Battle between starbucks and chill filet. And what everyone in washington knows and is afraid to say. Buzz feed john stanton and amy walter, welcome to sunday, its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, this is meet the press with chuck todd. And a good sunday morning to everybody. President obama will be addressing the United Nations on wednesday as the United States continues efforts to build aco arigs to take on isis and iraq and syria. Last week, the house and Senate Approved funding for the socalled moderate Syrian Rebels and there were huge questions that remain over the president s strategy after the countrys most senior general, Martin Dempsey suggested that american troops might be needed on the ground. Its an option that the president continues to rule out. All this adding to a sense of confusion about the administrations approach to defeat isis. Lets rewith wide rewind and what weve seen just over the last few days. These American Forces will not have a combat mission. And if there are threats to the United States, then i of course would go back to the United States and make a recommendation that may include the use of u. S. Military ground forces. The possibility of combat troops despite what the president told the nation. I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in iraq. There is no way in hell were going to beat these guys without an american ground component in iraq and syria. U. S. Ground troops will not be send into combat into this conflict. There will be boots on the ground if there is going to be any hope in success and strategy. Our strategy does not involve u. S. Troops on the ground in a combat role. Joining me now is samantha power, the u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Welcome back to meet the press. Great to be here. Let me start with this issue of combat troops and theres been what appears to be a debate between the military and civilian leaders. Your job as ambassador to the United Nations, you are trying to build a coalition, secretary kerry. You tweeted this on friday, huge outpouring of support. What countries have committed combat troops to fight in syria . Has any of them done it . Let me under score the point of outpouring of support. Secretary kerry convened a meeting on friday, the french last week joined combat Strike Missions in iraq for the first time. You have the saudis who have come out and offered training bases for the moderate opposition now that congress has approved the train and equip program that the president put forward so were seeing a diverse range of forms of support and the commitments are coming in every day. But this issue of getting combat troops from other countries, we know the president doesnt want it to be american, but because were not pledging american combat troops potentially, is that making it hard tore get other countries to commit . Were not having problems getting countries to commit. Our strategy is predicated on the iraqi and Kurdish Forces in iraq leading the effort. They are going to be in the best position to know how to take back territory in their own country. And in syria, the strategy is predicated on the moderate opposition building out its capabilities over time, professionalizing those forces. Thats our strategy. The other capabilities the Coalition Partners bring to bear in support of ground operations by local people. Lets talk about this moderate opposition in syria. Im a little confused at who were training them to fight. All week long, the president says were training them to fight isis, but a year ago, the idea was to train the moderate syrians to fight asad. With retraining them to fight isis or assad. Who are we training them to fight . Our nationalc imperative iso go after isil and the moderate opposition will have a better opportunity to do that. Is that what the syrian army free syrian wants to do . I think they have been wanting to fight assad. They have been fighting side by side with isis. Do they know that . The training will serve these troops in the same struggle they have been since the beginning of this conflict. They have been fighting isil since december. They have pushed them out of strategic areas. The reason that they have lost the moderate opposition have lost territory over time is they have been fighting isil and taking the fight on isil. We think with an infusion of support, these fighters who have actually held their own against this wide array of actors fighting on fronts will be in a much stronger position to go after isil and put pressure on the regime so we can get back to the table for a political solution. I know the president already believes hes justified. What do you need from the United Nations this week for some sort of resolution . I know theres talk of a chapter 7 type resolution to give some legality to what the president wants to do and this coalition wabts to do. Can you explain what legally you want the u. N. To give on this front . The unhas provided a stage to show the overwhelming support for the anti isil effort. President obama comes to town and couldnt veens a meeting of the security council. Thats very rare. Cutting off their financing, et cetera, and under scoring the multidimension shall aspects of the fight against isil the fight against foreign terrorist fighters more specifically. In terms of the United Nations again, we continue to hear from our partners how grateful they are that we have answered iraqs appeal to come to their defense and use our unique capabilities in support of them. Theres a big headline in the Washington Post this morning about basically more chaos in libya, some assassins in benghazi. Whats the Lesson Learned on the United States intervention in libya in hindsight for you when you are applying to sort of how were dealing in syria . We left a vacuum in libya and now theres chaos in libya. How do you prevent that from happening in syria once the u. S. Is successful in getting rid of isis . The goal of getting rid of ga daf if i, you did it. Let me note, of course, that notwithstanding being roughly in the same region, these are two very Different Countries and circumstances. What is very important and the key again to stability over time is national institutions, National Actors taking ownership of the stability of their countries, and thats again why this investment in the moderate opposition in syria is so important. In addition to their fight against isil, in addition to them being able to fend off regime attacks more effectively with our support, this is our investment in the stability of syria and the institutions that are going to be needed. More dysfunctional, the United Nations or the u. S. Congress . No comment. Im a diplomat. A very diplomatic answer. In the studio with me now are two members of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee who are on opposite sides of the president s request. A democrat, chris murphy and a republican, ron johnson. Welcome to both of you. Let me start with you, why did you vote against the president s request to arm these rebels . Im broadly supportive of the president s strategy. Theres no doubt we need to have strong response to isil, the question is whether getting involved in a very complicated sectarian war in syria is necessary to the overall strategy. The reality is that over the last year these socalled moderate rebel have been openly coordinating with a wing of al qaeda. It is likely an impossibility that they can effectively fight on two fronts against both asad and isis and to me the risk is that the United States begins getting involved in what may be a very long term commitment to a messy civil war inside syria. I think that with air strikes in