First strategy, but not an iraqonly one. Our Coalition Strikes this week demonstrate to isil that they have no safe haven in syria. Our targeted actions are disrupting isils communication and control, and in iraq were encouraging our iraqi partners to go back on the defensive. Were build a Sustainable Mission to set the stage for a broader International Campaign against isil. Our military actions are part of a comprehensive strategy that includes disrupting their financing, and exposing isils false narratives, in particular stripping away their cloak of religious legitimacy in which they hide. Were also facing pressing challenges in other regions. The Ebola Outbreak is the largest the world has ever seen. This is a complex emergency, beyond a Public Health crisis that has significant humanitarian, economic, political, and security dimensions. Were leveraging our militarys unique capabilities for logistics hubs, training, and engineering support. And as most of you know i just returned on tuesday from a trip to france, lithuania and croatia. Russias aggression in eastern europe, and our enduring commitments in afghanistan will continue to demand the attention of our european allies. While i was in europe, i had the chance to visit the American Military cemetery in normandy. That sacred ground is a testament to the men and women in uniform who safeguard our freedoms. Today they are conducting hundreds of engagements across the globe. They are always foremost on my mind as are their families. And with that, well be happy to take your questions. Laura . Reporter you mentioned turkey a few minutes ago, and turkey is again raising the prospect of a buffer zone with its border, also today raised the prospect of a no fly zone over syria. Im wondering if the United States would now consider supporting actively to protect a nofly zone or buffer zone to enforce one . And also can you please give me explicit examples of how the United States is protecting against civilian casualties in syria . Uhhuh. Thank you. On the first question, the buffer zone issue, as i mentioned and you know, the president and the Vice President spoke with the Prime Minister this week. We continue to talk with turkish leadership about their different ways to contribute to the coalition. The issue of a buffer zone is not a new issue as you all know. We discuss all of these possibilities and well continue to talk about what the turks believe they require. They know clearly that isil and what is happening in syria and iraq is a a clear and present threat, danger to them. They are now hosting about 1. 3 million refugees, plus all of the other dimensions of the isil threat to their country and their people. As to Collateral Damage, our military every mission that it plans always factors in first Collateral Damage and assessments. There is no strike, no military operation ever undertaken in our military without that clear assessment. And then a judgment has to be used as to whether we would go forward with that mission. It is first and foremost the priority of our commanders who have responsibility for strikes to make sure do everything they can to make sure there is no Collateral Damage, specifically civilian casualties. What i would add is that one of the things you are seeing in this air campaign is the the fruition of two decades of inner operability and procurement activities, training activities with our allies in the region who are performing just as well as we are on the issue of precision and reducing the possibility of Collateral Damage. As of course you know you cant reduce it to zero, and i suspect that overtime, isil will probably publish a few propaganda videos aledging civilian casualties, but we have a pretty good suite there now. But our allies are doing very well because of 20 years of effort. A buffer zone may become part of the plan, but thats not part of the plan currently. Reporter you are aware of the threats faced by the kurds. They appear to be facing the same genocidal threat that we saw the people in iraq. Why hasnt the u. S. Come to their aid in the air . Well, first of all, we have a sophisticated and complete isr picture of all of that area the area that you talk about. So we are aware of what is going on. We are discussing how and we can do with our Coalition Partners to help them deal with it. Its not a matter of us not being aware of it, nor not actively looking at our options. Does that mean someone like turkey would be more likely to react . Well, as i said in my answer to laura, were talking to turkey about this and all of the different aspects of the isil threat. Reporter it has been little more than a week before you testified before congress, and mentioned that you would recommending deploying u. S. Ground forces in certain rules. Since then we have heard from many officials attempting to walk that back, but it sounded to me and others that you were saying honestly and sincerely that you would recommending what you felt was necessary if you thought that was necessary to accomplish the mission. I wonder if you standing by that, that if you believe it is necessary, you will go to the president and say i need certain roles to succeed here. If you are asking would i provide my best military advice at all times . Absolutely. If you are suggesting i would recommending we need a large ground force to confront isil, absolutely, i would. But it doesnt have to be american forces. The only truly effective force that will be able to reject isil is a force comprised of iraqis and kurds, and moderate Syrian Opposition. At some point if we have to advise them more closely, of course i would recommending it, but we havent reached that point. Reporter im talking about for instance, helping in targeting air strikes or Forward Deployed advisors. Are those specific missions that you might ask the president for u. S. Presence i just stand by the statement. I will make the president gave me a mission. Destroy isil. And i will recommending to him what it takes to destroy isil. I might just add, jim, every