those air strikes have now begun. to prevent isis rebel fighters from taking erbil, the capital of kurdish northern iraq. on thursday the u.s. also began a humanitarian effort simultaneously air dropping 8,000 meals and 5300 fresh gallons of water to tens of thousands of yezidi refugees. this is a religious minority who have fled to the mountains to escape execution. they have been trapped there. many are dying of thirst and starvation. the president said he will authorize combat air strikes if necessary to help free the yezidis from this siege. >> when we have a mandate to help, in this case a request from the iraqi government, and when we have the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, then i believe the united states of america cannot turn a blind eye. >> joining me now, nbc's chief

pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski. jim, these air strikes that the president said he authorized have begun, hitting isis territory. explain what the mission is. is it about creating space so that the kurds can basically regroup and take them on themselves? >> well, you know, while all the attention overnight was on this humanitarian air drop and the possibility of air strikes, the major concern of u.s. military officials has been the situation around erbil and the isis militant rebels have been able to move so swiftly with such precision and, quite frankly, speed and coordination, that it exhibited a new kind of ability, military capability on the part of the isis forces and that the peshmurda forces, long considered to be some of the fiercest fighters in iraq were actually put on the run. so the idea that just last night

president obama warned that if there was any threat to u.s. facilities, personnel there in erbil, that he would order air strikes and that happened this morning. it's not clear yet if in fact the rebels had actually advanced on erbil, but it's clear that essentially the ground war -- i mean not ground war, but the air war between isis and the u.s. has begun. >> there's no doubt. i guess the question i have is, and you brought this up in an earlier conversation, if u.s. personnel were in harm's way, the easiest thing we could have done is taken them out, rescued them, taken them away. the decision was not to do that, so that means this really is about seeing if there is a military solution that the u.s. can assist with if the kurds can lead a military solution in pushing isis back, correct? >> right. erbil with 1.5 million people is

absolutely key to that long-term strategy of really partitioning iraq and allowing the kurds to control that northern section of iraq. if they -- if the kurds lose erbil, they essentially lose northern iraq and all bets are off. so it is absolutely critical to any kind of future strategy on the u.s. part certainly in any attempt to force those militants to back down. >> jim miklaszewski, chief pentagon correspondent, you've got a busy morning ahead of you. i'm going to bring in deputy national security adviser ben rhodes. he joins me now from the white house. ben, good morning to you. >> good morning, chuck. >> let's start with what is the military mission here? these air strikes have begun. explain the mission. is this about giving the kurds space to fight their own battle with isis? >> well, yes, chuck.

the fact of the matter is we have people in erbil. if isis is allowed to advance any more towards erbil, we believe it could put the city at risk and that puts our people at risk. what the president has made clear is we are going to take limited air strikes as necessary so that there's a perimeter around erbil and the kurdish forces are engaged with isil in that fight. >> if this doesn't work and they're still able to continue this slow march, it frankly hasn't been -- in military terms it hasn't been slow, it's actually very speedy with what isis is able to do. if this doesn't work, is the president prepared to do more to try to stop isis? >> well, chuck, we're confident that the combination of u.s. air power being brought to bear against these isil targets and the regrouping and fighting isil, that provides a track on their advance. of course we'll always evaluate circumstances as they evolve,

but the mission the president set out yesterday is very clear. top priority is the security of our people. if we see an advance, we'll hit. we have increased the flow of arms to the kurdish forces as well so that they're reinforced. >> let me ask you this. if our people are in danger in erbil, why not evacuate them? >> well, chuck, because we want to keep that facility open and we want to keep the joint operations center we have with the kurds open. we have an invitation from the iraqi government to take this action. we have an isr capability overhead so we can see what's going on on the ground and we have the military capability to hit these targets. all of that allows us to take this course of action, which allows us to again push back isil and protect erbil. >> do you believe the kurds have the military capability to push isis, and you call it isil, and we know there's different names for what we've been calling them, but do you believe that the kurds have the military

capability to push isil and isis back? >> well, isil has obtained some heavy weaponry and have been very quickly. the peshmirga has a fighting force. they need additional arms and we're providing those. what they need to protect erbil is air strikes. we do believe they will get back into that fight and defend what has really been the capital of that kurdish region for so many years. >> you know there's a lot of back seat driving on capitol hill, a lot of back seat driving in the military an intelligence communities that say why didn't the president act four months ago, why didn't the president act a year ago. did you wait too long to act? >> no, chuck, because frankly there's not a u.s. military solution that can be imposed on iraq. what needs to happen is an inclusive government formation and iraqi security forces that can take on the threat of isil.

