Humanitarian effort. Now dropping supplies in northern iraq. France is vowing to help with relief efforts, too. Still i. S. I. S. Is showing no signs of backing down. It released this video showing off military equipment it seized. This is day three of this latest u. S. Involvement in iraq. Yesterday before leaving for his vacation on marthas vineyard, the president reiterated his pledge not to send more Ground Troops into iraq but said his strategy for defeating i. S. I. S. Militants is lefrm. First, i dont think were going to solve this problem in weeks, if thats what you mean. I think this is going the take some time. If sometime turns into months, the president will have to turn to congress for permission to pursue his strategy. The war powers act gives him 60 days to do whatever he thinks is necessary without congressional approval. Late friday the white house gave this official notification to congress telling lawmakers about the latest military operation in iraq. Altz for what congress will do when those 60 days are up, well, thats where things can get sticky. Lets flashback to june. I. S. I. S. Was gaining traction in iraq. President obama used the war powers act to send 700 u. S. Troops to iraq in order to protect the u. S. Embassy and International Airport in bagdad and facilities in rah beal. How did Congress Respond . The house passed an amendment to keep the president from using pentagon funds to pay for the military response. It later passed a resolution preventing the president from deploys troops in a does stained military operation in iraq without congressional approval. What will happen when these next 60 days are up. Joining me now to talk about all of that, democratic senator chris coons of del bear, neera tanden, former congressman Patrick Murphy and msnbc exhibitor and the first veteran of the iraq war to also serve in congress and msnbc military analyst and medal of honor recipient retired colonel jack jacobs. Senator kuntz, let me start with you, how much authority and autonomy does president obama have to deal with this promise . I do think the president is appropriately acting to protect american personnel and the american facility in your beal. He is acting to prevent a genocide of the people trapped up on mount sin jar. He did consult with congress and has sent us appropriately under the war powers act notification that American Hill terrace sets is have been deployed into iraq. I do think as you said in the introduction should this go on more than 60 days he will need to consult with congress and im hopeful well have an appropriate, supportive bipartisan and deliberate discussion about what sort of engagement we think is called for, not just to secure our facilities in bagdad and erbil but to push back against i. S. I. S. Patrick, i want to play something president obama said yesterday before going to marthas vineyard. Take a listen. Theres going to have to be an iraqi solution that america and other countries and allies support. That cant happen effectively until you have a legitimate iraqi government. Now, the administration in the past has signaled theyd like to see a change in iraq. Youve been vocal, patrick, about saying Prime Minister nuri almaleki should step down. What will it take for maliki to leave and who will take his place . First its up to the iraqi fooel people. Its not our decision. Who needs to take his place will be a moderate, shia leader, someone who wants to lead in a secular manner, someone who is not going to be just the leader of the shia, but reaches out to the sunnies and kurds up north. The iraqi people need to step up. Thats another reason why when you look at the military solution, the iraqi army has been disbanded. They dont have confidence in maliki because hes shunned the sunni and theyve pretty much left. Senator, before i go to the colonel, senator your reaction to what patrick said and your views on nuri al mali. I agree theres not a strategy without a political solution. The longterm strategy the president articulated for iraq beyond these shortterm measures is to insist on a political solution. Im very hopeful that the iraqis will take action to replace maliki with a Prime Minister more likely someone of his same background, but hopefully someone who is more inclusive, who is more willing to govern, as we had hopes maliki would three years ago in an inclusive way that allows the sunnis and the kurds to have a future. Without that political solution, i think it will be very difficult for the Iraqi Security forces to be successful in the battlefield against i. S. I. S. Colonel jacobs, the president was cautions the American People yesterday that this operation could last a while, could take a little while. And some democrats who were very concerned about mission creep, this is a sign of something larger to come. Do you think this is a leg legitimate concern right now . Probably not right now. We have to first determine what were trying to accomplish there. I think if the concern is were going to use an increasing number of air strikes, no need to worry about that. But that doesnt get us more involved in whats going on there. These weapons are being fired from