Transcripts For MSNBCW All In With Chris Hayes 20140923

Syria, and the president , we expect, welluhiar from himjf eastern time, perhaps before hed leaves he will speak about this. But all of this;q0z really was i qe people in prime time and he gave a speech an z he said, that he wasfani willing to into syria. Isedqpa he was willio form this coalition. The nato summit, but at that point, asxd they were leaving thenr nato sum summit, the administrationeiiu q they want to be able to go into the unites nations generallpq as you well know, it has been very difficult to get very specific commitments, and even©t p ok the u. N. Is going to state that theyre going to transportation, the financing, of these foreign fighters, something the president talked weeks ago and he wanted to be that was the one country there wasqnr somejf burnback with some sources suggesting they werent sure exactly how deep the involvement was exactlyt for td reasons you cite. Up until this point, the most significant statement that the white housefa had been able to make wasq about saudib. F arabiad beingfa able to do somnxd train6 have to go and i think the plan is fors7co him to toj q able to sort of enumerae the contributions that these other countries are making. Its going to be important for them at home politically, its bringing other nations onboard, and its going to be impor apt for him, who, as you so rightly stated at the beginning of this hour,q has been someone who ran of war, whoni so they dont like the use of theni termw3 reluctantly, but certainly veryo airstrikes in iraq and now in in syria. That he is able to keep his word was going to try to buildc this international coalition. Certainly what we have seen over the last couple of days indeed, the week since the nato summit, settingnr the stage andconi a nr of meetings thatw3 were justni annoucmd today between the president and those World Leaders youoom cited there are 0 joining us now by phone is know about the actual strikes here,xdco where they happened. The idea is that over the last several months, really, the u. S. Has been targeting isis in iraq. But theyve had enormous safe havens just across the border in syria. Now theyre going after isis in syria. And this is not just going to be one target or there are about 20 targets tonight. But missiles, fighters jets and bombers. This is going to be a longterm campaign because if you target the known isis positions now, then you watch and there are already drones and surveillance and satellite surveillance planes and satellite cover over syria right now. You watch how these targets scatter. You watch how the isis militants move from place to place. Then you follow. And there will be followon strikes throughout the morning and throughout the next several days. The problem is, this has all been projected. The u. S. Said it was coming. The u. S. Announced that it was building a coalition. The administration said which countries would be participating and it gave isis considerable amount of time to move its assets, move its key personnel into towns, into villages, out of raqqa, which is the home base of all of this. Now, on the good side, there are certain things you cant move. You cant move command and control centers qulik. You cant move visible Training Camps quickly. But you can move key personnel quickly. And you can move certain Weapons Systems quickly, although not the big things they stole from the iraqi army. You can cover them with trees and branches but they could still be found. Can you taublk a little bit about the significance of raqqa, which has been basically the capital, to the extent that there is such a thing, to the Islamic State, has emerged as their capital . This is the place out of which isis has been running things. Raqqa is a city in eastern syria, not very far from iraq where the militants had a sanctuary for well over a year. They have totally dominated the town. Theyve dominated the population there. Theyve taken a lot of other territories and set up checkpoints. But raqqa has been their uncontested area for a long time. Thats where theyve been holding many of their hostages, storing many of their weapons. Thats where theyve been having parades, parading their weapons and their strengths. So there are two capitals right now. There is raqqa in syria and there is mosul in iraq. These are not small places. The raqqa is a city of 100,000. Mosul is a city of 2 million. So raqqa is going to have civilian casualties once you start bombing it. But there is still the other capital, which is mosul, which is far bigger. Its the second or Third Largest city in iraq, depending on whose count you believe. I was thinking tonight watching these reports come in of remembering the earliest days of some of the military operations against the taliban in afghanistan in the wake of 9 11. And obviously there are many difference, huge differences between isis and the taliban. But you were dealing with jihadi armies that were overpowered by any military sense by the biggest military power in the world, which is the u. S. And yet we fought the taliban for 13 years in afghanistan. Its unclear whether there was ever any kind of definitive victory over the taliban. Are some of the same challenges posed in this situation with isis . Reporter well, you bring up a very interesting parallel. You have this militant group. Lets go back to afghanistan, which i think is actually quite appropriate analogy here. So in 2001, 9 11 happens. And you have the taliban and al qaeda entrenched in afghanistan. The u. S. Begins air strikes, lasts three months. Three months of intense bombardment, almost no troops on the ground. There were some special forces there. But there were about 400 special forces in total. One american died, mike spann. And it cost roughly 1 billion. And after three months, the taliban and al qaeda were removed. Al qaeda was on the run. The taliban was on the run. And this area, this mountainous area was liberated. And we had an allied army there called the northern alliance. They moved in and took control. And things were for a while relatively stable. But then the war in iraq happened. The u. S. Took its eye off the ball and things got very complicated and it lasted for over a decade. Had the u. S. Stopped after three months, i think things could have been very different. Now, lets say its comparable in where we are in syria right now. They have a militant group