issue and european law enforcement on this issue, they are extremely concerned that they are going to -- they're going to miss somebody coming back. >> i think this is undeniable and the subject of broad international consensus that these extremist groups cause an imminent threat to peace and security. >> a coalition of five arab nations are standing with the united states. president obama is meeting with these leaders today on the sidelines of the u.n. >> america's proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with these nations on behalf of our common security. the strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not america's fight alone. above all the people and governments of the middle east are rejecting isil and standing up for the peace and security that the people of the region and the world deserve. >> represents is not something that iraq or even the region can or should take on alone. we face a common threat and the

power of our ideas is far more powerful than what the terrorists seek to destroy. >> the second terror group targeted in syria is one you might not have heard of, khorasan. >> we also heard strikes to disrupt plotting against the united states and allies by seasoned al qaeda operatives in syria who are known as the khorasan group. once again, it must be clear to anyone who would plot against america and try to do americans harm that we will not tolerate safehavens for terrorists who threaten our people. >> intelligence reports indicate that the khorasan group is in the final stages of plans to execute major attacks against western targets and potentially the u.s. homeland. >> the united states took action to protect their interests and to remove their capability to act. in a minute,ly turn it over to the joint staffs director of operations lieutenant general bill mayville to provide information about the operation.

before i do, first, while i'll let general mayville get into our assessments, our initial indication is these strikes were very successful. >> these are battle-hardened terrorists taking advantage of the chaos because the plotting was getting advanced, we thought it was critical to take opportunity. we had intelligence suggesting they were moving far along in their plotting. that's as much as i can say. >> we mentioned khorasan here on this show yesterday. the pentagon calls them seasoned al qaeda vets and the white house says they were close to executing an attack in europe or even here inside the u.s., making them a more imminent threat to the homeland than isis. as our friends at foreign policy point out, the very existence of khorasan was only acknowledged and made public bit dni last thursday. >> the new group of former al qaeda fighters in syria pose the

same level of risk as isis and isil? >> that's a good question. in terms of threat to the homeland, perhaps they do. this khorasan group, so-called, which i guess is out there, is potentially yet another threat to the homeland, yes. >> now, khorasan is estimated to have about 100 members, but these guys are battle-hardened. they have survived 13 years of u.s. counterterror efforts. one member was among the few al qaeda leaders who knew about 9/11 before the attacks happened. he has a $7 million bounty on his head. the group's been working with aqat bomb makers to find a way past airport security and that's why the tsa uncharged cell phones on planes recently. the group has been goal, strike western targets. the u.s. unilaterally conducted

eight air strikes against khorasan last night just outside aleppo. the big question still is unanswered by the president. >> mr. president, are americans in danger living in the united states? >> that was nbc's kristin welker, if you couldn't place the voice. we'll hear from her later. first, nbc's pete williams has the latest intel on khorasan. pete n some way khorasan seems like the most imminent threat to the u.s. what do we know about them? >> well, you gave a pretty good rundown there. it's basically the al qaeda graduate school. these are people who have been together since some -- some of them since 9/11. some of them in iraq. some of them in afghanistan. some of them in syria. coming together to plot attacks against the west. especially against the united states. while isis has its own goals in the region, and, you know, overarching goals about trying to get a muslim state reimposed in that part of the world, this

group is much more interested in sort of what core al qaeda was about at one time, which is attacking the west, attacking the united states. and what we're told is that in the last several days, the intelligence was suggesting that this group was getting ever closer to trying to target the united states. probably with some kind of an attack on an airplane. again, coming back to one that al qaeda in its various guises, both core al qaeda, the group in yemen, has tried over and over and over again, with the cartridge plotted, the underwear plot, 9/11 itself, the liquid bomb plot. they keep coming back over and over to attacking airplanes. and that is what this intelligence was about. either with electronic devices or perhaps some other kind of a bomb. but to get it smuggled on board and then set it off. but what we're told is that while there was a lot of intelligence about the aspiration to do this, testing for it, broad planning for it, there's no indication here that

