puzzled look, as they tried to figure out what the film was all about. >> and if you want to get more on the stories, and the others we are following here, head to aljazeera.com. >> while responding to one crisis russia's threats to ukraine, president obama talked about another, the growing power of the so-called islamic state. he said he'll degrade and destroy the islamic army, but how? it's the inside story. hello, i'm ray suarez.

speaking to reporters in the estonian capitol, president obama said the recent executions of two americans by the guerrilla army that calls it is the islamic state united this country and stiffened it's resolve to bring the fight to the i.s. which now threatens the future of iraq and syria. the president reminded the killers of james foley and stephen sotloff america's reach is long, but so far there has been little public discussion of what form in american response would take, and what kind of action would, as the president said, would degrade and destroy the fighters of isis. >> today the prayers of the american people are with the family of a devoted and courages journalist stephen sotloff overnight our government determined tragically that teach wa stephen was sustain from us

in a horrific act of violence. >> it's still not clear when sotloff was killed but the video comes two weeks after the murder of james foley. >> they failed because like people around the world, americans are repulsed by their barbarism. we will not be intimidated. their horrific acts only unite us. >> just last week president obama said he had not yet developed a strategy for confronting the islamic state in syria. the criticism is getting louder. >> we can't wait forever. the longer we do wait the stronger eye kiss become isis becomes. >> he's very cautious. perhaps in this instance too cautious. >> the president of the united states is in denial or overwhelmed. >> it's france, it's the brits.

it's the other countries that need to work with us, including countries like saudi arabia and that region. >> last month president obama authorized airstrikes against the islamic state in iraq. he says this limited military campaign has been fruitful, and the plan for now is to degrade and destroy the insurgency so it's no longer a threat to iraq, the region, or the united states. on wednesday he issued a warning. >> those who make the mistake of harming americans will learn that we will not forget and that our reach is long and that justice will be served. >> did the killing of americans speed the shift of public opinion away from the cautious war-weary posture that marked the early months of the syrian civil war? has isis changed the way americans see renewed military involvement in the middle east? and if so what are the president's options and what

does he have to worry about? >> joining us for that conversation our guests. >> john drake, let me start with you. when carrying out the killings, whoever that hooded man was said they were doing it in part because of the american strikes on isis forces. how effective were they? >> ultimately i imagine it's not going to be an effective strategy for this organization to conduct these brutal attacks so openly. i would say part of their strategy in killing people in horrific ways and in demonstrating it online and making it available to the public is a strategy to intimidate western countries. but i think this might result in the opposite.

i imagine this will galvanize opinions of this group. >> can the united states, john, can the united states do this strictly from the air? when they made those strikes on isis forces inside iraq, were they sufficiently destructive to prove this out as a strategy? >> i would say we would need more on the ground. the u.s. could play several other roles in iraq and syria. it has a strong role in mediation between key players, and that's going to be very important if there is any hope of getting key members of the sunni community back on site. there is also support such as training and finances which might be needed for the peshmerga security forces to tackles organization. there is also pressure that can applied to regional government to encourage them to take stronger action against the

organizations. >> christian, when you look at the situation, what tools are available to the administration? what are the military options that face us in syria and iraq? >> well, there are lots of military options. but before we use any of them i think we should probably have a strategy. and the president said that isis is bad and wants to degrade them, but he has to go broader than that, and explain who he wants to win, what we want to see happen in the broader middle east, that's what is missing here. you know, this event, these two murders. what's going on in the region is much bigger than that. there are 190,000 corpses in syria. you have political turmoil everywhere and the administration that drops bombs. i don't think isis thinks it can intimidate the west or united states government other governments.

