companies to make greater emission restructures. >> lindsay, good to see you. kurdish forces launched a major ground offensive to retake the city of sinjar. it's designed to cut off a highway that isil uses as a supply route between iraq and syria. jamie mcintyre has more from the pentagon. >> reporter: the u.s. military is relying on what it believes is the most effective fighting force in iraq. balcs heartened kurdish troops. the u.s. is supporting them in the air and on the ground, but not the pentagon insists on the front lines. the attack began at dawn kicked

off by three dozen air strikes conducted primarily by u.s. attack planes but also by american drones and a b-1 bomber. the u.s. also has special operations commandos on the ground on sinjar mountain, which overlooks the isil-held city below. u.s. and british troops are helping to direct the air attacks, which u.s. military sources claim killed more than 60 isil fighters in the opening hours of the kurdish-led ground offensive. the objectives? to free sinjar from more than a year of isil rule and block a key supply line, highway 47, that links mosul in iraq and raqqa in syria, isil's two biggest strongholds. the u.s. said pesh muir ga forces seized part of the road. >> the highway 47 over sinjar mountain and the ground by the

pash merge ya. >> a force of 8,000 troops led by the kurds is going up against 400 and 600 dug in and determined isil fighters. the battle plan takes two to four days to retake the city and another week or so to clear bombs and booby trapped houses. unlike the prison rescue last month, no u.s. troops are on the front lines according to a u.s. military spokesman reached by skype in baghdad. >> the likelihood that american forces will encounter combat is very close to zero. that's how we designed this. we have american forces specifically set behind sin yar mt where this is behind friendly lines, and a few forces are on the mountain and are far enough back from the actual fighting that there's no expectation whatsoever that they'll

encounter nye fightings. >> it includes a volunteer militia of a religious minority run out of sinjar last august when isil captured the city and enslaved some of the yazidi women. a report about i the u.s. holocaust museum says the deaths from starvation and dehydration of hundreds of yazidi who were trapped after isil took over amounts to genocide. a u.s. military official in iraq called the operation tactically significant because it lays the ground work for future offenses to retake mosul and raqqa. the blocking of supply lines is designed not just to make it harder for isil to get supplies in but also to get oil out which could reduce the cash flow. >> a retired army special for s forces. he served as a adviser on tour there. he's in denver tonight. so can you just explain, is

isil -- i isil essentially -- how significant is sinjar on a strategic level in the fight against isil? >> thanks, john. strategic in that as we just heard taking back that town will cut off a key line, a line of communication between raqqa and mosul. from that point forward isil has to maneuver through the desert in smaller numbers, so in military operations for the last several thousand years, cutting off a key route for your enemy to move freely is a major part of military strategy. men, weapons, equipment, oil, money, hostages are restricted in movement. this is the strategic significance. there's a symbolic significance in returning this town back to control of the kurdistan regional government. it can be used by the iraqi

government as a major success against the fight against isil. >> so if coalition forces manage to cut off highway 47 to raqqa, how big a blow will that be to isil? >> i think it will be a blow especially in the world of propoganda of information and social media. isil will have had a defeat handed to them. it's been a long time since the -- we can actually say that isil had a major defeat handed to them. it's usually the other way around. so it's important for the global media, the iraqi government, the kurdish government to play this up really big within the social media world as a major defeat for isil. it will be a major bolster to both of pesh measure ga and the iraqis.

>> it's quite certain it's train, advise and assist. it is a mission where we are with their commanders. we might not be at the pointy end of spear in the very frent echelon of the peshmerga advance into the town, but our guys are with the kurdish commanders and talking to our jets in the sky. when the front echelon of the peshmerga identify targets, they pass that back to commanders, to our guys and on up to the jets. as we've seen within minutes precision-guided munitions are delivered right where they need to be. >> secretary carter talked last month about direct action, but i mean, what is it going to take to defeat isil? is it going to take much more than this? >> certainly. here we'll see a tactical defeat that has to be messaged to drive further defeats for them.