a specific country or a country's airline or an airline itself or a flight or a time or a date had been selected, but the u.s. was worried that the group was getting very close to that. >> yeah, quite frightening. pete, with new knowledge about this group khorasan, potentially, according to u.s. officials, being more of a threat than isis, but also concerns about retaliation after the air strikes last night. do you expect an increase in security here on u.s. soil? >> no indication of that at this point. the department of homeland officials i've talked to say they don't expect airline security will be changed. but remember, in a sense, airline security is already been changed in one very important way. one of the ways this group was thought to be considering to attack the u.s. was by placing bombs in electronic devices. anyone flighting to the u.s. since early july has been required to prove that their

laptop or their ipad or other electronic devices would power on. that threat information is what drove that change. so, in a sense, we've already had the change. >> pete williams, thanks so much. for more on the pentagon's actions against both khorasan and isis, let's bring in kevin barren, executive director of defense one, focusing on u.s. defense and national security. ken, we were promised there would be a broad coalition of regional allies to help us out in this fight against isis. it looks like we have one. as i mentioned, five arab country, bahrain, jordan, saudi arabia, uae, qatar, all helping the u.s. out here. how significant were their military contributions last evening? >> well, the contributions and the fact that they're there publicly involved at all are both significant. so, four of the five countries participated in air sortees with fighter jets -- all were fighter

jets, but only qatar didn't drop bombs according to the pentagon today. you have to remember in syria right now, the al qaeda and the threat in syria to america has been known for a while. this summer the counterterrorism czar was saying al qaeda put out the call on the go for all foreign fighters to come to syria, that that was the place where the plotting, the training, the organizing against western targets was happening. so, it's no surprise that with the targets on isis we saw last night, that this other group also is something that's being revealed as kind of a target of opportunity as well. >> you talk about the targeting we did last night, attacking in syria. part of that was on raqqa, their so-called capital of their so-called nation. and it seems to me that this is a really valuable target. more than just militarily. it says to them, you're so-called capital is unsafe. the sort of heart of your supposed nation is unsafe.

>> it does. it hits them, i guess, where they live. but i think, you know, this is a group that is like all terrorist groups we've seen in the region, they spread out. they metastasize, they've made their way, you know, well south into baghdad. so, you know, we'll see. i think the history of is whether it's locations or people, you may take them out but something else always takes its place. i'm interested to see where else these air strikes go in the next few days. in iraq they started -- in iraq, you would hear about a vehicle, encampment, a building, and within weeks we were protecting major hydroelectric dams. i'm interested to see where this goes, the extent and where the u.s. and partners are going after. >> how far it goes. also, what is the strategic end point here? in the '01 afghanistan war it was to oppose the taliban and make it easier to find bin

laden. in iraq to oppose saddam hussein. in libya it was to enforce a no-fly zone, although losing gadhafi is something that came out of that. what do you see from a defense perspective as the end point, especially if you move isil out of certain areas and they go back to assad's control? >> i think there are two levels. one is, defeating the group or just destroying them, whatever you want to call it, to a level that they're not capable of advancing anymore, that they're on the defensive, they're on the run, they're disorganized. not just the military, but with going after their money, going after the oil black market trade. the other part of it, though, to what level of security is the united states comfortable. the entire strategy is like a 15-step plan of perfection that has to happen from the iraqi government, you know, forming and the original commanders have the americans trained coming back to power to iraqi forces want to fight.

