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Is i'd like to hear what it is. because it certainly isn't apparent now. >> peter bergen he did not mince any words. "there is no strategy." is he right? >> i think almost everything that senator mccain said in that statement is correct. i think, you know if we are serious, if the united states is serious about, for instance taking over -- taking back mosul, obviously that would be largely an iraqi army operation. but there's going to i think, have to be u.s. air controllers on the ground calling in very precise air strikes. there's going to have to be u.s. special forces advising on the groun...

Only the iraqis can do that. and in particular, in this case the sunni tribes to the west. if there comes a time when we need to change the kinds of support we're giving to the iraqi forces we'll make that recommendation. but what happened at ramadi was a failure of the iraqi forces to fight. and so our efforts now are devoted to providing their ground forces with the equipment, the training and to try to encourage their will to fight so that our campaign enabling them can be successful both in defeating isil and keeping isil defeated in a sustained way. >> making sure i understand you, you ar...

You're hearing this criticism and we have been hearing it for weeks, really intensified this past week because of what happened in ramadi and palmyra, folks like senator john mccain who say they are going to need 10,000 u.s. troops on the ground to ensure that eyes is is defeated. take a listen to what some of what he had to say on face the nation today. >> we need to have forward air controllers. we need to have special forces. we need to of more of those kind of raids that were so successful into syria. we need to have a strategy. there is no strategy. and anybody that says that there is i'd...

People want. americans, you know, are much more -- if you polled two years ago, a large majority of americans would have said, you know, we should not have boots on the ground. that has changed. but president obama is very firm on this point. we obviously do have boots on the ground with 3,000 fighters there. american soldiers, they all have boots, they're on ground. but the rules of engagement prevent them from doing something that i think is necessary, if we're -- if the united states and its allies are serious about taking back mosul. i think you're going to have to have american special fo...

What question. >> first it's not clear the american military defeated any of those people. >> that's right. that's the point. >> and i'm not talking about the american military defeating them. what i'd like to see is us equipping the sunnis, who are anti-isis, and giving air cover, to a lot of those people and even to the iran supported militias, which the administration is considering. i look at the number of air sorties, they're very low. reason is we don't have forward air controllers. so where we don't want collateral damage, so we're not bringing in air strikes. >> just to be clear here, ...