inside of iraq, gain -- in the military. but i'm not really sure it could be the end of their ideology inside the region and also in iraq. i think we should not forget, there is a generation that lived under the regime of i.s., and they got all this s ideology. for could be very hard task the iraqi government. melinda: daniel gerlach, experts predict there will be house to house fighting of the bitterest sort. they say i.s. has set up booby-traps in mosul, and it could well use civilians as human shields. what do you think? will the troops seeking to liberate the city nonetheless be seen by the people who lived under i.s. command for two years as liberators? daniel: i don't think so. if thisrtheless, mimilitary operation turns out o be successful, and i think it will be successful, it is just a question of what material and human loss will come with it, then people will accept it. because i don't think any of the iraqi army,pt the will be staying and will be able to occupy the city and keep control over it for a long time. al

invasion of iraq, for example. you mention the failure of arab states, particularly after the arab uprisings, the fraying of state institutions, the economic collapse of arab states. and so -- and you also mention something that i think is very interesting is, is how isis is able to provide services for sunni populations in the same way that the muslim brotherhood did in egypt. and so i was wondering just if we can delve into the first chapter so you can explain to the audience how would you prioritize these factors. so what would you say is the most compelling factor as opposed to other ones that i've just sort of listed, if you can sort of walk us through how you would rank these different conditions and factors that led to the rise of isis. >> guest: thank you for hosting me, i'm delighted. i mean, first of all, there's nothing mysterious about the rise of isis. we know it's drivers, we know the most important factors behind its spectacular surge. we know its world view, its ideology, its motivation, its recruitm

it's a symbol of iraq. but what happens, as you said earlier, poppy, what happens after the fight is critically important. you saw it yesterday. the president of the kurdish region said the attack is about to begin. he has as much invested in this fight in mosul as prime minister abadi abadi. they're saying we have to rid ourselves of isis. isis gained a foothold because two year ago, the iraqi government wasn't accepted in mosul so isis was an alternative. since they've been there, the citizens of mosul said this is not a good alternative. we have to free them. along with that, the iraqi government has changed from mr. maliki to mr. abadi. there is more faith in the central government of iraq. >> let me bring in arwa damon, our cnn international correspondent, as well. this is far from said and done. give us a reality check on what it will take for the iraqi government and iraqi forces to truly retake mosul. i mean, how long it took for fallujah, for example. what is ahead for these people? >> look, they ha

that the liberation of mosul is coming and no surprise to isol and everyone in iraq and iraq's secondgest city. there have been efforts to envelop mosul for months now. not a surprise to anyone. but there is an element of surprise as to how this is going be carried out over the next few days and weeks and this will be a long fight. to be sure, isol still has a lot of questionmark question marks be carried out and supported by the united states and international coalition. >> we heard from our reporters on the front lines there talking about just vast number of civilians who are in the way. who are in and around mosul. of course, part of talking about it is to try to get them out of the way. but our supporters said there could be more than a million people, civilians, trying to get out of the way and it will lead to this humanitarian crisis of epic proportion. what is the plan for that? >> of course, there are real concerns about the humanitarian situation. but, alisyn, i have to point out we had concerned in mosul since isol first moved in there. they have brutalized the population of

so does russia. 40 million casualties of world war ii. so does iraq. we have overthrown the government and it is because of oil. like i said, we support both sides. act like we are bullied. we like to dish it out but we do not like to take it. everything you said was true about one thing. we do not like casualties. part of what policies if we're going to go up half of baghdad, we have to expect these things to happen in return, but the truth is written a committed to human rights. we are committed to making money and what is good for business. i would like your response. i can respond briefly. i disagree, and i stated the reasons for my disagreement in my response to the other gentleman. can you hear me? >> yes. a few years ago, they were doing interviews with high school students in iraq. 2008, 2007, and one of the students whose name required courses, science, mathematics, and religion, and i remember saying that is the end of that. in other words, wasn't there a high degree of incompetence in the way we were administering this occupation and nationbu