on and on and on and on. short of that perfection happening in the next eight months of this initial phase, as general dempsey has called it or the years long campaign that today's operations general referred to, what is the level of something like containment, dirty word or not, that provides enough security, that protects the u.s. homeland, that protects the region, that protects iraq and syria to the level of, you know, it is ultimate end game people want, which is, you know, a stable iraq, a stable syria, a democratic -- i mean, that's a long way to go. >> kevin, you know, americans are watching this, blanketed the air waves today. i think a number of us are concerned about a potential retaliation from isis or now khorasan. and richard engel tweeted this last night during air strikes. he wrote, danger is isis had time to prepare a response to this. agencies should be on alert. we played earlier a question that kristin welker was trying to shout at the president,

should americans -- are americans, rather, safe in the united states? how would you respond to that? do we have any reason right now to feel unsettled? >> well, you know, i live in washington and i'm very skeptical of any talk about direct threats. yes, this -- this group within syria, you know, that's what thair trying to do. you know, we're always going to have those threats. i think it's very dubious to start to link the regional threats, which are clearly real. people being beheaded and mowed down and cityings being overrun. that's threat enough. that's destabilizing the entire region. now, do we need to be worrying about -- do we need to be worrying about back home? sure, you know. personally, i'm a pentagon reporter. i've covered these wars. i cover terrorism. i don't buy into theories of isis terrorists at the gates in mexico and i don't buy into, you know, direct threat worries. even, you know, the string of the toner bomber and the underwear bomber.

this is over more than a decade's time. you know, i think americans should always be vigilant in that we're in the age of terrorism. and a new age now of post-war terrorism we thought would be one we could -- we could kind of take a breath, shrink the size of the forces, focus on the things we've been doing like drone strikes in yemen and going after the leader of al shabab in a remote location in somalia. what the pentagon didn't expect, what the intelligence community warned but but didn't give enough warning about, according to their own estimates last week, was this. was that half a country would be taken over. two countries would be taken over. here we are now fighting both sides with the same war. dropping bombs on them on the same night. >> kevin -- >> that's the bigger worry for me. >> thank you for your insights. a lot more of our breaking coverage on air strikes in syria. the military strategy, the push for partners and the critical next few days for president obama looking to rally the world against isis although the u.n. it is all ahead at "the cycle" rolls on for september 23rd.

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well, we think we were very effective last night. we're still assessing the results of the strikes, of course, but every indication we have so far is we hit and our partners hit exactly what we were aiming at and we have severely damaged their ability to sustain themselves and to command and control their own forces. again, we're still assessing. we'll get more information as we go along. but if there was a measure of surprise lost, it certainly wasn't evident to us in the activities last night. >> that was the voice of the pentagon john kirby right here

on msnbc's "ronan farrow daily." his comments coming as new video of tomahawk missiles destroying compounds. as the president said de grade and destroy it, he meant it. this shows vehicle and storage facilities being blown apart. the question moving forward is, is it enough? let's ask a man in the know, retired army officer, former director in charge of iraq at national security council who served under both bush and obama administrations and now a senior fellow for the new america foundation. welcome back to the show, doug. >> good to see you again. >> we want to get you to talk about two weapons used prominently in this attack on syria. 47 tomahawk cruise missiles. each one costs $1.4 million million, each one. 47 tomahawk cruise missiles were used in this attack and the f-22 fighter jet made its first

combat appearance over syria in this attack. can you talk about the capabilities and the power of the tomahawk cruise missile and the f-22 fighter jet. >> sure. this was a bad day for isis and a good day for america. but even better day for the defense industry. so, these tomahawk missiles were fired. each one carries a precision warhead, term alley guided, with a gps chip in it so it knows exactly where it's going. they're generally seen launched and obviously they cost a pretty penny a pop. and you only use them once. the f-22, you know, relatively new plane in the inventory, has never been flown in a combat mission before, so happy day for the air force. they're able to demonstrate that this has at least some role in combat. this wasn't, you know, a huge test for it, but nonetheless a good day for the f-22. >> talk about the targets we selected. what are we really employing after at this point? also, are we limited in our ability to target by the fact

that we don't really have folks on the ground there? >> we're absolutely limited in our ability to target precise individuals or an ambiguous situation. if you have two groups fighting each other and you don't have someone there on the ground to control the air power, that's very, very difficult to use. but against a fixed installation like those buildings that we just saw, you know, they're not moving tonight. they're not going anywhere. if we knew that that was an isis command and control center two weeks ago, it's probably still an isis command and control center tonight or last night. and, therefore, it makes sense to go against it. but that brings up a great point. we are hitting the low-hanging fruits here. the easiest targets to identify, the most clearly identified. i'm sure that we selected those that were far away from any civilian locations so that there would be very, very low chance of collateral damage. we certainly went after the easiest targeting on our first night. >> right. as you say, there's a technical aspect to that.

