you won't actually generate as much happiness. >> reporter: that's the science behind it and makes some sense. >> if you interrupt a positive experience, you actually get more pleasure from it than if you don't interrupt it. >> there's something to be said for slowing down and letting the episode sink in. letting yourself process it. and then coming back for more later. >> reporter: letting yourself sleep. >> or letting yourself sleep. >> reporter: if only there was time for this. >> they're addicting, i guess. can't stop batching once you start. >> reporter: alexandra field, cnn, new york. that's going to do it for me. the next hour of "the newsroom" begins right now. michael holmes here in atlanta. hello, everyone. welcome, i'm michael holmes. welcome viewers right around the world this hour as we talk about iraq and the battle for who controls it. a vicious militant group fighting its way towards

baghdad, ever closer, and today, new and disturbing images posted online apparently by those isis militants and appearing to show captured iraqi troops being corralled in trucks and then marched to their own executions. cnn not able to independently authenticate the images but the buildings, the sign and and uniforms seem to indicate the photos taken in iraq. now, these militants are moving closer to the capital hour by hour. iraqi troops far from united. those fighting do so with the country's future on the line and the u.s. waiting on the sidelines but for how long? well, in just the last hour, the state department announced new security precautions for staffers at the u.s. embassy in baghdad. extra security personnel being sent to protect the embassy. some embassy staffers are going to be relocated out of baghdad to what are considered safer

areas of the country. but most people are staying put, we're told. it is the largest u.s. embassy in the world. purpose built, it took years to build. several thousand employees work there. why the new precautions? we'll discuss that. isis militants continue the advance towards baghdad. it is a campaign, of course, started just a few days ago. already reaching tantalizing close to the capital. senior international correspondent nic robertson is in baghdad and elise labott in washington. nic, first of all, let's start with you. the militants in baquba? is that right? that's a short drive from baghdad. >> reporter: 45-minute drive from baghdad, michael. iraqi army forces were told to evacuate the big base in baqubah on saturday. they were told to take their weapons with them. they did that. within an hour, we're told, that

isis fighters had entered the base. this is very strategically important for them, bringing them closer to baghdad and isis taken another town in the north of the country not far from mosul, like a mopping up operation to keep the momentum going southwards. they raced past the town to get to mosul and then telafar apparently put up some fight. and what's interesting about this is the prime minister drew a line in the sand in samarrah and said isis won't get south than this. they went around and took a town an hour's drive south of there, michael. >> you said they took a bit of a detour around there and left it alone. that, of course, the place of serious religious significance with the shrine there in

samarrah. nic, what are the preparations being made to stop that advance? >> reporter: you know, people are talking about a collapse of command and control of iraq's army. it doesn't appear to be a collapse of command and control but there certainly seems to be a collapse in confidence, if you will. what we are seeing around baghdad is an increase in security. and we're being told as well that the faces at the check points are changing. what we're being told is that the check points are being beefed up or augmented with troops and security forces that are believed to be more loyal to the government here. so, that's the sort of reaction that's happening. people are worried. they're not panicking. there's a certain amount of people going out and buying extra provisions and extra cooking gas, these sort of things in preparation but isis have said that they'll make the international airport their target in all of this, as well

as encircling baghdad. so, the concern here grows because realistically the government hasn't been able to stop them. of course, diyala province north of baghdad, they're bogged down there. a mix of towns so they don't have a sort of full sunni support, if you will, at their backs. that's to be expected. but the images we were talking about, you were talking about a few minutes ago, about these -- about the executions, that for sure is going to fan the sectarian hatred that's going on right now, particularly among shias to look and say we told you this is what they're doing. it's going to enflame the situation for sure, michael. >> indeed. we'll discuss that a little later. nic, stick around. elise, you know, the baghdad, the embassy in baghdad has got to be the most fortifiefortifiee

building in the country but concerned there? >> reporter: michael, i don't think they're real concerns they can't hold the embassy. there's contractors and diplomatic security personnel and the state department said they're adding additional personnel. we're told it's mostly additional marines. about 100 there now and they will be beefing that up. what this move does is it eases the burden on the embassy. we've talked about the thousands of employee that is are there right now. the embassy has a lot of food, a lot of water to hunker down and ride this crisis out. but officials tell me if they can move some of those employees out to the north, to basra in the south, across to amman in jordan with a support office, this will ease some of the burden on the staff in baghdad if they need to, you know, ride this out for a while. additional additionally, if things take a turn for the worse and there has to be a full evacuation, this will also ease the burden of

