my husband, hit reply. you know what i did? i butt dialed a very good friend many times in the middle of the night and that friend still doesn't know that it was me. but he was angry. oops. i'm gretchen. here's shep. >> president obama now just six hours from addressing our nation and the world to outline his plans for taking on the islamic state militants. he says no ground troops. so we'll look at his option. and how they could affect the men and women who serve in our military. plus, how our intergenerals experts are going after the men behind the islamic states. from looking at laptops to pulling passports. we'll get into the intel. word russia has tested a nuclear missile. this russian president denies his country is launching a new arms race, so if that's the case, then what is moscow trying to prove exactly? there's a lot of news, so let's get to it.

>> now, "shepard smith reporting" live from the fox news desk. >> good afternoon from the deck. first from the fox news deck this afternoon, president obama is expected to make the case for future air strikes in syria when he speaks to the nation in prime time tonight on this network. that's according to officials talking about the president's plan to wipe out islamic state terrorists, wipe them out. they say the president is not likely to announce any air strikes tonight, but instead, call for congress to arm the moderate rebels in syria. to fight the islamic state on the ground. moderate rebels in syria. wonder who they are. we'll get into that in a bit. president obama today held closed-door meetings with the vice president and top security advisors we're told. the white house let cameras record the president through a window reportedly talking on the phone with the saudi king abdullah. saudi arabia is one of several nations to which the united states is now looking for support in fighting the islamic state. secretary of state john kerry

today made a prediction that at least 40 nations will eventually join this fight as a sort of coalition of the winning. 40. predicted. we've written that down for future reference. he spoke in baghdad where we met -- he met with iraq's new leaders. >> this is a moment for international cooperation to prove its value. this is a moment for multilateralism. to prove its value and have its effect. this is a moment for all decent countries to come together and stand up and say to the world that we've had enough. >> the more aggressive push against the islamic state comes as polls show a majority of americans supports air strikes in syria. that's after the terror group cut off the heads of two american journalists and burned or buried alive countless men, women and children across the land at the militants control. tonight's address will come hours before the commen ragss of the attacks on 9/11. tonight also marks exactly one

year since another prime time address about syria. back then, the president told the nation he was pursuing diplomacy rather than air strikes against syria's brutal assad regime. now officials say that the president is getting closer to authorizing strikes not against assad but against the common enemy, the islamic state. we'll talk about complicated. ed henry is on fox story live at the white house. what else are you hearing on the president's plans for the speech tonight, ed? >> well, shep, what it's really hearing like -- what we're hearing from senior officials is that the president is going to be laying the groundwork for expanding u.s. air strikes into syria, not necessarily authorizing or moving forward tonight, but it was very significant what you were saying about that phone call with king abdullah of saudi arabia today. those pictures we have. because king abdullah for three years really now, has been urging the u.s. to join his

kingdom in arming, training, doing a lot more to help the syrian opposition and what the president is signaling by suggesting to congressional leaders at a meeting here yesterday that he wants to ramp up support to the levels, the syrian opposition would be the ground troops inside syria instead of u.s. combat troops to support potentially u.s. air strikes. same model we've seen in iraq. that's where secretary of state kerry was today hailing the fact that the iraqi government is now moving forward. listen. >> now that the iraqi parliament has approved a new cabinet with new leaders and representation from all iraqi communities, it's full speed ahead. and president obama a few hours from now will lay out his strategy for taking america, iraq, the region, and the world, forward. >> and that strategy in iraq has been the same model i was just talking about potentially for syria, that there have been over 150 u.s. air strikes inside

iraq, but no u.s. combat troops focusing on the security aspect beyond protecting u.s. interests. instead, it's been the u.s. trying to let the iraqi security forces take the lead. they are planning the same model, we believe, for syria, shep. >> before the strategy is even laid out, of course i'm confident that critics are circling like buzzards. what are they saying? >> it's interesting. you have former vice president dick cheney we know where he stood for a long time in the last administration in terms of the iraq war and you have senate majority leader harry reid today saying that critics of the president like dick cheney should not be out there today attackings his strategy before they hear it but what cheney is saying, look, he's seen the president wait too long because we've known about this isis threat for months and he should have laid this out sooner. listen. >> so often president obama responds to crises by announcing all the things he will not do and here again, we can only hope that pattern ends tonight.

