free you to focus on what matters. with custom communications solutions and dedicated support, your business can shine all week long. welcome to "taking the hill". i'm patrick murphy. today the pentagon is planning to attack isis. with u.s. troops possibly on the ground. is america going back to war in a region 11 years after the iraq invasion? i'll speak to jack reid. then we'll have a story of lieutenant colonel, a former congressman who returned to the air force and is founow leading a

humanitarian effort. and then we'll meet a woman who dealt with sexual assault in the military. are we doing enough? first, joining me now is a analyst who served during the hunt down of al qaeda and al zaharie. thank you for joining me on "taking the hill." this past week the brutal execution of james foley. they are closer to finding the killer, who is believed to be british. what kind of intelligence could you glean? >> it confirm tss a little bit about what we know about western recruits of isis joining isis in syria and iraq. and from an intelligence

perspective, you know they would be evaluating the video to see maybe where it took place in addition to actually who did it which i am relieved to see that the uk intelligence is already sort of you know looked at that issue and maybe has solved it at this point. >> there are names that have been released but we're not ready to confirm the exact name. secretary hagel said that isis is beyond a terrorist group and they are more sophisticated and better funded than anything he has ever seen. would you agree with the assessment? >> so i think what we have to do is look at the organization in iraq which at the time it was not part of al qaeda but later joined in 2004. some of the brutal tactics that isis is enacting is some of the same things that zaharie.

>> you were on the ground when that group was formed. what led to the formation of isis? >> as far as the political cause, we could say it was the invasion of iraq. he had trained in a camp next to al qaeda. he was a lone wolf regional player. he was focused on attacking the region at the time. but then it grew into a much broader network. he pulled from the maghreb out of north africa. he ended up attracting a local jihadist recruit profile which, in your honor it led him to start looking internationally. >> well, let's look at where they are now. so would the united states be

able to destroy isis with air strikes in iraq and possibly syria and possibly american operators, boots on the ground? >> i don't think air strikes alone are going to take out this organization. this organization has declared a caliphate. once they become part of that local populous it's much harder to distinguish between innocent civilians and headquarters of isis. so -- and today there's been a report that we're lacking in intelligence inside of syria. that also poses another challenge. >> that leads me to my next question. there was a twitter war this past week. lining syrian president assad against isis. a year ago we were going to take him out and there have been 200,000 civilians that have been killed in that country. so should we actually potentially partner with assad?

i mean they are against isis as well. >> you know my intent of that conversation really was not to say that we should ally ourselves with assad or align ourselves with assad. i'm open to a dialogue with assad. if isis is on the brink of taking over aleppo we may be able to ask for a cease-fire with him to help deal with the isis problem. what i would ikelike for us to see is us using our toolbox for diplomacy. for me opening up that dialogue may help assad from slaughtering his own people at this point. >> well, the chairman of joints chief of staff, martin dempsey, is my commanding general and said that the only truly be

defeated when it's rejected by the 20 million sunnis who have been disenfranchised in baghdad. is that new government in iraq are they going to be able to create an equal and unified iraq and potentially push out isis? >> you know i don't think that in and of itself is going to actually stop isis from moving forward and garnering troops. but i do think it will be helpful and it does help take the oxygen of any terrorist organization when you remove a war zone and chaos and actually provide some kind of stability for the local population. >> listen i also read a recent op-ed, they rely on partisan talking points. what has been basically the effect on that and a former cia

analyst, i know you have to give a short story to the cia and the powers at be but what do you think will be the effect when they sugar coat things. >> i've been termed a realist recently but from an intelligence perspective, when you're tackling a problem, krour you're looking at where is our leverage and what can we achieve? if we always resort back to our typical foreign policy or military stance of here's the tactics that we're going to employ, we're going to always end up in the same place. >> that's right. you need every tool in the toolbox, not just the military one. nada, thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your service to our nation and thank you for all that you do to bring justice. you're a great american. >> thank you. appreciate it. back in 2002 senator jack reed was one of the few senators to vote against the iraq war resolution in the wake of the new conflicts in iraq i sat

down with him for his opinions on what is next. now, that's coming up. make sure you join our conversation using #takingthehill. the rain, the mud -- babam! it's there. the outside comes in. it's kinda nasty so you start the towel-mop shuffle. where are you sun?! [ doorbell rings ] oh, wow, it's a swiffer wetjet. this puts my towel mopping to shame. whoa! ewww. sunshine is overrated, now we can get messy. [ laughs ] unlimited cash back. let that phrase sit with you for a second. unlimited. as in, no limits on your hard-earned cash back. as in no more dealing with those rotating categories. the quicksilver card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase every day. don't settle for anything less. i'll keep asking.

