>> schieffer: well coal back to "face the nation." toe talk more about how to defeat isis and combat violent extremists we're joined by farah pandith. first ever special rep to muslim communities now with the council on foreign relations, michelle flournoy was an under secretary of defense and cofounder of the center for new american security. danielle pletka with the american inter price institute and david ignatious is columnist for the "washington post." i just want to go back to this summit on terrorism that we just had. i wonder, how is it that we wind up in an argument about what do you call these people while they're cutting people's heads off and burning people alive.

yet we seem to have dogged down in this argument over, how many angels dance on the head of a needle. michelle, do we have a strategy? >> i think we do have a strategy but there are parts of it that have been under developed and under resourced i actually think it's very important that the summit was convened to focus on the ideology. this is not only about isis forces in iraq and syria about their power to inspire others. trying to put together a strategy that deals with the ideological component of this i think is really important. >> i also think it's important that the president, you see a change in the trajectory of the understanding of the threat if you go back to the cairo speech, the terms ideology and terror were not used. they were used 75 times in his speech. also important that the president outline both the violence and nonviolent ideologies that are part of this threat. and that's really important

because it illustrates the importance of soft power also the underlying ecosystem that allow narrative of the extremists to thrive. second point though, about the summit an opportunity to mobilize like-minded thinkers both from the private sector and from the public sector to do more than we've ever done before. right now in the ideological space everything is ad hoc and it's uneven. this is a moment that we can capture. >> schieffer: danielle, what was your take on it? >> it was good as far as it went. important that the president starts talking about ideology he didn't like talking about it. reversal from his cairo speech that is a good thing. but this euphemism problem that you refer to this is part of the problem. somebody likened it to -- he who hall not be named. we need to tall it islamic extremism not because we want to label all muslims as terrorist but because we want to identify this as a problem, the countries in the region need to deal with,

that we need to address. if we're going to have ideological fight for hearts and minds of these young people who are out there murdering then we need to recognize what it is that is bringing them to the fight. it isn't violent extremism that is bringing them. >> schieffer: you don't agree with the state department spokesman says because they don't have jobs? >> i thought that was utterly ridiculous. i think that data would show that people join the fight not because they don't have jobs sure, there are lost young men and women who go because they're unemployed. you're in the doing badly if you're living in brussels or paris or manchester, those people aren't joining because they don't have jobs. they're joining because this is ideology that has appealed to them. >> schieffer: david you were just out there, what is the latest news from that part of the world? >> i saw two things that i think are worth sharing with your viewers. first i was in iraq i saw just how powerful the push from kurdistan now in to the province

where mosul is, other areas just how powerful that is. mosul is being squeezed, i worry that there's a rush to have the final assault on mosul, being on the roads that just recently been liberating heading toward mosul you can see what a difference these u.s.-backed actions are making. second thing i saw when i went to jordan how powerful arab muslim voices speaking out against the threat from isis are. and this is crucial. it's the reason that i think the rhetoric of this last week although it seems like semantics makes some sense. i think the president was trying to make room for arab voices not blasting islamic extremism because he knows that the way that this war will be won is if muslim countries take the lead. let's not get in their way as they do that. i began to see that in jordan. the recent statements from egypt

telling me the same thing. we always ask, where the muslim voices my sense is we're beginning to hear them. >> schieffer: where are they? >> let me say something about the strategy to go right to it. to win the war of ideas we have to first of all acknowledge that we can win it, we can. the solutions are there, they're affordable and available. but to inoculate the vast majority of the millennials around the world one data point they are having a crisis of i'd fee. that is the first thing. second thing that we have to have a strategy that is truly global. ideological way to get to your point this isn't just about one part of the world. it's what's happening around the world and we have to connect the dots. strait strategy has to connect what is happening in central eric to the tri-border area, to what happened in brussels to what is happening in kenya. these things matter to millennials you can't win this if the strategy is only about the hard power, has to be 'south the soft power war to understand