too often threats and aggression have been met with stern declarations of inaction by the united states, supported by lengthy explanations of our inability to shape events. >> now what we've been hearing from obama administration officials is that they believe the last administration focused too much on the military aspect of this. the president now wants to focus on diplomacy and other aspects that he'll talk about tonight such as the coalition you mentioned that secretary of state kerry is in the middle east trying to build. important that you noted the goal is to have 40 countries on board. we should know factually there's only nine on board right now, shep. they've got a long way to go. >> ed henry at the white house, among reporters who are screaming with for reasons unknown. thank you so much. the white house now says the president told top lawmakers yesterday that he does not need congress to sign off on military action against the islamic state. but officials are saying that the president is urging congress to get behind this plan by passing bills that would support

the fight. let's take this to the judge. i've been listening to democrats all day. some democrats, important ones on capitol hill, say yeah, he does need this from us. some democrats say he doesn't need this from us. i say that because he's a democrat, the president, and the democrats are clearly divided on this because i've heard them divided all day. what's real? >> a lot of division on capitol hill from my sources there, there is a coalition of liberal democrats and libertarian republicans who may be very close to a majority the in the house of representatives who believe that president does not have the authority to do this on his own and if he does do it he must do it pursuant to an act of war declared by congress. that's what the constitution says. and if they give him this authority, they're going to put handles on it and tell him when he must end it. the republican leadership in the house an the president do not want the congress telling the president how to wage war, even though the constitution says only the congress can wage war.

>> remember how this started, this started with protect the embassy. >> right. >> these religious minorities who were being slaughtered on a mountain and beyond, go protect them. that's what that was. that's what president authorized. now we're talking about something completely different. now we're talking about by any definition available on map net earth, we are declaring war on this bunch. they're not going to say that because that would bring in the constitution, but that's what this is. >> right. >> when you send our planes over there to kill people who are part of a group, they say they're part of a state, that's war. >> the president will probably argue tonight that the war powers resolution, 1973 statute passed over president nixon's veto, will authorize him to deploy american military for up to 180 days. he is correct. put aside whether the statute is unconstitutional. most of us that look at these things believe it is unconstitutional but it is the law. >> until challenged it is the law.

>> that only gives him 90 days. >> correct. >> his military advisors and intelligence advisers and diplomatic advisors have said you cannot win this war in 180 days and you cannot lawfully drop a bomb or send a troop there after 180 days. so he -- in my view, just as a person who reads and understands the constitution and as an american should go to the congress and have the congress declare war and tell him what the end game is and then he is legally and constitutionally covered. like shep, he won't do that. >> this is in no way to suggest that we should or should not do this. the consensus among americans seems to be isis must be stopped and the facts suggest isis must be stopped. the question is by what means are they stopped and by whom and under what authority. >> right. by what lawful and constitutional means are they stopped. when a president wants to bring the country to war, this is the way george bush did it for the invasion of iraq. >> and we see how that went. >> right.