however, there are certain core interests that the united states is going to protect. chief among those is the protection of our personnel and facilities. that's why we're taking this action. but also when we see a potential act of genocide, as we've seen on mt. sinjar, we'll also act there. so the humanitarian air drops have started. we've made clear if we see the potential massacre of civilians, we'll act to break that siege with targeted air strikes as well. >> is the united states at war with isis? >> the united states will take whatever action is necessary to protect our personnel. and so isil is a terrorist organization. if we see them moving and threatening our people and facilities, we'll act against them. again, in terms of a broader counterterrorism campaign, we're going to support the iraqi security forces as they take that fight to isil. clearly there's a war under way in iraq where isil is seeking to take on as much territory as they can, harm as much civilians

as they can. we're engaged in supporting the iraqis as they take the fight to isil. >> are they more dangerous than al qaeda right now? >> well, they're different, chuck, in the sense that al qaeda has had as its principal ambition attacks against the west, attacks against the u.s. homeland. that's the direct threat we've faced many years. that's why we take action directly against al qaeda. with isil it's not that nexus to homeland plotting against the united states, but they're a bigger threat in the region where they're seeking to consolidate territory. so they're different organizations with different objectives. however, they do share a common ideology which we completely reject and has to be rejected by all people who want to see peace and stability in the region and the world. >> right now what the president authorized was air strikes to protect erbil. is that it or would there be other -- if there are other isis targets not in northern iraq but, say, on the border of iraq and syria that you believe are important strategic military targets to weaken isis, is that

part of what the president authorized? >> the president authorized two missions. one would be strikes associated with the humanitarian mission. the other would be strikes associated with the security of our people. we're focused on erbil because that's where isil has been advancing. we also have a very significant diplomatic presence in baghdad, so the same principle would apply. if we saw isil advances on baghdad that threatened our people. >> but that's it. so what you're saying it's about baghdad and erbil. right now you're not ready -- this is not about taking the fight to isis, say, inside of other parts of iraq or across the border in syria? >> yes, that would be a different mission, chuck. but we have said if there is a counterterrorism target that involves potential plotting against the united states, we always reserve the right to act. that would be separate, though, from the two missions that the president authorized yesterday. >> he seemed very reluctant to do this, extremely reluctant. is it just the weight of the

promise that he made when he ran for president that we weren't going to be going back into iraq? >> well, i think the president is always careful and deliberate about making decisions to apply military force. we want to make sure that it's in the core american interests and make sure we're putting appropriate limits so we're not getting drawn back into a conflict in a way that goes beyond what is necessary. the president made clear he is not putting american combat troops back on the ground in iraq. that was his promise, to remove our troops. at the same time, though, we're not going to stand by when we do see these core american interests threatened, so the president was not at all reluctant to make this decision yesterday when he saw it was necessary for the security of the united states. i think the american people would understand that these are the types of missions that our military should be engaged in, protecting our people, preventing an act of genocide. at the same time, i think they do appreciate that we're not just going rush back into iraq. not going to be putting combat troops on the ground there. we want the iraqis after all these years and all this american sacrifice to be in the front and taking the fight to

isil. >> is this a quid pro quo with what happened in the iraqi government yesterday, with al maliki being kicked out? >> no, the timing was different tracks, chuck, but it is the case that we have been working very hard through our embassy on the ground and through our outreach with the iraqi government to encourage them to forge a new, inclusive government as soon as possible. they're making good progress towards that. if they do that, that would provide a much stronger foundation for us not just to provide support to them but go to other countries in the region, some who have had differences with this iraqi government and try to rally support to flow into the iraqi government so we're encouraging them to complete this as soon as possible. >> i know you've had a lot of sleepless nights having to do with iraq, ukraine. very quickly, the cease-fire between gaza and israel expires. where are we? do we think that this is -- that this is going to not hold and we're going to have more