that the extremists are building virtual armies. we're talking about the troops going forward they are building armies virtually. you have to go all in. that is the bottom line here. you have to go all in and understand that soft power has to be deployed as aggressively and with as much respect as hard power and it's beyond just a communication strategy with isis, this is how extremists are manipulating daily lives and culture around the world that is changing the way millennials think about them sells. until we address the strategy that has all those components we cannot win. >> schieffer: you were a ranking official in the defense department many people thought you would be the next secretary of defense you took yourself out of the running but talking about connecking the dots in all of this it concerns me that maybe we're not connecting the dots within the government. this thing we had last week where they have a pentagon

briefing they called on these reporters and tell everybody we're going to launch this offensive, we're going to have x number of troops and did everything but get time of day that they're going to launch the operation. then we find out white house says, we didn't know anything about that. of course all bad ideas they never have a father. how can something like that. >> i think this is clearly a case where the right hand didn't know what the left was doing. i think there are not only white house not know, i think number of the key folks inside the pentagon in both the civil and military chains of command were not aware that this is happening. i think it was clearly someone's mistake. but i think it shouldn't have scared the more important issue is do we have what's necessary to make the iraq part of the strategy. and the two things that concerned me right now are the

iraqi government's over reliance on the shia militia to make progress in the campaign. we've heard that rean, head of the iranian force on the ground working with the militia, is that could very much backfire. second is failure to fully include the sunni population to take the necessary steps to do that. those are two things that even if we train the iraqis incredibly well and everything goes according to plan those two things can derail this. we've got to be paying more attention to that. >> i think you pointed to something that's really important here. reminds me when she talks about iraq, the hard power, soft power, the strategy ideological war, the idea that you can't beat what's appealing to muslim millennials with nothing other than an embarrassment about talking about our own values, for example. all of these point to an unbelievable disconnect. what about syria, we have iraq, but we're not actually doing

enough in syria. even if we win, even if we take back mosul, we still got a nightmare in syria that is a heart of fighting in the middle east. to speak of yemen and africa and we can keep going. the problem is all of this hangs together if we're going to win, otherwise you are doomed at the line on hard terror you have an immediate threat. >> schieffer: i think what mush sell talking about the right hand does know what the left hand is doing. how do you have summit on terrorism not invite the director of the fbi? you heard jeh johnson doing his best to try to explain how that happened. i don't understand that. >> the answer is that there isn't a good answer. the kind ever mistakes that governments make, my reading of history they get made especially in the early months and years of war time. we're back at world war ii the number of mess up, is that the

united states made on the way to germany is staggering. it shouldn't happen. larger question is, is there a coherent idea about how we're going to defeat this adversary. i think michelle came on the one piece that is still missing which is getting sunnis in iraq in anbar province which is now exactly occupied, in mosul city, in syria, to believe they are part of this coalition to roll back isis. that isis is their enemy. until we see convincing evidence that that piece is done, we'll fix that. but that big piece, conceptual piece that's where i'd like to see our top officials working. >> schieffer: let me just ask you specifically, anybody wants to answer this please answer. is ashton carter the new secretary of events going to slow down withdrawal of troops from afghanistan? >> i actually think his

statement in cab buell was very important that the president reconsidering the option. what is happening is a broader interagency discussion that instead focused on the draw down, finally focusing on what do we need going forward. there is still al qaeda in the region we finally have afghan government worth supporting. we have afghan forces that are improving day-to-day. there is still a threat. going forward what kind of posture do we need? that is a different and positive conversation that finally occurring and may well lead to various and smart changes. >> schieffer: how long is it going to be before these iraqi troops are ready to handle this? >> it's going to be a long time. we need more of our own forces on the ground to help train them, help with targeting i think that people are talking about may, completely unrealistic. summer, but again unfortunately taking back mosul isn't even

part of the larger challenge that we face. if we over focus on that i'm afraid that we leave all these other things behind even democracy issues that the president talked about which is system atly defunded over the last six years all of this has to come together. >> schieffer: what is most important thing we need to do right now? >> absolutely comprehensive strategy of hard power and soft power combined that will allow us to win. otherwise we'll be doing this for more than one generation that has talked about. right now as we speak the infrastructure has been built around the world for extremists to thrive you're seeing that come out in lot of different ways. the poking of the diversity of islam they are doing this in really real way so that young millennials don't know who they are, don't know how to look at hire heritage, absorbing a new kind of islam to represent who they are. all of this is going to have impact on our bottom line f. we take our eye off that ball,