isis held sway over large parts of iraq and syria. in iraq, the u.s. hoped to resuscitate the iraqi armed forces. in syria, they faced a much bigger challenge. >> in iraq, i think there was a fairly coherent strategy crafted by the administration. but the big, gaping hole in the strategy that was debated vociferously inside was syria. >> smith: this is raqqa, a city of over 200,000 people. seized months before mosul, raqqa was capital of the islamic state's self-declared caliphate. >> smith: it was clear that routing isis from here would require a large ground force. bombing alone would not work. >> (man shouting) >> smith: isis was intermingled with the local population and was attempting to build a state. >> smith: they fixed roads, collected garbage, repaired phone lines, ran the banks, and carried out justice. >> smith: the question was who would fight them here. >> so then do you do an iraq-style invasion, or afghanistan invasion? president obama was not going to do that. the congress would've never gone along with that. the ameri

in theory to the territorial integrity of syria and iraq. the reality on the ground is quite different. without abandoning the notion that we are in the business of being the new people who will now draw new lines in the sand, i do think that it might alter our approach to recognize that reality and instead of thinking in terms of broad peace agreements that will encompass the entire nation or governments that will be created that will be able to command the loyalty of all citizens within those territories that we accept the reality and perhaps go for more modest local accommodations. instead of one grand peace treaty, a series of small steps that are aimed only at limiting -- lowering the level of violence and allowing some commerce to take place and life to come back to something approaching normality as opposed to going for these three-point diplomatic shots that we sometimes try for. >> if i could very quickly, congressman, i agree with everything mr. jenkins said, but there are two problems with this that i think we need to consider. fir

verify that he was for the invasion of iraq. mr. trump: wrong. mrs. clinton: and you can actually hear the audio of him saying that. why does that matter? it matters because he has not told the truth about that position. i guess he believes it makes him look better now to contrast with me, because i did vote for it. but what is really important here is to understand all the interplay. mosul is a sunni city. mosul is on the border of syria. yes we do need to go after baghdadi, just like we went after bin laden while you were doing "celebrity apprentice" and we brought him to justice. we need to go after the leadership, but we need to get rid of them, get rid of their fighters, their estimated several thousand fighters in mosul, who have been digging underground, who have been prepared. it is going to be tough fighting, but i think we can take back mosul and then move into syria and take back raqqa. this is what we have to do. i'm just amazed that he seems to think that the iraqi government and our allies and everybody else launche

her and obama, whether you like it or not, the way they got out of iraq, the vacuum they have left, that's why isis formed in the first place. they started from that little area, and now they are in 32 different nations, hillary. congratulations, great job. >> you know, it is -- it's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of donald trump is not in charge of the law in our country. >> because you'd be in jail. >> secretary clinton -- >> all right. so going into last night's presidential showdown there was a media firestorm over comments that donald trump made over 11 years ago. look, nobody is going to defend what donald trump said. they shouldn't, but here's the thing. last night we watched the debate, and those moderators needle and repeatedly pressed donald trump over his words from over a decade ago while completely ignoring the actions of hillary clinton and her husband against women that accused the president, the former president, of rape, sexual harassment and public shaming. now, here's the difference in all of this.

of the iraqis. mosul is the islamic state group's major stronghold in iraq. losing control of it would be a major blow. mosul was once the second largest city in iraq. and since 2014 it has been ann important centerr for the extremiststs. the oil fields i in the area ara major source of revenue for the group. at one point, the islamic state group controlled nearly half of syria and a third of iraq. following continuous air strikes by the u.s. a at its allies sin 2014. rebel held areas shrank. by early october they lost what it controlled at the start of last year. but liberating mosul will not be an easy task. there's still hundreds of thousands of civilians living there. and there are concerns the militants will use them as human shields. as the battle proceeds, waves of people are expected to flee the violence. the u.n. is trying to prepare for their arrival. >> maybe around 1.2 million idps will b be again, you know, peop will be displaced from mosul. and this has really never happened with this magnitude. it is very difficult, you know. but we will do our

