepwalking through history. How do you think this is going to play out in americas Foreign Policy if the democrats do get weakened in the senate race . Is it going to change anything . I dont know. I really right now the republicans are having a battle between themselves, to try to figure out whether theyre going the way of rand paul or the way of dick cheney. David ignatius, i dont know that either partys going to have much of a choice as the entire fabric of the middle east unravels before our very eyes over the next year and we can have people on tv saying, these lines werent real. They were drawn by Winston Churchill in 1918. Doesnt really matter. Its international chaos, and i love this line that the wall street journal basically says chaos is coming to our doorstep whether we like it or not. I always accuse the europeans of taking a break from history
after 1991, thinking that was the end of history. Its not. Joe, were still here. Its getting worse, by the day. I think the u. S. Is riding the tiger right now. Well have partisan recriminations about whos to blame, but i think in terms of policy, the responses are going to be pretty much the same. Republican and democratic. I also cant see this winding down anytime soon. Look at the situation george bush face add decade ago now infinitely more complex and unstable. At least bush was dealing with dictators who ran countries with structures. Isis is more like a poison gas. Kind of floats throughout the meefrt and destroys everything in its path, and as the wall street journal said, the problem is going to come knocking and the question is, just how much can the u. S. Sit back and wait until the problem comes knocking at its door . Or does it have it guts to do
something fanned and if so what do . Weve seen two sectionive presidencies, democratic and republican president haunted by iraq, and the bush presidency by the end almost destroyed by iraq. Barack obama capitalized on it and now is plagued by it. In the broader can area, democrats and republican, at what point is this an isolation, clearly a rise of it we really dont have that choice. I just mean in the listen, ill be honest with you. Barack obama is going to be remembered george w. Bush will be remembered for a president who engaged in military adventurism, the mark against him and barack obama is going to be that general always fighting the last war. Hes overcompensated. He retreated. He has been he has been on, like, for instance, worried about whats going on in iraq right now for good reason. Youve got 100, 150,000, 175,000
people dead in syria, and its not like we werent talking about that number when it was 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000. We said what its going to have to get to . 50000. Got 100,000, still sitting back. Why . The specter of george w. Bush and dick cheney caught in the middle east. Hes overcorrected, and i think at this point, as peter baker writes in the New York Times, as the wall street journal writes, in their main editorial. The president figured out finally, hes got no choice. The reluctant warrior, the phrase in the journal. Right. Reluctant warrior. Easy to say he overcorrected but show me what he could have done even if he started acting earlier . As i said, this situation is an endless, endless problem. Hes gotten involved in syria and tried to fix iraq, its hard to say he shouldnt have done those things you but i would be skeptical we wou