get an update from the white house today and more specifically on the plan as the situation is moving rapid in iraq? >> well, tamron, that is exactly right, i spoke to a senior administration official who tells me that the decisions will be made, and in their language, quote, very soon. it is unclear whether we will hear from president obama, himself. he is scheduled to leave here aboard marine i before heading out west where he is visiting an indian reservation before heading to southern california where he he has a commencement address and a father's day relaxing weekend and it is not going to be relaxing and whether he continues w s with it is unk with the circumstances here, and the decision has not been made at the white house, because many cop seed there are not a number of good options bs, but the opts being considered po on the shall air strikes either manned or those done by the drones ashs and the white house and the president has said that there will not be american troops on the ground there again.

and a senior official from the administration told us in their language, this is the most serious security threat in iraq in years right now, and one of the real frustrations at the white house right now is with the maliki government. the government of iraq right now that they believe has done a miserable job in terms of trying to reconcile the different f factions and the sectarian factions that exist within that country, and they recognize that the ultimate solution there will not be one with air strikes, and it may serve some short term goal, but certainly not going to resolve the real problems, the underlying problems that exist in that country. tamron? >> and peter, the president met with the cabinet last night as well? >> yes, with the national security council, and we saw john kerry, the vice president joe biden as well as they were departing, and that conversation, we are told that no decisions were made in the course of the conversation, but we did hear from the president only a matter of hours earlier as he spoke with the reporters

visiting with the prime minister of australia and the oval office where he indicated among other things that everything, and no options had been reruled out and everything remains on the table the right now, and one other note is that there is a continued ask from iraq for more assistance from the united states, and that presently, there is already some unmanned surveillance flights taking place over the country of iraq. one of the real challenges in this situation, tamron, is the fact that there is limited intelligence to know exactly what you are aiming at, and what targets you are going after in that country right now, and i am told by the administration officials that in recent days they have increased as they said it the sharing of the intelligence information that they have ga thered from the flights above iraq. >> and to your point, i want to show you before we bring in eamon mohyeldin, and we are asked what he was asking from

iraq from the united states. >> we need to increase the training and the counter terrorism, and we need some supremacy of the air and better prediction of the terroristic threat to the iraq and this is where the united states has the experience and we can see now they have the will. >> that is the ambassador to united states to iraq earlier today, with but ayman, we know that right now, factoring into the crisis is e iran, and its decision to perhaps deploy elite revolutionary guard units to iraq. >> well, absolutely. i mean, this is a unique moment where the united states and iranian interests are both converging in iraq, and interesting not only is the iranian government making it clear the support for the maliki government politically and diplomatically and as well as with the military or paramilitary assets on the ground, but also spiritually as the grand ayatollah who lives in iraq has actually called on the young men in iraq to joan the fight to take up arms and to

defend the country. that perhaps give the greatest indication that this violence that is spreading across iraq is falling more and more along the sectarian lines and taking a dangerous turn between the sunni community and the shiite community on the other and that is one of the reasons that iran is very vested in this, because they are a backer of the maliki government and the shiite government in iraq for several year years. >> and according to latest information the insurgents are 40 miles from baghdad. do we know of any contingency plans to evacuate the u.s. embassy in the heart of baghdad and it is the largest embassy in the world? >> well, there is no doubt that those plans are definitely already in play or at least have been in play for some time. there is no way that a city like baghdad with all of the security r risks that it faces on the daily basis would not have a contingency plan in the works and the fact that you could see some of the al qaeda militant-linked militants in the

baghdad to be a threat to u.s. contractors and other officials in baghdad. but to enter baghdad is one thing, but to control it and pose a major security risk is another. no doubt that the central government has a lot of a assets and strong military in and around the capital. so you can expect that if in fact the militants try to enter baghdad, it is going to be a fierce fight and the terrain of urban warfare would make it a bloody one as well. >> eamon mohyeldin, thank you so much from your vantage point. let me bring in congresswoman sanchez, a member of the armed services committee. >> thank you for having me on. >> as peter alexander reported the president said that all options are on the table and none of which includes boots on the ground, but would you support a air strike if that is the way forward? >> well, the first question that the american people have to ask