conflict or do we think we're going to get an extension? >> well, look, israel has been very clear that it would welcome an extension. and so we support what israel is doing and trying to create space for these negotiations. unfortunately, we've seen rocket fire back in israel. israel is going to defend itself when that happens. however, we do believe that there is space to get back into an extension of a short-term cease-fire. let these negotiations in cairo proceed in a way that can address israel's concern about hamas's stockpile of rockets and arms and address the need to have a better quality of life for the people of gaza. >> ben rhodes, deputy national security adviser for the president. it's been a quite busy last couple of weeks for you. frankly last six years. ben, thanks very much. >> thanks, chuck. well, we will have more information on exactly the air strikes have begun. the air strikes that the president announced. you just heard ben rhodes there, it's a very narrow mission about protecting american personnel at risk in erbil and northern iraq.

that there is an authorization on air strikes now to protect any -- to protect baghdad if isis is making a move on baghdad, but for now, that is the military mission. it's about protecting u.s. personnel and u.s. interests in baghdad and erbil and that's the fight that the united states is willing to take to isis right now. we will have more on this, of course, throughout the hour. we're going to take a quick break. we'll be right back. a body at rest tends to stay at rest...

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so within the last 30 minutes here's what we know. two fa-18 aircraft dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery unit of isis. obviously the u.s. government calls it isil that was near erbil. as you heard ben rhodes say, the deputy national security adviser, this is all a part of

what the president spoke to the nation about last night, what he authorized. this is about protecting u.s. personnel in northern iraq. there is an authorization for air strikes to protect u.s. personnel in baghdad, to go after isis, that's it. but the mission being this, two-part mission, protect u.s. personn personnel. there's that simultaneous humanitarian mission for the yezidis trapped in the mountains there escaping persecution, what the president called a potential act of genocide. but this is also a military mission. and the mission for now, as defined by the united states, and you heard ben rhodes say, giving some space to the kurds. they have a lot of confidence in the kurds that if they can regroup, of course isis put them on the run a little bit, surprisingly so, and it surprised the united states, which is what finally got the president to act on this, but the kurds are trying to regroup. militarily, the united states is hoping they can start pushing back on isis and keep them from taking erbil. the fear being if isis takes

erbil, then all of northern iraq falls and maybe there is no way to push them out without any sort of much more extended military effort by the united states. i want to bring in barry mccaffrey, he's a long-time nbc analyst at this point, former army general. general mccaffrey, i don't know if you heard ben rhodes define the mission there. this is about essentially giving the kurds the space to do this. the kurds of all of the ethnic groups in iraq, they have been the most reliable partner to the united states, they have been the most stable government. it is one of these things, this is what got the president to act. you don't want to see the kurds go down. is it enough, what the president has authorized? >> well, look, there's a huge tragedy unfolding. 1.5 million refugees, a couple of hundred thousand just in the last few weeks. 50,000 of this minority group stuck on -- up in the mountains. but these are political gestures

using military power. when we dropped three aircraft loads of water and food to 50,000 people in the mountains, now we're striking isis artillery units. it looks to me as if a lot of this is internal u.s. politics to show we're doing something. i mean if you're going to use military power, you have to write down your objective and then use decisive force to meet your objective. so i'm a little dismayed at what we're up to here. >> i have to say, general mccaffrey, you're hearing probably from the same people i've been hearing from for months, which says isis has been a threat, has been a concern in some form or another. they were just known as sort of an offshoot of al qaeda over a year ago during the syrian civil war. they have basically become this mobile nation state with a

military that the united states hasn't seen or the middle east hasn't seen, a surprisingly effective military. this is not a ragtag bunch of al qaeda -- this isn't al qaeda, this is more dangerous than al qaeda. this is al qaeda if it had an army. >> well, i actually wouldn't characterize them as an army, although they're now equipped with a lot of heavy armor and artillery and anti-aircraft weapons, courtesy of the iraqi army that took off like wild hares when opposed with sort of a modest force. the bottom line to me is the kurds deserve our support. for the last year we should have been equipping them and supporting them. we didn't because we were concerned about maintaining a centralized iraqi state with maliki, who acts as a shiite

