Welcome to the journal editorial report. Im paul gigot. Isis extended its bloody reach into libya with the beheadings of 21 egyptian christians. As the Obama White House hosted a three day summit on countering what they call violent extremism the president and his staff once again refused to use the term islamic to describe the threat, a distinction they say is necessary in part to deprive terror groups of legitimacy. Al qaeda and isil and groups like it are desperate for legitimacy. They try to portray themselves as religious leaders holy warriors in defense of islam. We must never accept the premise that they put forth. Because it is a lie. Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek. They are not religious leaders. They are terrorists. Joining the panel this week wall street journal columnist and deputy editor, Editorial Board member and global view columnist Brett Stevens author of the new book america in retreat. Dorothy the president s summit was supposed to rally support for his strategy to counter isis and violent extremism as they call it. Did they accomplish it . No. It ran into a wall of skepticism and opposition that you can just feel, you can feel in the commentary and you hear americans listening what is the nature of that . Because they recognize at long last these little explanations about islam president for example has this opportunity each time to say it is the responsibility of all of us to reject the idea that islam has anything to do with these groups like isil. And americans are sitting there and saying really . Its my responsibility. No, it is not our responsibility, mr. President. The responsibility is to defeat this bloody enemy out to destroy and it is not our responsibility to take on these politically correct be aabstractions which you fed. Thats a frequently heard point. What about this idea that the president says look we cannot confer on them islamic legitimacy which using the term would do. I mean nobody is conferring that sort of legitimacy on them. I think basically paul that this is a thing. Its a cover story to divert attention from what dorothy is talking about. Rather than debating the nature of islam we should be debating the operational details of taking them out. But barack obama is making it clear hes not going to do in anyway escalate the operations against Islamic State. We got these limited sorties and engaged what he calls a coalition and thats it. The president is falling behind the curve. Public opinion at least reflected in the polls seems to be getting greater in terms of going over there. 67 say Islamic State is a clear and present danger and Something Like 57 apartment greater ground game over there. Brett, lets go to this idea of the use of islamic. Some of the president s defenders, say this is a semantic side show. It isnt important. Were focusing on the wrong thing. Do you agree with that . No, i dont. I think its very important to recognize that part of the reason that Islamic State has been so successful politically and militarily is that it is very much islamic. Its vision its aims, its me thotd, its theology is deeply rooted in islam and simply factually in error to superpores that somehow it has nothing to do with islam. Nobody argues that it speaks for a majority or even a significant minority of muslims, but you cant confront this kind of enemy and understand why it has been as successful as it is if you dont understand the culture and theology from which it is springing. What the president is doing is engaging in a semantic diversion which takes our eye off the ideological power of this movement. What about this idea dorothy, offered by the president and secretary of state that to counter this movement you have to offer more economic opportunities. You have to reduce poverty. Go to the root causes argument. That was really wonderfully out of this world and everybody recognized that. The only thing that was missing in their recipe was classes in selfesteem for the young muslims. You dont think thats the root cause. This panacea has been pushed down the throats of americans since terror began in the early 1970s. Root causes. Many of these terrorists arent coming from poverty background. Thats exactly right. They are middle class, upper middle class. Very welltodo. Its the ideology that animates them religious fervor that animates them not some grievance about their class status. Thats right. The problem is and you see it exemplified in the answers from the state department. You want these young men to be given jobs. You heard this all the time. Okay. Why arent they making businesses . Think of a mind that cant conceive of this transcendent ideology that does motivate these. Its beyond People Living in the world with facebook and living in the world of america cannot imagine the fiery power of this battle. And this is what the administration i want to get to you briefly and talk about disintegration has been so notable in the rise of isis. What happened so quickly and to have things go so bad . Well, very simply after we had defeated gadhafi we essentially abandoned libya. There was no follow up. No postwar operation. No attempt to shore up the Transitional Government which, in fact at the very beginning was rejected islamism entirely with any kind of meaningful support. So its once again a case of declaring victory far too soon getting out and seeing things fall to pieces. Exactly what happened in iraq. It teams us that we simply cant create power vacuums around the world and expect them to be filled by anything other than the kind of chaos that you find throughout much of the middle east. Its great that the president of egypt is attempting to step in but it should be the president of the United States. When we come back pro russian rebels take a key rail town in Eastern Ukraine leaving last weekends ceasefire in at that timers. Where will Vladimir Putin head next . Your daughter has a brilliant idea for her science project. And you could make it happen. Right . Wrong. Because youre not you youre a Cancer Hospital and your daughter. Shes a team of leading researchers. And that brilliant idea is a breakthrough in