of flawed, twisted intelligence. as it is put here. we know in the run-up to the iraqar that president george bush wanted to remove saddam hussein through military action. we know the case for this invasion was the idea saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction. and that was based on, quote, intelligence that was then twisted to justify the invasion. one of the reasons we know that is what happened, there are several reasons but one is it was a secret note released by british intelligence after one of their meetings with officials of the bush administration. this is the note that said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. in other words we have to show the public why we are doing this, so we will make intelligence be the basis for our actions. if you think about it, it shouldn't come has a surprise that the intelligence community taylor's information. if you work for somebody, give the boss what he wants or you won't have a job very long. i was at a dinner party where i made this point knowing there is a cia guy at dinner and wondering how

iraq the u.s. has the full cooperation of the government of iraq as well as various players including the peshmerga in syria they are dealing with sort of a pickup team of fighters on the ground. fighters including syrian kurds and syrian arabs. now so far they have been fairly effective in moving acss that belt of stretch of areas that isis can control. that is until the turks interrupted that momentum a couple of weeks ago. so right now the syrian kurds are marshaling their forces. the u.s. and the special operations forces that are advising and assisting them are now looking to focus on a campaign in raqqa. ideally for the american forces, and american officials here in washington, these campaigns would overlap. they would be able to put pressure on raqqa, roughly the same time you are putting pressure on mosul. but right now they have not assembled enough of the syrian arab fighters as part of this coalition to go into raqqa, to move forward on that fight. so the air campaign will continue, in syria and according to american officials that i talk to just today, they're hoping, they're hoping to

but the actions of heavily armed shi'a fighters in sunni areas of iraq have been deeply divisive. they're also accused of war crimes, such as beheadings, killings, and torture of sunni residents in areas they have fought in. human rights watch has called on the iraqi government to reign them in, saying in vengeance for isis atrocities they have attacked sunni communities. this senior iraq researcher for human rights watch based in kiev, we spoke with her via skype. >> these are segments of the population singled out for allegiance with isis. whether or not these individual members of the community are actually affiliated with isis, and the popular mobilization forces has chosen to really single out this community and to carry out revenge attacks on them outside of the military structure. they have this ability to carry out these abuses, to carry out these revenge attacks with complete impunity. >> when fallujah city was retaken from isis in june, they were accused of detaining over 1,000 men who fleld the city. some 600 are still reportedly missing. this is a problem for the u.s.-l

a kind of reveals the fact that fightis not the only in iraq. ill controls a good amount of territory, and there are security concerns far beyond mosul. if you look at the map, this air ,ase that they are building up to me, it looks like they are beginning to look again towards syria. ul will point, mos fall and they will have roc aqqa over in syria. i think al-assad will give them a real base of operations to pivot towards other strongholds in syria. host: a couple of comments on twitter. we are at @cspanwj if you want to send us a tweet. this one says, if the iraqis really wanted to get rid of i is, wouldn't they have done it already? this one says, the military contractors i worked with think trump is unreliable, and they are not convinced he will rebuild the military. arthur is on the democrats line. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: fine, thanks. caller: i just want to speak on iraq. the bush and administration, -- if it were not for the bush administration, there would not be such a thing as isis. it is the old al qaeda and tal

iraq. king abdullah of jordan said just yesterday or the day before you can't hold elections in iraq with the chaos that's going on today. senator richard lugar, the republican chairman of the foreign relations committee, said that the handling of the reconstruction aid in iraq by this administration has been incompetent. those are the republican chairman's words. senator hagel of nebraska said that the handling of iraq is beyond pitiful, beyond embarrassing; it's in the zone of dangerous. those are the words of two republicans, respected, both on the foreign relations committee. now, i have to tell you, i would do something different. i would reach out to our allies in a way that this president hasn't. he pushed them away time and again, pushed them away at the u.n., pushed them away individually. two weeks ago, there was a meeting of the north atlantic council, which is the political arm of nato. they discussed the possibility of a small training unit or having a total takeover of the training in iraq. did our administration push for the total training of iraq? no. were they silent? yes. wa