themselves is what is the interest in iraq? well, when we see somebody like turkey asking nato meeting, it begins to make us realize that this is a regional construct, and that we really have some interests there. so the answer is then, what do we do? and i would say that there are several tools that the president has. i would increase intelligence gathering for example, and i would send in unmanned aerial vehicles to see what is going on and share more intelligence, and really get a picture of how deep is this isis group. just a small number of people or do they have a lot of depth in there, because what is going to take to take baghdad is a big fighting force and i doubt that it is really there. so the intelligence piece and then some air strikes if war increases, but the air strikes alone will not stop what is going on unlesz ss it is a smal

group of insurgents. >> and so at this point, you want to focus on gathering of information, but as you have seen over the past couple of days, mosul, takrit and now just outside of baghdad, some and into your point the numbers may be small, but the effectiveness has been proven and i believe in mosul alone, tens of thousands of iraqi troops facing some 9,000 insurgents and in this situation, the insurgents were victorious? >> well, a big difference tofr type of forces in baghdad and the number of forces that you might from our standpoint, and the urban type situation that you have there and the type of training that those troops have, and plus, if in fact the iranian elite forces have come in to help. there is a big difference between that type of a fight. remember, also, if you are moving 9,000 or again, what is the depth of that isis group? we should be able to see that

fairly quickly and it is going to be difficult for them to move in on baghdad, and that is where to a air strikes become really the hands up for us, because they don't have that kind of backup for the isis group. >> and i want to talk about of course those options are all on the table as the president said, but you well know that the politics of this heating up with senator john mccain and other republicans and former presidential candidate mitt romney criticizing the president's policies on iraq, and this is what john mccain said this morning on "morning j joe." let me play that. >> the fact is that we had the conflict won and a stable government, but the president wanted out, and now we are paying a heavy price, and i predicted nit 2011, and you can go back to look at the quotes. >> congresswoman, your reaction to that? >> well, john mccain seems to forget a very vital piece of this. al maliki who has been the, who is the president, if you will, the prime minister there of iraq, and by the way, named himself also the secretary of

defense, so really falls on al maliki with respect to what is going on, refused to sign a forces agreement for our service members, so not only the pressure of the american people who just didn't want to be there any longer, and realize that we are making more enemies the longer we occupied, if you will, but more importantly, we could not get a forces agreement signed with al maliki and that is the crux of not putting our troops there. that is the first thing, and i think that john mccain has forgotten conveniently that is the case. but more importantly, i think that one of the things that we can do is to work with those who have been strong allies with us in the area. for xexample, the curdish government who by the way probably has the strongest force in the battle-tested members of its ma lish sharks ailitia and refused to do the sharing to go on in order to not have the civil strife and even know hu se turning to the kurds and asking

them for help, so we work with the allies and we get our intelligence together, and we will have superior air force tactical capabilities, and we use that, and, i don't believe that isis is strong enough to take baghdad and we have to c e combat them before they get in. >> and now, let's bring in the retired army general barry mccaffery who was in charge of the 21st infantry in the iraq war. and also, joined by our msnbc contributor, and in baghdad, it is astonishing that the iraqi s a and the americans are caught flat footed by the speed of the insurgencies and the defections of the army members, and what is

your thought on that as well as the congresswoman's belief that we should have is had some information here? >> well, it is utterly unbelievable that people in this government do not know what the islamic state did not know, because it is not just popping up yesterday. it is a serious group that is k active and have thousands of members, and what is more important, is that it is a group of members who are actively trying to carry out attacks in western countries both in europe and the united states, and there are americans fighting for this group, and americans who have joined this group, and the fact that the executive branch just discovered this group existed or that we need to launch air strikes is ridiculous. it is a lapse of responsibility, and again not just the president here, but it is not just the white house, but everyone here salt down sat down on the job. i dont n't know if they can tak baghdad, but they can do damage, and more importantly, we have

