we'll talk to major mike lyons about the new u.s.strategy for securing the country. >>> they dream of becoming professional dance e starting at the age of three. we'll take you to a school making dreams come true at an unlikely place. . >> there is no doubt that their advance, their most over the last several months has been more rapid than the intelligence estimates, and, i think, the expectations of policy makers in and south of iraq. >> that's president obama saying america and the international community may have actually underestimated the militant group known as the islamic state. american war planes are flying cover for kurdish forces again. mike lyons, a retired army maim junior, and a senior fellow at the truman project. thank you for being with us. yesterday we heard the president say we may have undernamed how swifting i.s.i.s. is advancing. how is that possible. how could the intelligence be so flawed? >> we were surprised that when twitter exploded over the comment. we have seen the playout on television for the past two

back with us is retired army major mike lyons. we heard the president say he wants to save iraqi civilians, 40,000 iraqi civilians on top of the mountain. do air strikes do that? >> they don't. they provide cover for a corridor for troops to come in and get them off the mountain. they are strounded, syria to the narth and east. i.s.i.s. to the south and west. they have no other place to go. >> targeted air strikes, what does that mean? >> it means if we saw a group of the enemy together we'd hit them on demand or something, using a drone, perhaps. there's a weapon system called an a-10 in the inventory. that's the system that should be used against this troop. it's not there at this point. >> i know we don't know the answer to a lot of questions, but how many planes would it take to carry out targeted air strikes like this. >> tens of hundreds of sortees. they have to be reinforced. you couldn't come in and bomb something and not come back and reinforce that with more firepower. it's difficult to say that that will do anything for

we talk to retired army major mike lyons. >> they're 6 and 8 and 10, 9. what are we doing? >> look at this dramatic case of mistaken identity. why police are thou apologising for this incident all caught on a dash cam. >>> plus, the epic drought in the west is so severe it's causing the surface of the earth to move. look at that. >>> good morning to you. thank you for joining us here on al jazeera america. the islamic state group is beefing up recruitment across the middle east. as they move in on the biggest city, they are looking to gain more fighters, even ramping up their funding efforts. courtney kealy takes a look >> reporter: the islamic state's recruitment videos are slickly produced and aimed at muslim men in the west. >> oh, my goodness, highing in the west -- living in the west, i know how you feel depressed. the cure is you have to submit... >> the group is rhymairily composed of iraqi and syrians, an estimated 6,000 joined in the past month. the islamic state has routes with al qaeda in iraq. nicknamed the sheikh of the slaughterers, he's reported to have perso

mike lyons, welcome back. what is the mission here? >> the mission is protecting erbil, it seems like that city cannot fall to i.s.i.s. at this point. our relationship with the kurds and if there is any future of kurdistan. >> genocide when it comes to the mountains of sinjar and the 40,000 people that are trapped there. how can the u.s. government and apparently that's part of the mission as well right? how does the u.s. government get those people protect those people? >> we haven't seen the details of how they are going to secure that operation. they had another drop in there, there's more supplies that had given to them. they had lost some pallets, they were concerned that some might have gotten to the enemy. they need to get them down and out of there somehow. >> so there's a line in the sand that's really been drawn by the united states, islamic state don't go here? >> there's no question there has been. definitely into erbil given what they're attacking now. the kind of air power is the right kind for the offensive operations th

mike lyons is with the truman national security project and joins us in studio. is the authorization of an air strike just the beginning of a long term involvement or as they say so often, mission creep? >> it depends on the enemy at this point. if isis decides to attack into the area, there will be airstrikes, no question about that. the question comes back to the refugees on the mountain top, and what happens there, if they go after them so slaughter them, what happens then? airstrikes are not going to protect them. there's going to be a lot of destruction and whether or not the president authorizes it for that. >> the air strike area is hundreds of miles away from the mountous area. they can overrun a very strong and disciplined peshmerga army? >> they didn't stay to protect those on the mountain top, because it's too far away. if urbile third base falls, kyrgystan falls. isis has better equipment, they took it over from the iraqi security forces. they have rupp guard trained forces. >> what happens if the islamic state group which has a lot of u.s. supplied m