having to evacuate so many people at once. on the flip side of that, michael, these people are nearby, they can be brought back to baghdad if this crisis is over quickly. >> all right. thanks so much, elise there, also nic. earlier i discussed this increasingly grave situation with iraq's first head of state, allawi after the fall of saddam hussein and won more seats than nuri al malaki in the 2010 election only to be out-maneuvered in forming a coalition. we'll have more of this conversation later in the program and one thing to show you is his answer to a question of whether u.s. intervention of any type was a good idea. >> the u.s. is being asked to help out militarily, perhaps from the air. do you think that would help or is that too risky? and, b, what do you say to americans who say, why should we help out with our military when iraq's military has been running

away? >> i don't think the u.s. should intervene militarily speaking. i think this will con pli kate issues. i would want to see an understanding by the united states that leads to prevent other countries to intervening in iraq. i would like to see the expertise to be provided to the iraqi -- sorry -- to the iraqi -- what is left of the iraqi army and the iraqi -- but actively for the united states to be engaged in bombings, i think this is not right. i think it will spill over to a neighboring country i. think it will be rejected by the society. i don't think this is right. >> allawi there with nervousness of the u.s. involvement even from the air and spending time

this hour die sessecting when's happening in iraq and what's next. i'm joined by a panel of reporters and experts. senior international correspondent n ic robertson been with us. michael weiss, a writer for politi politico. a u.s. marine who saw combat in fallujah, iraq. crucial to this whole story. and major general james williams, a retired u.s. marine commander who also has some valuable insight when we discuss when's going on there. thanks to you all for being with us. major general williams, let's talk a little bit about what you did back there, we laze to have that turnaround with a major shift in how the insurgency went on. do you think they're in the mood to be turned around again?

>> well, i think that's really a good question, michael. of course, at the time i was out there, nic robertson was there, in fact, a couple meetings with me and good to see nic again. you know, the challenge i think we have right now is really to find what the issues are and you've talked to the former prime minister. we have had discussions with ambassador crocker today. and when you look at the challenges, this sectarian battle in my mind has always been about the economics of it. and so, essentially, the iraqi government has essentially disenfranchised the sunnis and their only way to deal with this is to fight back. they're not sharing oil revenues. there's problems in participation in the government. so, ultimately, in a sectarian war, and a fight like this that's going on, i think this is

a backlash to what the shia government has not done to help them. so subsequently, this is their way to push back. >> yeah. absolutely. couldn't agree more. adam, you fought in iraq and in particular in fallujah in anbar province and where the insurgency was turned around with the sunni tribesmen and now assisting isis or allowing them to carry forward. what do you think when you look at it now? >> i think things have fallen a long way from where they were at the end of the operation in 2004 and early 2005. i think the iraqi security forces that we operated with in fallujah did an excellent job taking charge of what they considered to be their fight. that has -- that tide has seemed to have turned, whether it's a fear of the isis individuals or the al qaeda in iraq or maybe an overreliance on hopefully more

u.s. intervention, but i think ultimately, if this is going to be a success, this model of democracy in iraq, the iraqi military's going to have to be the ones to step back up and take back control of their own fight. >> yeah. that's not looking so good at the moment. i want to talk more about that with you later but, michael, i want to get you in on the conversation. you covered this story extensively. i read one of your articles in politico and an issue discussed in that was the potential for petitioning of iraq. do you really think that that is realistic to start with or desirable? do you see the borders in the region being at risk in the the moment? invented borders of post-world war i. >> it is not just about the state of iraq. it encompasses syria. keep in mind isis's campaigns both in syria and in iraq. much of them were planned in the