meeting i have been in with the president of the United States and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the president has made it clear as have i, he expects, the president the absolute most direct advice be given. And he wants it, and he must rely on it. And he says he relies on it. Tony . Reporter a couple of [ inaudible ] and then a question for general dempsey. What are the resource implications on this long sustained campaign . Can you realistically conduct it within the confines of your current budget plans. Can you accommodate this sustained campaign within those levels of spending . Well, as you know, were generally spending roughly since this effort started 7 to 10 million a day. Thats being funded out of overseas contingency operations, and were going to require additional funding from congress as we go forward. As you know the continuing resolution is due in december 11th. Were working now with appropriate committees on how we go forward with authorizations and funding. Could i add to that . Obviously i work very closely with the service chiefs. When we submitted the budget last year, and it was approved and sent over to congress, as you know the joint chiefs all said we would accomplish the nations security needs with that budget with certain assumptions. One that the level of commitments would level off or come down. And we would get commits to healthcare and infrastructure. Commitments have gone up. The things we were looking for in terms of flexibility have only minimally been covered. So do i think well have budget problems . Yes. Reporter you will be dropping to 26,000 troops in afghanistan to 9800. That is going to come down. Cant you just move the savings from that into the isil campaign. Yeah, this would be a great tutorial on budget. Oco is gas money. The base money is what trains and equips a force. We have to talk about that when we talk about budget. And we will be. Reporter has the building done a longterm analysis on how much has it done analysis on how long you would expect this to take . Were doing that now. We would have to. To the chairmans point about baseline budgets, thats the critical part of this, so yes, were doing that now. Yeah, i just got asked minutes ago. How long is it going to take to recapture mosul. And i said how long is it going to take the new government of iraq to convince the sunni, shia and kurds that their future should lay with them not along sectarian lines. One of the things that has to come together is a government that can draw the people back to them so isil can no longer swim freely within their ranks. Jim . Reporter chairman dempsey, do you believe that it will take in fact take some Ground Troops inside syria to destroy isis . And if they are not americans, do you have enough faith in training 5,000 Free Syrian Army troops, the the nonaggressive militants to to achieve that goal . To destroy isis. First, i never heard the phrase nonaggressive mill tanths, but it sounds to me like either in iraq or in syria, so the answer is yes, there has to be a ground component to the campaign against isil in syria, and we believe the path to develop that is the syrian moderate opposition. 5,000 has never been the end state. Theres we have had estimates anywhere from 12 to 15,000 is what we believe they would need to recapture lost territory in eastern syria, and i am confident we can establish their training, if we do it right. We have to do it right, not fast. They have to have military leaders that bind them together, have a political structure into which they can hook, and therefore be responsive to, that is going to take time. Reporter mr. Secretary you said earlier this week that the u. S. Would demend militarily the Free Syrian Army. What does that mean . I mean, are you talking about engaging Syrian Forces militarily . I think the question was asked those that we would begin training, if they were attacked would we help them, and i said yes. Christine . Reporter thank you. Mr. Secretary, why was the decision made to send the First Military unit to iraq . What will they be doing there . And general i want to followup with a question there too. I can help you with that one too. In fact the generals son is with the First Division. Yeah. But you recall the president when he announced to the nation what his strategy was and what he was instructing the Defense Department to do. He mentioned that there would be an increase of 475 personnel, and so thement command and control function of that will come out of the First Division as other personnel will be assigned as well from other other components, but thats thats why they are going. General . Yeah, and they are a coherent, standing, war fighting organization that understands how to integrate these multiple activities and manage the activities of the coalition. The group that went in there initially was focused on just beginning to make the contact with the iraqs, and this is an organization that actually has the bandwidth to manage a campaign. You have just been listening to general Martin Dempsey and right beside him was defense secretary chuck hagel. Give you a bit of a summary of what they have been speaking about, mainly about the importance of the coalition the uslead coalition against isil. Defense secretary chuck hagel spoke about how there has been over 200 air strikes both in iraq and syria against isil, and he said no one is under any illusion that air strikes alone is enough to defeat isil. He said they are workingtotogether to cut off isils finances in order to weaken the group, and with the support of the u. S. Congress the military is now ready to equip and train Syrian Opposition forces. He also ended by saying were at the beginning, not the end to destroy isil, stressing of course, the longterm commitment to destroy the organization. Lets get some reaction out of iraq. Monica is joining us from bagdad. Monica give us an idea of what has been the general reaction to these air strikes in iraq against isil. Well, i can tell you that very interestingly today there