can you hit what you want to hit? and then there's an intelligence aspect, is what you're hitting what you think it is? as we go on with what we're told would be a long-term operation, what happens sooner or later when the u.s. starts hitting potentially strategic locations that are very important to the assad regime. >> well, you bring up all kinds of issues. first, you know, there are issues of collateral damage. any time you start a war and any time you're using air power, particularly when you don't have troops on the ground, mathematically speaking, sooner or later you're going to cause inadvertent civilian casualties. that's just part of the deal. it's regrettable but we need to understand that. you're also bringing up the inner action between isis and the syrian regime. it's not yet clear how important these targets were to those forces fighting against those syrian regime fightsing against isis and whether we were directly assisting the asadz regime. >> doug o that point. that's what's different from what we're doing drones in

states that have said, yes, come on in. that's not what's happening here. >> that's not what is happening here. it's unclear what type of coordination we had. now, we may have deac-conflict something. if i de-conflict, i say, i'm going here, my aircraft are going here. you better not shoot at them. that's different from having a collaborative conversation where each side gives a little bit. >> in this mission we hit isis and hit this new group we're learning more about, khorasan. i mentioned this yesterday on the show, really the first time i started reading about them 37 they were described to me as someone as the navy s.e.a.l.s of al qaeda. this is a group of less than 100 members and some u.s. officials have said they're more threatening than isis because their main mission is to hit the west. help us better understand this group and why are we just learning about them now? >> well, they really have been in the shadows. isis has certainly dominated the press coming out of iraq and syria. as you know, there's only so

much news time and only so many print issues on the front page of a newspaper. so, it's difficult for a lesser threat to bubble up and come to our attention but clearly, someone in the intelligence community thought they were getting close. that their aspirations, all kinds of people aspire to attack the united states, but that their aspirations were becoming more real and, therefore, it made more sense to attack them in the first wave. >> isis hates them, we love them. good to have you on the show. unprecedent the group of arab partners are joining the strikes but there are noticeable absences coming out building here and overseas. we'll have live reports from both sides of the atlantic. (birds chirping softly in background.) (loud engine sounds!) what! how's it going? heard you need a ride to school. i know just the thing to help you get going. power up with new cheerios protein.

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and we will not allow them to have a safehaven. >> breaking news on "the cycle," the u.s. and key allies are meeting at the u.n. today to discuss last night's air strikes against isis targets in syria. jordan, bahrain, qatar, saudi arabia and the united arab emirates all took part with the u.s. in strikes that targeted isis's de facto headquarters in raqqa. statements saying, the operation was conducted in coordination with other forces participating in the international effort against the isil and the armed forces are not going to hesitate to send a sharp message to these groups in their headquarters. building a coalition to fight isis has been a key piece of the president's strategy against the terrorist group. while the syrian government was informed of the strikes, they did not participate or help coordinate. in turk y a key regional ally has remained out of the fight as

they deal with an estimated 150,000 refugees flooding into the country, trying to escape isis. we're joined from london, eamon. obviously, a key ally but notably absent from the efforts last night. >> that's right. well, you know, the turkish president has been addressing this issue saying the turkish government for obvious reendz, it had 49 hostages being held by isis militants and so, perhaps, was a bit reluctant to get involved militarily. they have subsequently been released and that may change the dynamics of turkey's participation. they have been trying to step up monitoring the border to curb the flow of what is expected to be foreign fighters ross crossing the border with relative ease over the last several years. it's not just turkey. there's a lot of pressure and particularly after the involvement of countries like