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introducing the all-new subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru. welcome back to "taking the hill." . i sat down with jack reed a fellow army paratrooper. he was one of 23 senators who voted against the iraq invasion in 202. now with the spread of isis congress is once again confronted with military action in iraq. there was twraj dee with isis.

your thoughts? >> this illustrates not only the depravity of this group but the fact that we have to deal with them with very very pre-emptive means, simply to try to deter them with reason is not going to work but we have to be very selective. we have to make sure that when we're using our force it's for our protection in the region and around the world and also we should be encouraged by the change in baghdad. with new leadership there's an opportunity to rally the iraqi civilian forces which ultimately answer to the crisis that isis is presenting to iraq and also in syria. >> the terrorists who beheaded mr. foley, he spoke english and had a british accent and isis has threatened to strike here in america. do those threats concern you?

>> we have to be concerned. that's why we have to devote significant resources in terms of intelligence and any time we identify a potential threat to the united states which is credible, whether it's in iraq or in yemen or other places we have to prepare to take these terrorists out. the defense of our country and the defense of our interests are paramount and the president has, over the last several years, made it abundantly clear that when we identify terrorist groups that are plotting against us and have reached a critical juncture or could reach a critical juncture we would strike them before they strike us. >> this past week kurdish forces took out isis fighters and recaptured the mosul dam and they got that help from u.s. air strikes as well. do you anticipate that type of u.s. involvement continuing in the near future? >> well i think our involvement has to be focused, first, on

protecting our interests. one of the reason we were supportive of the kurdish operations because erbil, the kurdish capital, contains a significant number of americans and that town was essentially threatened by isis and then to an -- in order to protect our interests in erbil so it doesn't suppose a threat to our facilities in baghdad, we continue other air strikes. there's two other dimensions. first, protecting american interests and we'll use military force to do that and, sect to encourage a political transformation in baghdad which will ultimately be the solution as we hope the iraqi political leadership have galvanize and strike against isis and destroy it. >> are you hopeful, sir, that the new prime minister coming in now that he'll reach out unlike

maliki but the next prime minister will reach out to the sunnis and kurds who have been so disengaged with the shia government? >> i believe the new prime minister will. al abadi is much different than maliki. he is educated and spent many years in great britain. he recognizes that in order for iraq to succeed, it has to have all of the groups the kurds, the shia the sunnis and other groups coming together in a united front against this barbaric terrorism of isis. so i think he will. it's not going to be an easy challenge but i think we've got someone that has the capacity and i think has the intention which is critical to bring the country together and to work together. that is ultimately the political issue. the military aspects are -- the real problem is not having an

inclusive government that people will stand with and stand for. >> pew and washington post have polls that show approximately 54% of americans support continued air strikes but not more ground troops. so there's now 950 troops on the ground in iraq and the state department has requested that 300 troops secure the embassy and baghdad airport. are you worried about mission creed? >> well you always have to be concerned about the scale of engagement. you know we're putting american forces at risks. our pilots are flying. we have troops on the ground. but again, we have to very very clear, these are forces that are defending our immediate interests. we have a significant diplomatic presence in baghdad. we have a significant presence in erbil. we have a responsibility to pro

tenth tekt our diplomats. that's our first order of business and, again, we have encouraged and we've seen progress on the political front. but when we're putting these troops it does not represent a re-engagement in iraq with large-scale american forces fighting conventional operations and essentially doing the task that the military iraqi forces should be doing. i was one of 20 who did not think that that was our job. but protecting our embassies, protecting our interests is something that we must do. >> sir, let me change focus here on the homefront. you saw what happened this past week in ferguson missouri and some folks thought it looked like iraq at times. the riots and unrest and really the paramilitary response from law enforcement. will the senate be looking at the excess military equipment to