so that's -- that's one of the problems within the media. we all know it's there. and iraqas probably one of the worst examples, i mean, there have been bill did a whole hour-long program on failure of the media in the iraq war, and he had both jonathon and walter talk about their experience and they've been on m about pr and talked about this as well. when you're running up the government as saying -- this and who are you to say that government is wrong? so that that's the problem. and there's also the problem that if those "new york times" guys didn't write what their sources we are telling them they could lose those sources. sost there is a relationship there that is also part of the problem. anybody else? did i see a hand back there? wait he's got one more question. >> didn't want to pre-empt anybody who hasn't asked yet. you wanted more if yowpts to keep going into this issue of multiple source intelligence. >> yes. >> because that's how it was really done. the -- assessment in fact pentagon was doing the thinking, planning as for iraq. they reported it through paul an

from the city.rts of the our special correspondent and cameraman i with the golden brigade, part of iraq's elite antiterrorism force. they sent this report as they advance. reporter: for more than two years, these dusty plains have been plagued. welcome to the caliphate of the so-called islamic state. elitethe job of counterterrorism forces to bring it to an end. experienced and hardened as they may be, they know it is likely to be the toughest battle they have ever fought. this is the largest military operation in iraq for years. a struggle for the future of the country. and mortarface strikes as they fight closer to the heart of the caliphate. is ground zero for it islamic state and a fundamental part for these men. no supplies that both are ready to fight to the death to control it. there are more people here than the troops expected and they are ordered to cease-fire. know nothing but the state of war. civilians being constantly caught in the crossfire. [yelling] the little boy cannot find his mom. a neighbor takes his hand, promising to help. for some, the sight of men with guns on th

of the city. but they tell me they are determined to defeat i.s. in the last major stronghold in iraq, even though the conditions are harsh. we continue to move north, deeper into i.s.-held territory, looking out for potential threats. the first phase of this operation is slow and careful. we are traveling through desert, and the iraqi army are taking village by village. the main threats are roadside truck bombs and mortars. we are still 30 miles from mosul itself. then, the first signs of resistance. a tank fires at a suicide truck bomb before it can wreak havoc. this the aftermath of the massive explosion. these, the rockets when they spotted what they said was an i.s. convoy about to make a n escape from one of the outlying villages. but they say they are also being helped with intelligence provided by iraqi citizens still living under i.s. control. >> they give us a lot of information. how they escaped, they carry weapons, they don't carry weapons they have a motorcycle, , they have machine guns, they don't have it. north, east, west. jonathan: so you have people inside who are pa

outrageous treatment of vets. iraq and afghanistan veterans of america starting a petition, calling on the defense department to forgive this error, building support with the hash tag, pay them back. >> if our government can bail out banks and so many other folks that have done wrong, it seems mind-boggling that they can't bail out some service members who put their life on the line in defense of this country. >> they needed my skills. >> reporter: robert d'andrea, one of 10,000 soldiers enticed by the bonuses for a second tour in iraq. >> we did our duty, and now they're slapping us in the face for it. >> reporter: an audit revealed the california national guard improperly paid bonuses as it tried to boost its ranks during the height of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. that led to a fraud investigation resulting in seven convictions. today, president obama requested an expedited appeals process for soldiers. the white house says while not supporting blanket forgiveness, the soldiers will not be held responsible for s

he called himself the islamic state of iraq. the state part is a joke because they know that there's no real state. one of the leader's wives reacted famously to this as where's the state you're talking about.in we are living in the desert.sco but history intervenes again in isis's favor. just as he is coming to power u.s. troops are leaving iraq under agreements under the bush ministration. as soon as they're gone that shiite government feels emboldened to start settling old scores wish any scores wishing he tribes, resting their leaders in kicking out on me officers and then they begin to rebel against the government find a more interesting, and with zarqawi's' people and isis than with their own governments.il then, year later civil war breaks out in syria as we all well know.. this is a pivotal moment because it's an opportunity for them to start something new. to start their own militia group inside syria. they have a perfect a perfect incubator now with a lawless state, with violence and weapons in the have a new causen wri