despot. i think we have muddled thinking on what we're trying to achieve in iraq. and so these pinprick strikes -- if you're going to protect refugees, 50,000 people without water and food, you don't do two fa-18 strikes on an artillery unit somewhere in the vicinity. >> right. general mccaffrey, i'd like you to hang on. i want to go to erbil now. i've got a reporter on the ground there, tracy shelton of "the global post" on the ground in erbil. how concerned are the kurds that isis is on the move? >> reporter: there's a lot of concern here. yeah, a week ago if you asked anybody, everyone was 100% confident in the peshmerga army and the kurdish forces that they could hold isis back. there was not really any question of it. even these minority groups like the yezidis, the christians, they were very close to the islamic state but they had full

confidence that the kurds were going to protect them and that theirville annu villages wouldn. so it's been an incredible week. it's totally changed people's opinions and everybody is scared now. >> is there confidence that what the united states has agreed to do, which is these air strikes, limited air strikes essentially to buy the kurds time to regroup, that this is enough? >> reporter: i would say basically because no one expected the militants -- well, they're not even just villages but there's major towns falling at well. no one expected this to happen at all and it put everyone in shock and nobody knows what to expect anymore. the things they thought were a given kind of fell through. first of all, the iraqi army pulled out when isis first moved in and mosul fell very quickly. that was like a bit of a shock, but people didn't really have a lot of confidence in the iraqi army. but still, to pull out that

quickly took everybody by surprise. but then everybody was kind of saying and has been saying for the last few months that was the iraqi army. this is the peshmerga. like everybody has full confidence. so yeah, even now with the air strikes, with the support from the u.s., people are still concerned. nobody has confidence in anything anymore. >> i imagine so. i guess my question, do they think the united states has done enough or do they need the united states to do more? josh earnest, white house press secretary, said a couple of days ago, the united states isn't the answer when it comes to the issues in iraq and dealing with isis. i get the sense that if you talk to the kurds and you talk to folks in erbil, they believe the united states is the only answer? >> reporter: yeah, there's mixed reactions. i mean, yeah. but a lot of people, probably the majority are saying they want more support, they want more action. maybe even troops on the ground. like a lot of people were expecting a bigger reaction

earlier actually from the united states. so most people -- others don't really want outside interference, they want iraqis to mobilize. but yeah, the majority, yeah, they want a bit more action from the united states. >> just give me a picture on the ground there in erbil, are people hunkering down in their homes? is there a sense of people aren't out on the streets? give me a sense of what the day has been like. obviously the day is getting ready toned ther end there, but a sense of what everything was like in the city. >> reporter: everything is still functioning. it's not at the point where people are staying at home or closing down their shops or this sort of thing. it is very tense. there's also a lot of refugees coming in here. i'm actually at the moment in the christian area and it is overrun with refugees coming from the christian villages, which has also been overtaken by the islamic state so there are people sleeping in the streets.

the church grounds are completely full, just packed with families sleeping out on the grass. even people sleeping on the roadside in their cars, in public parks. so yeah, there's an overwhelming amount of refugees that have come, even in the last few days. and there's still some coming even now. >> a humanitarian crisis it sounds like is what you're describing there in erbil when it comes with the refugees there. tracy shelton from "the global post" right now reporting from erbil. tracy, thanks very much for your report. we're going to continue our coverage now. the u.s. back in iraq, some limited air strikes have begun. you heard what the very limited mission is for now. of course there's going to be a big political debate and policy debate about whether the united states waited too long to act when it comes to dealing with isis, but you heard what the mission is. for now to give the kurds the space so that they can see if they can take the fight. the best fighting force there is in iraq of any of these ethnic

groups are the kurds. will they be able to hold isis back? you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc and our continuing coverage of new air strikes in iraq. we'll be right back. shingles affected me tremendously as a pilot. the pain in my scalp area and down the back of my neck was intense. it would have been virtually impossible in that confined space to move to change radio frequencies. i mean it hurt. i couldn't even get up and drive let alone teach somebody and be responsible in an airplane. as a pilot that meant i was grounded. that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve.. at humana, we believe the gap will close when healthcare gets simpler. when frustration and paperwork decrease. when grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home. so let's do it.