so it's going to take much more. many people have said this is years and years worth of strugg struggle. i think some of the next moves whim be for the iraqi military forces to take the lessons learned and what we learned from this campaign with the kurds. take the fight to the enemy in ramadi and eventually to mosul. it's a long fight, but everything happening up in the north can be positively applied to other major towns held by isil and iraq. >> mitch, good to see you. thank you very much. isil is claiming responsibility for twin suicide bombings outside of beirut. at least 43 people died and more than 230 injured in one of the worst attacks in lebanon in years. the bombers targeted a mostly shia neighborhood controlled by hezbollah. that group has vowed revenge. isil's claim of responsibility has not been verified, but they're making another claim tonight. they released a video making an

apparent threat against russia. it includes chanting in russian that soon, very soon, the blood will spill like an ocean. the kremlin says it's examining the video. isil has made unverified claims of responsibility for last month's deadly russian plane crash in egypt. meanwhile today russia revealed secret plans for the new super weapon, but the kremlin says it was an accident. this diagram shows the designs for a giant torpedo that has a rain of 6,000 miles. it can wipe out entire coastal areas and spread long-lasting radiation. the plans appeared on tv as news crews filmed a meeting between pred putin and his military chiefs. in the u.s. today president obama fired back at donald trump over immigration. the republican candidate for president wants to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. here's what president obama said to abc news. the notion that we're going

to deport 11, 12 million people from this country, first of all, i have no idea where mr. trump thinks the money will come from. it would cost us hundreds of billions of dollars to execute that. imagine the images on the screen flashed around the world as we were dragging parents away from their children and putting them in detention centers and then systematically sending them out. no one thinks that's realistic, but more importantly that's know what we are at americans. >> donald trump says we have the manpower to successfully and humanely deport all the immigrants. we have an update on the sanctuary movement among undocumented immigrants. hundreds gathered in tuesday son, arizona. she's the mother of two who left

the southside presbyterian church for the first time. she entered the church last year to avoid a deportation order after living in the u.s. since 1999. she reached a confidential agreement with u.s. immigration. now to utah, a same-sex couple is fighting to keep their foster child. april hoagland and becky pierce said the baby they raised for three months would be better off with a heterosexual couple. they were legally married and approved as foster parents earlier this year. they want to adopt the baby girl. >> we've been told to care like this child like a mother would, and i am her mother. i mean, that's who she knows, and she's just going to be taken away in seven days. to another probably good, loving home, but it's just -- it's not fair. it's not right. it just hurts me really badly,

because i haven't done anything wrong. >> the couple says the baby's biological mother and his state-appointed attorney support them. emily and the interim co-executive director. she advocates for full legal protection for lgbt parents and their children. she's? in silver springs, maryland tonight. what do you make of this decision? >> in this case a family court judge has won responsibility in these cases, and that's to take into consideration what's in the best interests of the individual child or children before him. this judge clearly did not do that. he made an uninformed, biased decision based on widely debunked research not even offered to him in this proceeding by any parties. he took it upon himself to cite two studies that have been discredited across the board and decided that in his opinion this child, who by all measures has

been thriving in a loving home with two parpents, would do better in a home with a two h-s couple. utah has a law on the books which states that preference shall be given to married men and women over all other potential adoptive and foster parents. however, in this case this family has been caring for this child for several months and has been approved as a foster home for this child and by all measures, again, the child was thriving. the case workers, the lawyers involved, and even the birth mother for this child all recommended that this couple be eligible to adopt this young baby. >> you're an lgbt couple that has a child in your own family. what does this send to couples like you and others across the country in your opinion? >> my wife and i created our

family under different situations and didn't go through the foster care system. i am married to my wife and i live in maryland with a 3-year-old daughter. we did complete a second parent adoption in maryland courts, and it is horrifying to me to that in 2015 we could step before a judge who could place his own personal bias on important decisions that impact my family. >> how do you fight back? >> well, this couple has the ability to appeal the decision by this judge. the problem is that the judge ordered the child removed in seven days. while the likelihood of their appeal being successful is probably quite high, in the meantime this child will likely be removed from the home within the seven-day period and could potentially be placed in another home. it's disruptive and not in the child's best interests, and it's against any kind of child welfare best practices. >> are there any other cases like this in the country?