law enforcement? >> we'll be looking at that. that's an issue that's been raised obviously by what is going on in ferguson but there are several issues here. one is the proper police techniques to use against a group of americans who are demonstrating and the techniques, at least from my perspective, were not effective and were not the right steps but to lead essentially with a very sort of millitarized approach to a crowd control issue is the wrong first step. but this issue and what we're providing to police i think essentially one of the most important things that we can provide is not so much military equipment but more actual police officers, men and women on the street, and also the kind of training that makes these police

very sensitive to how to deal with a situation, a very volatile situation like ferguson. >> sir, there's a report this week when it comes to veterans that shows that one-fourth of military families and veterans depend on food stamps or food banks. what more needs to be done to support our vets? >> well twoef support our forces. they have risked their lives and families that have served with them. one huge issue is we have to get this economy moving again. technically veterans are finding it a difficult time because the job market is so difficult and that's why, although recently we were able to extend the highway trust fund until next may, we should be thinking longer term. we should be thinking of ways in which veterans can use their skill so they don't depend upon food banks. they can leave the service, find employment in a much more robust

and growing economy. one way to address is not specifically just with the veterans but infrastructure investment, looking at a training program to make sure that they are providing adequate training. lessening the debt of some of the veterans who have received training but they don't have a job and they have thousands of dollars of debt. all of that is something that we should be doing and for the veterans and also for working americans across the board. >> the senate is going to be back in session in two weeks. let's hope they can put their political issues aside and address these critical issues. up next, an amazing story of a former congressman and his role in a recent aid drop in iraq. it's this week's installment of "we salute you."

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hill." many of you know this former congressman of ohio. prior to serving in 2009 and 2010, the colonel served in operation enduring freedom and operation iraqi freedom as a member of the air force. most recently he served on a humanitarian air flight in iraq. c-130 cargo planes over his command served over 18,000 meals and 23 bottles of water to refugees on mt. sinjar. lawsuit tenant we salute you. up next, the vow back home. school savings at staples? the ladies? sc these guys? or these guys? when you get guaranteed low prices on everything you buy the most everybody gets excited! staples. make more happen for less. so what we're looking for is a way to "plus" our accounting firm's mobile plan. and "minus" our expenses. perfect timing. we're offering our best-ever pricing on mobile plans for business. run the numbers on that. well, unlimited

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welcome back to "taking the hill". before we go to our wounded warrior documentary, breaking news out of california. an earthquake struck around 3:20 a.m. the governor has declared a it

sta of state of emergency. there are more than 100 injuries. there are 30 water main breaks and the quake is the largest quake to hit the bay area in 25 years. we're going to update you on the latest throughout the day on msnbc. now back to this. this month's installment of the wounded, battle back home today we're going to meet jessica, she joined the air force for a better life and more opportunities. instead, at her he very first duty station she was sexually assaulted by the very person who was supposed to protect her. here's her story. with military sexual trauma survivors have been dealing with that blame, with that sense of betrayal and for those that have come out and tried to share what they've gone through, for many of them the military has let

them down making them more at risk for suicide or substance abuse. so the wounded warrior project gives military sexual attack traumas their ability to get further support in their healing from mst. >> yes, you've reached providence regional office for the department of veterans affairs. please leave me a message and i'll return the call as soon as i'm able. thank you. >> hi, jamie, this is jessica colter. i'm calling about my mst claim. on the claim, it might be jessica simms. i've been leaving you a couple of messages. i'm trying to find out what the status is. i'm trying to find out, do i need to fill this paperwork out or do you get my paperwork and sign my paperwork or scan my

paperwork so i know what i need to do. please give me a call back. thank you. i just want to get the record straight. to say that this is an injury that i was caused. my first event with the wounded warrior project was all female veterans. we started introducing ourselves. i kind of spoke off and i said i was raped by another service member at my first duty station. and then another person chimed in and told her story. and then another person chimed in and told her story. and then another person chimed in. out of the group, three or four had a military sexual trauma story. it needs to be talked about because it's happening at such a high rate. i don't want anyone else to take

ten years of their life and to suffer in silence. >> hi guys. >> i love my kids but sometimes it must be really hard for them to have me as a mom. >> are you buckled up manny? >> because mom is not like other moms. >> we're going to stop at the gas station. manny does the front, tyrone does the back. >> they don't understand you know, what happened to me or sometimes i just don't get out of my bed. they may want to go do stuff. i try to he can plain to them what post-traumatic stress disorder is. it's not their problem but directly affects them. to them that's the only mom that they know. >> are you kidding me?

