richard haas and bloomberg business juliana is with us.ontext of the word term. >> what were you saying in the break? just kidding. along with sam stein in washington. you said nothing, you were great. sam, hello. >> hello. >> sam, you want to chime in on the voter i.d. situation? >> yeah. i do. i think you got it wrong. i think there are restrictions here that are, you know, burning some prepredominantly minority communities. closing down polling stations, ending early voting. for college kids you can no longer in these instances use college i.d. laws. some of these people don't have any other form of i.d. hold on, one more thing. the people who don't have i.d.s, are predominantly old or minority and that's just a fact. you can say and i think you're right about this, a lot of people do have i.d.s and maybe they should use them to vote. there is a segment of the population that doesn't have i.d.s and happen to be minorities and old. >> by the way, all those things that you said making it harder for people to vote as far as by, you know, e

richard haas is absolutely right.ds of innocent people dying in this brutal way. >> so what's the action. >> right. that's my question. >> we're back to no-fly zone talk. we're back to actually some -- look, there's going to have to be serious engagement. this is not cost free at all. so the american people need to understand that it's worth losing jet fighters, taking out syrian air defenses which are robust, russian made and recently renewed, because there's a humanitarian and global security interest here. >> i think you can make a very good argument that there is that interest. but i think it takes more than a no-fly zone. i think if you're talking regime change, i think -- i don't think a no-fly zone does it. if it does simply topple assad, the result might be less to the west's likiing than the status quo frankly. so if -- i mean if you're going to do it, do you do it if do you line them up and swing them in. >> obama doesn't want to be defined by regime change so he doesn't know how far it can go without being

>> richard haas, they say that generals ares always fighting the last war. it also seems that parliamentses are fighting the last war. our congress is fighting the last war. you could -- though he is still very much with us and we love having him on the show, if tony blair has a ghost floating around on the other side of the -- you could -- does the ghost of tony blair and george w. bush and saddam hussein hung heavily over parliament? >> absolutely. in all the -- not just skepticism, almost cynicism about the what the government says about the intelligence was the back drop. it's larger than that. i think something has been going on for years, if not decades in europe, gradual weakening of commitment to defense, preoccupation of -- >> what do you make of o-- ow hm france saying we need a political solution. i would love france to come forward with this magic political solution. this is like richard nixon's secret plan to end vietnam in 1968. there's not one. >> exactly. there's not going to be a political solution to syria. syria sill in the relatively earl

richard haas talked about this being the new normal.turmoil that's going to continue unfortunately for years to come in that part of the world, al qaeda has, in fact, been strengthened. it has the ability to operate out many areas. yemen is effectively at the moment their headquarters for efforts directed against the united states and the operatives also that there's new generations coming into the mix. this isn't just the old guard. they're recruiting actively. 2,000 people were released or broken out of prison in july, many hundreds of them being al qaeda operatives, they're constantly being strengthened. the threat here in the united states from their efforts to basically radicalize the home-grown terrorists as we saw at the boston bombing case, that's the new normal for us. they have the ability to reach out into this country, they may not be able to bring plots into the country from outside, but generate them from within the country. >> thanks very much for being with us this morning. >> thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. >> so

to intervene, richard haas, who also is a council -- at the council on foreign relations says that this is -- that the use of chemical weapons, i mean we've talked about red lines, but does mark a -- there is a reason for the u.s. to get involved in the western powers to get involved. he writes the reasons for a strong response transcends syria. it will be a very different 21st century if weapons of mass destruction come to be seen as just another type of weapon. basically this het seths a precedent if we don't do something. >> richard is right but the assumption the regime has used chemical weapons. if we follow richard's line of argument and it's established it wasn't the regime but the rebels and al qaeda elements that used weapons of mass destruction or chemical weapons, then we're in the position of attacking al qaeda and the free syrian army. it's essential we establish who is using chemicals we're. we haven't established that fact. >> i don't mean to keep going back and forth in the volley. your first point this is so complicated we shouldn't get involved and yet another war in t