absolute evidence of westerners trained by this group to carry out the terrorist attacks here and that alone should have justified air strikes and not just now, but weeks ago. >> and general mccaffery, fareed zarchari said, who happened here? and this morning, john mccain said that the war was won, and anyway, fareed writes, the prime minister and his ruling party have behaved like thugs, but how did maliki became prime minister of iraq, it is by a series of decision b decisions by the bush administration and they justified the actions pointing out that the shiites are the majority of iraq and so they had to rule. and many say that decisions made by nuri al maliki in eliminating or excluding an entire

population is the reason that we are here, and as long as he was the partner of any policy and choedz to exclude or rule by exclusion, we would end up with this crisis, and what do you say? >> well, i think that evan is entirely right. isis will represent an enduring threat to europe and the western united states and never mooirnd the misery and tragedy to a large part of the middle east. the question at hand is that poor mr. obama now sitting over there in the white house situation room sorting out what to do. we had 90,000 mistake off their uniform uniforms to run for it. i looked at the intelligence from the helicopters and parked up there in mosul, and the iraqi army had 140 m-1 tanks, and 2,500 armored vehicles and they are coming apart, because there

is no central state that is going to govrnlg iraq,go g going to govern iraq and not the curd di kurdish and -- >> is there a stable government? >> no, he is a strong man with a jack poot on somebody's neck, and the shia are going to fight more effectively in the south and in baghdad, because they know that their lives are at stake. but the question at hand is should the u.s. militarily intervene in an ineffectual way in support of an army that is disintegrating? and i think that the answer is pretty obvious, no. we don't want to risk the credibility of u.s. military power. if you are going to use the military pow, you have to achieve the purpose for which you set out, and that is not clear that the american people support that. >> so thank you both for your insight. we will continue the follow the breaking news throughout the hour with new development, and

the crisis in iraq is the topic of today's "newsnation" gut check. do you think that president obama will take military action to help iraq fight off the militants? go to "newsnation."msnbc.com to cast your vote and give us the thoughts on the breaking news. and developing now, we have live pictures and this is lake whitney, texas, which is 90 miles south of dallas, and crews will actually burn the house, and or ttorch the home that you looking at before it plunges off of a 75-foot cliff. you can see the exterior of it and you can see the vantage point of the home that is crumbling into the lake. it is a story ongoing and residential home, and a family lived there, but you can see what they were facing and this is something that is developing in that area, and they planned to condemn it, but now they are going to burn this structure, and we will continue the follow the developments there. >> and bowe bergdahl is back in the united states after an overnooirgt flight and up next we are live on the ground with

the latest on his condition, and when he may perhaps see his parent parents. plus, a mercedes makes a smashing entrance into cnn's world head kwaquarters and poli are investigating. it is one of the stories with we are following around "newsnation." and this -- ♪ born to run >> you don't see that everyday, governor chris christie and jimmy fallon and they studied the evolution of dad dancing and just ahead of father's day and it is one of the things to lighten up the morning for you and things that we thought that you should know, and join me on twitter tamron hall and my team at "newsnation." we're a family. we're right where you need us. at the next job, next adventure or at the next exit helping you explore super destinations and do everything under the sun. 12 brands. more hotels than anyone else in the world. so wherever you want to be, whatever you want to do,

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sergeant bowe bergdahl's family is speaking out after their son arrived back on u.s. soil overnight. bergdahl arrived in texas about 3:30 local time this morning and taken to brooke army medical center in san antonio. this video shows what is believed to be his aircraft n. a statement this morning the family says they are overjoyed that he is back, but also asking for privacy. the arrermy says he is going to continue to receive medical treatment and debriefings, and meanwhile the washington post has obtained letters that were written in the journal before bergdahl was held captive with by the taliban and the letters talk about his struggle to maintain the mental stability. and one says is the closer i am to ship day, the calmer the voices are. i'm reverting. i'm getting colder, and my feelings are being flushed with the frozen logic and the training that all of the unfeeling and cold judgment of the darkness. we should note that nbc news has not verified the authenticity of