a great distance. It doesnt necessarily put our aircraft at risk. We can use surface or submarine launch cruise missiles at selected targets. There hasnt been much engagement so far. Knock out a toed how witser. Its not like were engaged here. One thing we have to keep in mind, when the president says no Ground Troops, he means no conventional Ground Troops. I think we would be remiss if we didnt already have special Operations Forces on the ground. And if one of the objectives is to try to assist the kurds from coming off the mountain, for example, thats not going to be accomplished by themselves. Theyll need assistance. Were not sending the Second Armored Division or something to iraq and we shouldnt be concerned about having to do that. Patrick real quickly. Colonel jack is absolutely right. The humanitarian aid effort is different than the military effort. The reason why barack obama is acting so quickly is because we have a clear and present danger to the military folks that are on the ground in erbil and our state Department Assets in that consulate. Thats why we have to defend them, just like benghazi. He doesnt want these republicans busting his chops because he didnt protect these people. Let me bring you into the conversation and ask you the question about the concern among democrats and certainly among a lot of the American People about the possibility of mission creep. Look, i completely appreciate that given how badly the recent war went in iraq, and the American People have made a judgment about that war and that it was a failure, the concerns. But i think very clearly here, this is a very different operation. This is very limited and it is to protect american interests. Obviously our people in erbil, but also the idea that the United States would not respond to a potential genocide of i. S. I. S. , an extreme terrorist group, out there to destroy a helpless religious minority trapped on a mountain when we can do so. I think as progressives we actually should applaud that kind of action. Eventually we didnt act in rwanda and that was a terrible crisis. Here is an area where we can act, we can act decisively, were not using Ground Troops, and i think we should be able to accomplish in our Foreign Policy between a blender like the iraq war and protecting particular people and american interests in erbil. Im going to go around the table and have you answer this one question. What do you see as the end game. Colonel jack . Thats part of the problem, we cant determine what the end game, what the objective is. Ideally theres a reasonable government in bagdad and the iraqi army can control the area and keep the bad guys away. Thats not going to happen overnight. I think what both the administration and other Decision Makers are doing now is trying to focus on the short and intermediate term objective which is to prevent erbil from falling and to do what we can for the people on the mountain. Other than that beyond that, i dont think weve thought. Patrick . I. S. I. S. Was diverted a few months ago away from bagdad. Theyre marching toward erbil. We can stop them through these artillery strikes, fa18 strikes. Until the iraqi army steps up, theyre no much to i. S. I. S. I. S. I. S. Is to the right of al qaeda, theyre dangerous. The idea is a political solution. Its going to take months. Neera . I think the end game ultimately has to be a stop of i. S. I. S. I think everyone is right here, an end to the threat to the governments, across the renal ochblt i also worry about jordan, but obviously in iraq. The way to do that is to stop i. S. I. S. From being able to recruit fighters which is why the instability is so vital to end and why we need a political solution. Senator coons . I agree. Were trying to get in the longer term is to contain and ultimately eliminate isis. Thats going to take significant engagement in syria and iraq. Its going to require a political solution in iraq. I spoke to general petraeus yesterday about the conditions in iraq and said what i hear from my constituents in delaware is we dont want to send one more Young American to die in iraq. He agreed that theres really only a political solution here that reengaging with the sunni tribes, reengages with the curds, with a new inclusive government in bagdad through a political solution that we hope will be achieved here soon is the best next step. The shortterm goal of preventing genocide of the kurds, christians and yazidis is an admirable goal, ap yall goal. Our longtermer term strategy is going to involve a political solution in iraq and strengthening our support for the moderate opposition in syria and strengthening our support for our regional allies in jordan and turkey and making sure over the next months and maybe years we succeed in containing and ultimately removing isis from the battlefield. Thank you to all my guests, senator chris coons who will be back in the next block. Neera tanden, Patrick Murphy and colonel jack jacobs. Thank you everyone. Up next, some very good news from africa. With tums. Relief that neutralizes acid on contact. 