[announcer] healthful. Flavorful. Beneful. From purina. When youre up on the stage so unbelievable oh, unforgettable i dont think we are going to solve this problem in weeks if that is what you mean. I think this is going to take some time. The Iraqi Security forces, in order to mount an offensive and be able to operate effectively
with the support of populations in sunni areas are going to have to revamp, get resupplied, have a clear strategy. But this is going to be a longterm project. Good morning. Welcome to morning joe. Take a live look at times square. Boy, does it need another reminder six years into into the presidency, barack obama is learning again this weekend and getting a view of just how lonely it is at the top. Especially when youre running the military of the last remaining benevolent super power in the world. With europe still seemingingly to be sleep, barack obama just became the fourng straight u. S. President to launch a war in iraq. America has ordered hostile military operations in that country. I read in this a maureen dowd piece, 17 of the last 24 years. It came from both sides this weekend. Democratic critics seem
oblivious through the growing threat, while republicans who attack president obama for doing nothing or now attacking him for wait, willie . Wait . For doing something. This isnt iraq we are talking about. Every day that goes by, isis build this calaphate. They are more powerful than al qaeda was on 9 11. Im predicting if we pull everybody out of afghanistan not based on conditions, youll see that same movie again in afghanistan. This commander in chief has no strategy. He has no vision. They are coming here. This is just not about baghdad. This is just not about syria. It is about our home land and if we get attacked because he has no strategy to protect us, then he will have committed a blunder for the ages. Some republicans are even saying, willie, its worse that
he has done something. But this time, the commander in chief made his military move because he had few other options. You saw in the maureen dowd column this weekend, im sure. Maureen said this is a barbaric forces pillaging so swiftly across the middle east it seems like from a scifi film. Becoming stronger and more dangerous by the day and making president obamas genocide case for him. Religious cleansing against christians and shiites and sunnis and a group of people battling againing genocide. It occupies now a land mass larger than jordan. Good morning. Its monday, august 11th. Willie, weve got a lot of
people talking about this. A story that is developing and breaking news. I guess we are arming the kurds directly . Update this this morning arming the kurds directly as they fight isis. Joining us this morning is senior Political Editor and White House Correspondent for the huffing post, sam stein. A former director of the National Terrorism center, Michael Leiter. Carol lee. Editorial director of the national journal, ron fournier. And bobby ghosh. Welcome to you all. This morning, more evidence that the president has finally seen enough. U. S. Officials say the Obama Administration is now directly arming kurdish fighters in iraq. American aircraft, meanwhile, continue to pound targets there, but a struggle over control of the Iraqi Government is threatening to complicate the crisis now. A fourth round of air strikes has been carried out against the group known as the islam state or isis and u. S. Troops have
made at least four airdrops of aid to displaced iraqis. President obama over the weekend say the Campaign Strike may last for months while once again ruling out Ground Troops there. Joe, this is, obviously, a limited action by the president of the United States to stop isis in this one spot, in this moment, in this case. Right. But this is a bigger problem as you pointed out in your introduction. Its in syria and iraq. Its not going away. Its a massive problem. For people looking at this and saying the same thing about isis they dont want to knock down buildings in new york or washington, isis wants to knock down buildings in new york and washington. This is, again, this weekend, another the New York Times column i read said that actually religious genocide is the end. Its not a cool of terror. Its a means to an end. Bobby ghosh, explain what we are seeing in isis, what their
objectives are and what they are hoping to achieve. As joe said, they are far more ambitious than any other terrorist group that has come before. They want to hold territory. They want to create a state for themselves. They are calling themselves the islamic state. Then they want to kill almost anybody that comes in the way. Fellow muslims, most of all. Whether shiites or fellow sunnis that dont happen to believe that the islam that these people have. Do they want to attack the United States . Absolutely. They want to take attack. The west, the United States specifically. It doesnt have to be in the homeland. The United States can be attacked all over the world. We have interests we have people in harm who could potentially be in harms way anywhere in the world and these guys want to do harm. There is absolutely no question. No question about it. Michael leiter, though, it is pretty encouraging what has