jordan, there's going to be a lot of pressure on the governments there to step up their security. there are growing concerns isis may try to retaliate inside one of those countries. today some reports suggested that isis fighters were directing comments against saudi arabia and others for allying themselves with the united states against what they obviously consider themselves to be muslim brother. now, the participation of these five different countries, predominantly sunni most of them, it's a very important diplomatic effort for the u.s. and accomplishment, certainly, because it does give the u.s. military strike some legitimacy. the u.s. can turn around and say this is not a u.s.-led military intervention, one that is weak, perhaps, like they saw in the past in countries like iraq and elsewhere. so the legitimacy component is very important across the arab world. whether or not that resonates among everyone, i think that's going to be seen yet. the question is going to be more about what happens in the coming days. can there be an attempt to try and address some of the

underlying issues that gave rise to isis. i think that's going to be the issue. without any kind of pressure from the u.s. or the international community to try and reform some of the region's countries, i think you're going to see the problem of isis persist for a very long time to come. you can't -- and we've heard this from u.s. officials. you can't address this militarily. you actually have to try to do something to drain the swamp of the ideology and that can only happen with good governance, reform in these arab countries that ironically also participating in these very same air strikes to try to curb isis's rapid growth. >> great point. thank you very much. let's continue on with turkey with the marc ginsberg, former white house adviser, middle east ambassador. can turkey sit on the sidelines as they skr been? >> as a nato ally, they refused

to sign onto the communique at wales. number two, they've been a conduit for illegal oil transports from isis that permitted the smuggling and funding for isis. number three, how many thousands of people have made their way across turkey's border from the west to make it to -- with their little copy of islam for dummies, to make their way into isis, raqqa, the northern city that was bombed. and president here at united nations, i need to get my hostages out. they have now been released. whatever circumstances, we don't quite know. he no longer has a legitimate reason to not abide by his allies in the region and by nato to be more effective and to participate and to choke off the flow of isis fighters and to

stop the money that is going in. now, his biggest concern is kurds. there are kurds fleeing across the border. he has a kurdish problem. they don't want an independent kurdish state. all politics is local in turkey and this is the problem with the president, he's not looking that the strategically. he's looking at this as, what's going on in my neighborhood. >> you look at the countries on board the u.s. is emphasizing involved in last night's strikes, jordan, qatar, united arab emirates, saudi arabia, bahrain. four out of five of those are sunni majority countries, which whenever you think of the confusion around the end game of this strategy, it does seem the u.s. is clearly trying to send a message in the region with these partners that we are not the united states of shia intervention. >> couldn't agree more. the administration, particularly secretary kerry, deserves a lot of credit for being able to forge and get these arab countries to actually

participate. not in the last strike but in the first strike. and for those who have been calling, crying out for this involvement by arab states, the secretary and president and his teams deserve a lot of credit for making this happen, number one. number two, the fact of the matter is, is that there is still a number of states in the region that are directly threat understand by isis and have not yet participated and should participate. i mean, when you think about the coalition that was formed to kick saddam hussein out of kuwait, it involved sunni countries in the middle east like more raco, tunisia, and we also have a situation where those countries could further provide, perhaps, troops on the ground. i mean, after all, we need boots. we need arab boots on the ground. and that's where this -- these boots need to come from. it's not good enough, ari, they're in the air.