>> you know, mississippi has a statutory ban against same sex couples adopting children, and that's currently being challenged in federal court. full disclosure family equality council is a plaintiff in the case along with another organization for same-sex couples. that's the only other state with a statutory ban on the books. what we are seeing is a rise in legislation at the state level where religious freedom restoration acts, rifras are introduced at the state level. rather than being broad like in indiana earlier this year where there was quite a bit of backlash when the governor signed a broad rifra bill there, we see much more narrowly tailored bills being introduced. in four states this past year, we saw adoption-specific rifras introduced where these wills would permit state licensed foster and adoptive agencies to

refuse to work with anyone with whom they have a religious or moral objective. they target the lgbt community, and but they have a much broader application. they could permit discrimination against same-sex couples, against anyone of a different faith, against anyone who has been previously divorced. now, four of these bills were introduced at the state level this past year. we managed to work in coalition to defeat three of them, but michigan actually passed their bill and their governor signed it into law. >> it's good to see you, emily. thank you very much. we'll continue to follow this utah case. >> thank you so much. an 80-year-old alleged mobster was found not guilty today of participating in the infamous 1978 latonza heights that inspired "good fellas." he was accused of being part of the bonanno crime family. defense attorneys attacked the credibility of the government's witness, some of whom were

admitted mafia hidmen. coming up, lost in the flood. el nino rains threaten california's homeless. >> our major concern is anyone down in the river bed during a significant el nino rain, they could be killed. >> so far efforts to warn them are coming up dry. reading, writing, and race. protests spread to campuses across the u.s. are students teaching a lesson in inclusion or shutting down free speech? plus, george h.w. bush and john meacham on the new autobiography. >> i found bush to be a much more charismatic figure than i expected. >> the accomplishments, the legacy and the regrets of a president.

los angeles is warning hundreds of homeless people they could drown this winter. the empty riverbeds and flood channels where they live are expected to be flooded by strong el nino rains. jennifer london reports. >> reporter: this isn't your standard welfare check by l.a. county sheriff's deputies. this is a search and rescue mission. >> we're trying to get into a shelter. >> to save hundreds of lives before storms from the so-called godzilla el nino slam into southern california. >> this rain is going worse than what we've ever had down here. >> the day we joined the deputies a light rain was falling and water was almost flowing along want san gabriel

river, dry just a days before. >> the climate we're in is approximately 10 feet from the water. this encampment would be one of the first places when a significant water rushes through that is swept away and taken aw away. >> to find the camps they scour miles of waterways on foot and on four-wheels. it's estimated there are between 500 to 700 homeless people living in camp as long 182 miles of riverbed, and that's a lot of terrain to cover. they use these off-road vehicles to find and ultimately urge them to move to higher, safer ground. but finding those along the riverbed isn't easy. many of the camps are hidden deep in the brush. >> you could have outreach down in the riverbed for months and not even see this one. >> the ramshackle compounds are elaborate, designed to keep people out. >> if you look a makeshift weapon ready by the entrance.

>> deputies and homeless service providers determined to get in and clear out these camps by offering emergency shelter. for those who refuse to leave immediately, outreach workers take down names and numbers with a promise to be back. >> our major concern is anyone down in the river bed during a significant el nino rain, that they can be killed. >> is that a real possibility do you think? >> definitely. the riverbeds and the waterways, you know, down in areas that we're in, the water can come very fast and be overwhelming. a lot of people who are not used to the rain due to the drought in california, we haven't had a lot of rain in recent memory. so a lot of people, they don't think it could happen. >> ronald is one of them. >> every day is miserable. there's no food, no shower. >> he's lived under this overpass for the better part of seven years. the shabby tent he calls home offers little safety but he says he can weather any storm.