we're getting word of advancement on another town just to the north of mosul. iraq'sinister is offering extra security forces into kirkuk. 175 kilometers or about 170 meals to the southeast of mosul. this comes after isis mill at that points attacked police stations and kurdish security buildings in that city sparking gun battles. it is thought isis may be trying to divert iraqi forces away from mosul. >>> tear gas could have caused evacuations of the london city airport on friday. officials say they found a can of cs gas spray which might have been discharged accidentally. authorities are investigating whether a passenger got rid of the canister before checking in. >>> mexican authorities have arrested a possible mastermind behind the disappearance of 43 students. the former police chief of the city of iguala has been captured after two years on the run. officials are now hoping felipe flores vasquez could help the prosecutors. it is believed the students were handed to a gang, they were then killed and their remains tossed into a river. we're continuing to follow th

on the line in defense of this country. >> they needed my skills. >> reporter: robert, one of 10,000 soldiers iraq. >> we did our duty, and now they're slapping us in the face for it. >> reporter: the california national guard improperly paid bonuses as it tried to boost its ranks during the height of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. that led to a fraud investigation resulting in seven convictions. today, president obama requested an expedited appeals process for soldiers. the white house says while not supporting blanket forgiveness, the soldiers will not fraud. in paris, the secretary of defense promised action. >> we are going to look into it and resolve it. >> reporter: even in this caustic campaign season, democrats and republicans united in calls to stop collection efforts. now robert is fighting again, appealing to keep his $20,000 bonus. >> i upheld my end of the bargain. >> reporter: having already paid with his service. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. >>> turning now to that large-scale u.s.-backed offensive, targeting isis in iraq. on the march to mosul, iraqi troops freed what was

trade, both oil going out and food going in and all other kinds of supplies that iraq needs. also connects the eastern part with the kurds and the western part with syria. so it really is a centerpiece of strength in iraq. and more importantly, isis wants it. this is their caliphate capital as they proclaimed in iraq. and it's critically important to get rid of the isis fighters from this very important city. >> general, i don't know if you have a monitor in your studio where you can see this. but i want to show our viewers what has happened there in and around the area in iraq in the past year. this was january of 2015 on your screen and the red that you see there is the isis-controlled area. you see mosul and you see that all the way to tikrit and baghdad and ramadi. and you look at this month, october, 2016, the progress made in terms of territory. now, those two red splotches around the mosul and just above tikrit are no longer connected. there has been a break in terms of isis control. are you saying, general, if it is successful today and in the weeks that follow that r

iraq. so there is a template for pursuing these kind of operations and completing them successfully. that all said, our men and women in uniform, who are serving in iraq are putting themselves in harm's way for our safety and security. we owe them a deep debt of gratitude. there's no one, including commander in chief, who would downplay the risk they are taking on our behalf. there also should be no misunderstanding that the role this they are playing there. they are not responsible for leading these operations. they are equipped for combat. they are equipped to defend themselves. but their goal is to provide assistance to military forces. >> does that include holding mosul after the primary battle is over? >> well, again, the role will continue to be the same. the responsibility for holding that community after isil has been dislodged from it will fall to the iraqi central government and iraqi security forces. i know one of the thing they are very interested in doing is try to rebuild local police force. that was critical to the success rebuilding communities like tikrit and ramadi a

iraq. david, what do you make of the general's assessment? s is very knowledgeable about iraq and particularly about mosul. he was not just the commanding general in iraq in '07 and '08 when i happened to serve there but he was the general in charge of northern iraq right after the 2003 invasion. he was responsible for pass fieing mosul. he nows how hard it is to do that and contend with the different groups inside mosul and how hard it is to fight door to door inside mosul. what perhaps you didn't get a sense of with your excellent interview with him is how high the stakes are in iraq. i just returned from iraq. i saw all of the different groups there putting aside their differences, at least temporarily to work together to try to take back mosul. that means the iraqi army, the sunni arab militias and they were really have to show the population in mosul that they're not just being liberated by shiite arabs. there are peshmergas that play an important role and even ore religious militias like christian militias and yazidi malit m militias. it