$50 didn't even fill up my tank. it's very difficult to get out of poverty where i'm from so i appreciated the military because when i came home company do for my friends. i was very proud. >> do you know what you guys are getting at the creamery. >> but now it's really hard for me to keep a job. if i get really overwhelmed, i start having flashbacks and nightmares and not sleeping. and so making ends meet it's creative. >> my mom tries to give us what we want most of the time but i feel kind of sad because i feel like we don't have any money at all or we just don't have enough to do anything. >> i was vacuuming and it was a sock right there and i pushed it really hard and the sock got stuck in the motor and the smoke started coming out from it and our drier doesn't work. so that's two things in our

house that are really important that don't work. and that's a lot of money. and my mom doesn't have a lot of money right now. >> everyone in my family my grandfathers, aunts, cousins, everyone's been in the military. that's how i choose the air force. i was a chaplain's assistant and i literally worked with all men. so i had to earn respect. after i proved myself it got a lot better. we were all coed living. they are barracks but the air force calls them dormitories. there was drinking going on and i was raped by a military officer. i took myself to a clinic off base got myself medically checked out my by self and i just accepted that i set myself

up and i was to blame for somebody taking something that's supposed to be consensual from me because i did not give that man consent. for years, i was hyper aware of my surroundings. when i went place, i always had to scope out the exits and over and over again it was in the back of my head you can't trust anyone. i knew i could never tell anybody because no one's going to believe me. it's going to be an investigation, i'm going to get an article 15 drinking under age and he's a military police officer. like, they are not going to believe me. soon after i never told my husband at the time anything about it. that directly impacted our ability to be intimate. it was like you can't trust men because men are going to do what they want to do and they don't

listen to you. so i just kind of packed it away and there's a lot of shame. there's a lot of shame because i was like a tough chick. how could i be so strong and this happened to me? >> you have a warrior who enters into the military for that sense of unit, for that sense of trusting their fellow warriors trusting the military and when they experience the military sexual trauma really that's betrayal at the most extreme. with some of the warriors who have reached out to the wounded warrior project, what we're hearing is that warrior who is really kept isolated. dealing with shame not being able to open up to trust anymore and really being stuck in that. >> this is a problem that we have to address. we owe it to any woman or any man who goes into the military

that their buddies, that they count on are people that they count on and not people who they fear. we have to change the culture of the military which is extremely difficult. and it can't be five years from now, ten years from now, it needs to be now. and there's a reason for that. we need people to want to join the military. we need a strong military fence. if we can't guarantee the men and women in their own units that they are not going to be victims of military assault, we can't guarantee a strong defense. >> you know i had this thought of becoming a career air force woman and a mass sergeant and they are all out the window just from that one experience. when it came time for me to reenlist i was seven months pregnant with my second son and i knew then i wasn't doing it anymore but i was married to an active military person and he didn't support me at all and that was kind of the beginning

of -- the hints that this marriage might not work. >> when i was like 5, my parents divorced and then my mom decided to move up here so we lived with our grandma for a while. it really changed my life. >> when you get divorced, you lose a lot. my kids lost a very nice middle-class lifestyle. they lost a house that was their own, they could peant their walls, they lost a yard they lost a lot. >> it was hard because in the beginning i got really upset about my parents and i thought my dad just didn't love me and manny. >> there were times when i really just wanted to die and wanted to just give in and just not care. i was going out and drinking because i was still running away from my problems trying to not

