we are prepared to join in a broad and national effort to combat the threat proposed by isis. already allies have joined us in iraq. we have equipped our iraqi partners and helped them go on offense. nato has agreed to play a role to those on the front line. key nato allies stand ready to

confront this terror threat through military, intelligence and law enforcement as well as diplomatic efforts. secretary kerry will travel to the region that will enable us to degrade and ultimately destroy isis. >> reporter: in newport wales friday president obama strad jeezed to -- strategized to confront ice sits. both americans were revenge killings. for successful u.s. air strikes against isis notably at the crucial month sull dam. what is next? syria where isis is focused. commander in chief obama acknowledges united states operations against isis to date have been limited, rolling back isis in iraq.

so now it is isis in syria. the stepping is now estimated at 20,000 fighters. this figure includes some 2,000 european citizens and get this, several hundred americans recrude from poorly assimilated immigrant communities in the united states. question with nato now on board, does president obama have a coherent strategy for dealing with isis and if so what is it? pat? >> it is coherent in iraq. not only coherent, it is working. with the united states air power, isis has been defeated in four straight battles, among them the dam has been retrieved. kurds are fighting against them, the and with air power they can degrade and eventually defeat them. the real key, john, is syria. now the united states, i don't believe, has the authority now

to wage air strikes in syria. i think the president is going to come back. but when you get right down to it, look what is there. turkey has an army of over 400,000 people. iraq has hundreds of thousands under arm. we have the ground troops who are not americans. if you work with syria you can degrade and defeat them. >> who gives us the authority to bomb in syria? >> we do not have it. >> who? >> you have to go to the congress of the united states. >> you do? did he need that when he was bomb in iraq? >> no he did not because of the previous resolution. in syria i think he is going to go to congress and ask for authority. but the key here is are you going to get assad's support and work with the iranians and hezbollah and the russians if you do. >> okay.

brits worried. concerned is widespread that isis militants are expected to focus on the u.s. and europe as targets to carry out terrorist attacks. quote. i am certain that after a month, they will reach europe, and after another month they will reach amerso says king abdullah of sudden arain. at the vatican, -- of saudi arabia. >> at the vatican a report they are in the crosshairs of isis. also prime minister david cameron believes isis poses a threat to the uk. he is deeply worried about the movement of british passport holders into turkey and syria. >> to seize a passport at the border, during which time they will be able to investigate the individual concern. >> that is not all. mr. cameron's government also

attempts to prevent isis jihaddists from returning to the uk. >> it is abhorrent that people who declare their allegiance elsewhere are aloud to return. are prime minister cameron's extraordinary measures warranted eleanor? what do you think of his ideas? >> i think the measures he has put in place are warranted and because isis is a more immediate and direct threat to europe than to our homeland, i think he has taken appropriate action. but i want to follow-up on what pat said. nato, i mean, as awful as isis is, this is an opportunity for nato to redefine itself. for president obama to chart a course and bring renewed purpose for the rest of his

presidency and put policies in place that will leave his successor a better hand than he was dealt when he came to office. the president will go to congress. the congress is lining up quite nicely, you have senator inhoff, the chairman of the armed services committee basically saying republicans would be supportive of an authorization of paper position or resolution whatever it is called to go into syria. but if they do, and that is by no means guaranteed, you go in with the kind of coalition that george h.w. bush assembled back in the day. the first president bush is the president whose foreign policy president obama admires the most. and to put together in effect the desert storm 2 is what this administration is now undertaking. it is a big task. but you cannot go bombing in syria unless you have jordan,

asaudi arabia, and maybe an invitation from turkey. it is complicated. i don't see an invitation from syria itself. we don't want to be on the side of assad. what is the story of isis in britain? >> eleanor is right there is a lot of concern that these individuals will come back. we are ta onality. they will come back and because of what they have learned from the group in terms of operational security, they will be able to stay under the radar. people have to remember mi5 the british domestic intelligence service has a lot of people they are already following. the concern is they will come back ask they won't be monitored to the degree they would need to and there would absolute troas tis.