we know that while these attacks were taking place there were tens of thousands of kurds who had lost the fight to isis just yesterday and were fleeing across the border because they lost a huge battle against isis. >> pretty strong words there. and bashar al assad is a central player. and sits back and treats this as a gak of chess. what is his next move here? what is he hoping will happen? >> well, most importantly, he's hoping that we're going to do his dirty work for him and that is in his heart of hearts that we're engaged in this war against terrorism and we're going to clean up the swamp that is trying to unseat him. that includes isis. it includes the al nusrah front, the free syrian army we now are about to train and commit to train 5,000. and, of course, this -- this is the -- this is the ground zero of the sunni/shiite fight that

actually gave rise to isis in the first place. most of these people were not just going to go fight assad. they were going to kill shiites. that's what this is all about. he's hoping this coalition will incue bait his ability to consolidate his ability to control areas over the country he's lost. >> ambassador, i kind of laugh when iranian president rouhani points out perhaps our attack in syria is illegal. that's a bit xhoocomedic for hi say that but it reminds us iran is a powerful player in the region and they're going to remain antagonistic throughout and that's a problem. >> president rue heen ais watcho what he couldn't do, fight isis on the ground. the shiite-dominated iran wants to destroy isis at all cost

because it's a threat to their major ally in the region, and that is not only hezbollah but also to the iraqi government. number three, mr. rouhani has been siding with bashar al assad and has revolutionary guard forces, two divisions of revolutionary guard forces in syria, fighting on behalf of assad against isis, against the al nousrah front, against the free syrian army. we all understand that he has much to gain by us doing what they're doing right now in syria themselves. >> ambassador marc ginsberg, we always appreciate you. up next, political reaction right here at home. turns out support is a lot easier to get when everybody is out of town. jooifshgs

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that unity sends a powerful message to the world we'll do what is necessary to defend our country. >> standing united from afar, republicans and democrats largely giving the president some breathing room to see how these air strikes work out. while they are on a seven-week recess. house speaker john boehner released this statement for support of the strikes. while also urging for a broader strategy to defeat isis. john mccain and lindsey graham commended the president for ordering air strikes and then promptly called for swift action against assad as well. the president seems to have the cautious support of most lawmakers, well, until something goes wrong. kristin welker is at the white house lawn. very big day for the president. how does the white house feel about the reaction to the air strikes so far? >> reporter: well, the administration, i think, is going into these new air strikes with syria in the way that it wants to be, which is to have this coalition. the fact that the united states is joined by these five arab

nations is significant because you heard president obama say the united states was not going to go it alone. the fact he was able to secure these commitments from those arab nations suggest that he was able to achieve that. of course, coming just as he's arriving at the u.n., puts potentially further pressure on other countries to get on board with this coalition. you heard the president in his comments today say that more than 40 countries had made assurances that they would help in some way, shape or form. the administration has not been very specific about those assurances are going to look like. so, this week president obama will focus on trying to nail that down. he wants more military aid, but he also wants some of those arab nations to commit to putting boots on the ground. that's going to be the real challenge, of course, because the united states has said there aren't going to be any u.s. troops playing a combat role in iraq in syria. instead, they want the regional countries to take on that role. that's going to be a huge challenge for the president. also, he's going to want more assurances from his european

allies, for example. at this point in time, only france has really joined in the effort to launch air strikes and that's been in iraq. that's going to be a key focus in the coming days. also, a key focus some of these foreign fighters. the united states saying increasingly that they are concerned about folks going over from the united states, joined some of these groups like isis, like khorasan. of course, we're just learning about that. the united states launching attacks against khorasan targets as well in syria. so, all of that is going to be a big focus this week as well. back to you. >> kristin welker at the white house, thank you. members of the president's own party are weighing in, some more skeptical than republicans. tim kaine hedged his support this more than, questioning the syrian air strikes without congressional approval. >> but these specific strikes in syria, do they -- do you feel they should have gotten their own vote, these ones in syria? >> yes. the constitution is pretty

clear. the president always has the ability to defend the united states against any kind of an imminent attack, but as soon as a president decides as the president described it to chuck todd a few weeks ago to go on offense against isil. if it's not just a defensive mission, but offense, that's when congress is needed. that's what the constitution says. >> for more on the politics of all of this, let's bring in jonathan allen, bloomberg washington bureau chief. love having you in the flesh, john. we're hearing from congress. have i to say this today is probably going to go down in history as one of the most important days of obama's presidency. and here you have a congress that is now back in recess. am i missing something here? it's like we don't even need a congress to accomplish anything. >> i think that's how the president feels. we're six weeks out from the election. they plan not to do much before the election. they voted last week on a very narrow piece is of that.