deal with the sexual trauma and i finally just woke up and understood that this trauma didn't happen to them. they have nothing to do with it. they are really the only reason why i started to have the courage to deal with my stuff, because i'm all they have. if mom goes down like we all go down. >> hi this is jessica coulter. i'm trying to talk to you about my paperwork. >> i needed to figure out my compensation because we didn't have any money, we didn't have any food like we didn't have a place to live. when i had first gotten out, i had an injury while i had served so i had some v.a. disability but there was nothing in there about the sexual trauma and it wasn't factored in my rating. i went to the v.a. to refill out

the paperwork, you know bore my soul and told them everything and then you wait. and after about a good year of waiting, i get a packet in the mail and they declined it. so i appealed it and they changed my rating based on the injury from my back but nothing to do with the mental health. once again, the whole rape wasn't factored into anything but now i want it in there because it happened to me. so once again, i went through the appeals process and one day i get a big packet in the mail and it is the same exact paperwork that i had filled out in 2009. so i called the coordinator and she said there's no record of your rape in your file. and then she said the v.a. are going through the process of modernizing now and so they are scanning everything. she assured me that my paperwork was not lost, that it was somewhere, probably in a pile

waiting to be scanned. so i lost my temper. and i said you need to find my paperwork because i already did this. it's challenging enough to even get to that point to say, i was raped. all the onus is on the victim. and it's ensultinsulting that i have to do this again and it's triggering because, once again, i feel like nobody cares about me. and nobody cares about what happened. and that was maybe three or four months ago. and i have called this woman back i have left her messages once weekly. i haven't gotten a phone call back. >> the department of veterans affairs cannot comment on this specific veteran's situation. jessica was not comfortable providing. they followed a response in part "meeting the needs of veterans who have experienced military

sexual trauma is one of the highest importance to the department of veterans affairs. based on in-service personal assault such as military sexual trauma are designated to support these claims is considered. v.a. regulations refer to mental health professional for an opinion as to whether it indicates that a person fall assault occurred. it is v.a. policy that all veterans seen for health care are asked whether they experienced mst and all treatment for mental and physical health conditions related to ms itt is provided free of charge. you're watching "taking the hill." 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. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain. and it's not a narcotic

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different way of life. you have to compartmentalize and put yourself in a box and sometimes you have to put that box so far away because mission has to get done and that's not a natural state of being. transitioning to civilian life is about trying to take those boxes that you had to put up and slowly start to unpack them. in my case i needed something that i could do for myself for me the most valuable thing out of yoga is that sense of the time to be okay to not do anything. it's not focusing on the things that i went through for ten minutes and it's okay. it was challenging at first, but i started to cherish that time of being perfectly still. that was the only point in my

life where i could actually feel safe. meditation allows me to be okay with exactly who i am as i am every day. we're going to go ahead and get started in probably five to seven minutes. so get comfortable. >> i was still having a very hard time of being a single parent and managing work life balance and i told myself why don't you just teach yoga. and i took the rest of the money out of my savings. it's 250-plus hours of training and i became a teacher. because i thought well i could work for myself be home for my kids, i can live my life on my terms. >> and slowly bring the fingertips to the floor. >> i've been teaching at the military base for a while so you get a mix of veterans active duty personnel that have been

out for a long time people who just got out and then usually their family member or spouse. you're teaching to the military family. >> all we're doing is paying attention, being aware of what it's like to be inside of our own body. >> where i want to do the majority of my teaching if teaching military folks the benefit of yoga because they deserve to be able to have a semblance of peace and stillness because of the cost of their service is very high. >> inhale exhale, extend the arms overhead. >> jessica is great. she's just a wonderful instructor and just to kind of do yoga with someone who knows maybe what you went through, it's very valuable. >> bring your chest towards me. >> i was a company commander overseeing a transportation battalion that did various truck routes throughout iraq. we ended up losing 13 soldiers

in that battalion during that time and it definitely took its toll. i had a lot of trouble sleeping when i was in iraq and it's continued on and off and jessica would talk a lot about how yoga healthed her both physically and meant zee press the leg into the body. >> just to be able to be aware of what your issues are and then just to clear your mind of them focus on your breathing and on balance, postures it's a coping mechanism. it's something you can turn to to help you deal with your stresses. >> my students are my greatest teachers. sometimes if i adjust a student or maybe their arm, if i can just ask them to press back and they do it and i can see them fully relax, then that tells me sometimes all i have to do is adjust myself and then i can relax. and my favorite part of teaching