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there is in iraq. if they can't beat back isis, the question is going to be who can. the announcement of course raises new questions about what is the u.s. role in iraq, what is the u.s. responsibility two and a half years after the last combat troops withdrew from the country. the president said he's not going to allow the u.s. to get dragged into fighting another war in iraq. but there are also questions about the timing of this announcement. for months the intelligence community has warned the president that he has to act more aggressively against isis. waiting does not weaken them, it strengthened them, as islamic militants continue to make these gains. only now with america's most reliable ally in iraq, the kurds, under siege, the president is acting. on thursday civilians fled in panic when kurdish forces known as the fiercest and most professional army in iraq retreated from the largest christian town in iraq and isis militants captured the mosul dam, the country's largest.

i am joined on the phone by isham. this issue with isis, whether you're in jordan, you're fearful of isis. whether you're in northern iraq, you're fearful of isis. and frankly, the united states intelligence community, fearful of isis and their aspirations to try to strike in the united states. this is like nothing the middle east has seen in your lifetime, is it? >> absolutely. i've never seen any force like this. this is a nightmarish, puritanical islamic force. this is al qaeda on steroids. unfortunately for the last two years we let them fester and grow in syria and we discovered their lethality in june when they took over most of northern iraq, including the second largest iraqi city, mosul. there was a panic in washington when they threatened baghdad, but then again, that sense of

urgency dissipated in the last few weeks. the clash between the united states and isis was inevitable. the question today is whether the president of the united states is doing enough. the question is, is it too little too late. at this stage what i see is it is too little. the president doesn't want boots on the ground. i understand that, obviously. but he has to support somebody else's boots on the ground. and the only available boots willing to fight are the kurds and we need to embark on a quick program of rearming the kurds, provide them with ammunition and air support until they really can stand up on their own feet. the peshmerga, as you well know, chuck, have been famed for their prowess as a guerrilla fighting force, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they have the capability to mount offensive campaigns against a group like isis that is now -- now has tremendous capability of logistics and moving thanks to the equipment that they captured

from the iraqis. >> you just pointed out something i was just about to point out. this is american made. they have captured u.s. military equipment. they are using u.s. military equipment, which of course makes this even more deadly. hasham, the other part of isis that has been so troubling to the united states is that their aspirations are so different. al qaeda, as somebody described it to me, essentially had a destructive ideology. they just wanted to destroy things. destroy the u.s. financial sector, destroy -- it was a -- isis wants to govern. isis is trying to create a nation state. that is something al qaeda wasn't even aspiring to do. >> absolutely. >> is isis successfully governing in the places where they govern? how successful are they governing? >> they are governing, quote unquote. the success, time will tell. they have their own courts, their own bureaucracy. >> and they're paying people,

right? they're paying government people that work for isis to do things like the power and basic sanitation needs? >> very true, and they are generating funds from extortion from early on from syrian businesses and others. they are selling clandestinely oil to middle men in damascus and other people. so they control oil fields. they control two major dams, one in syria and one in iraq. they are collecting taxes, as i said. they looted banks in mosul and other cities, so they have their own funds now. i'm sure that funds are reaching them still from wealthy businessmen in the gulf. not businesses, but wealthy businessmen in the gulf. they control a large area. stride both major countries of syria and iraq. this is not lal qaeda, this is new phenomena. the middle east has never seen it in modern times or the previous century. that's why the united states in

the end would have to be more forceful dealing with this new plague. >> all right. hasham, as always, thank you for your time. our continuing coverage will be back in three minutes. d a oice. take 4 advil in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. honey, you did it! baby laughs! ♪ ♪ ♪ woooooah. ♪ [ male announcer ] you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. zillow.