>> potentially one of the great concerns is you might see a replication of the 2006 transatlantic plot. where british citizens planned to travel on american airlines. nullify the passports of these people? >> one of the things we have to do is keep them out of england and frankly, the united states. this is the kind of threat we are now facing and it is going to be a very serious threat, going to go on for a long while, because these people are radicals and are absolutely committed to do enormous damage to the western countries. particularly the united states and england, for example. we are going to be in a very difficult time for quite awhile on these issues. you get one or two peop succeed, it will change the whole mood in the country. vice president joe biden

willing to cross the river. >> we will follow them to the gates of legal until they are brought to justice. >> should we take his rhetoric seriously? is this obama administration policy? >> i think the president, at the nato meeting and in a tonia, -- astonia, basically said we will find you, we will pursue you. he says it in a more understated way. but the kind of rhetoric the vice president is using the american people are kind of wanting. the president is almost too low key. the vice president filled that vacuum. the determination of this administration is there and biden is displaying it, the president a little late to the game as well. the bridge we have to cross is iran. iran has been doing battle along with our troops up there

in northern iraq. iran is the principle supporter of assad. hezbollah supports him. if you are going to fight and win the war and isis is the main threat, you have to deal with them the way we dealt with stall lynn in world war ii. >> there are multiple civil wars going on in the middle east. one is in islam itself, between the radicalized version and the version that isis represents which is so barbaric that even the more radical muslims can't stand isis. i think the u.s. has to capitalize on that division within islam. the bottom line here is syria is complicated. it is complicated. it is not easy to say we are going to go in there without assad's authority and it is not easy to say we should go to assad and get lids authority. i have concerns about the

iranian political strategy. in terms of ideology, they will strike back. do we have to try and have diplomatic relations? yes. the real key is engage with the tribes in eastern syria. the tribes there subscribe to a very different ideology than isis and we are already seeing fundamental dissatisfaction with what the islamic state is doing. i think the two most powerful forces in siria are isis, which controls the northern half of the country and assad which controls the southern half. in my judgment in the near future one of the other is going to be us. assad is a bad man but he does not trust the united states. isis is an evil force if we have to to work with the iranians and others to crush it

we should do it. >> we worked with them in the past, in afghanistan. i don't think that is an issue. we have a common interest here and i think that is going to be pursued. we have dealt with a lot of other bad men. if assad is as bad as you say he is. >> if isis is as bad as we think it is, we put all the forces there and deal with the problems of iran's ambitions. >> are you prepared to demonize assad. >> i think they are understating assad in so many ways. >> what do you think? >> i have never talked to him about it. >> you never have? >> no i can tell you the israelis understand assad is a total enemy of israel. excuse me. excuse me. what a difference eight months make. in january, the new yorker reported that the president was

quote increditly flip, unquote in trivializing the threat from ice ice. here is what mr. obama said. the analogy we use around here sometimes and i think is accurate is if a jv team puts on lakers uniforms that doesn't make them kobe bryant. question has president obama been underestimating isis for eight months? or will isis be proven to be a jv team? mort? >> if he had ten sentences in his career that he would like to withdraw, that would be one of them. it is ridiculous to put it in those terms. >> that was eight months ago. who was thinking the way we are today? >> a lot of people were. >> were you? >> i was against bombing assad last summer and thank goodness we didn't. >> so what is the point of talking about this now? >> from a sense, it reflects,

on some levels, a misjudgement as to what was going on. >> weren't we all making it? >> if i may say so? he is the president of the united states he has a level of intelligence slightly better than we have. not totally. but to make those casual statements when you are dealing with something that is so critical to the whole middle east region and to the united states. >> maybe he should be talking to somebody over at the state department. maybe he should be talking to some of his inner circle. he is being prepped on these things correct? >> i don't know how it works. >> i agree he would like maybe to take that back. but i think what he is trying to do is sort of slow the march to war. he lived through that whole iraq experience and all of the sort of pushing by all quarters to go to war. slow it down. slow it down and be deliberate. >> we don't need american troops. >> he has the substance right, he has to have a little more

grandiose language. >> and god bless him for that. >> amen john. amen. president obama began the week on the defensive about the white house's lack of strategy against isis? is he still on the defensive? knock him again pat. >> i haven't knocked him at all. i think he is doing the right thing in iraq and i think he can do the right thing in syria, but i think we don't need american boots on the ground and i think you are going to have to work with unattractive characters. >> eleanor? >> right on all those scores and that sums up the president's approach. saying he didn't have a strategy was a statement of the obvious. the kind of thing you oes have a strategy now and he has brought europe along and those beheadings, i think, really sobered up a lot of people. >> i have to say respectfully with eleanor and pat i profoundly disagree.