city of the only provincial capital in syria out of the command of assad regime. they have gained in syria known as the jazera. by the way, this may look like a lightning strike and something that's only taken place in the last week or so, this stunning path cleared by isis into mosul and beyond but it actually goes back quite a long time. in january, isis came into anbar province and sacking fallujah or parts of it. contesting ramadi and before that, april 2013, they said -- they announced a campaign called soldiers harvest. they wanted to take mosul in particular. this is something that's long been in the works and now i would argue the real issue isn't just isis, the forces and the

north of iraq and done this week. the first order of business, go to kirkuk. a city known to the kurds as jerusalem and kick out the remaining iraqi security force fighters, fortify that city from any kind of incursion and then essentially with big smiles on the faces declare, look, this is probably the future capital of an independent state of kurdistan. if you look at the militias and now with the help of iraqi clerics such as sustani. they're looking to fortify the shia majority areas in the country. what i'm seeing here is a defacto partitioning right now. we don't have a term for what's happening. is this a civil war? balkanization or an ungodly mess? i think it's all of the above, actually. >> i want to continue discussing with you all. we'll take a short break and i remember i was in iraq in

january this year when exactly that happened and we saw those -- the isis fighters come into fallujah and ramadi and very much there and all happened yet again because of the actions of nuri al malaki and the military and breaking up protest camps in a violent manner. plenty to talk about. stick around all of you. we'll hear more from allawi and what he thinks is throwing oil on the fire in iraq. on my count. the one where you step up and save the day? make it happen. (crowd) oh no... introducing verizon xlte. hey guys, i got it right here! we've doubled our 4g lte bandwidth in cities coast to coast. so take on more. with xlte. for best results, use verizon. [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain, you turned up the fun.

tylenol® provides strong pain relief while being gentle on your stomach. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®. ♪ sweet, sweet, st. thomas nice ♪ ♪ so nice, so nice ♪ st. croix full of pure vibes ♪ so nice, so nice ♪ st. john a real paradise ♪ so nice, so nice ♪ proud to be from the virgin islands ♪ ♪ and the whole place nice [ female announcer ] to experience your virgin islands nice, book one of our summer packages today. how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently,

if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪

the situation in iraq growing more serious by the moment as we're all seeing. isis militants making the march across northern iraq into the more southern or central areas of the country. i spoke with the former iraqi prime minister allawi. >> doctor, thank you for your time. you were the country's first head of state after the fall of saddam hussein and won the 2010

election before being out-maneuvered. is time up for nuri al malaki? can a coalition, if you like, in parliament get rid of him? >> i hope so because he have had two terms now and he failed to deliver security. he failed to deliver the services. corruption is thriving in the country. economic -- economy is stagnant. i think it's time for him to leave. i think what has been happening over the last few days is very alarming and very dangerous for the country. >> yeah. he's failed on all those levels but he's failed most of all in that within 24 hours of the u.s. leaving iraqi soil he started getting rid of the opposition and then went on to completely isolate sunnis and persecute them by many accounts. now, what can be done about that? is it too late to bring sunnis

back into the political fold? >> i think there was an opportunity which was missed, really, in 2010 when as soon as qatar formed with other shias the iraqi bloc and picked up shia leader to lead them and attended that they were the winners and the elections of 2010. but unfortunately, the attitude of the united states and the issue of iran was rejecting the winner to form the government. >> do you see a proxy war going on at the moment? the iranians on the other. the saudis on the other who have been arming opposition forces in syria, some of those who are you in your country. do you see iraq as being used as a pawn in a broader dispute that's long standing dispute between the saudis and the

iranians? >> well, to be very honest, i can't see an involvement. i don't have any evidence of the involvement in iraq but definitely i see iranian involvement in iraq and unfortunately iran is becoming the major player in the country by dictating not only the various policies on security, but also, on macro level where we can see iranian intervention and not keeping this -- it's an open secret, really, what iran is trying to do. >> you have mentioned a lot of things that can be done to pour oil on the fire as you say, with the sectarian tensions at a state now, whether it's too late. do you fear as a lot of people do that it would not take much for the sectarian fighting that we saw, the bodies in the street that we all saw back in 2006,