we're miking the forest through the trees. >> schieffer: is there realistically any kind of coalition coming together here? >> there is on paper. and from are plans for muslim-led meet thanks will drive this point home. until you hear muslim leaders say what president obama said thursday at the state department, we are all the same boat together. all going to survive together. until you hear them say that forcefully you should be skeptical about the strategy. as soon as that message is coming loudly from our muslim leaders i'm going to think it's real. >> this is the problem. president was standing there alone not with the king of saudi arabia, not with the royal family of the united arab emirates. as long as they're not part of this discussion as long as they can continue to support extremism and with the other you are going to have a big problem. i agree with you entirely.

>> i do think we're seeing a turning point after the barbaric burning of the jordanian palace alive by isi lottery action spontaneous and real reaction across the gulf to say, this is not islam that we know this is not something we're willing to support, the courageous steps that the king of jordan has taken and many other voices starting to speak out. i actually think that is an important potential turning point. >> but a sustainability of that emotion. that's what i'm saying. everything has been uneven. and ad hoc. it has to be sustained and real. >> that's the problem, reaction was to the jordanian pilot not to the rise of isis or spread of isis. and you cannot rely on the enemy to dictate what our allies are going to do. this is matter of principle or not having a principle. and i worry about these countries a lot. >> schieffer: we have to stop

there. thank you all very much for a great discussion i'm going to talk to former president obama presidential advisor david axelrod when we come back. grandpa bode, grandma said you used to be out of control. really... i guess i did take some risks. anncr: bode, bode miller!!! trained a little bit differently. a little too honest sometimes. the media is useless. you were out of control. but not always.

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he he has just written a book called "believer" debuted at no. 3 on "new york times" best seller list this week. it's a good book i think it's a valuable addition -- >> thank you. >> schieffer: to the document what this president is about. let me just ask you this why is there so much confusion now about what this president believes what he stands for. he has said himself he's not very good at the optics of all of this. but what's happened here? >> you know it's interesting, i always believe that the last president kind of sets the terms of the next election. the last president was a very guy, black and white. america wanted someone who saw the grey, who saw the nuances who understood the complexities of the world who made decisions that had -- think about the long term not just the next step. that is what they got in barack

obama. i don't know why there is confusion, i think that there is nuance and there is an ability to see grey which is really important in the world in which we live. that's true on foreign policy and national security, also true on domestic policy. >> schieffer: you know the criticism, you know what i'm talking about people say he presents problems in the abstract like a law professor i think that's what leon panetta said. more sometimes with logic rather than sometimes -- >> logic is underrated i think. i heard leon say that, i was really surprised because i was there, i saw this president make series of decisions about the economy, each of which were as unpopular as they were necessary. i write about that in my book. and was willing to do it because thought it was the right thing for the country.

some folks in this town have hard time processing that he took on health care. i and others told him that this is going to be a political quagmire for him but he felt it had to be done. i know chuck schumer and others say it was bad political decision. but that -- wasn't bad decision for the ten, 13 million people who have insurance today and others who will benefit in the future that's what he was thinking about. >> schieffer: do you think in retrospect that he went about it in the wrong way in the sense of lyndon johnson wrote the civil rights bill in to two bills the '64 and '65 civil rights. he just didn't think the country would swallow that much in one gulp. i think that was a wise decision. would he in retrospect, would you all have been better to break this in to two bills, find something that everybody could agree on pass that in to law? >> i think it's unlikely that the second piece would have