the signal from that was, go ahead, mr. president, do what you want to do. we really don't have a role in this. what we've seen from congress over the course of the last four decades since the war powers act in the post-vietnam era, is a strengthening of the president in the war-making capacity. tim kaine criticizing the president saying he's gone too far. congress ought to be voting on this. congress had a chance. president went to congress. they put together a bill. they did some funding on that bill. they did the training and equipping of syrian rebels and they decided to be silent on the rest of it. so -- >> do they have room to speak at this point? >> no, absolutely not. they have been pretty feckless in terms of war over time. it's something that the founders gave them and they decided they don't want. >> look, i think you're talking about the politics and the way a lot of people will view this. but silence is not always consent or authorization under the law, under our constitution. what's different today, from yesterday, and why people are taking a hard look at this is we

have a constitution that says, when you attack another country without an imminent warning, without an imminent attack or threat to this country, to our homeland, to our interests, you have to go to congress and authorize force or declare war. that hasn't happened. now, administration has its arguments. i want to play one from today on msnbc. take a listen to tony blinken just today. >> in fact, there is as you know a doctrine of self-defense. the iraqis asked us to take action. indeed, they asked the united nations, wrote to the united nations, asking the united states and other countries to act against isil because isil in syria threatens them. unfortunately, the border's been virtually erased. even as we take action against isil in iraq, if we're not able to do so as well in syria, they continue to plotted and plan and build attacks including on iraq from syria. and so this was at the request of the iraqis and fits into the theory of collective self-defense. >> now, if that's the argument, isn't the white house setting us

down a path where we could do collective self-defense to go into multiple countries in the middle east. >> one of my colleagues at bloomberg reported right before i came on here that samantha power officially notified the u.n. that this action was done in self-defense for the united states and its allies, a formal letter saying that's the reasoning. yes, absolutely. i think, you know, you're right. there's a constitution that says congress has the power to declare war. there's a constitution that says congress has the power of the purse. and yet congress has decided over time to give that power away. so, in an ideal situation, congress would make -- at least have a debate and a discussion and some sort of authorization before going to war, but they've decided not to do that. it's politically safer for them to do it six weeks out from an election and -- >> that's exactly what it's about. >> it's shocking but not surprising. >> this military campaign is going to last several years. these arguments about the constitutionality of it, the legality of it, how you conduct it military. they will last for years. seems like we're seeing a core

issue for the 016 campaign being shape the right here. >> not just 2016 but i think far beyond that. i mean, we've seen administration after administration -- >> chelsea is ready to run for president. >> or the baby. >> or the baby? >> that's for getting the baby involved. >> well, you know. at least that's what i'm hearing at cgi. but we're seeing an administration after administration after administration. i don't think you'll see -- what i think you'll see is people run on the idea of reigning in the power of the presidency. once they get there, they won't do that. barack obama last year said he wanted to repeal the 2001 authorization of military force for afghanistan, which he is now using in this particular war. he has said this war's probably going to go beyond his presidency. this isn't a short-term thing. and i think the american public's will to have this will be in direct inverse proportion to how long it goes. >> easy to be idealist outside the oval office.

when you're protecting american, it's different. >> no one wants to take a vote on this before the midterms. thank you so much for being with us. the president not only has congress to convince the world, is waiting for his pitch to the u.n. some cash back cards only let you earn bonus cash back at a few places. then those categories change every few months! first coffee shops... then amusement parks. i am not amused. but the quicksilver card from capital one is going its own way. because quicksilver earns you unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you buy, everywhere you buy it. ♪ don't follow the crowd. what's in your wallet? your customers, our financing. your aspirations, our analytics. your goals, our technology.