what will you do if you're living here and the rains come? how will you protect yourself? >> go under there. >> go under where? >> under right there. >> right in here. this keeps us dry. >> that's a false sense of security says lieutenant deet rick. >> the water has a potential to get up this high, so there is no i can hold on. i can run up here, and we're here to make sure when that storm hits that you understand that that water is going to come down with such force that you will not be able to escape the riverbed. you got to promise me that you understand that? >> i understand that, sir. >> i don't want to find your body. >> farther down the river another homeless person, another warning. >> if that rain comes and that water is am koing down, you cannot stand up. it's going to take you all the way down there, and we're going to find you in a tree. >> toward the end of the day after traversing 11 miles along the wifr bottom, they discover a narrow, heavily wooded path that leads to a carefully concealed

camp. >> i smell fire. >> the lieutenant says it looks like the people here took off when they heard the deputies coming, so all they can do now is leave a flyer offering homeless services and hope they heed the warning and get out before their swept away. jennifer london, al jazeera, los angeles. the department of housing and urban development is proposing making all of the nation's public housing smoke-free. hud secretary castro says it would save about $153 million a year in health care costs, repairs and preventible fires. it would ban lit tobacco residents in all residences, indoor common areas and administrative offices. hud will reserve two months for public comment. it's widely expected to pass that ban. washington state and a native-american tribe opened a marijuana store on the reservati reservation. it's the first of its kind. al

alan, what's the tribe into the marijuana business? >> reporter: well, if you can encapsulate why they get into the business it's money. we talked to the tribal councilmembers today who say, look, if we don't do it, somebody down the street will do it that way or that way. why not open it on reservation land and dip into the revenue stream? recreational marijuana has been legal for three years now in the state of washington. stores have been open for more than a year, but it took special legislation passed this year in olympia allowing the governor to sign contracts directly with tribes as sovereign nations. they had a soft opening a couple of days ago. the grand opening was a couple of minutes ago just outside, and we were here to watch the ribbon-cutting ceremony. let's roll that video and take a look at it. >> it is legalized marijuana with an asterisk. be it for commercial or medicinal purposes.

so any tribe that is undertaking marijuana commerce needs to recognize they're playing with fire, and really the question is how hot of a fire are they playing with? marijuana is legal. >> my apologies, john. that was a sound that we got earlier. a conversation we had with an attorney who specializes in tribal law. just a little word of warning for anybody else, any other tribes around the country especially in states where recreational marijuana has not been legalized, that's still a very chancy thing given the fact it's still a schedule 1 narcotics according to the federal government even though the government indicated to tribes they might be willing to wink at business enterprises on tribal land. that it looks like really now is only going to happen in states where it has been legalized. right now the store elevation

opened and booming and very busy since that ribbon-cutting ceremony early tonight. it sits on highway 101. there's a lot of traffic here and a large tribal casino across the road. they expect a lot of traffic from that, and they say there's no reason not to dip into the revenue stream. they're very proud to have made history here today and to be the first in the nation to have a store like this on reservation land. >> alan, thank you very much. coming up, walking out. across the nation college students worked together to demand change. tonight, their frustration over race relations and school costs. plus, free tuition. why one college in kentucky is picking up the tab for its undergraduates and how it's being paid.

another college officials steps down across the nation.

students rally over ballooning debt. >> it is absolutely amazing. i will feel free when i graduate. >> does a small college in kentucky where tuition is free have the answer? plus, presidential portrait. the george h.w. bush you don't know. >> we think we know what we want to know about george herbert walker bush. my job was to give you a bush you didn't know. >> a conversation with pulitzer prizewinning biographer john meacham. there's nothing short of a movement on america's college campuses. protests over racial discrimination, insensitivity and a lass of inclusiveness spreading. students are demanding change and on many campuses they're getting it. today, another college lowered resigned under pressure. >> i'm sorry. i'm sorry. >> apologies were not enough to

resolve the complaints of racial insensitivity at claremont mckenna college in california. >> we require greater diversity in our faculty and staff. [ cheers ] >> outrage erupted on the campus after the dean of students responded to an article written by a mexican students who said she felt marginalized by the school. spelman sent the student an e-mail that read in part, we are working on how to better serve students, especially those who don't fit our cmc mold. >> she says it's a welcome and open community for us. if you advertise these people are coming to your schools that we're open and welcome, we're not. >> spelman resigned on thursday saying in a statement, i believe it's the best way to gain close urz of a controversy that divided the student body and interrupted the mission of this fine institution.