happened. seven presidents have tried the seven presidents have failed. and there wasn't any blueprint that would suggest there was easy way to do it. he had big majorities in the congress in the first term we tried to forge a bipartisan coalition, he wade six months to put that coalition together. i wrote about that, said he was allow olympia snow take an apartment in the white house. he just couldn't forge that, but i think that he did it the only way he could by going forward at once. >> schieffer: had such a hard time connecting with people on capitol hill not just one party but in both? >> you know, i think everybody's strength is their weakness, his strength is that he believes that there are more important things than winning elections. he thinks that when you get elected you're role is to try to get things done. that's not the prevailing view among a lot of folks in this town. i wrote in the book, right after

the health care, talking to the caucus about health care bill, democratic caucus we went back to the white house, he said, what are they so afraid of? i said i think they're afraid of losing their jobs. he said, what's the point of being up here for 30 years if you don't do anything? i said look, i think they want to do something but if it's a choice between that and being up here for 30 years they would rather be up here for 30 years. he hasn't really related to that. sometimes there's an air of moral superiority that creeps in because he feels like we have responsibility to do big things, why don't you see it the way i see it? >> schieffer: do you think hillary clinton is inevitable? >> inevitable is a very tough word. i actually think that's a trap -- i think she's highly likely to be the democratic nominee. i can't see another scenario but this is exactly what got her in trouble last time because with inevitability becomes caution she was unwilling to be venture some and be dealing with herself and really connecting with people. only after lost the iowa

caucuses did we see that person emerge, it's important for her to come out that way this time for her to be ultimately successful. >> schieffer: you really didn't want her in obama administration. >> i was wondering how this was going to work after two-year very pitched battle, the president had every confidence, he said she was a friend before and she'll be loyal and he felt like she -- he was going to be focus dollars on the economy, he needed somebody to be recognized in foreign capitals as the a team. what was one of the nice stories of the administration was the relationship they developed which was very respectful and very positive. >> schieffer: david axelrod we want to thank you. we also want to wish you a happy birthday. >> thank you. >> schieffer: i've got one next week. we'll be back. thank you very much. we'll be back to look at some of the weather lately and what it's doing to human behavior.

[ birds chirping ] [ inhales, exhales ] [ announcer ] cigarettes are not just dangerous when they're smoked. [ rat squeaking ] they're dangerous long after. cigarette butts are toxic. they release chemicals that poison our water... and harm wildlife. and millions... are polluting our environment. [ sniffing ] [ seagulls squawking ] >> schieffer: we see our job at "face the nation" in answering the big questions. most on your mind. i think i'm on safe ground here when i say i think the question

most on your minds last week was this one: how cold was it? well, it was so cold most of lake michigan froze over. it was so cold that niagara falls froze. no reports of climbers there yet but they are climbing the waterfall in north carolina. it was so cold the harland city, kentucky police department suspected it was the work of queen elsa of arendelle. if you saw "frozen" you can get that then explain it to me. meantime it of the so cold in washington where cloudy skies can bring the city to a halt that temperature dropped five degrees coldest weather in 120 years here. that would have been a heat wave for the folks in embarrass minnesota, it was 41 below there that is actually a lake those guys are standing on. it was so cold the mayor of

boston found it necessary to urge people not to jump out of their windows. >> a foolish thing to do. and you can kill yourself. >> schieffer: if you wondered why he thought that warning necessary, yeah, it was so cold it made all of us a little crazy. back in a moment. [alarms blaring] ohhhhh... whoa whoa whoa! who's responsible for this?!? if something goes wrong, you find a scapegoat. ...rick. it's what you do. ahhhhhhhh! what'd you say? uh-oh! kelly! if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. rick. don't walk away from me.

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but anyone can help a foster child. >> schieffer: that's it for us today. thank you for watching "face the nation." and stay warm.

pedestrians in the bay area. 2 people are hit --- and one is dead after being hit by a car in a busy south bay intersection. good evening, i'm ann notarangelo. another deadly accident involving pedestrians in the bay area. two people are hit and one is dead after being hit by a car on a busy south bay intersection. good evening. the accident happened at the intersection of north wolfe road. it happened after 3:00 this afternoon. >> reporter: the police removed the police tape and reopened the scene less than 10 minutes ago. the witnesses tell me a dog, chasing after a -- a man who was chasing after a dog caused this accident. as a result, one dead and