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world against isis. he is meet white gold leaders from the five countries. tomorrow could be make or break getting other nations on board. president obama making his pitch to the entire general assembly in the morning. later, he leads a special session of the security council. the goal, convincing the world's heaviest hitters to agree on a plan to cut the flow of money, arms and fighters into isis controlled areas. that's on top of meetings and speeches in the coming days on the climate crisis as well as the ebola epidemic. joining us, colin lynch, correspondent for foreign policy. good day to you, and walk us through the timing here. the president obviously well aware of all of these meetings and diplomacy, getting the strikes going yesterday and to today's activities. >> reporter: the big meeting today is going to be tomorrow morning or big speech where he addresses the general assembly. he will be making the case to the world to cooperate with this

coalition that president obama has built to try and take on isis, now another extremist group, khorasan that he also attacked in syria. the real question is they have been gradually building up this coalition, what will countries like russia that have been reluctant to support u.s. strikes in syria without the approval of the syrian government, which they don't have, how are they going to respond to this. it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow and there will be a second meeting in the u.n. security council where the united states will be kind of on a parallel track, in addition to military strategy. working on the kind of legal strategy to restrain this group's ability to finance its operations to recruit, primarily foreign fighters from europe, from north africa, other parts of the middle east, even the united states. so the debate will shift more to kind of the legal questions. >> colin, as of now, in some states you can travel to iraq or to syria and join an extremist

group and that's not considered a crime. part of what obama is hoping to accomplish here is a resolution where all nations would sign on and change their law so it would then become illegal to join a terrorist group and travel to syria or iraq to do that. also to make it illegal to fund raise for terrorist organizations. what impact would this have, how optimistic that nations would follow through on this? >> reporter: i think nations are already beginning to do this. you see that in france, in britain, germany, belgium, they're starting to rewrite their laws. they're already starting to give authorities the ability to strip alleged foreign fighters, passports, id cards. in a place like france or germany, you can travel with an id card without a passport to turkey and it sort of provides an easier way for you to get across the border into syria, so they will try and control that. i mean, one interesting issue is that a lot of steps they're taking are likely going to be challenged in court, whether these are violations of

individuals' due process, violations of the right to travel and other issues. so i think that's going to be another issue we see down the road gl interesting. colum, isis is a multi national global threat. it would seem the u.n. in these times is more essential than ever. is the institution actually up to dealing with these sorts of threats? >> reporter: well, i mean, the united nations is not up to, you know, launching a military attack on isis, and that's -- nobody is asking them to do that. the u.s. is putting together a coalition. what's important for the united states is to have buy in from the u.n. and the u.n. secretary general has expressed general support for the notion of this coalition confronting isis, at least in iraq, some legal problems in syria in terms of whether there's no sort of invitation by the syrian government the way there is for iraq. but nevertheless, u.n. leadership generally supports this military coalition and broader political and law enforcement effort to constrain

this group. >> colum lynch, thanks for spendsing time with us. we will be back with the final word after this. hi, are we still on for tomorrow? tomorrow. quick look at the weather. nice day, beautiful tomorrow. tomorrow is full of promise. we can come back tomorrrow. and we promise to keep it that way. driven to preserve the environment, csx moves a ton of freight nearly 450 miles on one gallon of fuel. what a day. can't wait til tomorrow. ♪

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part of a very old battle. it is tuesday, september 23rd, and this is now. >> last night's strikes were only the beginning. >> america's armed forces began strikes against isil targets in syria. >> it is a massive campaign. >> the initial campaign was successful. >> the u.s. is supported by at least five arab nations. >> arab countries decided to kill arab terrorists. >> in the end it will take an arab force on the ground to make this work. >> i think congress should be weighing in. >> the debating matters of war and peace. >> we also took strikes to disrupt plotting against the united states. >> the khorasan group is in the final stage of plans to execute major attacks against western targets. >> we face a common threat and our response has to be all hands on deck. >> these people want