>> whether you think it was wise or unwise. >> please. >> it was at least lawfully done because declared by the congress. so if barack obama as the president of the united states wants to bring america to war for good or for evil, to kill these evil people, whether it's wise or not, he should do it lawfully and constitutionally and that means not on his own. >> they have said, we will not do this with our boots on the ground. they have said, we will find other boots on the ground. for the moment we're talking about the free syrian army or rebels within syria, who, wait, who are these people? are they trainable? are they armble? have they already been killed? are we talking about smoke and mirrors. that's coming minutes from now. first -- there is breaking news now on fox news channel. there's been a plane crash in the last few minutes. austin, texas, nearby, smoke rising from that scene just moments ago according to the producers. i'm told you can see highway 71 in the background here. local ems tweeting now that the

crash killed at least one person and an investigation is under way. again, you can see the smoke on the horizon. a small plane is down outside austin, texas. more details as we get them. ahead, the intelligence on the islamic state. from the fight over confiscating past passports to what great britain is talking ability doing to what we know about the terror group's leadership and particularly the isis leader himself. who is this guy? to whom will we be relying or on whom will we be relying for boots on the ground. they keep telling us you cannot win this without boots on the ground. you can slow them down. they've said it from day one. who are the boots? whose boots are they? and make no mistake, we have boots there. but our boots will not be doing the fighting, they tell us. where are these boots coming from? somebody's imagination? or are they real? stay tuned. ♪

[ male announcer ] when you see everyone in america almost every day, you notice a few things. like the fact that you're pretty attached to these. ok, really attached. and that's alright. because we'll text you when your package is on the way. we're even expanding sunday package delivery. yes, sunday. at the u.s. postal service, our priority is...was... and always will be...you. . the head of the islamic state was on the intelligence radar long before he became head of a terrorist group. lots of people are, they do this behinds the scenes, according to a pentagon official. of course they knew as we reported the u.s. captured the terror chief in 2005, handed him over to the iraqi government. the iraqi government released

him. our chief intelligence correspondent katherine harris is live in washington. what more are we learning about this man, al baghdadi? >> well the release of al baghdadi, shepard, was characterized to us by the former pentagon official as a complete surprise to the u.s. government. the same official said the military intelligence community knew he was a bad actor closely allied with the decreased leader of al qaeda in iraq when he was captured in 2005. the official added that he was integrated by u.s. officials, and that he did give up some information before he was handed over to the iraqi government who later released him there was no advance notice given to the u.s. government of that release which was shocking, to say the least, according to this official, because the u.s. has spent years tracking him down, shepard. >> you know, remember that laptop, we've talked about this, the laptop that reportedly belonged to a member of the islamic state. anything from that? >> well there's part two of this investigative piece from foreign

policy magazine. you're quite right, they obtained the laptop from the modern syria rebel group in northern syria and their reporter was told it had been seized earlier in the year in a raid on an isis hideout. now they're going through these 34,000 files in the computer which had originally appeared to be scrubbed, but on closer inspection found they were hidden within the hard drive and they've now found recipes for ricin, how to make ieds on what they call v beds or vehicle-borne devices. it seems to be kind of a road map as to what the ambitions at least are of some of the isis followers. >> that ought to be helpful, right? >> well, let's see if the right people get it he yond the journalists. >> let's hope so. good to see you. >> see you. >> this matter of who you arm and who you train. and i say that because often history is our guide. remember we train the iraqis, don't forget this, we trained the iraqis, 100,000 or more of them, spent a trillion dollars

training them so they could stand up and we gave them all the weapons. they handed them to isis followers and now murdering people with the weapons we gave them. now the plan is we're going to arm another group. who are they? chicken soup of people, more of a beef stew of people. lots of people from all over the place and training them, well, so far that's proved to be difficult. so now we're going to train more of them. we're going to have their boots there on the ground and give them weapons. i wonder what might happen to those weapons? does history tell us anything? we'll get into all of that in just a minute. before that the nfl commissioner roger goodell speaking out for the first time since tmz released the video of ray rice cold cocking his girlfriend and leaving her laid out in the elevator. officials claim they had no clue what the cameras caught. tmz claims the commissioner had every chance to see it. plus, we'll talk to the wife of a former player who says she,

too, was a victim of domestic violence. but she says officials should not ban ray rice for life. here's what she says. she went off and studied what happened to her. she got a degree in what happened to her in the psychology of it all and i will ask her to explain to all of us who don't understand how come knock me out cold once in an elevator and drag my body into a hall is not the end of the relationship because for some people that part is confusing. this woman has knowledge on this matter, has experience, not that, but things similar, so we'll turn to her as the news continues on a monday afternoon. ♪ [announcer]when we make beyond natural dry dog and cat foods. we start with real meat as the first ingredient. we leave out corn,wheat and soy.