2007, wouldn't take much for that to erupt in baghdad, would it? is that your biggest fear? >> you know, my friend, i tell you something. now more dangerous than before. now, with what's happening in syria, when's happening in yemen and the rest, palestinian issue, on the role of hamas and what hamas is doing, and the stalling of the peace process, this is really all what's caused a big splash and the iraq and indeed in the region. and this will definitely -- would not be restricted to the boundaries of these countries. it will spill over to europe and the terrorism could spread to the world at large. >> because things have been moving so quickly, what do you see happening in the next week

or so? >> well, i see that there will be lots of clashes and there's now mobilization and especially majority ask people to be mobilized and now the government is not controlling this. it's getting out of the control of the government and the government really is benefiting from this to show themselves as the pioneers of fighting isis and extremism which is not true. the creation of isis really and strength of isis all grew from what was happening in the last 12 years in iraq. last 11 years. >> i thank you for your time, dr. allawi. thank you. >> thank you, my friend. a crisis growing for a decade. now exploding in iraq. we're going to talk to our experts about what they make of the ayad allawi interview, as

well. could things get much worse before they get better? we'll be right back.

true business-grade internet comes

with secure wifi for your business. it also comes with public wifi for your customers. not so with internet from the phone company. i would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. but that would require wifi. switch to comcast business internet and get two wifi networks included. comcast business built for business. well, we just heard from iraq's first leader after the fall of saddam hussein, former prime minister ayad allawi saying the u.s. military should not intervene in iraq but he says iraq is on the brink of disintegration and could trigger a ripple effect across the

middle east. this, of course, coming as terrifying and graphic images are emerging. you may want to let children leave the room for this segment. isis militant group releasing some style photographs today that reportedly shows mass executions of iraqi security forces. photographs that show dozens of men, you see them there lying down in a shallow ditch. gunmen, you can see what's about to happen there. we can't independently confirm the photo's authenticity. the military is in tatters as they snatch up territory, more and more every day. our panel is with us. adam bonotai. did you agree with the message that the u.s. should stay out of this? >> i absolutely do agree. mainly because of the way the american withdrawal from iraq occurred. it was -- i don't think it was

done due to military victory. i don't think it was due to a mission accomplishment on the ground but much more political motivation into it and if we go back in to iraq, we would go in with one arm tied behind our back and won't cut the graphic situation. we need to send in large-scale forces to complete this job. i don't think air strikes would work. i think that could present a bigger problem with potential collateral damage and the onus should be on the iraqi people, the iraqi military. >> it was ironic, adam, the iraqi prime minister who really is seen as being at the root cause of a lot of this shoving the u.s. out the door, made it his election platform to get the u.s. out and not have them stay unless they were subject to iraqi law which was never going to fly. did you have confidence in the iraqis' military's ability to maintain security? i went on a lot of missions,

iraqi training missions with u.s. doing the best to train these guys and while some were good and stood up, others were not. >> absolutely. i 100% agree with your assessment. some were very, very good and i was fortunate, the ones i worked with were amongst that group and some were terrible for lack of a better word. and prime minister allawi mentioned he would like to see, perhaps, u.s. expertise brought back in to help train the individuals, aid them in the campaign against isis. the problem with that being, though srks that they need to be willing to put that training and put themselves in harm's way and that's where i see a major problem. >> another problem is sectarian -- will the sunnis fight other sunnis. i want to move on to major general james williams. you know, one thing i try to keep coming back to is that these tribes that are helping isis or not stopping them, put it that way and some are joining

with them, they don't like isis, they don't like being told what to do historically. they don't like the type of government that isis and the jihadist militants bring with them but they feel so bad about how they've been treated by the government that this is sort of their enemy's men my is my friend. you had this sort of rare opportunity to talk with them and engage with them back in the mid-2000s and made a difference. how would you do that now today since they're so disenfranchised? >> well, you know, i think, michael, you have to set up the parameters to allow that to occur. what we did back during that time in the mid-thousan2000s se meetings with various imams and tribe leaders and what it came down to ultimately is nobody ever asked them what they

wanted, to begin with. what we started to do is unravel what they wanted. and so, essentially, that led to the sunni awakening. but you have to remember one thing. and i think all of your listeners need to realize that there are more sunni islam in the world than there are shia and when the shia took over iraq, it was the first country since about 1170 that a shia was in control of an arabic country. and so, the way i look at this, this is a fight between the islamic world and essentially the persian world . if you look at the way isis is operating, they've taken that lue yeah and ramadi and came down the euphrates river and now down the tigres and segmenting the country and then essentially