the letter, and sarah dolhoff joins us now. >> well, tamron, there is no statement released yet, but there is a release of the family saying that they are overjoyed that their son is back in the u.s., and they are not making travel plans known, and the army is not saying where they are in the comprehensive circumstances surrounding sergeant bergdahl's circumstances, but they are saying that the only priority is the health and well-being of him in the integration process. medical care and intelligence briefings were started in germany and when it was determined that emotionally and physically, he could fly on a

plane, they brought him here to the brooke army scenter, and he was brought here with no fanfare, and whisk ed away to te hospital. and they have had no contact with the family since the release, and sergeant bergdahl no access to the intert in or the television, and so they want to carefully monitor his mental state in the next comeling days, and sergeant bergdahl is not expected to make an appearance or speak, but hopefully, tamron, we will learn new detailts about his adjustment to life back here in the u.s. >> and thank you reporting from san antonio. and now, president obama is about to take off for his first visit to a native american reservation since becoming president. we will get the details on that trip, and the purpose. plus -- >> i am just happy that he understands what he did. >> a remarkable moment in court. a florida mom hugs and forgives the teenager who shot and killed

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stroke or dementia. ask your doctor about premarin vaginal cream. and go to premarinvaginalcream.com this is worth talking about. developing news at this hour, president obama and the first lady are about to depart the white house for the president's first trip to indian k country since he was elected. the obamas will visit standing rock sioux trial reservation, which is a reservation on the north and south dakota border. there the president is going to talk to the native american youth about the challenges of growing oup in a reservation which typically suffers disproportionately with poverty and teen pregnancy and homelessly, and coinciding with the president's trip, the secretary of the interior is asking to overhaul the bureau of indian education which has the

lowest performing schools in the country. and joining us is our reporter tramaine who covers education e reporting, and excellent reporting. and you were there in south dakota and can you help people by the numbers understand the enormity of what the families are facing on educational loan. >> the delivery of the education, what is obstructing these kids getting the kind of qua quality education that we think that americans should have is a tangle of bureaucracy, and you have a tangle of it in the bureau of indian education, and you have tribal schools and cha charter schools and all trying to meet the benchmarks of the state standards and the b.i.e. admits that they are failing thousands of children. the dropout rate is the highest among any other historically oppressed minority group in the country, and 70% in some places. >> in the headline, it is "america's most forgotten children" and we have seen more

head looin headlines on whether the nfl should change the name of that washington team than we have had regarding some of the churn and wh -- some of the children and what they face. the president is headed there, and he said that the native americans face poverty rates and dropout rate nearly twice of the national rate. and so what do you think will happen with this call for the overhaul of the bureau. >> well, there is a tribe that the government will remain a trust responsibility and deliver health and education and it is dismal. so part of it is funding for the building capacity, and acknowledging that the b.i.e., but giving the challenges of the teachers in the isolated areas in far flung out there in north dakota and south dakota and how do we treat the environments

best suited for the children. >> and the president said in the op-ed, the promises to the tribal nations, it is filled with broken promises, but i believe in my administration, we have turned a corner together, and do you feel that the people on the rezer vaugss are feeling that the country is listening? >> no. they are part of the country that is forgotten about on the coast, and thinking of the redskins' name alone that hurts so many people to the core, but they have been forgotten and the treaties have been broken and little recourse, and so that the sting is real, and so one of the hurdles of mending the wounds is that the government has to acknowledge the wounds. that is what i am hearing from people in south dakota and oklahoma and the hopelessness and the hurt is real. and in some of these communities the unemployment is 28%. >> and the census 2012 listing how the unemployment and homeless are increasing, and numbers are only going to get worse. and you can read more of

traymaine's reporting on msnbc.com, and he knows his stuff, an everybody should check it out. thank you so much. and we bring you more out of iraq as the insurgents are moving closer to baghdad and the u.s. is worrying more about the threat of the terrorist group. >> this is turning into one of the most serious threats of american security in recent history. >> the question is, will the u.s. military intervene? and if so, what will be the strategy. msnbc senior political editor mark murray is next. and a new book claims that butter, meat, cheese, belong in a healthy diet. okay. before you go running for the butter in your refrigerator, i want to talk to this author on t the result of a nine-year investigation, and what are the caveats of the dot, dot, dots of this report. when it comes to good nutrition...i'm no expert.