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21 minutes past the hour. the nfl commissioner roger goodell is doubling down on his claim nobody in the league saw the video of ray rice knocking out his then fiancee until tmz released it on monday. that as tmz's founder tells fox news that the commissioner is, quote, full of bs. unquote. remember that gossip website released the video on monday showing ray rice punching his then fiancee in the face before dragging her out of that elevator. then the ravens cut rice. and the league suspended him indefinitely. in his first interview since all of that went down the commissioner told cbs "this morning" that officials assumed there was a video, even asked police for the video, but that they didn't get it because they asked only credible sources. >> well, i don't know how tmz or

any other website gets their information. we are particularly reliant on law enforcement as the most reliable, it's the most credible, and we don't seek to get that information from sources that are not credible. >> follow-up question, mr. goodell, i just have one follow-up question, did you knock on the door of the hotel or casino and say can we see that video? or would that not be a credible source? it was a credible source for everybody else, including the police who asked for it and the tmz who asked for it and got it. seems to be credible. you have fired this man or suspended him indefinitely based on that. so it was credible for them, but it's not credible for you? did you knock on the casino? hey, casino, can i see the video of what happened to this woman there on the floor of the elevator? can i see that? guess not. tmz's executive producer responded telling fox news goodell had every opportunity to see that video.

but simply chose not to. >> his position is, well, we went to the police and said we want a copy and they didn't give it to us. they didn't give it to them because there was a pending criminal investigation. he still could have gone to the casino. for him to suggest the casino video isn't credible is ri dix clause because where do you think the police got their video? they got it from the casino. >> hello. he said rice's own lawyer supposedly had a copy. roger goodell have gone to him. the lawyer for the guy by whom we're speaking, but did not apparently because they never saw the video. worth noting here the ravens play tomorrow night. the team's first game without rice on its roster. our chief correspondent jonathan hunt is in our newsroom in new york city this afternoon. jonathan, a lot -- understandably, but there is a lot of pressure on roger goodell today. >> yeah. and it seems a lot of that pressure brought about precisely by this interview, shep, because a lot of his answers to many people just seem to raise more questions, in particular, his

answer to that central issue exactly how hard did nfl officials try to get that second video from inside the elevator, his -- one of the ways he formulated his answer to cbs's norah o'donnell. listen here. >> we were told that was not something we would have access to on multiple occasions we asked for it, and multiple occasions we were told no. >> so that's a fairly simple answer. we tried to get it, we failed to get it. the problem is the lack of detail. who m did they ask, when did they ask, to a lot of people, shep, a lot of the commissioner's answers sounded either legalistic or just plain vague. >> ray rice admitted he did what he did and that's the reason he dragged her like a sack of potatoes body out in the hall and never offered any aid. we know that. he admitted it. that wasn't enough. that got you two games. seeing a video on tmz, that does something else. for lawmakers they're weighing in because this is good

political fodder. >> dozen members of the house judiciary committee writing directly to roger goodell today, shep, calling for, as they put it, the highest level of transparency, addressing the comment mr. goodell made about asking for all the evidence. the letter says, quote, two our knowledge, the public has not been informed of specifically how and in what context the request was made and specifically how law enforcement responded, nor has there been a full explanation as to whether the video was requested of others, such as mr. rice's attorney or the casino where the incident occurred and if to the, why not. the letter goes on to urge greater transparency and explanations. clearly if mr. goodell thought one national television interview was going to end this matter, shep, he was very much mistaken. >> jonathan hunt with us from the newsroom, thanks. let's get some insight on this.