president of the council on foreign relations and author of the book "foreign policy begins at home" richard haas with us as well. so that's -- it's actually very good to have you on board this morning. a lot to talk about. >> really? >> we'll start with politics unless you would like to interject with something inappropriate, completely old and random and tired. >> put it that way. >> wow. >> i'm going to have oatmeal. >> orphans relief funds. >> somebody tweets about it and thinks it's funny. >> she needs more sleep obviously. >> that's correct. you guys will be fine. eat your oatmeal. it may be 2013 in most of the country but in iowa, it looks a lot -- >> like it better when she's asleep a zombie. >> presidential contenders descended on the state to test the waters for a possible white house run. among the would-be candidates rick santorum and senator ted cruz. >> my challenge to the republican party, is to take a page out of our book and start putting forth an agenda of ideas to raise up folks who want to vote for us. you saw for the last election, they didn't want to vote for president obama

correspondent for "the huffington post" sam stein, president of the council on foreign relations, richard haas. good to see you. author of the book "foreign policy begins at home the case for putting america's house in order" and in washington columnist for bloomberg view al hunt. start off talking about a-rod, look tat the front page of "the new york post," a-roid rage has the last laugh in the sixth inning. >> i will say i'm a red sox fan, interest of full disclosure. these are the things that can turn a season around. when the red sox won the series in '04 that spat with jason vary tech and a-rod where vary tech took it to a-rod when he seemed bigger than the game turned his season around. if he gets to play out the rest of the year it's big for the yankees. >> also something wrong with the rules of baseball. after the pitcher goes after a-rod, the idea he's not tossed out of the game, both teams equally warned, that's outrageous. girardi was right, should not have been thrown out of the game. the pitcher should have been thrown out of the game. >> i thought it was just pitching him inside.

and i understand that richard haas says he doesn't believe that we need to have congressional authorityhat if you hold these own administration officials by the same standards for military intervention that they set during the bush administration, they wouldn't beat the mile! >> peter: should military decision, should the decisions to attack be transparent, or should they be made at the highest levels of government? >> well, in this particular case what it hasn't been made clear or where it hasn't even been made a case yet to persuade the american people that there is a, quote, imminent threat, which is what the standard was laid out by biden, or that there are clear national security implications for the american people, yeah, it had you been made transparent. -- it should be made transparents. i'm wondering where the antiwar left is. you remember all of the charades and the theater during the bush administration of the code pinkos with their red painted hands bursting in on hearings and demonizing every last bush administration official as an illegal war criminal. and they're very mut

richard haas, the former bush state department official also on "morning joe" said the key thing forlear this is a punitive response because of syria's use of weapons of mass destruction and not an open end commitment to getting involve in the civil war. >> thank you for that. >> joining us for more on the complications is jerry sai of the wall street journal washington bureau chief. great to have you. >> thanks. happy to be with you. >> that lot of people thinking through the relevance and importance of what's happening and also across the middle east. what would you say to people saying well, looks like markets are taking it in stride? >> well, look, i think that the reality as john indicated is there will be some kind of action. i would be surprised if there weren't. i think people have been able to absorb that. what it is is an open question and i think the real request he is how extensive is it and how much can the u.s. do which is limit its involvement in the broader conflict. i think you have to look at this in a couple of different levels. the first instance, the reason to ac

but richard haas put out a tweet saying the president had done the right thing but not suspending aidanceling the bright star exercises was to put the government on notice, the egyptian military on notice, that time is running out and gradually ramp up pressure with a possibility for more steps later. >> i guess it still leaves measures to be taken. john, we'll leave it there for the moment. thank you very much, john harwood there as the president speaks in martha's vineyard. >>> up next on the program, we are cutting our losses slightly, we're down 177 points on the dow. the network equipment giant cisco has certainly skidded after reporting quarterly results below expectations and cutting jobs. we'll find out if this could have broader implications for the technology sector. hp is down, other networking operators are down. "squawk on the street" will be right back. i've been doing a few things for a while that i really love-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 playing this and trading. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the better i am at them, the more i enjoy them. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so i'm always look