i would say nouri al maliki. >> the iraqi prime minister whom the bush administration had helped put >> i appreciate your commitment to representing the people of iraq. >> back then, maliki's appointment was tauted by the administration as a triumphant moment for the newly democratic iraq. >> i appreciate you recognize the fact that the future of the country is in your hands. >> to ensure the success of democracy, al maliki needed to heal the schism in iraq, but he never did. when asked to fight against isis, the sunni soldiers in the iraqi army simply said, no. >> for many sunnis, they looked at the iranian backed regime, baghdad, they looked at isis, and some of them made the disastrous calculation that isis was the lesser of two evils. >> the last american soldier left the country in 2011, after the u.s. could not reach agreement with maliki to maintain a military presence. >> the question that we asked today, when people look back at that decision, what would we have done with 10,000 u.s. troops, would they have enforced security? and frankly would we have wanted them to be fight

iraq's prime minister al maliki had a new set of patrons, his fellow shiites in tehran, and the mulle him an offer he couldn't refuse. >> that was part of iran's deal with him, we'll give you a third term, but the conditions are, no american soldiers. that was what tehran had demanded. there was no way it would have gone through the parliament. >> one thing is clear, it was only iraq's army that could have stopped isis. instead, iraqi soldiers threw down their weapons and ran. [ phone ringing ] >> hello? >> next on "blindsided." what drives these people? what makes them tick? you'll go inside the mind of a radical. meet a man who was prepared to die for a fantasy. the idea of an islamic caliphate. this is amazing. i love this car. real people are discovering surprising things at chevy. this is a road trip car. we're sold. it's so pretty. they're good-looking cars. it feels great. perfect. this is not what i would expect from a chevy at all. get more than you expect, for less than you imagined at the chevy memorial day sale, going on now. get cash back for 15% of the msrp on select 20

we tried to keep them there, maliki said no now. obama should have tried harder. the problem is, there's no real insight in date. if it is necessary to have a large number of american troops to stop somebody like maliki from killing sunnis in his country, then when does that end? it's essentially an invitation for a permanent large scale presence of troops in the middle east. that's untenable as well. and so you're back to where we are today, which is again, i think drawing a hardline with abaddi, who needs our presence there. tell him, you have us so long as you make a commitment that you have a military that's made up of sunni and shiite. >> this is the problem, we keep coming back to the question at the heart of this, which,are you going to genuinely create an iraqi state that's stitched together at the highest levels? and will that be a functional state in which everyone feels like they have the protection of the law? and it strikes me that no amount of american leverage can bring that to be the case. no matter what we say, they're still going to be there, the

we are not going to it continue to press maliki. prime minister maliki.t what maliki did was clear out the sunni leaders of the military. took various units with sunni leadership and replaced them with shia, shia close to the political parties that are loyal to iran. you, in effect, had shiites fighting for the provincial capital anbar province a sunni strong hold. it's wonder that they didn't fight. this is not something that happened yesterday. this is something that's happened over the years. the new question will these new shiite militias the pmus be able to overtake are a made. the military analysts are split on that. some of them say that they will because they are better fighters just increase the numbers. but others say that they won't and point to the difficulties that the united states had back when we were fighting in ramadi with 20,000 troops on the ground. we didn't have success until we had 20,000 sunnis fighting alongside us as part of the anbar wakening. something that will not happen here. we are not going to see that here. it's a pretty

put in place. >> maliki, norry al maliki former prime minister of iraq. >> he went on to say and is he a man of vast experience whose judgment should be respected that the 3,000 people we have there or probably enough. if they were used properly. particularly if they were in forward air control positions so that they could make our air force strikes more effective than they so far have been. we went into iraq saying we are going to build a nation. not just a nation but a democratic nation. when that went sorrow, -- sour we said at least we know how to build an army. it turns out we don't. so now today instead of relying on the army, the government such as it is, is relying on militias backed by iran. the problem here is that iraq now illustrates one more thing that gates said this morning on "fox & friends." he said we are dealing with artificial nations in the middle east, the art artificialality is becoming apparent. the government of lebanon doesn't control all of lebanon. same with syria and iraq. we are watching a region why disintegrations of the state system itself. it's goin