dewan williams with us, married to the retired player wally williams. dewan says she, too, met with domestic violence at one point in their relationship and after it happened that's the key part, that the coaches told her, don't talk to the media, don't get a lawyer, and she says the league turned a blind eye to ray rice's axship but that they should not band him for life. why not? >> well, i feel that because domestic violence has been an ongoing issue within the nfl, for many years, and because it has never been viewed by the public, you know, it was allowed to go on. now that there's something that is -- that you can see with your own eyes and witness it, if you told someone that something like that happened to you, they would say no way, he would never do that, that would never happen. you turn around and marry that person. but there was something there that allowed her to do that. >> now the league told you, don't get a lawyer. >> uh-huh. >> and don't talk about this. how did you respond to that and

what did you think of that? how did they tell you? >> well, there were different situations. again, my situation was nothing close to being punched out. >> domestic violence is domestic violence. >> you're right. and i feel that for me, what made the difference, was that i wanted to have the knowledge and the know how, what was going on inside myself that allowed me to be treated in such a manner. >> how did the nfl approval you, though, -- approach you, though? >> with the situations we had, we were asked -- well, we were trying to keep down any type of negative media for the team. >> somebody in the nfl told you that. >> uh-huh. >> was it a member of the team, the organization, the nfl as a whole? >> the coaches. >> the coaches on your husband's team. >> the coach. >> the head coach? >> yes. >> who was? >> as well as -- >> who was the head coach? i can look it up. >> i would rather you do that. i prefer not to. >> i will. >> just because i would like to respect my husband and myself. but we did -- we were asked -- i

was asked not to talk to the media. >> by the head coach. >> by the head coach as well as the attorneys that they provided for us. >> were they nice about it? >> he was nice. >> did he say, don't talk to the media. >> he said it's not a good idea for you to have any discussion with any public figures, anyone outside of the league, anyone outside of this room pretty much and they would provide any type of legal personnel or preparation we would need if we needed to go to court. >> i bet they would. they didn't want you to talk to the media? they didn't want you to exercise your rights as an american citizen? >> well i'm here -- >> i know. but they said you shouldn't do that? >> no. they advised me not to. but because i had a degree and i had a license that i had to protect, i did not listen and i did make sure that i was protected so that i would not be criminally involved in what had taken place. >> how did they treat you after that, the league, the coaches, the refs?

>> i was pretty much viewed as being the -- yeah. >> you were the victim. >> uh-huh. >> and the nfl treated you like the -- >> uh-huh. >> yeah. pretty much. >> you know, janay price, was hit so hard that she collapsed on an elevator floor and dragged out of that elevator like a potato sack and look at how she's being treated now. >> yeah. well again, janay, as we see it, janay is the victim in this situation. you know, she's a victim number one of love. many people don't realize that we don't see the person that's playing out on the football field at home. that is a completely different individual. >> ain't no doubt about that. i know after you went through all of this for yourself you went back to school. >> i did. >> you got a degree in? >> i went back to school at the university of akron and obtained my masters in psychiatry. i'm a mental health advanced

practice nurse. >> to help you understand. >> just to help me understand and to rationalize out why this happened and i did not want to put the blame on me, but i wanted to know what was it inside of myself that allowed me to remain in the situation for so long before i had the strength to withdraw and retreat and get strength so that i can function outside of the nfl. >> that's one of the questions that i hear so often now. when you tell the news all day, people come up and ask you about what's going on in the news and for the last couple of days i've been hearing, how come once he cold koked her and left her almost lifeless on the floor that wasn't the end of the relationship. explain to those of us who haven't been involved in domestic violence how you can continue with someone who hit you in that way? >> when you love someone you don't always think with your brain. her heart, she loves her husband. she loves that man. obviously they've had years put in together. the way that they communicate with each other -- >> sometimes they love the life,

