Months. The moz all dam is the largest of iraqs dams, described as the most dangerous dam in the world. Its feared isis could use the dam not only to control access to electricity and water. Also potential the terror group could unleash a wall of water into the valley below and that includes the city of bagdad. The idea of water as a weapon of mass destruction. Isis took the dam at one point, baugh sustained campaign of u. S. Air strikes has helped to force the militants out. The haditha dam is iraqs second largest dam, just as vital to providing water and electricity to iraqis in the western part of the country. So far isis has failed to capture that dam. On friday at a nato summit in wales, president obama described the air strikes they would keep using to fight isis. You initially push them back. You systematically degrade their capabilities. You narrow their scope of action. You slowly shrink the space, the territory that they may control. You take out their leadership, and over time they are not able to conduct the same kinds of terrorist attacks as they once could. In a move that has some ek v echoes to the march to the war in iraq by his predecessor, the assembly of the coalition of the willing, as he called it, president obama has recruited nine allies to form a coalition to take on isis. So one week after president obama said he didnt yet have a strategy to defeat isis, a plan is beginning to take shape. The goal is to defeat a terror group that emerged after the United States spent more than a decade and a lot of blood and treasure trying to defeat a different terror group, one that has broken ties with isis because they believe isis is too extreme. What will it take to defeat the new terror threat. Can anything be done to keep another one, a different one from emerging in the process . Joining me to discuss this is democratic congressman Jim Mcdermott and hamid from the brooks Kings Institute who wrote temptations of power. Thank you for joining us. If the goal is to defeat isis, how do you do it . I want to start with a more fundamental question to both of you, posed by tom friedman who was talking about isis, what goals the u. S. Should have. He wrote there are no words to describe the vileness of the video be headings of two american journalists, but i have no doubt that theyre meant to get us to overreact, ala 9 11, rush off again without a strategy. Isis is awful, he writes, but it is not a threat to americas homeland. Congressman, let me start with you on that basic point. Isis is awful, but not a threat to americas homeland . Do you agree with that. I dont often agree with tom friedman, but on that one i do. The problem weve had in the past is beingism pull sive and whats going on is that people are upset because the president is thoughtful and careful and deliberative. Thats really a wonderful change from the last president who was impulsive who jumped in and did stuff without really understanding what hes getting into. The president has an impossible situation here. But he is handling it about as well as i think anybody could. Shadi, whats your reaction to what tom friedman wrote, not saying it doesnt mean that isis doesnt have to be dealt with, do you agree its not a threat to the u. S. Homeland . Isis is very much consumed in iraq and syria now, but they could and probably will be a threat to the homeland at some later point. Its hard to anticipate. Theyve been quite clear they do have designs on attacking the u. S. And u. S. Interests. So what is the best strategy to deal with a group like that, hamid, would you say . If you think there might be a threat somewhere down the road, but not an imminent threat right now, how should this be dealt with . We have the limited air strikes and the attempt to build up the Iraqi Military and get the kurds in, trying to build a coalition. Is than appropriate approach . I agree with the congressman being thoughtful is the way to go. The problem is weve known isis and other extremist groups have been a threat for more than two years now. This was precisely the warning in regards to syria, if we dont do more to intervene earlier and support the socalled moderate rebels, groups like isis will rise to prominence. Its not as if this just started last week or even two months ago. The other thing i would just note, if we look at obamas nato summit remarks, there was a big red flag that came out for me when i was reading that. He said we are going to degrade and ultimately defeat isis, the way we went after al qaeda. But isis is a fuchbdmentally different beast than al qaeda is. Al qaeda was a kind of old school terrorist group that was trying to destroy and didnt really have a vision forbidding anything. Isis, on the other hand, controls large swaths of territory. It runs local administrations. It provides some degree of law and order. It has real aspirations to govern. Obviously in its own vicious way, but thats a different kind of model. So based on what youre describing, based on how you understand isis and what you understand it to be, what are the steps the United States should be taking to defeat that . So if isis is a kind of proto state, than we can treat it as we would a terrorist group. That means that there has to be a Broader Vision that looks at the root causes of isis rise, which is a failure of governance, which is the brutal policies of bashar are al assad in syria. So a major component has to be boosting the mainstream rebel forces in syria. And theres been some rhetoric about that from obama and secretary kerry, but no real new initiatives. There has to be a third force in syria that can counter both isis and the assad regime. But we havent been serious about that. Congressman mcdermott, what do you say to that . The idea of creating a third