and then the maliki government shouldn't have run iraq just for the shias.hat inflamed sectarian tensions. this is a region that's got to police its own problems. and if they do, we can help. we can't police the problems for them. as for baghdad, there's a u.s. embassy presence in baghdad. the president acted in august to stop the move of isil toward a u.s. consulate in erbil and to potentially threaten the u.s. presence in baghdad. we will protect american lives and american embassies. but in terms of holding up the stability of iraq, it's got to be for the iraqis the kurdish peshmerga, and other nations in the region playing the pre-eminent role on the ground because it is a terrorist threat that is bred there, that is born there, and if they don't step up we can't police a region that won't police itself. >> one final question -- is baghdad a red line? do we abandon the embassy if they are threatened or do we protect baghdad? >> any u.s. presence people consulate, or embassy is always a red line. and we will always defend that to the greatest degree possi

we had a good example when maliki governed for eight years. there were more killings. sunnis and shiites cannot live together. >> before the battle even begins factions that are allied against isil are already struggling over who will take control of each city. the peshmerga and the iraqi army can't agree on who will hold on to jalawla if it's recaptured. so the attack on the city is on hold for now. >> we have an argument about jawlawla _ who will control jalawla after we take it from isil guys. >> is this crisis an opportunity for the kurds to extend their borders? >> yes. it is a great opportunity. >> as the peshmerga and shia militias pursue their own agendas, their alliance is threatening to unravel. and it's unlikely to extend beyond the battle against the islamic state. >> these are two different factions who are collaborating with the us, not really collaborating with each other. they don't work with each other at all they don't have the same command. at the end of the day, if they had the chance to kill each other to take more territory or oil or support, they

the "new york times" is reporting that iran is using maliki maliki who by the way said they'll take the province. what do you say about the report that iranians want a weak haider al-abadi for their own purposes. >> i would generally agree it's in iran's interests for iraq to be weak but it is not in their interests to have utter chaos in iraq because that could rebound into iran itself. i take the point of the report to a certain extent but not the kind of chaos we saw in iraq over the past 10 months. >>> ambassador good to have you with us hope you join us again and bring us insights >>> the wife of an i.s.i.l. leader is being questioned. her husband was killed in a raid over the weekend. abu sayyaf's wife was captured. he is believed to be a top-ranking funding official. the military wants to know if his wife knows anything about hostages >>> multiforces from 18 counties carried out military drills in jordan. the joint exercises included counter attack drills and mock strikes against targets. the exercisers are expected to run until tomorrow. >>> a french court cleared two police off

but others were thought, we know al-maliki, he will give us a follow-on security agreement.ident biden came down on the side of there's no one but al-maliki, this is the quickest option, keep the status quo, and we can get an security agreement and then just really disengage. >> warner: just what washington wanted to do. >> washington wanted to end the war. that was the priority, to end the war. >> warner: so what is the future now you see for iraq? >> iraq's present is really very grim. you have the islamic state controlling one-third of the country. with all of us who served in iraq year after year after year, it's really hard. and i think the only way is to maintain hope is to look at iraq's past, and you think, you know, this is the land where adam and eve were. this is the land where the talmud was written. baghdad was once the cultural capital of the arab world. that's an amazing history. and i hope the new generation comes along that's inspired by iraq's incredible past and that's able to build a better future. >> warner: emma sky, thank you so much. >> thank you. >>

i think it was right to ask for political change, get rid of maliki and he is right that the boots onhe ground, the ground on me -- ground armies have to be others not american. to empower our special forces and have some on the ground spotters and air controllers and spotters, and we can have some trainers embed some traders down with the iraqis -- i think we could move this process along a little faster. charlie: i was told recently that the arena ian on the first lines -- that the iranian advisors are on the first lines. robert gates: i do not know if they need to be on the front lines, but they need to be forward from where they are now which is back in big training camps where the basic training and so on is carried out for the iraqi security forces but they are not close enough to be helpful in advising when it comes to the fights themselves. charlie: my understanding is we have been trading iraqi soldiers in saudi arabia, jordan, everywhere else. -- we have been training iraqi soldiers in saudi arabia, jordan everywhere else. robert gates: i do not think those trade outside of

that was something that had to be done as a political reality for maliki at the time. president obama should have fought harder with the iraqis to have a permanent ground force of -- between 10 and 20,000. once we left i hate to use this term but the iraqis lost their adult supervision and that's when maliki was inserting his favorites in there, knocking out the more qualified commanders on the ground. he totally politicized the army. if you go back to 2008/2009, the iraqi army was a reasonably good force, but after that once the u.s. was gone and maliki took over total control of the army a at that stage the army began to fall apart. so when the crunch time came with isis most of them just disbanned, threw down their weapons, ran, morale was lost. so i don't think we could ever fill them up to the extent that we did during the period up to 2008. i think that we can certainly make them a better fighting force and again, by using our best trainers best special operations forces to be in there with them it can serve a real purpose. other than that listen this is our war,

