european command, and university of chicago professor john mearsheimer. then to ferguson, six months after the police shooting of michael brown, more than a dozen st. louis-area residents have filed lawsuits accusing ferguson and a neighboring suburb of creating an illegal debtors prison scheme by targeting african americans with arrests and fines. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president obama says he has not yet decided yet whether to send arms to the ukrainian military to fight russian-backed rebels. obama criticized russia's role in the conflict during a joint news conference at the white house with german chancellor angela merkel. >> unfortunately, russia has made a decision that i think is bad for them strategically, bad for europe, bad for the world. and in the face of this aggression in these bad decisions, we can't simply try to talk them out of it. we have to show them that the world is unified in imposing a cost for this aggression. >> on wednesday, chancello

and john mearsheimer, a professor of international security policy at the university of chicago.at do you think is the answer to the question, steven pifer? >> i think the answer is that we should provide additional military assistance to crairng including some defensive arms and that's designed to support diplomacy. it's designed to give der terence to further russian aggression and maybe change that calculation in moscow where putin concludes he can't use military force. he has to go and seek a negotiated settlement. >> ifill: so you're suggesting the u.s. provide weapons they can use defensively, not offensively? >> first of all the group that i was with when we proposed additional military assistance, the bulk of that is non-military assistance. the one area we visited ukraine three weeks ago we found a real need for light anti-armor weapons. the ukrainians have stocks that are over 20 years old and almost three-quarters of them just don't work. as was mentioned in the report, you've seen in december and january a significant influx of russian tanks and other armored vehicles

john mearsheimer writes in contrast to can waltz -- ken waltz.standard to what we are doing in ukraine. tom: he is almost the anti-zeitgeist. he really pushes against the ingress -- conventional thinking. brendan: it is hard to have this discussion unless you are making the distinction he is making which is you do not need to know who is right or who is wrong. you need to know what is the right thing to do. it is easy to look at this situation say vladimir putin is definitely stoking the conflict, he is sending russian troops and heavy machinery over the border. does that mean we need to do something about? not necessarily. tom: has anyone said ukraine should not be a part of nato? olivia: i don't think so comment august the you are hearing a lot of countries of course the president of estonia sounded very pro-western europe. that has really concerned vladimir putin. it is classical, realist politics will stop those new nato rapid transit are lined up right along poland and romania. brendan: forget ukraine, he is really flying all of these sortie

. >> john mearsheimer, appreciate that perspective on all of this. to wait and see if the cease-fire holds. maybe we won't get to a point where the u.s. sends arms to the ukranian's. john thanks for stopping by and speaking with us about this very critical issue at a very serious moment. john thanks very much. >>> isis fighters creeping closer to a base where u.s. service members are stationed in iraq. how worried should we be about this threat and the danger to a key province. that's ahead. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda. [meow mix jingle slowly and quietly plucks] right on cue. [cat meows] ♪meow, meow, meow, meow...♪ it's more than just a meal it's meow mix mealtime. with great taste and 100% complete nutrition, it's the only one cats ask for by name. >>> iraq's anbar province could fall within hours as isis makes military advances