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we are following the breaking news and just learning that president obama will make a statement on the situation on iraq at 11:50 eastern time this morning and joining me live now msnbc news senior political editor mark murray, and we have heard that all options are on the table, and not boots on the ground there in iraq, but for the first time we will hear from the president since all of this unfolded. >> it is going to be interesting what he ends up saying that the united states is going to do and one of the central questions is that no matter what the united states does whether it is air strikes from the military planes or missiles or more humanitarian aid, the president has a lot of options, but the question is, does it make the situation any better? and right now the maliki government, and the government is in control of iraq as a military, that isn't doing its job. and it has a government that has alienated the sunnis who live there, and this is a fundamental, and you have a situation where you have the sunnis versus the shiites and

whatever the united states does, the question is does it make it better? and people say that the isis extremist group is a serious potential threat to national security, and if they gain a home anchor in the iraq/syria region that it could threaten the united states, but again, the question is, does the united states make the situation better by having some type of military option on the table? >> and the already criticism of all sorts, but the one that i think that is the most interesting at this point is that the administration in america has been caught flat footed by this organization, and evan coleman said that, listen, plenty of information regarding these insurgents and their rise to where we are now, a nd we ha congresswoman loretta sanchez on and she believes that the right thing right now is to gather intelligence about who they are and more information, but you have the criticism in "the new york times" op-ed that the iraqis and the americans were

caught flat footed by what is happening now. >> welle with, it is a legitimate criticism, and now it also comes at a time when there is instability in the ukraine region and the united states has been trying to put out the fires from every kind of region across the globe. but, when it comes to whether the united states was caught flat-footed here, it is important to note that the president in his national security speech at west point ended up saying that the united states needs to be be able to combat terrorism, and extremist groups not by putting the boots on the ground, but by being smart and using the drone powerer and other things, an it is true that isis has come out of nowhere and a subject that you and i have not talked about ever before and at least before this week, but it is coming out of nowhere and whether the united states can have that capability of using drones or other technology the hunt down the terrorists and the extremists like it does in africa and places like yemen. >> and right now, peter alex n

alexander is giving more information that the president is not going to be announcing any action and he will however give an update on the situation in iraq, and according the a se senior administration official there, and mark, i am sure that you saw senator john mccain on "morning joe" this morning, and the other part of the story, of course s the history of iraq. why nuri al maliki chose to say that he would not back u.s. troops there, any number as a support unit, and really, how we got here due to the policy decisions. you have john mccain saying that the war in a sense was won, and that this government was stable in iraq and something that general mccaffery said about ten minutes ago was flat out not true. >> right. this is not occurring in a vacu vacuum, but a process ten or more years in the making and some say centuries, with the sunnis and the shiites in the area, but it is a situation

where there are some people like john mccain believe that had the united states stayed in iraq lo longer or almost indefinitely, you would not be having this type of situation at all, and others are combatting and saying that the united states shouldn't have been in the first place in iraq, and that after the surge and the bill yongs of dollar -- billions of dollars spent, and americans that died, this country was always going to be unstable regardless of the government and regardless of the ar army. >> and back to american public sentiment as well as we wait to hear from the president, you and i both know and it is no big secret here, folks, if you polled them have no tolerance for this especially as it relates to iraq. >> well, there is often a big disk disconnect between to a lot of the foreign policy and the national security thinkers in washington and new york who are often more hawkish than the country at large, and the poll that came out in janw wauary of3 around the anniversary of the