i think the president was right to demand a political change, get rid of maliki before we help. and he's right the boots on the ground, the ground armies have to be arab, kurd, so on, not american. but with a limited number of people, if we can empower our special forces, if we can have some on the ground air spotters air controllers and spotters and we can have some trainers embedded trainers down to say the battalion level with the iraqis, i think we could move this process along a little faster. >> rose: abadi told me in washington recently in an interview that the iranian advisors are on the front lines advising the shia militia. the american advisors are not on the front line. they're back. >> that's correct. >> rose: should they be on the front lines? >> i'm not sure they should be on the front lines but they need to be forward of where they are now, which is back in big training camps where the basic training and so on is carried out for the iraqi security forces. but they're not close enough to be helpful in advising when it comes to the fights themselves. >> rose: but m

i would say nouri al maliki. >> the iraqi prime minister whom the bush administration had helped puti appreciate your commitment to representing the people of iraq. >> back then, maliki's appointment was tauted by the administration as a triumphant moment for the newly democratic iraq. >> i appreciate you recognizing the fact that the future of your country is in your hands. >> to ensure the success of democracy, al maliki needed to heal the schism, but he never did. when asked to fight against isis, the sunni soldiers in the iraqi army simply said, no. >> for many sunnis, they looked at the iranian backed regime, baghdad, they looked at isis, and some of them made the disastrous calculation that isis was the lesser of two evils. >> the last american soldier left the country in 2011, after the u.s. could not reach agreement with al maliki to maintain a military presence. >> the question in a we asked today, when people look back at that decision, what would we have done with 10,000 u.s. troops, would they have enforced security? and frankly would we have wanted them to be fighting in

if 150,000 troops in iraq could not make maliki stop going after the sunnis there, what makes anyone think that we could have controlled maliki going after the sunnis as he did, with only 10,000 troops there? no. the absence of the ability to keep maliki to take care of his own country, are we to go in and remain there because they won't take care of their own problems? absolutely not. >> so congress plan moving forward and looking at the way we are handling this the american people have no appetite for boots on the ground. number one, we can't afford it. we have a hard time taking care of the veterans the way it is. post traumatic stress disorder is another issue in itself. it is breaking the bank. we're increasing military funding again in the next budget. but the country has to be moved to do this. is president obama doing what he's doing strategically because it's what the public will accept? or because it is the right thing to do and the most effective way to fight isis? your thoughts. >> i think the president is now doing the right thing. but, ed i did say on this show that a y

back then, the government of nuri al maliki. they feel the current government betrayed them by not providing them with the support a year ago and not providing them with sufficient air support to prevent isis from taking over anbar province. we reached a stage where the sunnis will take weapons from anyone who will provide them. the concerns right now as we are talking about the offensive happening in anbar and ramadi is the civilians that are trapped inside the city. we were at a refugee camp and many of the individuals whom we met have relatives and they are trapped in the areas that isis took over a year ago. they are unable to flee. when they try to reach their relatives, they keep telling them they keep trying to leave the neighborhoods, but isis stops them at gunpoint and takes the young men and the young men to pledge allegiance to isis. in all of this you have the growing plight of the civilian population that many of the relatives whom we met claims isis is using as human shields. >> with so many internal visions in ira

president and maliki were there. guy throws shoe. president ducks twice. lead secret service agent was standing behind the interpreter who was next to me. when he lunged forward to the president. he hit steel arm of boom mic i was looking this way and it swung around and caught me right there. it was a violence against me i never felt before in my life. i had never been hurt. it hurt so bad. and, this marine saw me. the president was determined to finish the press conference which was smart decision. if you're at u.n. you're thinking if the president turns out of there and doesn't stand strong that looks terrible for america. so he made maliki sit there. i realize i have to get out of this room. my eye hurt so bad. i was not sure what was going on. this marine seen what happened. he reaches down. pulls me up we're trying to get out of the room. now it is almost a crime scene because the iraqis are trying to figure out who this was. and, i tried to get it off the room everyone is blocking my way. around so, i said, doctor? the guy blocking the room iraqi se