patient treatment that could save thousands of lives. Which means you need a diverse Team Advisors helping you. From Research Data analytics all the way to transformation of clinical care. So you call pwc. The right people to get the extraordinary done. Does all greek yogurt have to be thick . Does it all have to be the same . Not with new light and fluffy yoplait greek 100 whips lets whip up the rules of greek [ man ] i remember when i wouldnt give a little cut a second thought. When i didnt worry about the hepatitis c in my blood. When i didnt think twice about where i left my razor. [ male announcer ] hep c is a serious disease. Take action now. Go to hepc. Com or call 1844444hepc to find out how you and your doctor can take the next step towards a cure. Because the answers you need may be closer than they appear. soft, calm music. hi, youve reached emma. Im out of the office right now, but will get back to you just as soon as i possibly can. Your call is important to me. Join Princess Cruises for exclusive discovery at sea experiences. Enjoy cruises from 499 during our 50th anniversary sale. Call your travel consultant or 1800princess. Princess cruises. Come back new. Russian separatists drove ukraine as army from a key railway hub in the eastern part of the country this week days after the would sides agreed to a ceasefire. Thousands of ukrainian troops fled the town of debaltseve. Were back with dan and brett and mary anna. Dan is this anything this last week, anything but total victory for Vladimir Putin . You know i think i have to agree with you on this paul. This is no longer a work in progress. This is a victory that putin has consolidated. We had footage in the past week of what was going on in the battle and the russians by now had moved in heavy artillery, tanks, and missile installations. Ukrainians are completely over matched. Even sending them defensive weapons at this point would be n no appetite to do that and are using the ceasefire as an excuse not to impose new sanctions and president obama has taken weapons off the table at least no longer beingyc discussed. Look like hes won on9 mn . Qr side. Its mindboggling the paralysis the Obama Administration displays here really when not only is you know putin taking ukraine but, you know, the British Defense minister last week said that they had captured an estonan border guard. That requires a na to response. If he doesnt do Something Like this this is the end of nato. The defense minister said the same kind of tactics putin used in ukraine, which is diversionary, he intervened by deny, put troops in on the sly and stirred up ethnic tensions inside a country could be used in places like estonia and the other dal cans. That indicates nato and article 5 which requires us to defend these treaty allies. Well first of all, lets remember that we guaranteed ukraines territorial sovereignty. President clinton and john majorer put their signature to it in 1994. Were letting one commitment go by the wayside. Latvia, estonia, many other countries, moldo vimpb a are countries with large ethnic russian populations. Russian speaking populations. And the possibility for putin for his secret services to create socalled peoples militias to stir ethnic grievances where none previously existed to use tools like russia today, other u propagandaaknwhdo create this kind of these kind of, this ethnic unrest is a very real possibility, and we are imagining that somehow ukraine is separate from the rest of puttins territorial and the Strategic Ambitions in europe. Thats a big mistake. Ukraine is a test case for putin. So what about the western leadership here, mary . You have Angela Merkel of germany, Francois Hollande of france basically saying even though the ceasefire is being repudiated by putin saying we hold dear to its tenets paul lets face it. The u. S. Has been the leader in nato without u. S. Leadership these european leaders are not going to do anything because they are either afraid or they are pressured by economic interests particularly in germany. They need u. S. Backing. You know president obama has to show that he will get on their side and stay there and they just dont he doesnt have that credibility at this point any more. I guess basically saying look Angela Merkel, they are not going to do anything without American Leadership i agree with that. What do you think about gross pebt the prospects there might be some awakening in the white house to respond. Paul the pentagon has been very aggressive in putting out photographs and information about what the russians are doing in ukraine. In an interview you suggested which was very forthright and unusual for a military man to say that. I think the u. S. Military is acutely aware of the issue and they undoubtedly are making plans if they are asked to respond. So its not to say that the United States is asleep. And i think pressure is being brought to bear on this white house eventually to act. Its hard to imagine they can do nothing indefinitely. The key word is eventually. Thats a worrisome thing for the ukrainians. Could be 2017. When we come back a federal judge blocks president obamas attempt to rewrite immigration law. And hands republicans a chance to avoid a Homeland Security shutdown. So will they take it . If youre suffering from constipation or irregularity powders may take days to work. For gentle overnight relief, try dulcolax laxative tablets. Ducolax provides gentle overnight relief, unlike miralax that can take up to 3 days. Dulcolax, for relief you can count on. In our house, we do just about everything online. And our old internet just wasnt cutting it. So i switched us from uverse to xfinity. They have the fastest, most reliable internet. Which is perfect for me, because i think everything should just work. Works . Works. Works works . Works. Works. A federal judge in texas this week blocked president obamas executive Order Granting temporary legal status and work permits to some 5 million undocumented immigrants handing a victory to the 26 states. It challenged his authority to unilateral rewrite the law. So joe, first question. How solid is this legal opinion sean it