you said. >> they do. i'm not saying that is what janay has done or is doing. >> i just said sometimes. >> she's educated herself and i'm quite sure, as myself, we are able to provide for ourselves outside of that. once you are in that arena and you become accustomed to living the way you do it's difficult to remove yourself from that situation to live independently of that life. it's almost like you have to completely purge yourself of that lifestyle because life outside of the nfl is completely different. >> yeah. there is no doubt about that. >> completely different. >> dewan williams, your insights valuable. thank you and good luck to you. >> thank you for having me. >> well, the fight against isis is next. who are these boots on the ground we're talking about arming? stay tuned. native tongue? that opens up the doors to trust. my name is kanyon. i'm a technician here in portland oregon. every morning, i give each one of my customers a call to give them a closer eta.

and when i called this customer, i discovered that he was deaf. then i thought of amanda. i've known american sign language since i was about 8 years old. it's like music for your eyes. and i thought that was an amazing gift to have, to be able to communicate with the deaf. my friend kanyon asked me to help him explain how today's appointment will go. he was nodding his head and giggling a little bit. i earned his trust that day, i guess.

a fox report. more of the headlines. investigators say this south carolina man killed his five children, stuffed their bodies in the garbage bags and dumped them on the side of a dirt road in alabama. they report he led them to the

gruesome scene after police in nearby mississippi arrested him for drunk driving. they say they plan to charge him with murder. regulators in japan say one of their nuclear power plants could soon start operations again after meeting the country's new safety standards. this comes more than three years after that earthquake and tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown at a different plant. all of the country's 48 nuclear reactors are currently off-line. scientists say they've discovered more than a dozen other monuments around stonehenge in britain. they report they found the ancient structures using modern technology like ground penetrating radar. there's much more news ahead, including who are we talking about arming and being boots on the ground for us? syria?

more now on president obama's planned speech tonight in which he is expected to lay out a long-term strategy to fight the islamic state in iraq and syria or isis. take a look at the wall over here. the united states has several air bases in the country.

to the north and south of iraq and syria and headquarters of the navy's fifth fleet is in bahrain. you can see the american flags that are adorned here. this is qatar. lots of questions about the qatars. many questions. then bahrain where they don't treat their people too well either and then kuwait a couple of them over here, and you can see the one up there in turkey. turkey is of great interest and we will he get into that. pentagon officials say the united states has launched more than 150 air strikes against the islamic state targets in iraq including today near the city of erbil. they also say our military operations in iraq have been costing about $7.5 million per day. $7.5 million per day on average. jennifer griffin is at the pentagon with what our money is going for. what are we learning about a potential military buildup in this region now? >> well, shepard, right now there are 1,143 uniformed american troops on the ground in iraq. only about 300 of them are currently serving as advisors to

the iraqi army. a senior u.s. defense official tells me military commanders believe they need about 1,000 advisors to be effective. the president is likely to indicate he is sending more troops to iraq and that this is going to be a long-term campaign. we're told the president is going to ramp up the pace of air strikes over isis targets in iraq. i'm told we should expect air strikes inside syria within the next 30s days. here's how the president foreshadowed what he is likely to say tonight. >> this is not going to be an announcement about u.s. ground troops. this is not the equivalent of the iraq war. what this is, is similar to the kinds of counter terrorism campaigns that we've been engaging in consistently over the last five, six, seven years. >> in other words the kind of military campaigns the u.s. military is engaged in in somalia and yemen and elsewhere.

