Page 18 - William Fallon News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

As one iraqi politician told us earlier, this is a sheer and utter catastrophe for the future of this nation. >> a catastrophe, and a very incredible word to use. thank you very much, arwa damon, who is on the ground there. joining me now the former commander of u.s. central kman william fallon and retired general wesley clark. let me start with you. you heard arwa using the word catastrophe in terms of how iraqi security forces were describing the situation to her on the ground. how involved does the united states need to get? >> well, i think we do need to be involved. but i also think that ...

Working diplomatically with the government of iraq. they can't continue business as usual. so they need to make a switch. they've been relying on iran. they didn't want u.s. presence there. they need to belly-up to the bar now. they're going to be dependent on the united states. they're going to be an ally of the united states after this. they need to recognize it and sign up for it. >> general clark, when you say special forces, the president has been adamant about one thing, no boots on the ground. that i know is we can debate what term you would use. but how many special forces would you ne...

0 and people say i missed this, go to the brooke blog, go to cnn.com/brooke. i will be back at this time tomorrow. in the meantime, we go to washington. john berman is sitting in for jake tapper. "the lead" starts right now. the next few hours are crucial if the obama administration really plans to strike syria. i'm john berman and this is "the lead." the world lead. after complaining they're getting left in the dark, some lawmakers will soon hear what the administration has on syria. can the skeptics be won over? we'll talk to a lawmaker in the president's own party who is dead set against ...

Can get away with some incident, whereas you suggest, i think the south koreans would hit them back pretty hard. there does appear to be some shift in their rules of engagement as local commanders seem to be empowered to use right back at them. so i think it is a dangerous situation. as we look at the paths of this crisis, i think this kind of inadvertent conflict is the most serious. >> as you know, admiral fallon, the north koreans did bomb an island, they killed a bunch of south koreans and attacked a south korean warship that killed a lot of sailors. the south koreans at that point did not...

The u.s. has ordered missile defenses to guam, as fears grow that north korea may be planning a launch soon. we've assembled our own security council here in "the situation room," including some of the more knowledgeable folks about north korea to try to break all of this down for you. joining us now is tommy vietor, he served in the obama white house. he's a former spokesman for the national security council. also joining us, christopher hill, the former u.s. ambassador to south korea. he's now dean of the school of international studies at the university of denver. and retired u.s. navy admi...