you're seeing the syrian civil war spill over into iraq, so soon after u.s. forces left, and they have aspirations for bringing down the iraqi government. it is a terrorist group. it is a powerful one. it is a well armed one. and there are indications now they have been able to take up some of the weapons and you see there a -- what was an american made humvee going by, now it appears in the possession of these militants. >> and, again, the u.s. is being invited back to launch air strikes. what will air strikes achieve, jim? >> reporter: well, that is an open question. what u.s. official tells me is that the iraqis have said that they're open to this. this doesn't mean the u.s. is going to follow through on this. i'm told the u.s. is considering a number of options. among those options are kinetic options. but, you know, this is not a request that the u.s. accepted and air strikes would carry with them even though they come from on high, they would carry with them a lot of risk, risk of civilian casualties, where do