not a real focus on a military operation. >> and aaron david miller, the other thing that complicates too, senator john mccain got to it in his questioning f we are arming and training a set of free syrian army, quote/unquote, free syrian rebels and they turn from fighting isis and turn from training the military of bashar al assad, are we going to keep helping them? doesn't seem it's in the u.s. interest to topple that government because you don't know what comes after them. >> that's right. you essentially have four conflicts being waged in syria. one between assad and syria, assad and the opposition, one between assad and -- and al nusrah, and in the middle of this we're going to make a focused, determined effort to, quote/unquote, destroy isis? it's not credible. >> let's listen to bob menendez. >> what success looks like in iraq and syria across the region and what conditions will indicate when it's time to end military action. now, this is what we know about isil. it has brutally mercilessly, barbarically followed through on threats to kill hostages james foley, steven sotloff.

in just a moment, aaron david miller will join me. he'll explain the newly aggressive strategy on isis maybe isn't so new. >>> and the 2016 race for the white house already getting a little hotter. what hillary clinton has to say about her plans. she spent the weekend in iowa. that's the first time she's been there in nearly seven years. co: sometimes you don't know you need a hotel room until you're sure you do. bartender: thanks, captain obvious. co: which is why i put the hotels.com mobile app on my mobile phone. hotels.com i don't need it right now. suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. ♪ honey, we need to talk. we do? i took the trash out. i know. and thank you so much for that. i think we should get a medicare supplement insurance plan. right now? [ male announcer ] whether you're new to medicare or not, you may know it only covers about 80% of your par

earlier john vause spoke with aaron david miller for some insight. >> the president has already committedimself in iraq. he's going to give a big speech tomorrow night. and he'll probably lay the basis, the foundation for the prospects of an expanded war. once the intel is right, once we develop a firmer set of elements on the ground to work with, and once they do their target sets, to figure out how to strike the isis leadership, which i think however difficult may be is really critical. so we're talking about a long movie. it ain't going to be over by the time barack obama leaves the white house. but if he does it sensibley, smartly, and avoids some kind of trillion-dollar social science project, like we ended up with in iraq. you know, i think he'll have a reasonable chance to weaken and undermine -- forget destroy for the moment -- >> when we come to the goals which are being set out by the united states to degrade and to defeat, define defeat. >> this is what i call the hollywood ending. you're talking about defeating, which means, in a military sense, total victory. that means, esse

he is aaron david miller. so much for being on the show. >> pleasure. >> i'll start with a question here regarding the ability of president obama to put together that type of coalition that george hw. bush was able to achieve in 1991. how can the u.s. put together a coalition like that and how can we do it so the u.s. does not become the face of the coalition and in fact basically ends up doing the work with the allies getting a free ride, which is some concern about that in the white house? >> i worked for bush xli and this isn't the same problem. not in the same way, i suspect that former president bush did. saddam invaded kuwait and they vulnerable to attack. extraordinary sense of urgency. there was oil, there was the prospects of weapons of mass destruction, saudis were our allies and threatened. there was an urgency in i am nens and relentlessness in some respect to saddam's actual invasion, not even akin to putin's invasion of ukraine. a different sort of coalition led primarily about military forces in

. >> let's bring in aaron david miller. vice president for new initiative at the woodrow wilson center. he served as middle east adviser in democratic and republican administrations. good to see you this morning, sir. let's set the stakes on the white house meeting with congressional leaders. he finishes an isis strategy, about to announce to the nation tomorrow. let's talk about those stakes. >> you know i don't think there will be much pushback from congress for two reasons. number one, there's little consensus on the critical issues that define the domestic agenda here. there is a fair amount of consensus even among republicans on what the right approach to isis and to america's involvement in the rest of the world really is. that's number one. there's more consensus than you think. number two, i don't think congress right now, frankly, wants the responsibility to have to vote down an effort to deal with what is probably the most serious terrorist organization since the emergence of al qaeda. if you look at what happened