proven to have failed not only recently but even through the bush administration when we had nouri maliki in charge we were providing weapons and military resources to the shiite-led government that persecuted the sunnis and really left them out that really created the situation today where you have isis taking advantage of the oxygen of this policy that has been created. where they have been driven into the arms of isis for protection. this is the problem that i see with the current offensive that is happening right now heading into ramadi. this is being led by the shiite militia who named this offensive attack a name that is extremely in incendiary and offensive to the tribes. this will only make it worse, and again will push the sunni tribes closer and closer into isis arms at the end of the day, making isis stronger rather than defeating them. >> as you know the secretary of defense asked carter he told our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr, that the iraqi army even though they had thousands more troops than ramadi they simply lacked the will to fight a few 100 isis terrorists. it

there were subsequent purging by the maliki government by the iraqi officer score. a lot of their best talent for the last decade or so has been pushed out of the armed services and in the private sector some of those people have gone and joined isis. >> experts say repression of sunni dissent between 2011 and 2013 was for many a breaking point. >> all the calls for unified government goes to anbar demonstration two years ago. when anbar asked for their rights and calls to be part of the unified government. >> during that time sunnies accused nouri al-maliki of depriving and marginalizing them because of their sectarian policies. [ gunfire ] protesters were killed as government forces fired at them. and then anger and animosity has only grown. now the situation is even worse. as the united states and iraq engage in a war of words about who is to blame for failing to stop isil both also wage war on the streets against their common enemy, one still very much on the march. al jazeera. >> in syria fighting conditions on several fronts. rival factions are targeting isil

. >> but the prime minister at that time nuri al maliki turned out to be a disaster too. right?ut the problem was that the american government the white house, was offering less than 3,000 troops as follow-on force, not enough to make a difference but when we pulled out he went back to his sectarian ways. iraq split apart. the security environment deteriorated and everything we fought for, everything that was sacrificed on behalf of the american taxpayer and american soldier, was just squandered by president obama. president bush made plenty of mistakes. smart enough to adjust in 2006 but president obama's decision to withdraw all forces in the face of sound military advice has come back to haunt us in iraq and syria, and if he doesn't ate just his policy this problem's going to get worse over there and eventually come here. >> you don't accept the notion nuri al maliki was the prime minister of iraq at the time rejected u.s. requests. >> no. >> that any u.s. troops who remained would have immunity from iraqi prosecution? once he rejeshgtsed that the u.s. got out? >> that was a

there were subsequent personals by the maliki government of the iraqi officer corps. a lot of the talent has been pushed out and sort of into the private sector. some people have gone and joined isis. >> reporter: experts say repression of sunni descent was for many a breaking point. >> all the calls for unified government goes to the anbar demonstration two years ago when anbar asked for their rights. their calls to be part of the unified government. >> reporter: during that time a grieved sunnis accused former prime minister nouri al maliki of depriving them because of his sectarian policies. protesters were killed as government forces fired at them and then anger and animosity has only grown. now the situation is even worse. as the united states and iraq engage in a war of words about who is to blame for failing to stop isil both also waged war on the streets against their common enemy. one still very much on the march. >>> in syria activists say rebels from the al qaeda affiliated front are advancing after capturing aria the last government-held town. it captured

. >> during that time sunnies accused nouri al-maliki of depriving and marginalizing them because ofis sectarian policies. [ gunfire ] protesters were killed as government forces fired at them. and then anger and animosity has only grown. now the situation is even worse. as the united states and iraq engage in a war of words about who is to blame for failing to stop isil, boths are wage war on the streets against their common enemy. one still very much on the march. al jazeera. >> well, in the southern city of aden reported clashes where dozens of people were killed or injured. thoseforces loyal to ousted president abd rabbuh mansur hadi targeted the area. >>> still ahead muhammadu buhari is sworn in as nigeria's new present, and the unesco has stop short of putting the reef on the danger list. >> welcome back. a reminder of the top stories here on al jazeera. seth blatter has been elected as fifa president for a fifth term. the armed group isil has claimed responsibility for bombing outside of a shia mosque. the blast went off during friday prayers killing four people and wounding f

the first was in supporting a highly sectarian prime minister nuri al maliki, after maliki lost the electionsnd the second was not to negotiate a continuing presence of american forces in 2011 when there was an offer on the table to keep them on the ground under an executive agreement, and i think both of those decisions have contributed to the strategic conundrum we are now in. let me go back to the decision to go into iraq in the first place, and that was the original strategic error in the war, and unfortunately you can recover from tactical and operational mistakes, and strategic errors live on forever. >> i will ask you something else that marco rubio said and he said the world is better off without saddam hussein, and he says it's a great thing hussein is gone and is that right? >> the world would be better off without a lot of dictators, and the leader of north korea and others that starve their people and treat them poorly but it's not up to the united states to go around the world and remove them from power, necessarily. it's great that saddam hussein is gone but what we unleashed in