happened in the past two days. The president s decision to start bombing isis shows that they arent the third rike. They have spread like poison gas because western countries and countries across the middle east have allowed them to do that, but it looks like we are already making some pretty quick gains here. I dont think this is a particularly difficult target for the u. S. Military. The question is how far we want to go with that. As you noted, joe, they are strong and they are certainly the strongest terrorist organization and army we have faced over the past ten years, but they are far from far from this that cant be defeated. I think folks at the pentagon believe within one to three months, isis could really be rolled back with u. S. Air power if there is also an iraqi ground
force that fights sidebyside. The real challenge is you can control them out of iraq with some air power, but how far are you willing to do . Because without considering syria in the same breath, we cant really attack this at its same root. Ron, the president took Decisive Action here and we have seen isis rolled back to the point where the kurds have been able to repel them, at least in this one region. But as this does metastasize and see more attempts of genocide around the world and region there, what does the president do next . Hes in a tough spot. We are all in a tough spot. The country doesnt want to go back to war. We really you know, our forces are depleted and worn out,this a serious issue. We are now, you know, almost exactly 13 years after president bush got a memo in crawford, texas, saying Osama Bin Laden wants to attack the United States. We are getting that memo now. What we are seeing on tv now is a warning that, you know, with every day after 9 11 the odds of
us getting hit haincreased. As you were just told, this isnt just a matter of rolling out of iraq and i wonder if we are overestimating our ability to do so. We tend to do that. Are we going to follow them into syria and are we capable of keeping them out of the United States . We have already had remnants of isis in the United States. We had a young man come down to florida and visit his family and go back to syria and blew himself up. Its a scary time. This is a tough nut for the president to crack and he has been underestimating a lot of things on the world stage the last few months. He cant under estimate this threat. No. This appears to be the threat that is is not capable or should never be underestimated because its danger. I dont think can be overestimated because of its goals. We heard Michael Leiter ask the question how far does this go. Do we have to go to syria because this is the root of the problem . That was part of a fascinating debate. Team of rivals this weekend just became rival. Yeah. Hillary clinton amazing in this interview with the atlantic magazine looking to distance herself perhaps from the Foreign Policy of the administration she once served. In an interview she praised the president but said great nations need organizing principles and dont do stupid stuff is not organizing principle. Stunning. A reference to the president. A cleaned up reference to the slogan reportedly used at the white house on how to approach Foreign Policy. Clinton touched on the factor to leading to widespread violence in syria saying the failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who are the originators of the protest against assad left a big vacuum which the jihadists have now filled. In an early interview president obama rejected the idea of
changing rebels could have changed the course of what happened there. With respect to syria, its always been a fantasy, this idea that we could provide some light arms or even more sophisticated arms what was made up of former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth and they were able to battle, not only a wellarmed state, but also wellarmed state backed by russia, backed by iran, a battle hardened hezbollah. That was never in the cards. Sam stein, there is nothing that makes me sadder democratic on democratic violence. This is hurtful. It is pretty stunning in the middle of the military operation to be reading headlines like this where you have his last secretary of state calling him a failure and you have the president call his last secretary of state and possibly next democratic nominee for president living in a fantasy
world. Failure versus fantasy. But i think probably, the most stunning part of that a lot of ways Hillary Clinton could have done that, but as we say in the south, she was just sticking a sharp stick in his eye when she brought up that really embarrassing quote about dont do stupid stuff. That was a blind side right there. I dont know if she called him a failure per se but she did stick it in the side. His policy in syria was failure i. This is what everybody has been waiting for on what plank would clinton try to distance herself from obama and it makes sense that its Foreign Policy at this juncture because of what is happening across the globe. Obviously, the headlines are terrible for the president and the administration and it makes sense. Also it sort of goes by her history. She has always been perceived as