syria, counterterrorism and a focus on iraq, you can effectively degrade isis to the point that you have the room for a political solution. I guess, senator, that is d ive heard this concern finishing you fail, if the moderate opposition just doesnt work, iraq we spent billions of dollars and years training iraq and the first time isis came, they rolled over. So what happens . Does the United States have to fill the vacuum if these moderates dont work . We have to recognize reality. If you want to see whats going to happen in the future, look to the past. Weve had testifying before our committee and ive been talking to people behind the scenes that were involved in 2007 surge and back then we were fighting 6 to 8,000 members of al qaeda in iraq. Basically what isis is now. Its an off shoot of that. We didnt leave a stabilizing force behind so they were able to rise from the ashes. Back then, we had engage 100,000 sunnis in that battle. We had 100,000 Iraq Security forces, once we cleared, we would hope and provide protection for the sun nie populations and we had 160,000 american troops that were involved in that fight. Thats what it took for us to defeat 6 to 8,000 members of al qaeda and iraq. Now weve got 31,000 members of the Islamic State and we dont have a strategy for defeating them. Listen, i believe they are a threat. I agree with proposals goal that they must be defeated. Im just not seeing the strategy that its actually going to work the. So you are open to the idea of keeping combat troops on the table. Im certainly open to doing what it takes to achieve the goal that president obama has stated we have to defeat isis because they made their intentions very clear. We know what their aims are. They need to be defeated. Senator murphy, you heard the question i had to ambassador power about a vacuum in libya. We were successful with the campaign to get rid of gaddafi and with nothing there, chaos has ensued. How do you prevent that from happening in syria . We had secretary of state kerry before the Foreign Relations committee this week, 90 of the questions he was asked was the military strategy. This is the secretary of state who is in charge of the diplomatic strategy. Military exercises are a shaping exercise to give the space in order to create political resolution there and so our focus should be on enough military power in order to force changes on the ground in iraq so that the sun anymoderates have a place to go other than isil thats what we werent able to do in libya because we hadnt made the full commitment to b h both. Is the United States committed nor to defeating isis than the folks in middle east . Thats hard to say. I want to meet with every representative, every arab state to certainly make sure they understand is that the only way the American People will support the type of action we need to take to defeat isis, they have to be in support themselves. They are more threatened by Islamic State than we are, but we are under threat and chuck, it has to be pointed out, you cannot negotiate with isis, their diplomacy consists of beheadings and crucifixtihon. There were two women who were bound, raped repeated thri. Thats who we are fighting right now. Weve been at war with them since 1993. We have to recognize it. We cant bury our heads in the sand. How do you defeat this ideology . Diplomacy isnt going to do it, is it . What weve learned is that whenever we kill an extremist, warfare whenever we take out another number two takes its place. They arent as committed as the United States. Saudi arabia is not leading this coalition, and the United States is leading this coalition. Thats really going to be the key as to whether its successful. There are 3 different bills trying to take away the nfls tax exempt status. We are far higher priorities than three senate bills are in there. Coburn, cant well, booker. Were mortgaging our childrens future. Ill take a look at the bills. That is so low on my priority list not even thinking about it. Thank you much. Wait till you see this one as we are digging through the archives. We found something fascinating, this is a senator from new york, a republican discussing congresss authority. Congress has permitted its power to be eroded completely in this area. The constitution does not give the president the power to declare war. Only congress has that. 44 years ago and that debate is actually stillrise raging. Can we really defeat isis without american Ground Troops, im going to ask the former chief of staff, mike mullen is right here with us. Chief of staff, mike mullen is right here with us. Ill be back in 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. Means keeping seven billion ctransactions flowing. G, and when weather hits, its data mayhem. But airlines running hp endtoend solutions are always calm during a storm. So if your business deals with the unexpected, hp big data and Cloud Solutions make sure you always know whats coming and are ready for it. 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And we say, yeah, we do we are back. As weve been discussing the political talk this week was dominated by the president s strategy to take on isis and the question of whether the war can be won without committing u. S. Troops on the ground, no better person to assess that question than my next guess, mike mullen former chairman of the join chiefs of staff. I know you love arm chair generals and admirals so i will not try to make you play that arm chair aspect of that. I want to you to raek to something that retired general mattis said this week. He was talking about the u. S. Not taking anything off the table when it comes to combat troops. He said if we put any restrictions on how much time were willing to commit to it or certain elements of our National Power that were take off the table in advance it can work kbens us in terms of building the coalition that will give us full support. You dealt with military leaders in other countries. Will they be hesitant to commit if the u. S. Is not committing Ground Troops . I think that they will commit to the commission as they understand it. I think what you heard general mattis say was dont take any options off the table venl i actually think when general dempsey our current chairman anticipating a question at a hearing asked about Ground Troops took it off the table in his Opening Statement from the standpoint if the circumstances warrant it he would go back and recommend to the president the possibility or the option of using Ground Troops. I think thats a natural part of the discussion in this debate about how you execute a mission. There should not be any question in the end who decides this and thats the president. So i think what general dempsey was trying to do was certainly explain to some degree how the process works. I think its been blown way out of proportion in terms of the disagreement between the military and the president. Were also talking about degrees about what might be done. Nobody is saying nobody is saying and i dont even think military leaders say you need hundreds of thousands of american combat troops in syria. I think the question is could you need five or ten,000 of say 10,000 of special forces. Is that what they are talking about . I dont know any leaders military or civilian who are talking about brigade size unit, 4,000, 10,000 at a crack. We certainly learned in these wars that its important to have indigenous forces on the ground and our ability to both train them and support them as made a difference. I think were going to clearly right now see where we are in iraq, at least feedback im getting is cautiously optimistic once the air power strikes have started, the forces little more engaged. Wh