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>> well, chuck, we're confident that the combination of u.s. air power being brought to bear against these isil targets and the peshmerga regrouping and fighting isil, that provides a check on their advance. of course we're always going to evaluate circumstances as they evolve, but the mission that the president set out yesterday is very clear. top priority for the united states is the security of our people. we have people in erbil. if we see an advance, we're going to hit it. the peshmerga are engaged with this and we're going to support them. we've increased the flow of arms to the kurdish forces as well so that they're reinforced. >> let me ask you this. if our people are in danger in erbil, why not evacuate them? >> well, chuck, because we want to keep that facility open and we want to keep the joint operations center we have with the kurds in erbil open. we have an invitation from the iraqi government to take this action. we have an isr capability overhead, so we can see what's going on on the ground. and we have the military capability to hit these targets. so all that allows us to take this course of action, which

allows us to, again, push back isil, give the peshmerga that space and protect erbil. >> do you believe that the kurds have the military capability to push isil and isis back? >> isil has obtained some heavy weaponry and have been moving very quickly. the peshmerga has generally been a very courageous, very organized fighting force. what they need is support. what they need is additional arms and we're providing those. what they need to protect erbil again is the potential for u.s. air strikes to cordon off any isil advances. we do believe they will get back into that fight and will defend what has really been the capital of that kurdish region for so many years. >> more on what this announcement means for the u.s. role in iraq. joining me now, steve clemons, the washington editor at large for "the atlantic" and general barry mccaffrey is still on the phone. steve, let me start with you. too little too late? would i sis be in a different

place today had the president acted sooner? >> i think that isis is rolling forward so quickly because of the collusion of over sunni actors, so we can't blame the president for that and make this just an isis story. i think that's a key part of it. the other element of this is this is a manifestation of a much broader issue in the region between shia and sunni interests. as long as those continue to remain unresolved, you're going to see this kind of situation elsewhere in the region. so i don't hold him accountable for having not moved until this point. >> it does seem as if isis' capability here, from suddenly becoming a governing -- they're sort of a borderless country, although they are trying to create borders and they certainly have towns and plenty of space that they control across the border, but this is -- this has been -- from the region, there have been people screaming about isis for months, and the president has been extremely reluctant to re-engage

on this. >> well, isis was an unwanted ally in syria. calling them an ally is probably an incorrect term, but they were after bashar al assad as was the free syrian army and these grou groups talked on and off about collaboration. you had saudi and sunni players through the region not formally through the government but informally through private money that has helped fund this group, which is also a shakedown artist for areas that they take over and shake down the business interests where they are and they have been self-funding as well as getting others in there. and in that mix of things, they were taking down bashar al assad, which used to be one of our highest priorities. >> right. general mccaffrey, i thought it was interesting when every question i asked about what we were doing with isis, when ben rhodes was very careful to talk about interests in iraq. there seems to be whatever happens, whatever the united

states does in targeting isis, they do not want to be targeting isis inside of syria. they seem as if they want to try to isolate this to dealing with them when it comes to threatening baghdad or threatening erbil. is that a policy that's going to be able to hold? >> chuck, you know, i thought the most preposterous thing about that interview, you're dealing with a white house staffer who's talking about two fa-18 planes striking targets. last night we dropped three aircraft loads of water and food to 50,000 people. where is the joint commander and his mission? where are the forces we supposedly put in the region? turkey is going to be very reluctant to host u.s. air power as it kuwait. we don't have a status forces

agreement with iraq. we are making this up as we go with political gestures through u.s. military power. this is preposterous. >> steve clemons, general mccaffrey, that is -- let me read you a statement from speaker boehner. he said this. the president's authorization of air strikes is appropriate but like many americans i am dismayed by the ongoing absence of a strategy for countering the grave threat isis poses to the region. and this goes back. look, this is not about finger pointing at this point, but it does seem as if there is a reluctance by this administration to say, okay, we've basically got to start treating isis as we did with al qaeda and say we are at war with isis and we have to figure out how to roll them back. steve? >> well, that's one perspective. the other perspective i would add is where is everyone else? where are the saudis? where are the turks? where are the french? where are the iraqis?