i think it's trying to serve as a magnate. you hear of a concourse taking place in northern africa. people switching from al-qaeda to isis. they're trying to draw more people from this conflict, and so far they're doing a pretty good job of it. >> will mccanst. is it possible to go after the islamic state just in iraq and not involve the u.s. in syria. >> no, that's not possible. it's pulling a lot of money from the oil there. it's not really being touched by the assad regime until you deal with it's base . you're not going to be able to solve the iraq problem. you can push them back and push them out of cities that they've been holding but eventually they'll come back. they're good and flexible force that is able to melt away into urban areas, reinstitute and come back. until you deal with them and syria on the ground in syria,

you're not going to be able to permanently remove them from iraq. >> so even if you begin in iraq this has to fend syria. >> that's right. it all goes back to syria. presiden vice president biden spoke about chasing them to the gates of hell. what complications lie in extending in so far strikes strictly limited to iraq and following them back to their home base? >> well, i would say this is regarding the situation as if it's very state centric. this is a regional issue. the borders in the area are very boor, this is an organization that is able to move between various countries, not just iraq and syria. airstrikes in one area won't eradicate the organization. it will make it weaker in the areas that it is targeted but it is able to move from one country to another to expand operations and regroup in areas that aren't being targeted. >> john, should right now the united states be trying to

involve other players? you get rising complexity when you build a rising coalition to take care of a problem, or should it keep its freedom of movement and keep this an u.s.-only affair. >> the more parties involved the better. this is involving several states already. it threats the national have interest of numerous countries in the region and the wider world. ther it is also to insure its mutually acceptable by all the parties and it's not just one country that is going to be effected by the inter investigation. it will be several in the region. >> christian white that brings up the problem that seem to arise whenever the world face as situation like this. people talk about american decline, american retreat. american withdrawal. then when something goes wrong

everybody is sitting around and saying where is america? >> well, i think we're past that point, though. if you look at our allies in the region especially saudi arabia, they have been aghast at u.s. conduct not only in iraq and syria where not only did we not do anything but we tried to talk them out of certificate could you large ceremony leaning fighters who could challenge dictator assad and the islamist andy hadists. but there is a lot of resolve that the islamic state should not run sunni iraq. that's really what it's going to come down to as other guests have said. changing the factor on the ground you can bomb these people, but until someone on the ground challenges them then these jihadists are going to run sunni iraq. we need more secular leaning

iraqis to challenge them. >> does the establishment of a new government in baghdad help in what christian just described? >> it does help in measure if you're talking about iraq. but the thing is in terms of international cooperation. this has been a big part of the problem. and one reason why the obama administration has been very reluctant to get involved. i don't agree with the president's policy but you have to acknowledge he has not been dealt a very good hand in terms of partners in the region. the countries and saudis have not agreed with one another. they've funded different parts of the rebels which have kept those rebels fractured. a number of gulf states do not have tight counter threat finance controls. a lot of private donations are going through the gulf. particularly through kuwait ending up in extremist hands.

that's a major disadvantage to fighting the regime. if you can get turkey to stop allowing jihaddist across it's border it's going to be difficult to form a proxy on the ground to take on the islamic state and pushing us to take concessions. >> we'll be back with more "inside story" after a short break. after we return we'll return with options, stay with us. >> next saturday >> prop 8, really made us think about this process of coming out. >> meet the committed couples >> gay marriages, straight marriages... have the same challenges. >> it's all about having the same options as everybody else. >> that fought for equality >> saying "i do" changed everything. >>every saturday, join us for exclusive, revealing and

surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. "talk to al jazeera" next saturday 5 eastern only on al jazeera america

the most important money stories of the day might effect your savings, your job or your retirement. whether it's bail-outs or bond rates this stuff gets complicated. but don't worry. i'm here to take the fear out of finance. every night on my show i break down confusing financial speak and make it real. >> you're watching "inside story" on al jazeera america. i'm ray suarez. the american's president promise of action against its islamic state this time on the program, president obama said u.s. airstrikes in iraq have already proven effective. blunting the progress towards baghdad.