we will talk to mike lyons about the islamic state group in iraq and syria after the break. an image of james foley's execution being used in of all things, a political ad under fire of what some call a tas tasteless shot of the white house the. and the winner is... >> after parties just wrapping up in los angeles, the biggest snubs and surprises from the emmys, plus a touching tribute to robin williams. >> $11,000,000,000, that is amazing. amazon cutting a massive check for a gaming website that doesn't even let users play games. >>> today's big number is 1 dots $1,000,000,000, the amount amazon is spending on twitch. >> that's the most popular website for watching people play video games. the deal includes stocks that amazon is pay to go retain switch employees and $970 million in cash. >> here is what amazon gets, 55 million unique viewers a month globally. the site is one the top 15 websites around the world in terms of traffic. twitch says people watch more than 16 billion minutes of videos each month. >> at least 11 people have been killed and dozens more injured when

retired army mike lyons will discuss whether that u.s.olvement is helping or hurting. >> sunday, we got to see what the boys of chicago would do for an encore. little league series highlights coming up. >> turtles can talk, sort of. it's our discovery of the day when we come back in just two minutes. mi >> in iraq, fighting over a dam in the north with dozens of u.s. air strikes, kurdish forces battling the islamic state group for control of the dam, a critical source of electricity and water for northern iraq. mike lyons is a retired army major joining us in studio. why is that dam so important? >> strategically it gives either side an advantage over the other. the fact that isis had it before, they controlled electricity and power into mosul, could have used it to collect taxes and the like. it's a very important side for the other side to make sure they have it. >> they could have flooded it and created a humanitarian nightmare by killing thousands of people in the process. >> that seems to be how the president justified going in with

group. >> we turn to mike lyons. al-qaeda seizing control of a border crossing, is israel now the target of the islamic state group. >> they would make a tremendous strategic mistake if they did. it looks like they took advantage of an open road network and took the town, likely focusing toward damascus, not israel. >> they are posting sightings of the islamic state group flag. could israel eventually be reached. >> they are in the region partly a target for isis, as well. israel's masad is working overtime now, very good as shoring up their own borders. >> a conversation we had yesterday, you maintain 150,000 troops on the ground, boots on the ground will root out the islamic state group completely, but is this necessarily a debate more about whether the islamic state group is a threat or whether or not the united states has the will to wipe them out after all of the years of war we've gone through in iraq and afghanistan. >> it's going to do with the will more than anything else. if we decide to go to war here, fir

in baghdad, calling on prime minister al-malaki to step down, al-malaki refusing. >> mike lyons joins us this morning to discuss what happened in iraq. major lions, always great to see you. what is your early assessment of these u.s. airstrikes, are they turning the tide of the battle in favor of the kurdish fighters right now? >> i'd say so far, so good. the president's been very reluctant to get involved initially, but it's stemmed the tide of the attacks in erbil, the peshmerga army getting time to regroup. they've got a good handle on the situation now. >> what does it say that the u.s. is evacuating some of its consulate staff from erbil? is it possible they have underestimated the islamic state's ability there? >> i think it's an abundance of precaution. everyone is trying to figure out who is necessary to be there at this point. it's probably a good measure, but i don't believe it is anything we should be concerned about. >> what are the targets for u.s. airstrikes when you're dealing with a non-state after that's not even an army with incidents lakes. what are the target? >> t

. >> up next, retired army major mike lyons on the potential terror threat from the islamic state groupthe united states. >> a nationwide curfew in effect in liberia for ebola. >> hackers broke into the computers of agencies involved in the mh370 investigation. hackers used an infected email to gain access, stealing classified information and tried to send it to a computer in china. officials were able to stop the attack. >> james thole. >> iraqi lawmakers are equally outraged. >> the international community to help this country fight the islamic state group. we do know western officials do consider this group a threat. they're not only capturing territories in iraq and syria, they are able to move freely between two countries and now directly threatening the u.s. administration, telling them they will target americans if the airstrikes do not stop. what will the world do? will the obama administration decide to expand the objective of their military operation? that's going to be difficult. not until an iraqi government is formed, an iraqi government inclusive, broad based and all of ry

. >> mike lyons from the truman national security project joins us. let's talk about the school hit. the coordinates of the school and that u.n. centers in gaza have repeatedly been sent to israeli forces. if they keep hitting these shelters, why? >> israel will tell you they are in the hitting the shelters, they are hitting areas around the shelters, it's the collateral damage causing this. these are surgical sites. >> doesn't sound surgical at all. >> the missile system, they said they weren't artillery that could cause greater casualties. they felt they could hilt these targets without causing the collateral damage and they were wrong. >> that is what we were told. take a listen. >> there was no attack on the u.n. school, no one claims that the u.n. school was hit. we are talking about combat outside the school, and let's be also clear on the point, there was a legitimate terrorist target, three activists from islamic ve had, a terrorist organization, recognized as such around the world. >> you are saying you didn't hit the school, but you hit the