the sunnis and the arabic world, if you will, wants control of what they see as theirs. >> the calaphate thing. the break down in borders, proxy wars and more to talk about. we'll be right back. hey you know what man, these guys aint no dragons. they're cool. these deals are legit. yeah, we're cool. she's cool. we're cool. priceline express deals are totally legit. check this, thousands of people book them everyday and score killer deals. now, priceline is piling on even more savings with its summer sale. so grab your giant beach towel and enter code summer14. look at me enjoying the deals. they're the days to take care of business.. when possibilities become reality. with centurylink as your trusted partner, our visionary cloud infrastructure and global broadband network free you to focus on what matters.

with custom communications solutions and responsive, dedicated support, we constantly evolve to meet your needs. every day of the week. centurylink® your link to what's next.

say "hi" rudy. [ barks ] [ chuckles ] i'd do anything to keep this guy happy and healthy. that's why i'm so excited about these new milk-bone brushing chews. whoa, i'm not the only one. it's a brilliant new way to take care of his teeth. clinically proven as effective as brushing. ok, here you go. have you ever seen a dog brush his own teeth? the twist and nub design cleans all the way down to the gum line, even reaching the back teeth. they taste like a treat, but they clean like a toothbrush. nothing says you care like a milk-bone brushing chew. [ barks ] welcome back to our continuing coverage of what is unfolding in iraq and what it

means. i want to bring michael weiss back in again and then talk to a freelance reporter who's in iraq. but michael, i want to get to you first because we touched on this before the break. is it too early or too pessimistic to talk about the potential for regional con flu inauguration here? we have syria and iraq. you also, though, key, you have unrest in places like bahrain and parts of saudi arabia. jordan, the government there facing incredible difficulties. lebanon, for sure. is it too early to see the whole post-world war i map disi want inauguration? >> i don't think it is. i think something that general williams hit upon in the last segment was crucial here. sunnis in syria for three years have had scud missiles, barrel bombs and saran gas on their head and asked and begged the

americans to intervene. when's now happening and let's be quite clear, the malaki government i think very much a client of not just the iranian regime but the revolutionary guard corps of iran. there's the cleaverest character in the at least and now in baghdad overseeing the security apparatus and you have iran inviting the united states effectively to provide air cover for the revolutionary guard corps. if the u.s. were to intervene in iraq in this manner and surgical air strikes on isis, i think, maybe this is too pessimistic and dire, but a huge recruitment rallying cry for isis because sunnis think the united states frankly doesn't give a damn about them and as the general pointed out early they constitute the majority of muslims in the world. so i think, yes, this is not just a regional problem. i think this is actually an

internal civilizational one within islam and, indeed, between arab countries and now essentially what is looking to be a new persian empire and it is absolutely going to spiral out of control. it's spilt over from syria into iraq already. >> we can talk about the irony of the u.s. being asked to fight a foe for an iranian-backed government and at the same time calling for the overthrow of bashar al assad fighting the same foe. your head can explode thinking about it. i want to bring in ziad mohammed live in iraq and i appreciate you talking us to. you're there. you're iraqi. when you look at your country now and what's happening, what is your biggest fear? >> the biggest fear is civil war, definitely, michael, because lots of iraqis looking at the situation right now and

estimating and measuring what's happening. they fear a civil war is lurking behind. isis is becoming stronger. it is getting outnumbered. not so organizations and groups are joining isis. on the other side, on the shia side, there are lots of fighters volunteering to fight against isis. so, all of this is a red flag, is a biggest concern and fear for iraqis that a civil war might erupt in the country. >> so then what needs to happen? i mean, there are those who say get rid of nuri al malaki. he's fostered the discontent that made the conditions ripe for isis to move in. is that enough? is the removal of nuri al malaki going to bring some sort of peace here? he's not the type of guy to give