yes some of that threat emanates from iraq. and some of it is that we have to up our game and be smarter here at home. >> it is so ridiculous, she will defeat isis? we should never have let isis happen in the first place and they're in 32 countries. wait one second, they have, a cease fire three weeks ago. a cease fire between united states, russia, syria. during the cease fire, russia took over vast swatches of land and then said we don't want the cease fire any more. we're so outplayed on missiles and cease fires, she wasn't there, our country is so outplayed by putin, assad, and by the way, by iran. no one can believe how stupid our leadership is. >> mr. trump -- secretary clinton, we need to move on to our final segment, the national debt that has not been discussed until tonight. our national debt is a share of the economy, our gdp is now 77%. the highest since just after world war ii. but a nonpartisan committee says secretary clinton under your plan, debt would rise to 86% of gdp in the next ten years. mr. trump in your p

of iraq. >> wrong. >> and you can hear the audio of him saying that. why does that matter? well, it matters because he has not told the truth about that position. i guess he believes it makes him look better to contrast with me because i did vote for it. but what's really important here is to understand all the interplay. mosul is a sunni city. mosul is on the border of syria, and yes, we do need to go after baghdadi just like we went after bin laden while you were doing "celebrity apprentice" and we brought him to justice. we need to go after the leadership, but get rid of their fighters. it's going to be tough fighting, but i think we can take back mosul and then we can move on into syria and take back raqqah. this is what we have to do. i'm just am amazed that he seems to think the iraqi government and our allies and everybody else launched the attack on mosul for this election. >> we don't gain anything. iran is taking over -- >> secretary clinton -- >> iran is taking over iraq. >> secretary clinton -- >> we would have gained -- >> for quite someti

verify that he was for the invasion of iraq. mr. trump: wrong. mrs. clinton: and you can actually hear the audio of him saying that. why does that matter? it matters because he has not told the truth about that position. i guess he believes it makes him look better now to contrast with me, because i did vote for it. but what is really important here is to understand all the interplay. mosul is a sunni city. mosul is on the border of syria. yes we do need to go after baghdadi, just like we went after bin laden while you were doing "celebrity apprentice" and we brought him to justice. we need to go after the leadership, but we need to get rid of them, get rid of their fighters, their estimated several thousand fighters in mosul, who have been digging underground, who have been prepared. it is going to be tough fighting, but i think we can take back mosul and then move into syria and take back raqqa. this is what we have to do. i'm just amazed that he seems to think that the iraqi government and our allies and everybody else launche

secretary gates spent a lot of his time prosecuting the iraq and afghan war. i will remember him most for his management skills and the hard decisions he was willing to make. i thought he had terminated more major defense. he participated in termination of the dd1000 program, the army's future combat system, and production of the c17 and f22 aircraft. all of those were hard decisions that required his attention and a lot of work on capitol hill. i remember him for that. the other thing i remember about him is his empathy for the military and especially the troops in combat. if you've ever read his book, at the end of the book it says he's eligible to be buried in arlington cemetery and he has to be buried in section 60, which is where most of the iraq and buried. he's a great guy. i was pleased to work with him. host: he's very widely respected even though he's not somewhat polarizing in his decision. you were going to speak about an international figure we see quite a bit. guest: vladimir putin. i was trying to come up with a slogan about how he's been running

here's a reminder of the stories we are following for you. iraqts allies have begun the long awaited events to retake the northern city of mosul from the so-called islamic state. iraqi units, curtis forces and english are moving towards the city. after a short break i will be back to take you through the day. stick around. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] &ñxñx ♪ [theme music] ♪ [theme music] >>>ernabel demillo: hi, i'm ernabel demillo, welcome to asian american life. we're coming to you from the queens botanical garden in the heart of flushing, queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the country. the garden is a 39 acre urban oasis celebrating the people, plants and cultures of the diverse borough it serves. be sure to stop by the recently renovated herb garden,