likely to hold up on appeal . Its a very narrow opinion and its very solid on those grounds. What the administration has justified this rewrite by saying this is just routine prosecutorial discretion, its what weve done in immigration for 50 years and judge hannan look at this and said im not going to touch prosecutorial discretion but youre doing affirmtive things. Youre giving work permits and travel permission. Imposing costs on the states. Theres a due process Administrative Law that the administration violated and thats a legal question that i think the appeals courts arent going to say we need to overturn this immediately. I think the stay will be in place for quite a while. So good chance that the merits of the case will be decided down the road but the important thing may will stay for many months. Theres only political urgency. No legal urgency to overturn this decision, to rule on the merits. Lets let this play out. Kim, what does that mean for the republican strategy on capitol hill where they have tried to defund this and using the department of Homeland Security basically as a hostage. They backed themselves, in my view, into a boxed canyon that may end up that this may give them, this ruling may give them an opportunity to march out of. What do you think . Yeah. They are in a huge box canyon because they sent this funding bill for the department of Homeland Security, the House Republicans to the senate. It was a very aggressive bill. It stretched back and tried to roll back all kind of obama immigration actions. As a result they guaranteed they would not get any support from senate democrats. They cant move that bill in the senate. Come this next friday the department of Homeland Security is going to run out of money which is going to put them in a position where they could be accused of messing with National Security at a dangerous time. Whats their strategy now . If they had any wit they would use this as an exit ramp and say look thanks to this judge, the obama immigration action is a dead letter, we can now move ahead and fund the department of Homeland Security. Thats the argument thats being made by a lot of republicans now. Part of the question is how quickly this moves. What you may see short Term Extension of the department Homeland Security funding to give it a little bit more time to see how this lawsuit resolves. But this is a discussion now in d. C. They will only march part way out of the boxed canyon. Yeah. Why not take the whole thing. Why not use this as an opportunity to move on other things because was happening immigration issue is becoming a bottleneck to Everything Else the Republican Congress wants to talk about. They are doing some amazing things. Nobody is hearing anything about them. The problem john boehner has and Mitch Mcconnell has in the senate is that this more fire and brim stone wing of the Republican Party especially in the house has a lot of votes and they are demanding that they make some sort of stand against obama on this immigration thing. So thats going to be the trouble getting past that. They ought to just call it quits and move forward and well see if they have the ability to do that. Paul look judge hannan has put the law in motion. These House Republicans are going to begin to look like the mirror image of barack obama. It is an irrigation of power unto themselves. Let the law take its course. What do you think joe, about the prospects for anything else happening on immigration here in this congress . I mean solving specific problems with either more agriculture via saks more hitech visas or some guest worker program. They are pretty low. They could probably get it through the house i think, if they broke the rule that a majority, the majority has to support it. Obviously they need democratic votes. Theres votes there, but i dont think the political will is there to do Something Like that. Definitely not the political shrewdness. Do you agree. When barack obama issued the executive order he made the entire environment toxic. There was a real possibility. Right now felgs areelings are so bitter it wont happen. One more break and then hits and misses of the week. Time now for hits and misses of the week. Kim start us off. A miss to Hillary Clinton and the tens much millions of dollars that we are now finding out has been flowing from Foreign Countries into the Clinton FamilyFoundation Ever since she left the state department. This is a woman, paul who wants to be president. Shes suggesting it would be okay for her to sit in the oval Office Answering those 3 00 a. M. Calls from countries that are giving her foundation bucket loads of cash. This is all so very clinton. The ethics the conflicts of interest and a reminder to the country if they sign up for president Hillary Clinton they will get more stories like this. The foundation as political brand extension. Okay. Mary. A hit for Governor Scott walker for defending his decision to dropout of college. Wisconsin governor is not the First Successful person to be uninspired by the conventional path. But he is the First Wisconsin governor to stand up to Public Sector unions which is why his College Record is a cause for hysteria on the left. A lit to cholesterol which has been exonerated after 40 years. This week dietary cholesterol is no long ear nutrient of concern for a link to heart disease. This is a victory for the humility that is supposed to belong to the Scientific Method and another reminder that government is never is this a hit. A hit for fixing your mistakes. And some skepticism about Government Health advice. Thats it for this weeks show. Thanks to my panel and to all of you watching. Hope to see you right here next week. Could we soon see a change of course in afghanistan . Big news emerging right now as we learn washington is looking into possibly slowing down the removal of the last u. S. Troops from the country. Welcome to a brand new hour inside news headquarters. Hello, everyone im julie banderas. 10,000 force remain in afghanistan. Most are supposed to be gone by the end of next year. The news that they may stay longer comes as newly confirmed secretary of defense ash