up easily and not in his dna to surrender power. >> yes, indeed, michael. the iraqis feel that the united states have to intervene some way. of course, not militarily. but diplomatically and politically. they feel that the united states have got them into this and it's already involved and it shouldn't abandon them. it should come back and try to help and support all of the parties together and listen and they need the united states to orchestrate sort to speak peace talks among iraqis so that bring each and every one to an understanding and find peace among them because things the way they are right now there's no possibility that they will lead to a light at the end of the tunnel. >> it is a truly tragic situation and as always, civilians are the ones who

suffer the most. zyad mohammed in iraq, we appreciate your time and good luck to you, sir. all right. more news after this. chocolate is my other favorite... but apple cinnamon is my favorite too... and fruity... oh yeah, and frosted! okay, but...what's you're most favorite of all? hmm... the kind i have with you. me too. so, if you're what ysleeping in your is youcontact lenses, ask about the air optix® contacts so breathable they're approved for up to 30 nights of continuous wear. ask your doctor about safety information as serious eye problems may occur. visit airoptix.com for a free one-month trial. you'd do that for me? really? yeah, i'd like that. who are you talking to? uh, it's jake from state farm.

sounds like a really good deal. jake from state farm at three in the morning. who is this? it's jake from state farm. what are you wearing, jake from state farm? [ jake ] uh... khakis. she sounds hideous. well she's a guy, so... [ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm. get to a better state. ♪ captain obvious: this is a creepy room. man: oh hey, captain obvious. captain obvious: you should have used hotels.com. their genuine guest reviews are written by guests who have genuinely stayed there. instead of people who lie on the internet. captain: here's a review, it's worse in person. you know that dream... on my count. the one where you step up and save the day? make it happen. (crowd) oh no... introducing verizon xlte. hey guys, i got it right here! we've doubled our 4g lte bandwidth in cities coast to coast. so take on more.

with xlte. for best results, use verizon.

that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. hello, i'm ana cabrera in new york. more with michael homes on the crisis in iraq coming up. pakistan's military

launching a major offensive against militant fighters on the border with afghanistan. now, they say the purpose is to finish off the militants there, quote, once and for all. it's in the province of north waziristan. the pakistani government began with air strikes on militant leaders, 50 people at the meeting recordedly killed. pakistan's defense minister says they're doing this alone, no american help. and he says this all out assault triggered by last weekend's deadly attack there on the airport there in karachi, the straw that broke the camel's back he said. don't count eric cantor out, not yet. the second most powerful republican in the house tells cnn he is not rules out another run for office after that stunning primary loss last week. here's what he told cnn's dana bash today on cnn's "state of the union." >> listen. i don't have any regrets, you know, because i remain focused on the mission i'm about. i'm so honored to represent the

people of the 7th district of virginia, one of the highest honors of my life and privileged by colleagues to be majority leader, huge. such a privilege. again, i'm looking forward. having, i think, felt good about the kinds of things that we have done thus far while we have been in majority and i know my colleagues will continue the mission. >> cantor confirmed he'll step down as majority leader. the iconic voice of casey kasem has fallen silent. he began a listening and successful top 40 radio program out of los angeles. millions of children then later came to know him as the voice of shaggy in "scooby doo." he died this morning in a hospital in washington state and he died of accept sis called by bed sores. he was 82. now to world cup action and team usa. 24 hours away now from their

debut game against ghana, the u.s. lost in overtime you might remember to ghana, in fact, in the last world cup. a short time ago, lara talked to fredericka whitfield about team usa's big game. >> this is the ultimate grudge match for the usa. the last two world cups, they have been -- they have lost to ghana, the usa, that is. in 2010, the last world cup, they were knocked out of the world cup by ghana. so there's a lot on the line here and a lot of those guys, they certainly want a little bit of redemption meeting on monday. >> redemption, revenge, whatever you want to call it. go, team usa. next hour more on what team usa is up against in brazil. also, at 6:00 eastern, fast forwarding to the week ahead and we'll take a look at the different stories you'll be talking about and hearing about in the coming week. i'll see you back here at the top of the hour. more on iraq coming up next as extra security personnel sent to

protect the huge u.s. embassy there in baghdad. michael holmes returns right after this. but first, an incredible story of rediscovery, a bizarre accident erased all of the memories of sue meck. she wrote a book about her recovery, >> when you woke up, you didn't recall anything? >> correct. >> so the people in the room, your husband, your children, you couldn't -- >> no, i didn't recognize them for a long time, actually. >> what does that feel like? i mean, that's terrifying. >> well, it is what it is. it's not really terrifying if you don't know any different. i make a lot of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 50,000 bonus points when i spent $5,000

in the first 3 months after i opened my account. and i earn 5 times the rewards on internet, phone services and at office supply stores. with ink plus i can choose how to redeem my points. travel, gift cards, even cash back. and my rewards points won't expire. so you can make owning a business even more rewarding. ink from chase. so you can.