bubut the islamic state appears willing to provoke u.s. military action in the region. this is not what you call an even fight. as the drum beats raise here in the united states for revolving ourselves in that part of the world, that seems to be exactly what the islamic state wants, too. >> it is, and strangely for a lot of these jihadi groups they're willing to take on enemies on all side. particularly the islamic state. they don't worry about who they are anger, and they're going by the playbook that was used before 9/11, which is to carry out strikes against the u.s. persuading the u.s. to leave the idea of war all together or double down and put troops on the ground. i don't think it's a winning strategy for them. they would have been better off not provoking the united states. they'll suffer major losses as a

consequence but nonetheless it's a strategy they're following. >> as the united states was getting out of iraq there were a lot of editorials talking about being really cautious about involving u.s. forces in middle eastern wars again. and here we are just really just a string of months later talking about revolving ourselves in that part of the world. should it be done with a great deal of hesitation, caution, care? >> you could argue this is not the fault of the sift for having withdrawn early. it's very much the iraqi government that reverse of the this which is i do not many have turned against the government and sought to sympathize with the i.s. it may not be surprising the speed this has taken place because of the policies

implemented days after the u.s. withdrawal. it will be difficult to back into the country but you could argue would it be an inflammatory to move in troops, simply because it's not been so long since troops were on the ground providing support to the iraqi army that was so badly needed . >> for all the increased interest in the united states we seem to be also playing other people's game at the same time. >> yes, the next move i think is pretty much nothing. this president has talked tough before. he said we're going--he said the dictator assad had to go in syria. that's pretty unequivocal language. then he followed that up with nothing. if you look at other interventions, look at cairo. egypt when it fell apart. the united states saying we're very interested in this. in libya

afric after qaddafi left, in afghanistan after the government was pushed aside by western armaments in the 1980's. in iran the government sat on its hands when people took to the streets to challenge the government there. i think the jihadists are look at the west and see a paper tiger and understand these airstrikes maybe will extract a very small tactical toll but they are a significant army with the resources of a nation-state. they have a lot of resources, oil resources. they have taxation resources. wise communication and security, all of that lends to a credible state, and we don't really have an army ready to chase them out like we did in libya. you have the peshmerga and the kurdish forces and the iraqi army, but none of that seems like it's capable of dislodging

of doing what the president said, of degradingsering and destroying the islamic state. >> you predicted that maybe nothing would happen. what are you saying should happen? >> it's a bad situation. iraqi civilian deaths and decline from 3500 month at the peak of the insurgency. 500 troops being killed a month down to zero. yes, maliki misbehaved, but the bad actors in the region have to make deals with the other bad actors to survive. we'll see what happens when the west withdraw from ther from there. there is no appetite for another ground war in the middle east bar major strikes in oil prices that dislodges the western economy, frankly, i don't see a

lot coming from this administration. i would combine airstrikes with a ground game supports like the sons of iraq, more secular sunnies. i would do that, there are some secularists. and it's not rocket science. you'll make mistakes, but if you give people arms, funding and support, and linkages and liaisons with the west. that elements the force. >> do you recognize that peaceful iraq that christian was talking about, is that a place that is familiar to you? >> it would be very difficult to achieve now. the main component is going to be the sunni community and getting them back into negotiations with the government. but considering how they feel treated, and how they feel marginalized over the last two years, three years, it will be difficult to earn their trust to come back to the table again.

there may have to be major political concessions to earn their trust. any of the key tribal figures in places like anbar province, if there is any hope of joining the iraqi government or it will be a primary target for the islamic state. it will be incredibly difficult to achieve, and it's probably going to take a large amount of alteration and recalibration as it stands today. >> as you turn on your television, and you see slaughtered yazidis, ethnically cleansed christians, piles of corpses, it's hard to know if this is being done solely as instruments of terror to impress people on the ground or because the islamic state understands that you pull in the wider world when you perform acts like this. >> that's right.