spelman's resignation comes just days after the president and chancellor at the university of missouri both stepped down. it's after weeks of protests by students complaining about racial discrimination and what they saw as the university's failure to address the problem. students at ithaca college in new york state called for the removal of its president tom rocha, saying his complaints to several complaints of racism in recent weeshging are inadequate. according "the new york times" he promised changes including the hiring of a diversity officer. students at more than 20 colleges including yale, smith college and boston college, are also holding rallies to show their solidarity. racial tension on college campuses is not new. at the university of michigan in ann arbor a series of protests were held in 2013. we recently revisited the campus

where in my ways the fight continues. >> i definitely relate to the university of missouri and stand in solidarity with them in everything they're doing. >> at the university of michigan this senior is one of the roughly 4% of black students on campus. she says her years long fight for more diversity at michigan took a turn when protests erupted at the university of missouri. do you think what happened in missouri could happen here? >> definitely. i don't think that our students are afraid to do it either. >> in 2013 after a number of racially charged incidents, kendall helped launch a movement that helped to shed light on the challenges african-american students faced on the predominantly white campus. # #bbum, being black at the university of michigan was a trending topic on social media. >> has anything been different

when we organized in 2013? i don't. >> last year michigan's black student union issued a list of demands to college administrators calling for improved racial diversity and inclusion on campus. kendall says that so far a few of their demands, such as providing more financial aid, have been met. she says much more needs to be done. >> all i can say is when i walk around campus, there are a couple of new black faces. that's cool, but it's still an uncomfortable environment for safrz students. >> another senior says that she has seen some progress. >> i think that they are now aware and they've acknowledged that we do not have the diversity that we claim to have. that our atmosphere and our campus climate for marginalized student is treacherous. >> right now michigan is nearing the end of an eight-day diversity summit. by september of 2016, the college is expected to announce and implement a campus-wide

diversity plan. robert sellers who was vice-pro vest for equity and inclusion at michigan says that the college is taking the issue of race seriously. >> i think missouri and incidents that are occurring at yale are sort of putting higher education on notice, that issues of inclusion and opportunity and diversity and equity are paramount to what we do. >> i definitely plan on holding the university accountable. i definitely plan on taking some type of action if, you know, i'm not pleased or satisfied with the diversity plan. >> on a campus that has yet to see racial tension reach its boiling point, university leaders caution that change will likely take time. al jazeera, ann arbor, michigan. andre perry is a columnist and founding dean of urban education at davenport university in new orleans tonight. dr. perry, welcome. the problems of race that exist

on campus are not new. do you think that the university of missouri is going to make other administrators at other colleges take notice or not? >> oh, they're going to have to. campus racial climate which is a concept that describes the psychological, social and structural condition have been treacherous, if you will, for many campuses. so this is not just a mizzou issue. this is going on all across the country. the higher ed institutions have not taken seriously the concerns of students. now, remember that higher education has been pretty much an elite institution serving largely white, largely male for most of our history. as we became a much more diverse community and society, college has been slow to adjust to those changing demographics. >> what do they need to do? >> oh. one, think really do need to help students acclimate to a

college environment, and that includes changing financial aid structures, changing some of the traditions. remember, many of the traditions came out of college and universities when largely white males attended. so fraternities and then sororities, some of the sports traditions. they came out of a very euro centric culture, so many of the traditions we have don't reflect what students like to do. so that means that in addition curriculum needs to change and we need to find ways to recruit and obtain more faculty of colors, people that look like the students we serve. i can't say enough. even the physical environment must change. statues, portraits, all of these things need to reflect who our students are today. >> we had this discussion in the newsroom this week about diversity and the fact that a lot of these students on campus today feel like they're