instead of 175,000 american troops deployed overseas now we 15,000. these are very -- >> iraq has been over run by isis. because hillary clinton -- >> if you want to -- -- hillary clinton -- >> failed to renegotiate a status of forces agreement. >> that is inject gentlemen -- we removed up a of our -- and ice -- >> i'd like to move on to the -- but i'd like to correct -- governor -- president bush said we would leave iraq at the end of 2011. elaine, iraq didn't want our troops to stay. they wouldn't give us the protection for our troops. guess what, if a nation where our troops are serving does not

the notion that could expand the realm of the liberal democracy was badly damaged by the invasion of iraq03 and symmetrically the model that was practiced in london and new york was discredited by the crash of 2008 and the global suspicion that we have taken those sponges lacking confidence if you look at the course of events you can make the case that it was partly a result of this self-confidence political, economic, but in some material way it's gotten what's a more dangerous after a long post worth period the conflict has risen from 4,929,267,000 last year and a numbe the numbef refugees is up 30% up to 46 million last year and of course much of that can be attributed to the war and is part of an instability from iraq to syria and i that is the continuing savagery of the regime against the people and is the complicity of the russians committing the war crimes it's making it impossible for the peace negotiations to resume and last year it overwhelmed the ability. when the violent extremism directed across the face of the middle east, we are seeing it spread to germany, france, and here

continue to deliver combat air support, which has been critical to this fight in terms of rolling isil back in iraq. we'll continue to be critical in mosul specifically. they're all doing a variety of responsibilities carrying out a variety of responsibilities, but what's important here, wolf is that it's the iraqis in the lead. we're in a support role doing all we can to help them along with other members of the international coalition. >> i take it, though, there are at least 200 or so u.s. special operation forces on the front lines right now along the combat with these isis forces subpoena that right? >> wolf, we should be very careful, first, i won't talk about our special force where is they may be located either in iraq or syria. even our special operations forces are performing and advice an assist mission. helping and advising forces. counterterrorism services in particular as well as the kurdish peshmerga forces taking the fight to eisele. special operators serving carefully in this advisory role because that's the role carved out for us in iraq. this is the iraqi's fight. we're doing eve

you will see the dozens of sources that verify he was for the invasion of iraq. >> wrong. >> and you can actually hear the audio of him saying that. why does that matter? it matters because he has not told the truth about that position. i guess it believes it makes him look better now to contrast with me because i did vote for it. what's really important here is to understand all the interplay. mosul is a sunni city. mosul is on the border of syria. and yes, we do need to go after baghdadi and just like we went after bin lauden while you were doing celebrity apprentice and we brought him to justice. we need to go after the leadership, but get rid of them, their fighters, estimated several thousand fighters in mosul. they've been digging under ground. been digging to defend. it's going the be tough fighting. we can take back mosul and move into syria and take back raqqah. this is what we have tro do. i'm just amazed that he seems to think that the iraqi government and our allies and everybody else launched the attack on mosul to help me in this election. that's how donald thinks. alway

it comes more than two years after isis first took control of iraq's second-largest city in june of 2014iraq's military says it has already inflicted heavy losses of life and equipment on isis. defense secretary ashton carter called it a decisive moment in the fight against islamic state. up to one million civilians may be caught in the crossfire of what could become a major humanitarian crisis. joining me now from washington, david ignatius of "the washington post" and eric schmitt of "the new york times"" let me begin with a simple question -- what is necessary to overtake and kick isis out of mosul? david? david: first, obviously a strong military offensive, but one that is careful about dealing with the ways in which the battle space has been prepared by isis, the way it has been booby-trapped, suicide bombs, the possibility that chemical weapons, which we know isis has, might be deployed. the second point i would make beyond the strong initial push is the need to understand how the pieces of mosul will be put back together the day after. this is the most complicated part of iraq, wh