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Will put them back where they belong. the announcement comes after the head of iran's military force met with iraqi officials over the weekend to help the government coordinate a response. s they said they had any interference in iraq and the statement to be directed specifically at iran. the big question tonight, though, concerned how much and what kind of american military involvement, if any at all. the only thing the white house ruled out is sending come basketball for -- combat forces back to iraq. we're joined my our two guests. jim, let me start off with you, this phone call we learned ...

Head of the qods force met to help the government coordinate a response. saudi arabia's foreign minister in turn said his country opposed any foreign intervention and any interference in iraq, a statement widely believed to be directed at iran. the big question tonight, though, concerned how much and what kind of american military involvement, if any at all. the only thing the white house ruled out is sending combat forces back into iraq for a look at the other options, we're joined by jim sciutto, retired major general and cnn analyst james "spider" marks. jim, let me start off with you this....

But colonel jack, unpack a little bit of what you heard from the president today. you still did get questions from the gallery about whether or not we are creeping and whether there could be missions people, military missions. but what i thought i heard was absolutely we are not doing a combat mission. what did you hear? >> there are going to be combat missions, but they're not going to be done by combat forces. when people think about boots on the ground, they're thinking about the first armor division, the 82nd airborne division, large formations of troops. we are having troops on the ground...

I don't think foreign policy should be defined by what we won't do. but there is a continues between having boots on the ground which effectively he has not ruled out and having combat forces. boots on the ground we'll need. we'll need people to do forward spotting and intelligence, especially when it comes to the iraqis retaking the cities. you can't do that with fighter aircraft. you need drones. so we'll have to have some boots on the ground. by the way for that we'll need a status of forces agreement. al-maliki would have to sign that right away. but i would never think it's a good idea to...

Leave iraq, that was made by george w. bush and agreement he seened in 2008. he said all u.s. forces would be out by december 2011. >> combat forces. >> but that was a decision made by george w. bush. >> combat forces. that's an important distinct. >> yes, it is an important distinction. the iraqi government wasn't willing to give diplomatic immunity. do you think he should have kept troops in there without diplomatic immunity? >> no. when we put forces back in there, one of the prices for malaki is to sign a status agreement write away. >> but he did not sign one with president obama. i want ...