. >> there were subsequent purges by the maliki government of the iraqi officer core, so their best talent from the last deck kid or so have been pushed out of the armed services and into the private sector. some of these people have gone and joined isis. >> experts say repression of sunni descent between 2011 and 2013 was for many a breaking point. >> all of the calls for unified government goes to the anbar demonstration two years ago when anbar asked for their rights and their calls to be part of the unified government. >> during that time, sunnis accused prime minister maliki of minimalizing them because of his sectarian policies. >> protestors were killed as government forces fired at them. anger and animosity has only grown. now, the situation is even worse. as the united states and iraq engage in a war of words about who is to blame for failing to stop isil, both also wage war on the streets against their common enemy. one still very much on the march. al jazeera. >> to the war in yemen now where there's been heavy fighting in the south. pro government forces say they've taken contr

so he made maliki sit there. i remember i got to get out of this room because my eye hurt so bad. i wasn't sure what was beginning on but this marine had seen what happened. and he reaches down pulls me up and we're trying to get out of the room but now almost a crime scene because iraqis can trying to figure out who this was. i try to get out of the room and everyone is blocking my way. and so i said -- doctor -- and the guy blocking the room he was iraqi security guard, he said, i am doctor. [laughter] i was like my doctor -- he walked me out of the room and president said i saw you crying but i thought it was because a guy threw a shoe at me. well you know i adore you, but i grew up in wyoming and i'm a little tuftser than that. but i ended up then falling asleep i huddled only the floor of air force one between baghdad and kabul. it wasn't very long like a five hour flight maybe a little longer so i was curled up on the floor because the conference room was all setted everybody already sleeping. i got a blanket i remember being supercold so if i left couple of hours, and i wak

maliki disenfranchised the sunni tribes. we didn't have a residual force.ia militias and the sunni tribes are enflamed. the political reconciliation will be very difficult to take place. >> you met with the new prime minister. he was just in washington a few weeks ago. and the administration the obama administration was painting a relatively upbeat picture that this guy a lot better than al maliki. >> he's better. the fact is he is a shia and supporting the shia many lishilitias coming in. then we met the speaker of parliament who is against this strategy. you have a very divided government within iraq. i think the shias militias income iraq is very dangerous. >> you also went to israel. you met with the prime minister of israel benjamin netanyahu. i take it is still pretty concerned about the u.s.-led nuclear deal with iran? >> very much so. he views iran more of a threat than isis. he sees iran as an empire that could go nuclear in the region. and is very very -- he can compare it to a tiger in the middle east that eats red meat every day and he was very

particularly the military and intelligence agencies has not changed since the battle days of 94 alnouri al maliki. >> jane arraf reports. >> not enough to get married the problem here isn't i.s.i.l. he says, it's unemployment. the city in southern jordan is closer to the border with saudi arabia than it is to the jordanian capital. many here feel distance. this has the largest unemployment rates in the country. they say the city has been neglected in decades. after i.s.i.l. burned to death an air force pilot from jordan, even though they don't support i.s.i.l. say jordan shouldn't be fighting the group in iraq and syria. >> this is not our war. we lost a pilot. we'll lose others if we continue. emotion is maid us feel sympathy for pilot but our brains say we should be far from war. >> boys and young men have little education and no jobs. they wouldn't speak on camera because they say they would be arrested but some of the young men tell us off camera that they support i.s.i.l. that's because they say i.s.i.l. kills those who deserve to be killed even the jordanian pilot who they say was executed