force in syria the United States can align with . I think the United States should be very careful about how far they get in. We have over estimated our ability to use military power to control the situation beginning with rumsfeld saying we would be into iraq and out within 90 days. That was nonsense then. And this idea we can control the present situation with military power or by throwing arms around we have made the mistake over and over again in this region of the world, arming people and turning out the arms are used against us. We armed the iraq army and isis took those arms away and thats where they get the humvees and much of the ammunition and so forth that theyre using. So thats what makes it so difficult for the president. I think this is going to have to be handled diplomatically, ultimately. We have to get an elected official into iraq who is willing to accept a government made up of shia, sunni, kurd, christian, everybody. Turkmen all have to be in the government. Congressman do you think thats possible in iraq . Thats the question that hangs overall this, when you look at how the story of the creation of iraq after world war i, we put borders on the map. Have these three groups ever been able to get along and exist together . Well, they did under saddam hussein. Sure, there was a dictator, there was a strong man. So youre going to have youre going to wind up with a strong man of some sort. It will not be a thug like maliki who is perceived by many, many, many people in iraq as being too closely tied to iran. Weve got to give this new man a chance to put a government together. I dont think we have any alternative but going through a period of a lot of concern, but which rebels are you going to arm in syria . You just give me the names of the organizations and where we should make the drops of arms. There is no answer to that question. And thats why the president is being so careful. Shadi, talking about being more aggressive in syria. Do you have an answer to that question . There is a clear answer. We know who the various rebel groups are and the ones that oppose isis. Most of them do. We can talk about the free syrian army, we can talk about nonextremist islamist rebel forces. We may not agree with them, may not like their ideology, but they are very much against isis. There has to be a broader coalition of rebel forces that agree on that common goal and we do know them. There has been a lot of research and analysis about who they are and which ones are better to support. They have been literally begging for more u. S. Arms and assistance as recently as early july when isis was moving in and they were saying, if we dont get more help, were going to be overrun. They were overrun. We can see how our lack of action has really had a devastating effect on the ground and demoralized those who look to the u. S. For moral and political leadership. My thanks from Jim Mcdermott from Washington State and the brooKings Institute shadi hamid. Still ahead, the domestic crisis waiting for president obama when he came home from that nato summit. Will the president s decision to do nothing about immigration until after the Midterm Election have the kind of political payoff the white house is looking for. vo ours is a world of passengers. The redeyes. daughter im really tired. vo the transfers. Well, thats kid number three. vo the copilots. All sitting. Trusting. Waiting. For a safe arrival. Introducing the allnew Subaru Legacy. Designed to help the driver in you. Care for the passenger in them. The Subaru Legacy. 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Back in june at the start of the summer, president obama seemed to make a promise, if congress continue to stonewall Immigration Reform, he would use executive power to acted on his own. He put a specific date on it, too. Ive also directed secretary johnson and attorney general holder to identify additional actions my administration can take on our own within my existing legal authorities to do what congress refuses to do and fix as much of our immigration system as we can. If congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours. I expect the recommendations before the end of the summer and i intend to adopt those recommendations without further delay. That was june 30th, the president saying he would have a plan to act on his own on immigration by the end of the summer and he would im plechlt that plan without further delay. That is a threat that republicans have been railing against all summer long, a keep part of their claim that the president is overreaching and abusing his executive authority. Lately some of president obamas democratic allies have been voicing concerns, too. Most notably democrats running in tight senate races in red states. Here is mark pryor, democrat of arkansas running in a very close reelection race in arkansas. He says obama doesnt have Carte Blanche to sidestep congress to get his way. Obama began to hedge when he took questions from journalists at nato summit. He was asked if he would wait until after the november midterms to take that action. We need Immigration Reform. My overriding preference is to see congress act. We had bipartisan action in the senate. The House Republicans have sat on it for over a year. That has damaged the economy. It has held america back. It is a mistake, and ill be making an announcement soon. I want to be very clear, my intention is in the absence of action by congress, im going to do what i can do within the legal constraints of my office because its the right thing to do for the country. Fewer than 24 hours later, we got the answer to just how soon that announcement would come. Breaking news just coming in during that break actually. The Associated Press is reporting white house