the biggest problem for the u.s. troops in iraq right now are they don't have the authority from the president to leave their command post and go to the front lines with the iraqi units that they are advising, shepard. >> 1,143 boots on the ground who have boots and weapons but not boots on the ground, right? right? >> that's right. >> that's right. jennifer griffin at the pentagon where truth is just a sort of thing like saltwater taffy down there in atlantic city, stretch it and pull it and make it truth. it's 1,143 troops on the ground, boots on, they have weapons, they are not boots on the ground because they say they are not. as the last administration did and the one before that. robert mcfadden is here, a former special agent in charge with the naval criminal investigative service or ncis. not the television program but relate thing. he's senior vice president of the suphon group which provides

strategic security to governments and international organizations. good to see you. >> thank you. >> i'm most interested in these -- this free syrian army and all the different -- because it's not just the free syrian army. it's lots of people. >> you bet. under the umbrella of the syrian national council, on the political side there are dozens of opposition groups. when you talk about the fighting elements you have on the one side the extremist religious groups, the sunni groups, and then you have the more secular free syrian army, largely defectors not exclusively, but defectors from the syrian army. >> all these things are not organized under anything. >> that's right. >> but they would be organized under us and we're trying to train them. how is that going? >> it's all depending on the decisions that may be set forth. >> we're trying to do that because we're not admitting it because we have people on the ground but we don't admit that. >> from what we're hearing they are training and equipping and organizing going on in places, for example, like jordan. >> yep. >> by the jordanians and other

allies. that's been going on for some time. >> and it's happening with our help, though we don't admit it publicly. i'm 100%. we're helping. >> that's been the consistent reporting. >> so here's how -- here's how the fact seems to be coming together. i like to deal in facts around here. e spend about $1 trillion to so when they stood up we would stand down. weave them a these weapons and all this support thousands of our lives lost along the way, the moment they met resistant, they dropped the weapons, taken by isis and isis turned the weapons on us. this is a much less sophisticated group, organized group with all divergent interest and we are considering arming them and letting them be our boots on the ground, that is right? >> that's all part of the calculus but extroerdsly complexed landscape. you should separate what's going on in iraq from what's going on in syria as regards to isis as well. >> of course, why should we expect a different result from

this bunch? for instance if we give them all our arms, why would we think this time they're not going to drop their weapons and let isis use them on us again? >> you would be talking about an opposition element in syria. >> yeah. >> one thing to keep in mind regardless of how this turns out, any opposition element in syria, the first priority is not going to be isis. it's on toppling the al assad regime. >> sure it is. >> so when they're fighting against isis, the free syrian army, it is a priority. their focus al assad regime. >> then there are all these boots on the ground and american advisors, should one of our planes go down in the middle of all that and then it's time for a fight i'm guessing we would have boots on the ground. >> all part of the risk factor because the intelligence surveillance reconnaissance mission is ongoing. >> robert mcfadden, it's quite a mess. >> it is. >> by the way, you know how they're going to see it, they're going to see it as sunni versus shia and us right in the middle of it. if you think that is anything but 100% factual consult a

history book. you can look it up real quickly. it's a very quick google. that's how they'll see it. we will be stepping into the middle of their civil war. something's got to be done. but what is it? we'll be right back.

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13 minutes before the hour. some of the same polling that shows growing support for strikes against the islamic state shows president obama taking a big hit. two new surveys are out, most americans say they disapprove of the president's handling of foreign policy. most democrats do too. a senior white house official tells our ed henry the president was pleasant surprised with his "meet the press" interview on nbc and tonight's address is an attempt to seize the moment in prime time. joining us now is a.b. stoddard a columnist for the hill newspaper. is this a sell tonight? is this a pitch more than a detailed thing? >> well, that's interesting because a few days ago, members of congress, particularly

republicans, were asking for specificity. they wanted a detailed plan when he spoke tonight about what exactly he's going to do and what his strategy was. foreign policy experts are advising the president not to be too specific, not to tell he graph to the enemy what we're going to do, when we're going to do it, when we're going to leave, anything like that. really the task for president obama tonight is to convince the public which, because of these polls we know is already convinced that the danger and strength of isis, that he actually has stomach for a long-term, sustained engagement and to -- his job is also to appeal to the public for their pay sense in a new engagement in the middle east when he's been trying to get out of them. >> that sounds like it would be a sort of tough sell, specially when they've been telling us all along you cannot defeat them without boots on the ground. everybody from every party said that yet there are no boots for the ground, except for the 1,143 boots on the ground. >> as you've been talking about