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That rivals china and indian according to a new study. The historic summit in washington, the largest gathering ever of African Leaders in the u. S. Aimed to cast africa in a new light to give americans a real understanding about the opportunities in a diverse set of countries with a growing middle class, to foster deals between american countries and African Leaders and announce an additional 37 billion of public and private investments in africa. This summit reflects the reality that even as africa continues to face great challenges, were also seeing the emerge earnce of a new, mor prosperous africa. Delaware senator chris coons who chairs the Senate ForeignRelations Committee on African Affairs points out in a recent op ed that china surpassed the u. S. As africas largest trading partner five years ag goechlt he wroets, quote, the chinese have seen plainly what many u. S. Businesses have not, that six of the worlds ten Fastest Growing economies over the past decade were in sub saharan africa. Since 2000, chinese exports to africa have outpaced american exports at a ratio of three to one. Back here to discuss this is democratic senator chris coons of delaware. Thanks for being here, coming back. I have to ask you, why is china beating us out when it comes to trade with africa . China has been recentlessly focused on the continent of the greatest opportunity in this century. Theyve put dozens and dozens of Foreign Commercial Service officers all over the continent. We have just a handful. Anecdotally i hear they have more promoting chinese business, connecting Chinese Companies located in nairobi alone than we have on the entire continent of 54 countries. The new secretary of commerce has been addressing this issue and has recently led a successful trade mission, stepped up an increased the number of our Foreign Commercial Service workers. Thats one first step we needed to take. Second, we needed to engage on energy as secretary monies has. Last, we needed to bring to the table the central focus that the president was able to bring with this summit. The chinese have hosted summits like the one just concluded here in washington for a decade now. Its long overdue. But i think this african leader summit was a terrific success. As you mentioned in the introduction, tens of billions of dollars of new transactions were announced. New relationships were forged and a new positive focus on the very real Economic Opportunities on the continent of africa was brought to the people of the United States. When i interrupted you there while you were answering, i was going to say ten years ago, 2002, i visited kenya and nairobi. Even then the americans i met there were talking about the chinese and what they were doing, not only in kenya but across the continent of africa. I want to bring up walmart. The ceo of walmart was one of the attendaees on tuesday. Walmart doesnt have the best record in labor standards to say the least. How will we ensure that its responsible to workers and communities, not just investors. A great question, jonathan. One of the key differences to how American Companies have operated and will operate and how our chinese competitors have operated and will operate is our values. When the United States comes to the table and has a conversation, whether its through our embassy supporting the export sales of ge locomotives or power turbines or through export of u. S. Poultry or an expansion of walmart on the continent, we also bring with us American Values in terms of transparency and fighting corruption, promoting democracy and an open press, in terms of other Civil Liberties and civil rights that the United States makes an issue of in the midst of our increased engagement with the continent. One of the real challenges we face is for those heads of state for those african countries that choose not to embrace our view of democracy and human rights, they have with china a ready partner willing to give them Investment Opportunities but ask no difficult questions about tolerance, the open media or democracy. We need to get in this game, jonathan. We need to be accessing the opportunities of the african continent, not just for American Workers and American Companies, but also because there is a real contest of ideas on the continent that i think is the most economic progress in its future for this century. Senator, youre from delaware. What drove you to focus so much attention in your efforts of congress to africa . I was blessed to be given the opportunity of the chair of the committee when i came to the senate four years ago. I also personally had a lifechanging experience at an undergraduate at the university of nairobi. The families i lived with, the places i was able to travel to in ken da, uganda and tanzania in the mid 80s were life changing in terms of opening my eyes to the enormous potential of africa, to the warmth of the people, the strength of the traditions and the opportunities there. And then the time i later spent in 1987 in south africa working for bishop tutu further strengthened my passion for the u. S. Africa engagement. In this particular summit i had the opportunity to bring a number of bell care company ceos to the summit to have a chance to meet wit