a class is when everybody is kind of fully relaxed at the end and i just -- i'm able to see people just drop down into stillness and thoroughly relax. >> i was taking an examine so -- the stuff that i teach myself on the map is the stuff that i take to my daily life. >> it makes me a better parent. >> yoga makes you a better patient. >> i can see myself when i practice yoga dropping down out of a stressful situation. >> like be on the edge. >> you can stop take a deep breath and you can actually relax yourself. that's why everything about my life is yoga. i wouldn't be able to help myself as much as i have been if it wasn't for the wounded

warrior project and so i volunteer to tell my story. and as uncomfortable as it kind of makes me you know it's the least i can do because they fed my family when we didn't have food. we were able christmas event, gave my family christmas, and we hadn't had a christmas in a long time. they gave my kids some sense of normalcy. >> do you want me to spin you? >> i'll do what i have to do to make sure that my story of my military service was told in completion to make me feel like i held this person accountable, my command accountable because it's a part of my service. it's a part of my story. are you good? good one! but my life right now, kids and yoga. those are the things that save me and those are the things that sustain me. they don't necessarily

understand what happened to me but they get it. adults, we're the ones who make ourselves programmed to think that when traumatic events happen to us we are not affected but kids understand that when something bad happens to you, you're sad and you hurt and you cry. shoes off. pajamas on brush your teeth. go get the blankets. get stuff you want to put down. my youngest son, if he sees me upset, he will come over and he'll hug me and he tells me i give the best hugs i have a super special hug and you only get these hugs when you're crying so that's the greatest feeling is knowing that they love me enough that they can comfort me. >> my favorite person in the world has to be my mom. she's like the nicest mom ever. she tries to get us everything that we want. she provides food for us. she keeps this house running.

sort of. >> that's what we usually do when we make a fort we just put four chairs down and we just put a blanket over it and that's pretty much all we did and then we just sit under it and wrap ourselves up in blankets and then we just go to sleep after we watch tv. >> they're my motivators because it's my responsibility as their mother to make sure that i'm good so that they can have a happy and wonderful life. >> i just take all that love and i look out for her and try to look out for manny. so we do look out for each other. >> since filming took place the

department of veterans took place and reopened her appeal. as a result jessica was awarded a higher disability rating from the va based on post-traumatic stress disorder possibly resulting from sexual trauma. it was made based on her medical records with outlined symptoms consistent of ptsd and not of her service record which does not contain any notice of the mst. she would have to file a separate report with the department of defense. my final thoughts after the break. this is "taking the hill." when healthcare changes. when frustration and paperwork decrease. when healthcare becomes simpler. so let's do it. let's simplify healthcare. let's close the gap between people and care. after seeing everything, i think this

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welcome back to "taking the hill." we just saw jessica. at times she lived in section 8 housing and was on food stamps. sadly the charity feeding america reports 25% of active military families and one in five veteran families get food assistance. stats which would shock most people. we need to do better. thank you for joining us on

"taking the hill." i'm patrick murphy. up next, "meet the press." or if power could go anywhere? or if light could seek out the dark? what would happen if that happens? anything. there's a reason no one says "easy like monday morning." sundays are the warrior's day to unplug and recharge. what if this feeling could last all week? with centurylink as your trusted partner, it can. our visionary cloud infrastructure and global broadband network free you to focus on what matters. with custom communications solutions and dedicated support, your business can shine all week long.

> next on "meet the press," today president obama returns from vacation to face a crucial national security question. how to defeat isis terrorists. and what can be done about the hundreds of isis fighters with american and western passports? i'll ask mike rogers chair of the house intelligence committee. and healing the racial divide. calm is returning to the streets of ferguson, missouri but this morning new concerns about whether the police officer who killed michael brown will face criminal charges. i'll be joined by the governor of missouri and the reverend al sharpton. plus exclusive, rising political star senator rand paul on a mercy mission to guatemala. i travel with the senator who wants american voters to see him in a different and perhaps presidential light. will it work? i'll bring you my report as i host "meet the press."