colorpalestincolor d colorbli colorblind, and suddenly the colors of racism are louder than we've heard maybe in 10, 15, 20 years. why? >> well, if you're on a college campus, clearly you can't accept this concept of colorblindness. you go to college really to learn the nuances of life, and clearly there are a lot of differences between cultures. so why you go to college is to learn how to not only cope with but learn how to advance the conversation, advance behaviors, advance the way we treat each other with those differences in mind. so that is part of what we're supposed to do at the college campus, but college campuses are the most conservative places in america in the sense that they can serve tradition better age-old. so our traditions really do need to change and reflect the changing demographics, the

changing cultures, the amount of diversity on our campuses. >> dr. perry, it's good to see you. thanks very much. this is a topic we will continue to discuss and hope to have you back. thank you. >> thanks for having me. college students are also up in arms about student debt. there were mass demonstrations today at more than 100 campuses across the u.s. the so-called million student march took aim at ballooning college costs. among the demands? tuition-free public colleges, help with student loan debts, and a minimum wage increase for campus woeshgz. >> president obama sdz we will eliminate tuition with the 80 billion we spend on incarceration. >> they say outstanding student debt reached $1.2 trillion compared to 600 billion in 2006.

there are, however, a handful of schools that made getting a degree affordable. in kentucky one college has made tuition free-for-all of the students. lisa stark has more. >> barea college sits south of lexington, kentucky. it looks like your typical small liberal arts school, but there's a big difference. >> i don't pay anything. nobody here pays anything. >> you heard that right. the 1600 students here get free tuition valued at nearly $30,000 a year. there's also financial help for room and board and books. the school's mission? to provide a top-notch education for bright students from low income households. many are the first in their family to ever attend college. >> if it wasn't for barea, i don't think i would be -- i wouldn't be able to afford college. >> i always thought, hey, i don't -- my parpts don't make a

lot of money. . i'm not going to be able to go. >> it's kind of cool to do something and break that pattern for my family. >> i see more job opportunities, opportunities to get out of our social class. >> to understand how this is possible, let's go back to 1855 when barea college was founded by a christian abolitionist. the first college in the south to welcome women and black students. diversity remains a cornerstone today, and so does something else. every student must work at least ten hours a week at one of 130 different campus jobs from high-tech to low-tech. to everything in between. >> initially that was to provide income to students and lower the costs of running a school. now we israrealized it's a powe learning opportunities for students as well. >> students get paid a bit, but their hab defrays cost.

they man the school farm and clean rooms and build dorm furniture and turn out handmade crafts so online and in the student store. much of the bill is paid with earnings from a $1 billion endowment built up from donors over the decades. there's federal grant money for low income students and fund-raising allowing the school to offer what seems impossible and these days of rising tuitions and crushing student loans. the barea model can't be duplicated on a large scale, but it is a vivid illustration of how a free college education can transform lives. wilma chambers runs the child development center. she came here from as an 18-year-old from the poorest county in kentucky, the six search children and the first to go to college.

>> i remember showing up on campus as a freshman very scared. >> wilma met her future husband atiba rhea, and their daughter's first memories were of the school. >> it instilled in her the idea that anything was possible and really opened her horizons and then she passed along the same values to me. >> so there was never any doubt cassie would attend college. boy, did she. yale, the london school of economics and harvard law. what's the moral of your sfoer? >> everyone deserves that same opportunity. everyone deserves to have access to higher education and to be able to come and have a barea in their lives. >> how to help more families, especially the middle class have access to college without enormous debt. some suggest more government grants or even free tuition at public colleges. critics say that's the wrong answer. >> that's going to drive the prices up both by driving demand

and because colleges do what everyone else can do, if we can get more money we take more money. >> even barea's president says students value the education more if they contribute in collars or labor, but he said solving the college financial crisis is in the national interest. >> if you don't give people opportunity through education, then you're not going to develop the kind of human capital that makes a strong country. >> students here know they're lucky to have this opportunity. kiyata said education was the only ticket to success. two siblings followed her to barea. she's applying to graduate school to become a pediatric nurse. what does it mean to graduate from college without having debt? >> it is absolutely amazing. i'm going to feel free when i graduate. >> as the administration puts it, it's the best education money can't buy.