mariu, maliki and you have mazi which means sir. each vote costs $2 but the money will be spent on the zoo animals. >> i'm going to spend $10 and go with mazi. >> i like mairu. >> i like the middle one. >> all right rob is back with us. i was biking to school with my son this morning and he wore a raincoat and i did not. >> we have more showers coming in this evening. this weekend is trending drier. thank you for joining us at 5:00. >>> on this thursday night, the state of emergency as neighborhoods are flattened by a ferocious of tornadoes as the storm shelters are no match for the flash floods and tonight al roker is here to tell us the worse is yet to come. >>> the fbi warning hours before that terrorist attack in texas. the urgent bulletin sent to local police about one of the shooters. what did they know. pollen tsunami suddenly hitting very hard. why doctors say allergy season is coming all at once and what you can do to survive it. >>> and tom brokaw opens up about a very personal battle with cancer. how a devastating diagnos

nouri al-maliki back in those days. there has been a change to the government with haider al-abadi in charge. the pentagon's assessment was the will to fight was broken by a number of factors, including the idea that some sunni fighters feel they are not being adequately support the by the government in baghdad. i mentioned antitank a t4 weapons that could be used stopping the vehicle born truck bombs and vehicle bombs. there were none of those in ramadi. they are rushing some to iraq. that's the weapon that might have blunted the offensive. ut never know because of factors involved in the fall of ramadi. could have been a tipping point. the series of explosions demoralized and spooked some of the troops. might have started some of the despollution of what happened. >> they look at the factors. the troops in ramadi had been there for a while. they were suffering low moral, they did not have the leadership that they should have had. they are more hopeful that the troops going in including forces recently trained by ameri

one was the military pressure was reduced and two, prime minister maliki started acting up and disenfranchisingunnis and then al qaeda goes across the border and becomes isis. they changed their name. we report their growing strength there. why? they are getting recruits and arsenals and money and we are reporting all of that. the part we missed was the collapse of the iraq he army in the face -- the iraqi army in the face of the terrorist group. the iraqi army fell apart. mark: the man that george was called -- bush called mikey. we will -- the book again by mike morrell. we will be right back. ♪ we learned the obama presidential library will be in the president's old stomping grounds, chicago. we had an expert on the obama family in the studio recently whose new book "michelle obama a life" that is about michelle obama and her life. you said i wanted to know what michelle obama set out to accomplish and why. >> it tracks back to where she grew up. she saw inequality all the time and she sees it now. what she is trying to do in the white house is i write about in the book is to un-stack the de

the options are maroo, meaning son, maliki, meaning king. the names are swahili. if you want to vote, we have a link to the zoo's naming contest on our ktvu facebook page. >>> 4:50 is the time. getting new details on the latest whale to wash ashore in pacifica. the close scientists say led them to believe the animals could have been hit by a ship. >> and next a massive outdoor sculpture garden in the north bay. the art exhibit you can see for free. it's high-tech too with the latest safty es. and available entune app suite. and, i'm sorry... i don't mean to drone on. honey, stop messing with jan. during toyota time, get 0% apr financing for 60 months on a 2015 prius. offer ends june 1st. for great deals on other toyotas, visit toyota.com enjoy your prius. thanks, jan. look out people, coming in hot. toyota. let's go places. >>> appears the whale was older and longer than first reported. they say it was 42 feet long, adult female rather than a juvenile. the marine mammal center said scientists found the whale had four broken vertebrae and one broken rib. they said

. >> there were subsequent purges by the maliki government so a lot of their best talent for over thet decade or so has been pushed out of the armed services and into the private sector some of those people have actually gone and joined isis. >> reporter: experts say repression of sunni descent was for many a breaking point. >> all of the calls for unified government goes to the anbar demonstration two years ago when anbar asked for their rights and their -- their -- their calls to be part of the unified government. >> reporter: during that time aggrieved sunnis accused the former prime minister of depriving and marginalizing him because of his sectarian policies. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: protesters were killed as government forces fired at them. since then anger and animosity has only grown. now the situation is even worse. as the united states and iraq engage in a war of words about who is to blame for failing to stop isil both also wage war on the streets against their common enemy, one still very much on the march. >>> syria's al-qaeda affiliate, al-nusra front rebels have capture

politically, the administration deserves credit for helping to usher out the maliki government and bring the new government in. however abadi is isolated, undermined by maliki who is still and remains a nefarious character and others within abadi's own party. he's unduly influenced by iran and the united states is not nearly as consequential as it should be. a u.s. objective should be politically to reduce iran's influence. we need a focused diplomatic and political effort with the abadi government with the best people we have available to do it. militarily, clearly the iraqi army is a serious problem. while somehow have fought heroically, many have not. there are serious leadership discipline, morale, and competence issues. this will take time to fix. but if we believe that iraq is important to u.s. security, then we must help them fix it. and it will take many more trainers and a much more concerted effort to put in the best leaders available. the sunni tribal force is almost nonexistent. yet we cannot reclaim the sunni territory that has been lost particularly anbar province and mosul