iraq war, they said that it was not worth it, and there is a big war weariness in this country, and of course, you could make the argument that after world war i, that the united states was weary, and going into world war ii was the right call by the united states after attacks of japan and germany declared war on the united states, but what we are facing after a decade of war in iraq and afghanistan is a public without an appetite for this, and the question becomes, if you don't have the appetite and not the political will, what is next, and what can the president do, and as peter reported, if we are not given the outlines of what he want s o do, but that is what we are waiting to hear. >> and with the extra bit of citing the other wars, but the extra bit of anger that comes with it, mark, when you ask both those who serve and the american public what is accomplished that cannot be answered by many, and when you see this discussion of

what to do again with iraq, many people would say, what did we accomplish the first time around, and that is the added pressure on the administration and adds to the frustration with the american people at the very mention of iraq. >> well, that is why this is a thorny subject, and tamron one other thing to keep in mind is the president's legacy coming to iraq, because this is the person who was elected into office in 2008 by promising to end the war. he won re-election in 2012 saying that he had fulfilled that promise, and this is one of the legacy issues where they thought that they will be remembered for ending the war in iraq, and that is a much more complicated picture now given all of the footage and efr everything that we have been seeing coming out of iraq. and it is possible two the three weeks from now or two to three months from now, we are not talk about this, and the latest thing where there was a big crisis in ukraine and things seemed to have settled down and so it is possible of a resolution, but right now, it is tricky situation for the obama

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we are following breaking news and in just a few minutes president obama will deliver a statement on iraq from the south lawn. when speaking, we will bring you the latest, but first we start with white house chief correspondent chuck todd who is standing by. chu chuck, as noted, by peter alexander, white house sources say that the white house is not going to announce any action, but have an update and what can you tell us? >> well, no doubt, and be realistic, he would not announce action in the south lawn right in front of helicopter marine i right on the rest of the day's scheduled visits to visit a tribal reservation in north dakota and then off to palm springs, and so it is still

intact, and you would not see if he was pulling up the stakes, you would not see marine one. they are weighing the options. i know that the ambassador from iraq are desperate for any help and activating what they are calling a security agreement still in place that does demand help from the united states when they need it on the iraqi government obviously feeling that they are besieged and they ne need it, but what is going to be interesting is what is on the table and how declarative he is about that, and more that he is asking for various options from the pentagon of what is realistic, and what can be done. and the air strike answer, and what is interesting here on air a strikes that the everybody i have talked about said it is the perfect solution, because the issue is once you start to do stuff, how do you stop? that is weighing on the president's national security team. >> and what is also weighing is the time line here to your point, chuck, we are not exkt

ping an announcement of that sort of definitive action from this location, however, we are reporting richard engel and others that you have the insurgents about 40 miles from baghdad. their power and their ability to take over baghdad, and evan kohlman says it is doubtful, but the speed of which this has moved and the rapid nature of it seems to require a more definitive action from the white house, and perhaps not at that moment, but here very soon. >> right. but what is it? >> yes. >> right. >> that the million dollar question. >> and it has bled over and we basically have no border between iraq and syria, and the same militants that intelligence have been telling the president, and his key advice that he has been getting from the various intelligence agencies have been telling him that it is a national security threat what has been going on in syria, and every insurgent, and al qaeda-related insurgent in the world are showing up there, and

now in iraq, and now it is a regional sort of issue here. and the question is, what do you do about it? can you do anything short of putting boots on the ground to try to push this back, and i think that obviously, that is the answer that he wants. but, again, would air strikes even work or does it delay? now, the iraqi ambassador said to me, they need temporary space, and they believe if if they can stop the momentum of the insurgents then maybe a political solution, and maliki gives up power and then a way to kree yat a unity government again in iraq, but right now, you can't because of the chaos. >> and speaking of the pushback obviously, the administration will likely pushback on what we are hearing from john mccain and others who are saying that there was a stable government in place in iraq despite given proof of the exclusion, the desire to govern with exclusion from nuri maliki and the decision that he