probably is much more militant and willing to use force, i should say, in foreign crises than the president and she runs risks doing this. You can hear the groans from members of the Democratic Party after this interview wpublished withever go eveJeffrey Goldberg. With respect to the president now it makes sense to break with him because of all that is happening across the globe. Carol, youve covered the white house and learned a lot probably about the relationship between the president and the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. How long has this been bubbling beneath the surface . How long have they served parted ways on these certain matters of Foreign Policy . Well, i think if you look at when she was secretary of state during her tenure, she differed with the president on a number of things. Sam is absolutely right. She was seen as much more hawkish on nearly every Foreign Policy debate they had in the white house. And particularly on syria, you know, some of us have been watching this, been waiting for this moment when she would do this because this was the biggest split that they had where she, three years ago, was really pushing for arming the rebels and the white house was pushing back and saying, you know, we dont know who these guys are and they are not even capable of using the weapons if we were to give them to them. They really wanted to step back. That was at odds with some of president obamas senior staff. So, i mean, what is really interesting about this is that its hard to prove the negative. Its easy for her to say this now, and easy for the president to stick to his line outbut it was inevitable she was going to do this. Bobby, when i read this, i thought Hillary Clinton understands what other foreign
policy leaders have been saying for the past months or two. Yes, the plane crash over ukraine was horrific. And that all diverted our eyes. And what happened in the middle east, absolutely terrible. You could do nothing in july, but look at the horrible images coming out of the middle east and coming out of gaza. All along, Foreign Policy experts had said watch isis, watch iraq, watch the meltdown in the middle east because this is what is, as ron said, this is what makes us less safe every day. Its almost as if Hillary Clinton understands this is all going to circle back to syria and so the blame game has already begun for a crisis that is sure to come. Well, its a terrible thing to say about a situation that has taken nearly 2,000 lives. What happened in gaza was the past reasserting itself. What youre seeing in ukraine, again, is old russia trying to reassert itself. Isis represents a threat of
today and tomorrow. This is something existential not only for those tiny communities that are exposed on that mountain in iraq but a poison gas and virus and use any number of expressions, this will be for us a long time to come. The longer we ignore it, the worst it has become. Yes, these are no the nazis that they eventually became but the reason the nazis became the supreme evil was because for a long time the world did nothing. Czechoslovakia, we did nothing. He took a little bit of this and that. We did nothing. We are at a risk of doing the same thing with isis until literally last week. Michael leiter, final thoughts. I think the president has to make a case more strongly that we have to be in this for the long haul. We have longterm interests in
iraq. We have longterm interests in the region and we have longterm interests of not being a defensive crouch on counterterrorism and that is going to require the u. S. And our allies to be deeply involved in iraq and syria, despite the fact that it may be deeply unpopular. All right. Michael leiter, thanks so much and sam, ron, carol, bobby, stick around with us. Still ahead on morning joe, Thomas Friedman is here fresh off his exclusive interview with the president. You just saw a portion of that. The former u. S. Ambassador to iraq under president obama. Ambassador James Jeffrey asking what he thinks is to blame for the situation there. Nascar star tony stewart hits and kills another driver on the track. My gosh. We will break it down for you. What exactly what happened . And what happens next. Rory mcilroy cannot be stopped. Highlights. His dramatic come from behind victory to beat Phil Mickelson and rickie fowler. First, bill karins is back from his long vacation. Hey, bill. One holes and week straight in the casinos, willie. Good morning, everyone. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Summer still going well on the eastern seaboard. Had a lot of storms to deal with down along the gulf. As we head through this week, this is the same weather pattern all summer long. Another shot of cool air heading for the great lakes and out ahead of that a good chunk of rain. If youre driving this morning, milwaukee to chicago heading over through Southern Michigan up to grand rapids youre in the rain this morning. Maybe even a few thunderstorms. Eventually this will sweep to the east coast. As far as the northeast goes today, another beautiful day. Summerlike. Low humidity. Enjoy it. Temperatures in the mid80s because it gets cooler after this. Looks like storms arrive tuesday afternoon. Airport plans could be delayed from new york city to d. C. Tuesday afternoon. The rest of the southeast today, youre looking for isolated storms. Still very hot and dry in many areas of the west. The good news, the best of all
we are heading into the peak of the Hurricane Season and there is nothing brewing at all that is fantastic. We leave you with a shot oh, what a gorgeous sunrise. Did you see that super moon last night . That was pretty cool too. Youre watching morning joe. We will be right back. Did you hear the news came across the air today
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looking for a confrontation. Another car swerved to avoid him but as stewart came around, his car struck ward killing him. Sparing you from seeing it there. St stewarts spokesman said he would be racing on sunday but a few hours later, stuaewart saide would sit out of the race, sailing the following. Police have questioned stewart. They say the threetime champion is be