i think on one level, on the strategic level the islamic state is trying to polarize society to create as much chaos as possible, and to take advantage of it. but on a more fundamental level this is basically become a warrior cult. it has gotten out of hand. it's gone past any of the guidelines that al-qaeda ever sat down for running a successful insurgent campaign. the islamic state has a very dark vision of humanity of extremely unimaginative and brutal. i think it's telling whenever they take over a government building and establish themselves, and if they paint it entirely black that's what their vision is. it's an entirely black vision of the future, and it can only rule through brutality. they don't know any other way to do it. sure they're providing some basic social services but even those are very hand-fisted compared to the punishments they meet out for the slightest inflictions. many of them not even

punishments called for in the islamic law. >> you talked about the resources at their disposal. do they become more entrenched. harder to u uproot. >> they do have a lot of resources at their control. some estimates upwards of $2 billion. but they always controlled a decent amount of money. estimates vary between 70 million to $200 million. they've always had a good amount of money. i think what matters in having looked at similar attempts by jihadist organizations to establish control on the ground and in mali, somalia and yemen, they have to work with the tribes. and they have to make sure that they don't anger powerful external actors who can come in and get rid of them. they have to treat the people well. i think on all of these fronts except perhaps the tribal element we'll see the islamic state failing. it's not going to remain very

long. >> we'll be back after a short break. the x factor in all of this, the american public opinion. we'll talk about that when we return. >> a firsthand look at the ongoing battle against the isis threat. >> bombs are cracking off in the distance... >> this is a booby trap in the islamic state >> ...a sniper around the corner here... >> from the front lines, josh rushing reports, on al jazeera america

>> welcome back to inside story on al jazeera america. i'm ray suarez. what's ahead in the struggle between the islamic state and the country's around the world looking on with horror as that fighting force claims it's a new caliphate and imposes it's rule on syria and iraq. still with us in london, john drake and will mccanst state department from 2009 to 2011. and in los angeles christian whiten, a senior crisis in the bush administration state department from 2003 to 2009. christian, the president has deplored what the is is up to. especially with the killing of americans in the past several days. what does he say to the country now to make americans understand what the potential threat of

this new force on the scene is? >> well, first of all i would say it's more about deeds in this point. the president has said a great deal about iraq and syria, and it's time to follow through with the plan the american people get behind. you know, americans are non-interventionsists up to the point that they're not. clearly the determination to follow through they will sport it. but i will say what he should recognize is that this is part of a broader problem. why does the i.s. actually attract ing and drawing people to it. we need to use other means? our realm of state craft , non-violent means like we used against communism and fascism. it's not about dropping bombs but other tools against these people.

>> john drake, the i.s. teams to have gotten the attention of the british government as well. it's threatened the next murder victim will be a british national, and prime minister cameron, question time, members of parliament, they all seem to be looking at whether this pulls britain back into the fight, will it? >> of course, we're already involved. the fact that there are members of this organization that come from the united kingdom there is an image that they're trying to project one of brutality, and one that strengthens, and supports a cause. they're looking to recruit people in the united kingdom to join them. they're hoping to encourage people to conduct attacks here . people are taking this extremely seriously right now. >> will, you heard what christian said, and john's update from britain, are these people as nations ready to get back into the middle east?

>> i think they are. as you said, they have been pretty hesitant the past few years. not even the spector of attacks the brits didn't want to do it. the american people didn't want to do it. what has changed here. one, the beheadings have electrified and horrified american popular opinion, which obama has to respect, but also temper, but at the tame tim same time the move into iraq represents something new. that's the threat to the region alabama lies as well. >> gentlemen, thank you all. that brings us to this edition of inside story. thanks for being with us. join us next time.

>> >> announcer: this is al jazeera. from al jazeera is headquarters in doha, this is the newshour. targetting the islamic state group in iraq. the u.s. launches a new round of air strikes. [ explosion ] unrest in yemen. more than 70 killed in days of fighting north of the capital. >> ukraine's ceasefire on the verge of collapse as