lisa stark, al jazeera, barea, kentucky. coming up next, the medal of honor. the memories and emotions from one terrible day that led a soldier to receive the nation's highest honor.

today a hero from the war in afghanistan was given the highest military honor. president obama presented retired army captain groveburg with the medal of honor. he was escorting top commanders in afghanistan when he spotted a suicide bomber. >> he did something extraordinary. he grabbed the bomber by his vest and kept pushing him away. in all those years of training on the track, in the classroom, out in the field, all of it came together in those few seconds. he had the instincts and the courage to do what was needed. >> the captain spent three years recovering from his injuries. he said his medal belongs to the

true heroes, those killed in the attack. jamie mcintyre has the story behind the captain's heroic act. >> four americans were killed in this august 2012 attack by a pair of suicide bombers in kunar province, afghanistan. three members of the u.s. military and a u.s. foreign service officer. growburg recalls it as the worst day of his loif. >> i lost four of my brothers. i mean, you know, four amazing men. they didn't come home and i did. so it's the worst day -- worst thing that can ever happen to you. >> it was cap pain groveburg's second tour of duty in afghanistan. he was in charge of a security detail protecting half a dozen senior american officers and an afghan commander. as his soldiers escorted the officers on foot to the local governor's compound they

encountered a man wearing a suicide vest. groberg had seconds to do something. >> you react. you know he's a threat and your job is to run security. you have to get rid of the threat, and so when i hit him with my rifle, that's when you -- he had a suicide vest under it. get him away as far as possible and as quickly as possible to protect everybody else. >> groberg survived but spent months in walter reed having his leg rebuilt. his troops say far more people would have died but for his quick, unselfish action. groberg is accepting the medal of honor, the highest award for military valor, on behalf of the four who died. kevin griffin, thomas kennedy, air force major walter gray and u.s. aid worker fahta. groberg who was born in france and lived there until 2011 and

became a u.s. citizen. the september 11th attacks inspired his to give up his dual sit sglenships so he could join the military. >> i went in and went to the french embassy and d.c. >> he insists this honor, as great as it is, is not the end of his service. >> i still want to serve my country in different matters. when this is all over i'm going to so it down and figure out what my next plan is but i plan on serving my country. >> jamie mcintyre, jazic, the pentagon. george h.w. bush and why he thought he'd be forgot uppen by history. >> one president has a harder time with the foothold in the historical narrative. what's ironic is he had two terms of action in four years. >> my conversation with john meacham next.

john meacham won the pulitzer prize for the biography of the anned crew jackson. his new book is more contemporary but more fascinating, it's called "destiny and power." it's the definitive work on the 41st president who granted the author of a series of interviews and access. i asked him about bush's legacy and how this project began. >> i first went up to kennebunkport in 1998, 17 years ago, with my friend michael, the historian. i immediately found bush to be a much more charismatic figure than i expected. i had sort of known him in the dana carvey way along the way. >> you're a young person, too. >> i'm a young person trapped in an old person's body, exactly. whenever it works. and i just realized that this

was someone who -- if i misunderstood him this much, there might be a story there. the twin for forces of competition and service, the war in his head and heart over which would win. you'd ask george h.w. bush what made you serve, and he would say, well, service. i said, well, if it's all about service, you could have opened a soup kitchen with all due respect. you sought ultimate authority in a nuclear age. that was the competitive side of him. he went into politics to win. he had no come purng shun whatever by running as hard as he could. to serve you had to you can seed, and if you succeeded that meant someone had to fail in politics. >> ambassador, cia director, vice president, president of the united states, what was his greatest achievement? >> he would say the reunification of germany, which is pretty glamorous, right? he really believes that the