♪ hooking up the country whelping business run ♪ ♪ trains! they haul everything, safely and on time. ♪ tracks! they connect the factories built along the lines.

and that means jobs, lots of people, making lots and lots of things. let's get your business rolling now, everybody sing. ♪ norfolk southern what's your function? ♪ ♪ helping this big country move ahead as one ♪ ♪ norfolk southern how's that function? ♪ humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

i'm michael holmes. welcome back to our special look at the crisis in iraq. the state department announcing new security precautions for start staffers at the u.s. embassy in baghdad. extra personnel being sent in to protect the embassy. some staffers will be sent out of baghdad. most will stay, it's important to point out. those isis militants pushing ever closer to the capital. and now baqubah, that's a 40-minute ride away. contributor michael weiss and retired marine corps major general james william. adam, i want to start with you as a man who has truly been on the ground and explain something to people. when you talk about the iraqi army cutting and running basically, we're talking about an army that is sunni and shia, but when the enemy is an enemy that is not only not afraid of

death but embraces it. >> i don't think that played so much a role in them cutting and running, as you said. i think a lot of them generally had issues at home. al qaeda and iraq that we were dealing with was killing family members, threatening family members, kidnapping family members and beheading family members. i almost didn't blame them for leaving to go home and try to protect their families. >> general, what about when it comes to u.s. acting. let's say there were air strikes being contemplated. explain to the uninitiated the difficulties of that when you don't have people on the ground targeting and the like. >> well, first of all, you really don't want to do air strikes unless you have somebody on the ground that can help you control and be precise in your targeting. you have to remember this is a mathematical problem, you know, you have aircraft in the air, you need to have somebody on the

ground that can focus on where you want to do that. of course, our equipment is very capable of doing things without people on the ground, but ultimately when you're talking about mixing civilian populations with militants and military combatants, you want to be able to separate them out. >> adam, and very briefly, too, when you look at the political landscape in iraq and the fact that nuri al maliki has concentrated power around himself and basically stepped on anyone who was a challenge to him, sunni or otherwise, by the way, do you see in that landscape any secular alternative to the man? >> i do not. i really don't. and i would actually like to piggyback on what the general just said about having boots on the ground for these air strikes. without that happening, which i'm not in favor of, of putting boots on the ground for the air strike, there's going to be a lot of collateral damage and

that will just give isis a huge recruiting tool that the u.s. cause a lot of sillian casualties. >> michael, let me run by you this issue to maliki, is there an alternative? >> that's a good question. i think the alternative has been pushlged from iraq a long time ago. several months ago you may recall 40 sunni mps resigned from parliament. one's house had been raided, his family had been killed. the vice president of iraq is in exile either in turkey or qatar depending on whom you speak to on very spurious charges of terrorism. no, he's done a credible job of make sure there's no opposition to his rule. this man belongs to the iranian revolutionary guard corps. he belongs to them now. you'll see this in coming days. there will be an iranian proxy war waged on the soil of iraq. >> general, you're actually

going to stick around with us, hopefully you at home will as well. more news to come right now. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscapers, you can find it all on angie's list. we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list. join today at angieslist.com

they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. that's why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day.

hello, everyone. you're in the cnn newsroom. don lemon with the day off. i'm michael holmes in atlanta. >> i'm monica cabrera in new york. we'll talk about all the stories you'll ta talk about and here about this week. our five questions for the week ahead, the iraq edition. question number one, will the u.s. get involved in iraq? president obama said no to the use of combat troops on friday, but we do know the state department has just announced that some u.s. embassy personnel will be leaving baghdad and a u.s. aircraft carrier is now headed for the persian gulf. >> question number two, what do the