on your show, of course there are boots on the ground, they're called special force, and without them we will not be able to train this quote/unquote vetted modern syrian opposition that president obama has been reluctant and refused to train and help all along. now he's trying to convince the public he's going to do that and as you were talking about, he wants to reconstitute, which means reform, repair, rescue, the iraqi security forces, which we have before at great cost and so that's a very tough argument and that's where the challenge lies in telling the public without boots on the ground we can wage a new kind of war where we just train other people, we do it from the air, we're going to have an international coalition, and we're going to help the iraqis stand up again so we can stand down. that's going to be a very tough sell. >> a.b., how will he convince us that we will not be seen in the middle east, in the arab world, in the muslim world, as having taken sides in a many hundreds year old world, how will he

convince us given the fact that it's absolutely not true? >> right. shep, i don't think we're going to hear the president tonight explain how complicated this is, that any endeavor that we take on right now against isis could potentially isis can potentiall embolden the iranians, and bashar al assad is a sworn enemy, obviously. this mission is fraught with pearl and is fertile ground for mistakes. i think president obama is continuing this narrative that he started in his "meet the press" interview that this new type of war is going to prevent us from occupying countries at great costs to us and then having it just enflame again when we leave. >> a.b., remember that new kind of war that we heard about last time. remember the last time we were going to do a new kind of war? the last time we were going to do a new kind of war it was not enough to contain saddam hussein. there was a no-fly zone. he had not hit anybody but he might. and we went in there and had a war, it was a new kind of war,

smaller war, agreeing as liberators there would be flowers, remember? from that we got isis. and now we're going to go in there with airplanes but no boots on the ground and we're going to stop isis and we'll take back the land they had somehow. hocus-pocus, somehow, here we go. you're driving along,

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deliver a blast only 100 more times powerful than the one that destroyed hiroshima. from the white sea it hit its target in the eastern part of the country. the news comes after the russian president vladimir putin addressed a meeting in moscow today saying russia will deliver new strategic nuclear weapons. he went on to say he has no intention to launch a new arms race. of course not, but that russia will respond to all security challenges. trace gallagher is live with more on this gem, what sort of weapons is russia proposing here? >> well, shep, he wants nuclear weapons and conventional weapons more precise. he also wants to build up his aero defense system. putin is reacting to western rhetoric. last week leaders at the nato summit decided to create a rapid reaction force to protect eastern europe from russian bullying. putin says the west is trying to

use the ukranian crisis to resuscitate nato. even though the cease-fire continues to hold for now and pro-russian forces are getting some concessions, the state department is still very cautious they are not giving russia one bit. and ukraine says, very important to note, even though they are giving concessions to the pro-russian sessions, they are not giving up any territory at all. >> trace gallagher, thanks. a check of the markets, a nod to the history and a nod to the news after this. [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired. i hope he saved enough. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. whether you're just starting your 401(k) or you are ready for retirement, we'll help you get there.

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on this day in the year 2000, cats ended their longest streak on broadway. there were lasers outside after the last show. andrew weber played piano on stage to mark the milestone. sca sca cats ran for almost 18 years. last year weber set a new record when "phantom of the opera" came

out. but "cats" made its own history 14 years ago today. now cats on the internet, if you have visited the internet, the dow is up today and everything else is, well, i don't want know, seeming bad. a year ago tonight the president explained to the nation why he was holding off on air strikes in syria. tonight he's back in primetime to say what things have changed. welcome, i'm neil cavuto. what a difference a year makes. last year president obama explained to the nation why he wanted to take a military strike to syria against congress. tonight he's set to tell us he does not need congress. not for this. not now. and not with isis beheading american journalists and 65% of americans supporting going after the guys who did it. we are told the president will lay out the case for why things are different now