made in that he did not want troops in for an exand theed period of time. >> well, the fact is though that everybody bought into maliki, and republicans and democrats and that is shared blame there, and maliki is clearly making these mistakes that have put, brought his country to the knees in many ways, and so no doubt there, and we are having a chicken and the egg pointing conversation and those who were proponents of the iraq war believe we left too soon and those who voted against it are saying that i told you so in their form, but the matter is that we have a crisis right now, and insurgents of the islamic fundamental militants who are taking place that could be a security stake for jordan and syria and nevertheless, america is the stabilizing force in the middle east. >> and as we go to iraq and what is happening in that country, it

was ayman mohyeldin who reported what was happening there. >> and it is even bizarre of what is happening here, is that the same insurgents in the syria and the iraq militants and we want iran's help in iraq or iraq wants iran's help, but only to the point, because iran is on the other side of the conflict as far as the united states is concern concerned with what is going on inside of syria, and so it is -- look, this is a 1,000-year religion-war between shia and sunni and the borders be damned. >> and we will weigh in with jim mi miklaszewski. and you are hearing that it may be the worst best scenario to hear that drons could be used by

gathering intelligence here, and what are you hearing there? >> well, ofar, the officials are saying that we have given all possible military options to the president, and they are waiting for him to select one from column a or b and whatever one e from column b. then they will plunge into the necessary military planning to carry out whatever the president's orders are. that doesn't mean they are not looking at options now in terms of aircraft, ships, drones and all options possible options for planning. but until they get the word from the president, they can't really firmly layout an attack plan if that's what the president orders. and one of the things that people here worry about is the targeting. because you know, to simply go up into an airplane and say, oh, that looks like a target and unleash bombs is not the way that the u.s. military does it. they need to know precisely who they are aiming at and where they are, which requires a

certain amount of coordination that you wouldn't have here. they would have to rely in large part -- even though they have their own overhead surveillance, they would have to rely in large part on the iraqi government itself and we're told by senior officials, we don't trust the iraqi government to give us the right target sets. so this is a very complicated situation for the military. can they carry it out? sure. but they want to carry it out precisely with as little collateral damage, i.e. innocent civilian casualties as possible. >> mik, to your point, to the question of do we have a partner and leader in government we can trust, which were the very same questions asked regarding afghanistan and the developments there? >> in this case, the history between the u.s. fost and iraqi government is pretty much well known. but currently, you know, the --

i'm sure that the administration has problems with the maliki government and the fact they haven't included sunnis in that government as the administration thought it would. so you're looking here at -- and chuck hit on it exactly. a thousand year sectarian war that is not going to be solved with a couple of bombs or a few bombs or dozens of bombs dropped by u.s. military aircraft on a bunch of insurgents. this is not going to solve the problem. >> to that point, our own richard engel who lived in the region was on nightly news and asked, does this come as a surprise given his reporting? and he said, sadly, no. so mik, you obviously have the question, if you have seasoned reporters in the region not surprised as you pointed out thousand year sectarian war, how is it that the criticism today is that perhaps the administration was caught

offguard by this or the rapid speed at which these insurgents have been able to move through parts of the country? >> i can tell you for u.s. intelligence officials, military and otherwise, their only surprise is that people were surprised. they've been warning about this for the last year and a half, two years, that isis was going to present the most serious threat to destabilize that country. and perhaps establish a safe haven in iraq. this is not news to anybody in this building. >> again, we are awaiting new comments from the president. we were expecting those comments around 11:50 usually these things run a few minutes late. we are hoping to hear from the president here shortly before he leaves the white house for a couple of stops that we've reported earlier. but i believe we have -- we still have chuck todd with us. chuck, again, regarding the options on the table for the

president, it was interesting and perhaps even wise to know the president -- the sources are saying, listen, boots on the ground is not an option. they've made that at least clear before talking about the other options. >> well, look, there's a few things we got to remember legally. legally there is still a war authorization that is active that congress passed that does give the president a lot of leeway to do whatever he wants in iraq frankly. at this point when it comes to military issues. this isn't a case where he necessarily needs to go to congress to make some decision on various aspects that he does. now, that doesn't mean preliminarily he may decide like he did with syria that he doesn't want to go off on this political limb alone. thgs what makes this harder, the lack of political will in the country that is going to support this. our last polling on iraq, 60% of the country said the war wasn't even worth it. people didn't believe the war is worth it, are they going to