there is a problem from the sense our strategy has been too slow. the military tensions the intelligence community has been brewing for a long time. they have been seeing this at least two years back but especially last summer. i'm happy now the president is beginning to take charge of this and hopefully we can see a more comprehensive strategy in the coming days. do you think he is explicitting the information and the ideas and the strategy from the resources at his immediate vicinity? or does obama think that he has everything under control? >> i think that is one big issue. my concern is he has been badly served by his national security team. he has the reputation. >> what this -- are they supposed to do? bang on his door? >> reporter: speak to the people. engage with the team you have in the broader government. not just in the white house. >> do you have any reason to believe obama is being a bad

boy? >> i don't describe it in terms of being a bad boy from the sources i have. pressures in the administration have alerted him on there issue a lot earlier than he is finally responding to. and there was a kind of concern about it. why didn't he get on top of this issue? frankly, that is the feeling i have. he is way late in the game to deal with it and that is a big problem. >> let me tell what you i think. i think the foremost character,tician can awful us in every walk of life, for example is prudence. prudence. particularly when there is so much riding on everything he says, et cetera. and i have to commend him. i think at this point, on his prudence. when we come back is mitt romney showing ankle?

issue two. admit versus hillary? >> someone else has a better chance than i do. and that is what we believe and that is why i'm not running. and you know, circumstances can change, well let's say all the guys that were running all came together and said hey we have decided we can't do it you must do it. that is the one in a million we are thinking about. >> former presidential nominee mitt romney left the door open, even if it is only a one in a million chance for another run

for the presidency in 2016. romney has had a resurgence in the polls. in july a poll found that if the 2012 election were to be held again this summer romney would defeat obama. when it comes to republican voters in the crucial early caucus state of iowa romney leads the pack of 2016 gop contenders. a poll released last week showed 35% of iowa would back romney in the gop. mike huckabee, former strategist james carville predicts romney will run. quote we know he wants to be president. he has run twice. romney would be a classic republican nominee. fueling speculation about a 2016 white house bid is romney's presence on the campaign trail with appearances

in iowa, new hampshire, north carolina, and arkansas in a schedule that includes three dozen political rallies and fundraisingee vents over the past year. >> -- events over the past year. >> will romney run? if he does will 2016 match romney against hillary clinton? >> i don't think romney will run unless the whole field collapses and they turn to him and the possibility of that happening is the one in a million. >> do you know how much he lost by? >> 5 percentage points in the general election. >> because it was a hurricane that took everything off the screen for about a week. >> it was a hurricane of women, john. >> and he didn't show up with the governor of new jersey remember all that? >> i do. >> he was going to win the election before that hurricane. >> no he wasn't. >> i'll make a small bet with you and give you a lot of odds. >> you are prepared to do better than i am.

>> if there is going to be one person in the republican group who is going to end up as a nominee, in my opinion, it will be jeb bush and he will have no chance against jeb bush. >> there is from doubt jeb bush christy are headed for the finals. i don't see bush having the inner drive. then you get mitt romney against someone like a cruz, that would be the finals. >> why doesn't he pick a woman? >> he has to get the nomination. >> who would be the best one to pick. what about hillary? should she pick a man as vice president? >> i certainly would try that yeah. >> you would? >> i sure would. >> romney is very popular with the republican base. you see that from iowa and foreign policy issues because

of russia a lot of the rhetoric of the debates is coming back in romney's favor and his documentary following him seemed to humanize him more. >> do you think romney wakes up in the middle of the night hearing hail to the chief yes or no? >> he does. >> because he needs more sleep. >> john the only cure for presidential fever is embalming fluid. i think he will run. pat another politician was washed up and made a comeback. maybe you can do a sequel with mitt romney. we'll be right back with predictions

the u.s. congress will authorize u.s. air strikes on syria by october 1 yes or no? >> no. >> yes. >> yes. >> no. bye bye.

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welcome to government contracting weekly sponsored by aoc key solutions, inc. government contracting weekly is the only television program devoted exclusively to the competitive and dynamic world of government contracting, a world where coming in second place is not an option but where principle-centered winning is the only approach. good morning, and welcome to government contracting weekly. i'm jim mccarthy the owner of key solutions and the host of this show. you've often heard us say that government contracting weekly is all about winning and retaining contracts, and today's show goes right to the heart of that subject and presents the issues faced by both primes and subs in this highly hyper-competitive market. first you'll meet george batsakis, the executive vice president of the na