stability of europe -- for him when germany reunified that was the true end of the cold war. he believes that's the most significant. i believe the most significant is the creation of a culture of consensus that just managed, just barely on the yard line to get some pretty significant domestic pieces of legislation passed and to run a war where he defined a mission and executed it and if i had told you in 1980 that on christmas day 1992 mikhail gorbachev would dissolve the soviet union without a shot being fired, i don't think you would have thought that was -- i think you would have thought i was crazy. because of the way that the president behaved through this that he created an ethos call it like you see it. i'm tough on him about the aea campaign. very tough on him about failing to explain his shift on taxes in 1990. he didn't explain to the country

for three days why he just broke the one memorable thing he'd ever said, which is read my lips. an act of massive political malpractice not to go out and say, this is why i've done what i have done. so i felt comfortable calling them like i saw them. >> because of you having access to the diaries, you were granted full access to the diaries, manufacture them audio. this is george h.w. bush speaking into his hand recorder august 1990 into the build up of the gulf war. >> this is a terribly serious problem. it's perhaps the most serious problem i have faced as president, because the downside is so enormous. >> it was the most serious problem for this president. it was the most serious problem for 43 and ironically we're still talking about iraq today. >> yeah. >> what do you think this president wanted to say about the u.s. involvement in iraq? did he? >> what did 41 want to say?

>> yes. >> i think 41, one of the greatest appointments of his president was saddam was still in power. he had a lot of intelligence suggesting that some general was going to put a bullet in saddam's head. you remember all of this. he was despondent after the war. he never celebrated the war in 1991 in part because saddam was there. remember the bumper sticker, saddam still has his job but bush doesn't have his a year and a half later. there was unfinished business, but do i think that george w. bush was going to finish something his father should have ended? no, i don't think so. i think that's too pat, and i don't think -- i think absent the strategic climate aefr 9/11 where there were fears that weapons of mass destruction might go from north korea or iran or iraq into the hands of terrorists, i think you have to put yourself back in that historical moment. >> he really was a child of privilege who grew up in

greenich. an amazing childhood, and yet he didn't follow the family. was he sensitive when people talked about him as -- about his privilege? >> yeah. he used to say, why can roosevelt harem be rich democrats and no one cares. i'm a rich republican, and everyone cares. he said it was tough, our chauffeur had to drive through a snowstorm once to get us to school. he was a child of privilege. it was drilled into him that to whom much is given is much is expected. it was driven into him that you had to succeed. love was unconditional in the bush family, but respect was earned. >> honor, duty, country. >> his father was a senator. by not following that path to wall street, he became president of the united states. i'm convinced if he didn't move to texas, he would be a new england republican, and we know how many many there are now. if he was a banker on wall

street, he wouldn't have had the breadth of experience that he did that gave him the ability to have a big political life. >> towards the end of the book, it's a moving moment when he discusses how he feels like he's' gorten figure. he's caught between president reagan and the trials and tribulations of his sons. did he really believe -- he felt that history had not treated him fairly. >> he felt that history had forgotten him, which may be worse. that was 2006. i remember as clearly as i could. he had a pair of binoculars and looking out to find some bluefish. he said, i just feel like an asterisk, and people talk about reagan. they talk about clinton. they talk about my sons. >> can you tell -- can you give me the tone of that conversation? >> very dry, very matter of fact. no eye contact. i remember that. i remember he was sort of

talking almost broadly. it was just the two of us sitting there. and i think -- i know what is going on there. it was his humility, you know. his mother always said, don't talk so much about yourself, george. it's also true. you know, a one-term president has a harder time with a foothold in the historical narrative. what's ironic about that is he had two terms of action in four years. you know, moments like when the wall fell and he handled it with such dignity and restraint, one of the problems that historians have to deal with is we don't tend to give enough credit to people who keep bad things from happening. it's more interesting to write about the car crash than the guy who swerved and kept the car safe, and one of our jobs should be to talk about the guys who avoided the crash. that's what george bush did. >> you have a hit on your hands. it's the talk of town, this book called "destiny and power."

john meacham, great to see you. >> thanks to you. appreciate you. >> that's our program. we thank you for watching. i'm john seigenthaler. i'll see you back here tomorrow. ali velshi "on target" is next. vellei pa democrats and