Officials Say that president obama has decided to delay immigration action until after the november elections. Quoting an aide who spoke anonymously to the New York Times, because the president wants to do this in a way thats sustainable and freer of the political environment we are currently in, the president will make his announcement before the end of the year. So thats the nonmove, the nothing that the white house is doing or not doing to avoid endangering democrats in close races in red or purple states this fall. As were about to discuss, doing nothing comes with risks of its own, too. Joining me attorney raul reyes, roll calls editor and chief, and Christine Bellantoni and jane wolf editor at salon. Com. Christina, the basic politics of this are, the senate is up for grabs, battlegrounds in the red states. Democrats dont want to lose pryor in arkansas. Think they have a shot in kentucky. They dont want a backlash here. You knew in june when he made the threat the senate was competitive, too. So what happened . In fact, we knew two years ago this would be a difficult cycle. The party that holds the white house tend to lose seats when it is this time in the cycle. So mark pryor has been vulnerable, in fact, the number two most vulnerable on roll calls list. The numbers arent shifting a who lot. If he did this, is mark pryors number going to go down . Hes not voting for something. Was he a vote against Immigration Reform . I cant remember. I think he voted for it. Either way his numbers are where they are. People like mark begich or Mary Landrieu or kay hagan, theyre already set. Its going to be close in a lot of these states already. Theyre states that won in 2012. How much does that really shift . There was an article today, this was in politico, the spokesman for the nrsc, brad daze bring. He said the president and Senate Democrats are playing a cynical game, hoping americans paying attention now wont be after the election and it will backfire. Joe, to pick up on what christina is saying, this confuses me about the politics. If this is a political decision, youre telegraphing were still going to do this, the thing the republicans have been scoring points with their base all summer, they can still score points. Brad day spring knows cynical. John boehner tweets or says in a statement hes so concerned about the poor hispanics that he doesnt care enough about this is designed with republican cynicism in mind. Absolutely. It seems badly designed. Maybe were in a level of 11th dimensional chess where im too stupid to see why this is smart. I am too stupid to see why this is smart. It looks likes political malpractice to me. First of all, to say youre going to do it, give yourself a deadline at the end of the summer, second of all, even to come out friday night and suggest theres going to be action rather than my situation will be announced and its not action. Third, people were begging him to do this last spring. The idea this goes back to a consistent problem that some people in the base have with the president who we admire is that he waits and waits for republicans to be reasonable and to do the thing they ought to do either out of selfinterest or some kind of moral obligation. They dont do it. They never do it. Let me put it to you this way, raul. If it could be established this is hypothetical that holding off right now and doing it this way. Lets say it saves mark pryor in arc saurks saves begich, saves the democratic senate, is it worth it then if it gives you an environment after the election where your party still has the senate . The most i would say is maybe. Because to a certain extent i think the political cost of inaction or delaying executive action have been overstated. I do know this is a hypothetical. This is the reags. This summer while the president delayed his executive action, while we awaited it, 97,000 people were deported. Between now and the end of the year, thats another 70,000. Now, we know these are undocumented people. But just this week a study came up from the pew center looking at who are the undonted . 60 have been in this country ten years or more. 40 have citizen children. This is why i cannot overstate how angry, frustrated, disillusions the immigrant Rights Groups and Latino Community feels right now because these are people seeing their families torn apart, seeing their communities ruptured. Okay. Maybe it will do more good later. We know that we got here because of republican action. Thats why were at this point. Thats why the president has to take executive action. Thats true. Still, it has been absolutely agonizing. Its caused tremendous pain and anguish for latinos. Right after the election when they start thinking about 2016, they need to motivate latino voters. How are you going to do an about face and say now we need you, now we love you . This was in the Washington Post this morning, a quote from arturo car moan, executive director of present. Org. It demonstrates for obama politics come before latino lives. The pickup on that point, christina, getting out of there coming out of the it was the key to the future for democrats. Is there permanent damage to that relationship by an announcement like that . I think people are tired of being an into lated. Theyre told its going to happen, told theyre valuable and the status quo is the same. It is a broken immigration system. Nobody is arguing with that. When you look at this is the political difference between democrats and republicans. Republicans generally will take a vote that will make their members help their base closer to an election. Democrats have consistently put off votes like this or big actions. Think about the tax cut vote that nancy pelosi never held in 2010 before they lost the house. That is to say, we pres