because aaron david miller says in some ways this is very much a result of the president not being seen as managing chaos well. i would say foreign policy is a really hard thing to control. >> is it fair? sure it is. there's cases to be made he m mismanaged a bunch of these. certainly the intelligence community as well. perhaps rethinking the decision to pull troops out of the iraq. fair arguments to be made he erred. i think there's a more complex argument that we dpoeon't have e to go into. it is fair to say a whole host of bad things have happened on foreign policy in the past year. >> not that evil is good but the fact that the president took the reigns and announced 3,000 american military personnel, i think it actually matters. in so far we talked about american leadership. this is sort of a reminder of what we are capable of as a country on a global stage. >> this whole year has been a reminder of what we are not capable of, and in some cases we are no longer capable of, just can't do. the question is, and i agree, it comes with the territory. you're president of the united state

heather: talk about that, joining us aaron david miller, former advisor to six secretary is of state, including democrats and republicans. author of upcoming book, end of greatness, why america can't and doesn't want another great president. good morning to you. secretary kerry said this yesterday we have in fact gotten offers from other nations not just airstrikes but boots on the ground. consider aren't we taking them up on the offer? >> first of all i don't think this enterprise is ready for prime time? heather: how so? >> generalized commitments have to be turned into coordinated strategy and we're nowhere near that with respect to syria. coalition is important. global problem, requires a global response. isis beheaded a british citizen and sadly and tragically i suspect there will be more in the days to come. we have to understand two things. ultimately defeating isis, literally destroying it is right now a bridge way to fire. this is the 14th, we're into the 14th year in our battle against al qaeda and bin is dead, al qaeda core is dismantled, but if you ask anybody, intel guys,

the former diplomat aaron david miller, author of "the end of greatness" why america can't have anothersident sees a chronic problem. >> this administration is -- it is not the first, it won't be the last that has allowed the rhetoric to exceed its capacity to act. >> reporter: ultimately, the test will be how a president defined by his opposition to war in iraq. >> i don't oppose war, but i do oppose a dumb war. >> reporter: takes the country to war there once again. >> the president tonight, among other things is saying airstrikes in syria will go ahead. how quickly, do you think? >> i'm told by sources it will not be immediate, erin, there is still work to do on the ground. syria has largely been an intelligence-hold in light of the fact it has not been involved there. still tonight, erin, they will talk about air power tonight and i'm expecting the strikes to happen for sometime. >> of course arming the rebels in syria. thank you so much for jim sciutto. and as our coverage continues we'll be "outfront" in a moment. big day? ah, the usual. moved some new cars. hauled a bunch of stee

for the foreign policy implications we're joined by wilson center's aaron david miller, former mid oost east adviser to secretaries of state. aaron's upcoming book is "the end of greatness: why america can't have and doesn't want another great president." gentlemen, thank you both for being with us. >> thank you. >> pleasure. >> tony, i want to start with these reports that a syrian warplane was shot down by isis. if they, in fact, do have anti-aircraft capabilities, how does that change our air strike strategy? >> it changes it in two ways. first, we have to be a lot more cognizant in how we use our air power. most of the last two wars we had permissive environment. little in the way of surface-to-air missiles. there's a good chance these arms were passed from turks into friendly anti-assad groups. these groups have shot down assad aircraft in the past. the question now becomes did somehow these friendly groups give these weapons that we don't want the bad guy groups to have, to have. that's the issue at this point. >> aaron, iran is a huge player in this region. they are letting it be

aaron david miller from washington now.o adviser to six secretaries of the state. and in orlando, florida, lieutenant kernel mark hurdling. general, to you first, is this a true disconnect between the president and pentagon or is this the real culture gap that sometimes happens with any white house and the pentagon? >> no. and good morning, this is not a disconnect at all. i think this is a tempest that's been blown out of proportion by the reporting of it. there is no disconnect. i think you have heard that from general dempsey and the pentagon spokesman. it is the chairman doing the things he is supposed to do. he's thinking ahead. he cea he's saying if we see a potential option we will go to the president and have him make a decision. we would be appalled if he were not thinking of the future opportunities. >> what is the public message then? and does this in any way kind of empower if not give more credibility to isis? >> think mark is right. you have to distinguish between the possibility of the redeployment of thousan