was a sort of a new front in the war, if you will that was opened, because they bombed for the first time a very important Border Crossing between syria and iraq, and this is relevant because the iraqis have been saying we can fight isil here, but it is a big problem that they are going back to syria each time, regrouping there, having taking their weapons and then bringing them back here. If we dont stop the border flow of weapons, ammunition supplies, et cetera, theres no way we can defeat isil. So we need, of course, for there to be syria strikes, but also that these Border Crossings are controlled, because right now, as of 2012 we understand the crossing that they bombed today has not been manned at all by the military, so its an important step, but people here think it is going to take a lot of time, and as you mentioned also, air strikes alone will not suffice in this war against isil. Chuck hagel also spoke about the military of the u. S. Militarys concern over Collateral Damage. Give us an idea as to whether civilians have been effected by these recent strikes. Reporter its a very good question, and i can tell you that here in iraq its something that is on everybodys mind. Of course there is general concern that every time there is strikes or wars, people have memory of the occupation where a lot of civilian casualties happened, and they dont wan a repeat of that. So people are definitely afraid of the socalled Collateral Damage. And in this speech many think it perhaps paved a way for that, it was probably warning that there could eventually be civilian casualties, and of course thats something that people here are very, very worried about. Monica thank you very much for that update from bagdad in iraq. Australia has signed a deal to send refugees to cambodia. Angry protesters greeted the immigration minister outside of the embassy before the signing. Cambodia will take in an unspecified number of refugees in exchange for 35 million. Andrew thomas has the retails. Reporter when al jazeera met this man in july he was selling bread on the streets. He said has a muslim he was fleeing torture, but life in cambodia was not one he would recommending to others. Its very, very difficult to survive. So i dont want to advice anyone to come to cambodia. Reporter it was three months ago that it was rumored that australian was going to send refugees to cambodia. Now that has become a reality. The refugee claims are assessed, but the Australian Government says even confirmed refugees will not be allowed in. This area is tiny and ill equipped to take refugees. Cambodia is both ill equipped and a nonsafe place to send refugees, and australia is actually the country that is most well equipped to deal with these people. It is a multicultural place and has the resources. Reporter in sydney there was a protest, but it was very small. Those here are angry at what they see as australia passing its responsibilities to another country, but they are also protesting another element, that temperature protection visa for those already here. Reporter deportation only applies to those who arrived after 2013. When australias government was elected last december, they said they would be provided a home. In practice that means a life of limbo. Australias deterrence are working. No refugees have successfully reached australia this year. But some say it is turning its back on some of the worlds most desperate people. Antigovernment protests have been taking place across egypt, including in the north. Tear gas has been fired south of cairo, and there has also been fighting in cairo. People in indian administered kashmir with recovering from the worst flooding in more than a hundred years. And questions are being asked about why it was so bad. Reporter it is the worst flooding in more than a century. Its simple to see why. Homes, livelihoods and lives were all destroyed by these floods. This man grew up here and was just a boy during the flood of 1959. Since then he has seen the city grow and the lakes shrink. If you look at this road here, this used to be part of the lake. Reporter urban growth around the region has also seen lake capacities dwindle, as well as legal and Illegal Development over flood channels went to redirect water. This road was built over one of the flood channels of the great flood of 1905. In the past few decades. They used it another this point during these floods, and they will slowly use up the water. We have some planning problems. Reporter a state report warned of a massive flood within five years and proposed a Protection Plan that needed 335 million from the central government. But delays stalled 95 of the funding and work. It would have taken care of about 50 of the discharge that we got this summer. Reporter despite what may have been, the states chief minister says its time to cut the red tape and move forward. I hope moving forward having seen this kind of devastation, that the government will fund this project. Reporter but flooding is a reoccurring problem across this country. Governments have to Balance Development and the environment or else destroy both. You will get flooding and devastation of this nature, which will destroy the development dividend. Reporter after the flood of 1959 much of the prevention measured were destroyed but unregulated development, critics hope the lessons have been learned so the next flood wont be as severe. And stay on al jazeera. We have got more news for you right at the top of the hour. Primetime news. Welcome to al jazeera america. Stories that impact the world, affect the nation and touch your life. Im back. Im not going anywhere this time. Only on al jazeera america. Announcer this is al jazeera. Welcome to the news hour. Im in doha. Coming up in the next 60 minutes. Iraqs president urges the world to join the fight against the rebel groups taking over large part of iraqs area. Translator this organization is transnational transboundary, and intercontinental. The British Parliament votes to join uslead air strikes against isil targets