the military pressure was reduced and two, prime minister maliki started acting up and disenfranchisingnis and then al qaeda goes across the border into syria and becomes isis. they changed their name. same group. just changed their name. we report their growing strength there. why? they are getting recruits and arsenals and money and we are reporting all of that. the part we missed was the collapse of the iraqi army in the face of the terrorist group. the iraqi army fell apart. we did not see that coming. that was the bees we got wrong. mark: pretty big piece. the man george w. bush called "mikey." the book again, the great war of our time. thanks for joining us. we will be right back. ♪ mark: we learned the obama presidential library will be in the president's old stomping grounds, chicago. we had an expert on the obama family in the studio recently whose new book, "michelle obama, a life" that is about michelle obama and her life. peter slevin. you said i wanted to know what michelle obama set out to accomplish and why. what did she set out to accomplish and why? >> it tracks back to

it became destabilized because of a lack of engagement, by withdrawing completely, by not engaging maliki. clinton went to baghdad one time in her tenure as secretary of state, for three hours. that shows you the level of disengagement in iraq. and that, i think, created isis. >> do you think -- would you say another tenure, that we should just stay there as long as it takes? rep. mccaul: we are not some monolithic giant. ramani was pretty scary. if we came up with a military strategy, a political one that was aggressive and serious about destroying and defeating them, not containing them, that we could do this in short order. we did it with al qaeda in iraq. isis is very similar to what we saw with al qaeda. the problem is -- destabilization of that region not only matters in the middle east, but also in northern africa. in places like saudi, they don't understand the foreign-policy, why are you letting the muslim brotherhood -- they think it is my decision and it is not. there is no certainty and foreign-policy. with that, there is a lot of confusion, a lot of destabilization going on.

maliki. providing technical assistance, dismantling the government militia because we don't need america to rebuild its partnership with isis. put the partnership of the framework agreement. the central government regarding this implementation and creating the fund. the story i think i say this is an international one. so everyone should participate. sunnis in iraq or the potential ally. i don't think anyone. they need the assistance of the united states in order to fight isis. they need to trust with the leaders on the ground now fighting and are proven as i've mentioned the awakening of army and direct financing of the american side to the al qaeda in 2006 and 2007. this is now to fight against isis later on against the government. why the sunni fight against the government if it is their own government, if they are participating. so all of this is not accepted. the one way is to restore the law in partnership and ordered to come to the solution. it cannot be a central government was sunnis

and right from the beginning we saw it collapse but maliki undermined the force. we have been trying to patch a back together but with this strategy the president is pursuing the not be enough strategy not enough advisers were not enough fighters. there isn't even enough air power to them what they saw us so heroically. every average retrain eight or 10 per night and also afghanistan and there isn't enough arms for the tribes but the fact is that we have to reassess where we are. we cannot toch go down this road and we cannot take mosul anytime soon or this year is a reality. lou: and in stark contrast from what was emanating from the pentagon. and how the iraqis were preparing to take mosul there is no evidence of any force to begin such an assault from ramadi with their hands of the islamic states. >> absolutely they are consolidating but we can conduct was a significant operation across the militia. with eastern and western syria at the same time north of baghdad with the terrorist activities the explosions to kill innocent civilians has been rising exponential

problem and that requires us to train, retrain refit and reconstitute that officer corps that al-malikiurged. it is not that they won't fight. the iraqis will fight. they're a fighting people. they have to trust their sisters. martha: you're talking about the surge which was successful because it had the backing of president bush. president bush realized the strategy had not worked in some ways and he was willing to follow the advice of the pentagon and carry out this surge but president obama is not going to do that. he hasn't indicated in any way he is interested in doing that so what are we doing? at this point is it fair to have anybody on the ground if we're not there to win? >> well, that's a separate, there is sort of a moral question. if the president of the united states doesn't believe in the mission, whether it is in afghanistan or in iraq or somewhere else then he shouldn't be sending american men and women and put their lives at risk. martha: do you believe that this president believes in this mission? >> i believe, i think he believes in the stated goal of defeating isis b