you know, after we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars training and outfitting forces, it is, i think, right to look at the fact that there's been an absence of strategy in this region and you can't pretend that this isn't a big problem. i'm completely on that wavelength. at the same time, there has been a dereliction of duty of all stakeholders in that region who should have been responding more quickly. and frankly, while the u.s. can demonstrate leadership, i think at the same time this is a large-scale broad regional civil war, and the united states needs to demonstrate some restraint here and get other stakeholders to become much more invested in a future that is stable and that has some promise for their young people in the future, and they're not doing that. >> no, that's for sure. there is definitely sort of a regional paralysis from some of america's allies in the region there. steve clemons, washington editor at large with "the atlantic." barry mccaffrey, nbc news analyst, former retired general,

thank you both very much. we'll be right back with more coverage, the yuu.s. back in ir on a very limited basis. but is this the beginning of what's likely to have to be more efforts to roll back isis? we'll be right back with continuing coverage. and schedule service by top-rated providers, conveniently stay up-to-date on progress, and effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with the angie's list mobile app. visit angieslist.com today. yeah? then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. silence. are you in good hands? silence. and for many, it's a struggle to keep your a1c down. so imagine, what if there was a new class of medicine that works differently to lower blood sugar? imagine, loving your numbers. introducing once-daily invokana®. it's the first of a new kind of prescription medicine

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iraq. what needs to happen is an inclusive government formation and iraqi security forces that can take on the threat of isil. however, there's certain core interests that the united states is going to interests that will protect. the protection of our personnel facilities. that's why we're taking this action. but also when we see potential act of genocide as we've seen, we're going it act there. the humanitarian air drops have started we've made clear if we see the potential massacre of tens of thousands of civilians on the mountain, we'll have to break the seeing with targeted air strike s as well. creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america.

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continuing coverage the united states back in iraq. u.s. air strikes have begun very limited air strikes. joining me now chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell and bobby goesh. there's a way you can look at this from two ways. the dilemma the president is facing. is it too little too late on the

one hand. on the other hand, is there really -- can the united states be the solution in iraq? it seems to be the president himself you can see that dilemma. he feels squeezed by both issues. >> yeah. and, you know, you suggested earlier that according to some people started with mubarak and gadhafi not having an after-action plan. i think that's a part point. the other chipping point, i think, was a year ago. labor day weekend when we did not act as signalled to all of our allies in the persian gulf and europe and elsewhere with the red line in syria. that was the moment when isis really metastasized and filled the vacuum. when, also, american allies stepped back and said, whoa, we cannot rely on them to use military force. there are a lot of arguments using military force against then but having gone so far and sent john kerry out to give the

war speech that friday to not act on saturday did send a very powerfully negatively signal to saudi arabia and others. to the point of steve clemons saying we're the allies. we need more action from the allies. the counter point they're saying we can't follow because barack obama up until now hasn't lead. that's why you haven't seen the jordanians and the saudi air forces and the coalition that bush 41 built. >> bobby gosh build on that. obviously the jordanians are watching. there's a lot of concern. i've talked to plenty of folks who fear if between the curds and the jor dane begans these are the two who can't let isis get to either one of those strategic partners. >> absolutely. the isis last week made an inclusion into lebanon, which is closer to jordan.

and the jordanians must be looking in that direction with a great deal of concern. to answer the question, you asked is it too little too late? it's very little and very late. i'm keeping my fingers crossed as i'm sure people are around the region it's not too little too late. it's something to build on. if it's an indication that the u.s. is beginning to gradually take the leadership position, then it is something to build some hope with. can the u.s. do it alone? it can't but it can't be done without the u.s. that's the other side of that coin. there have to be boots on the ground. there are others that have to step in. but air cover can only be really provided by the united states. thank you both. coming to the end of the hour. jose diaz balart will continue the coverage. u.s. back in iraq. a very limited mission now. once you start, of course, why the president was reluctant to even get in when he did.

once you're in, how do you stop helping if the help isn't successful in your first try? stay with msnbc all day long. continuing coverage will take over from jose diaz-balart. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, this can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain, and improve daily physical function so moving is easier.

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probably dead... how much fun is this? what? what a beautiful sunset... if you like sunsets. whether you're sweet or salty... you'll love nature valley sweet and salty bars. good morning. i'm jose diaz-ball later. the u.s. military is conducting air strikes in iraq against a terrorist group isis. just in the last hour, nbc news learned two u.s. navy fa 18 dropped two 500 pound bombs outside the city of erbil. it came in response to the pentagon. isis was using artillerartiller. the strike comes less than 12 hours after president obama announced his authorization for targeted air