believe getting involved here is worth it because at the end of the day, what are you fixing? >> this is again, this is the 1,000 year -- are you simply just helping to put the -- press the pause button while okay, u.s. will be there and things will stabilize for a little bit then you leave and it's all back to the same thousand year war. >> it's also, you in the first ti team talked about this and we discussed it yesterday, what if any obligation does the united states have to fix this? it's been clear from the administration and others that they believe this is a larger threat outside of iraq, a threat to our nation's security. that seems to answer the question, but you still have the lingering -- i think doubt from some who say it is really to the level of a threat as articulated by some? >> the fact the issues in iraq and syria are as one, syria borders on israel, look, it is

hard not to look at this and say it's not a national security concern to the united states at this point but again, you know, you go back to sort of the political problem here and we have this whole chicken and egg with both sides claiming i told you so, with the people saying we never should have gone in, all you did was delay the inevitable and maybe help expedite the chaos and supporters and proponents are saying you can't have the gains and hope for some sort of political solution where everybody comes together if you don't stay as a stabilizing force for a longer period of time that is comfortable politically. the irony to this, tamron, joe biden was mocked back in the day when he said partition iraq, you couldn't have shia and sunni governing together, wasn't going to happen and maliki has proven that. maybe joe biden will look like the guy who saw this coming and

give the kurds a piece of iraq and sunni and shia. >> two-minute warning for the president, but the criticism that the united states or president's administration mishandled syria and if that thb effectively taking care of whatever the solutions are because it's always easier said than done we would not be in the situation. that does not acknowledge nuri al maliki and to your point his governing of exclusion. >> look, maliki, there's no doubt he made some mistakes here and they have to be -- in many ways he needs to be held accountable for that. there's a lot of back seat driving in syria, including from hillary clinton. you know, and frankly, i think some day john kerry will be the same way. there has been a big divide inside the president's national security team on syria for quite some time. >> we're awaiting new comments from president obama. he's actually headed with the

first lady to the standing rock sioux tribal nation in north dakota but we should hear from the president here in a few minutes or so. i think we have general barry mccaffrey on. are you there? >> i am. >> i know you've remarked about the number of iraqi troops versus insurgents and the fact that they would lay down their weapons, take off their uniforms and in many cases flee when the numbers shall 9,000 versus tens much thousands and looking at the iraqi soldiers there. you wonder whether or not a they were properly trained or b, if they were loyal to the government from the beginning. >> well, we put immense amounts of money into training them, officer programs, ngo programs and they had a lot of aircraft, 150 some odd aircraft and 120 armored vehicles. for gosh's sake, they were an

immense force but the generals were corrupt and incompetent and they didn't want to fight and die -- >> general, the president is stepping up to the podium. let's listen in. >> i want to take time to give you a quick update about the situation in iraq. yesterday i convened a meeting with my national security council to discuss the situation there. and this morning i received an update from my time. over the last several days, we've seen significant gains made by isil, a terrorist organization that operates in both iraq and syria. in the face of a terrorist offensive, iraqi security forces have proven unable to defend the number of cities, which has allowed the terrorists to overrun part of iraq's territory. this poses a danger to iraq and its people and given the nature of these terrorists, it could pose a threat eventually to american interests as well. now, this threat is not

brand-new. over the last year, we've been steadily ramping up our security assistance to the iraqi government with increased training, equipping and intelligence. now iraq needs additional support to break the momentum of extremist groups and bolster the capabilities of iraqi security forces. we will not be sending u.s. troops back into combat in iraq, but i have asked my national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support iraq security forces and i'll be reviewing those options in the days ahead. i do want to be clear though. this is not solely or even primarily a military challenge. over the past decade, american troops have made extraordinary sacrifices to give iraqis an opportunity to claim their own future. unfortunately, iraqis leaders have been unable to overcome too often, the