thats taken over territories. Not that much smaller than afghanistan, actually easier terrain than afghanistan because its more or less flat. It takes a few months for us to start bombing right now. We dont really have a force thats going to go in. We dont really have a northern alliance. The force thats going to go in is most likely Bashar Al Assads force. So theres a big difference there. Richard, we also are hearing about this coalition and its been unclear what exactly the contributions of these five nations are. But a number of ways its significant. One, theres a sense that there is a sectarian war between sunni and shia thats arcing its way across the region reporter there is absolutely a sectarian war. Isis is not just a terrorist group. Isis is the result, it is the disgusting byproduct of a sectarian war that has been allowed to fester. A sectarian war that the u. S. Helped to reinvigorate. It was always there. But the u. S. Fanned the flames of the sectarian war. So isis is a terrorist group that has global ambitions. I know you and your program have doubted it in the past. Isis has global ambitions. It says it has global ambitions. Theres no reason to deny that. But it is also a result of a much older, much larger conflict that the United States cannot hope to solve. Richard, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Reporter absolutely. Following breaking news. The u. S. Has begun bombing syria. Stay with us for the latest right here on msnbc. Its monday. A brand new start. Your chance to rise and shine. With centurylink as your trusted technology partner, you can do just that. With our visionary cloud infrastructure, Global Broadband network and Custom Communications solutions, your business is more reliable secure agile. And with responsive, dedicated support, we help you shine every day of the week. Centurylink your link to whats next. Maestro of project management. Baron of the buildout. You need a permit. To be this awesome. And you. 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This is a classic. What does an alien seamstress sew with . A space needle foghorn sounds loudly continuously oh come off it captain geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. U. S. Air strikes against isis targets inside syria are under way. They began at 8 30 p. M. Eastern standard time. This video purports to show those air strikes. Pentagon press secretary rear admiral john kirby describes the military action as u. S. Military and partner nation forces. Fighter, bomber and tomahawk land attack missiles. Isis command and control, its headquarters, its logistics sites, fuel depots, weapons depots. Geographical location are in and around raqqa, syria, one of the two capitals of the Islamic State as it calls itself. A senior gulf diplomat tells nbc news other gulf nations, saudi arabia, the uae, jordan, bahrain and qatar are involved. This is 12 days after president obamas address to the nation outlining a strategy against isis. Ive made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country wherever they are. That means i will not hesitate to take action against isil in syria as well as iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency. If you threaten america, you will find no safe haven. Joining me now by phone, colonel jack jacobs and here in studio, a terrorism analyst. Let me start with you. The enemy gets a vote, as they always say. What do we expect to see from isis which is now, particularly against the dramatic backdrop of the u. N. General Assembly Tomorrow, the president going, this is now a kind of global war. Its expanded past being a regional war. Its not just a regional war. Its a global war. Its kind of isis versus the world. Indeed. As a matter of fact, the official spokesman of isis just over 24 hours ago, maybe in anticipation of attacks on their hideouts in syria, he specifically reached out to the supporters of the Islamic State globally, including supporters of the Islamic State in the United States, in australia, in europe, as well as the surrounding regions of syria, telling them, just attack. Civilian, military, it does not matter. They cause damage to us, we cause damage to them. He actually promised, this will be the last bombardment the u. S. Is ever going to carry against the Islamic State. Its unfathomable to believe that kind of promise. But the mere fact is that hes reaching out to supporters within western countries, i think thats significant. What do you think theyre what are they driving for in terms of the u. S. . There is some reason to think that they want to bait the u. S. Into a conflict, it would elevate them dramatically, for the purposes of recruiting, they are now the force thats fighting the u. S. . Theres other reasons to think that obviously theyve now invited in a massive amount of airpower, the most powerful military in the world into a battlefield thats already difficult and complex . What are they trying to do here . On the one hand, its really solidifying the claim or the grievance that we are facing a crusader war, that this crusader war has not ended. It started a long time ago, reoccurring in iraq and in syria and they use that specific language in arabic for crusader yes. On the other hand, theyre showing themselves to be an actual state. They really claim to be the state with actual strongholds, with logistics support, with actual soldiers, an actual army. Theyre being treated as a state in this war in some ways. That rallies support for them, it rallies Financial Support for them primarily. Colonel jacobs, what is your sense of this from a kind of strategy perspective where this goes next, how long you can anticipate that well be in this phase which seems to be sustained aerial bombardment . And talking about heavily populated cities, raqqa, mosul, where youre starting to run the risk of civilian casualties . Yeah, and its likely to take a long, long time. Just the air phase alone. Youre not going to get a decisive result just with an air campaign. At the end of the day, there have to be troops on the ground to seize the whole terrain and repel any attacks from isis that are going to come after the fact. Thats not going to be americans, obviously. Were going to have special Operations Forces and so on on the ground. But actual tactical forces, large numbers of troops who will actually be able to battle isis, that doesnt seem to be in the offing. Certainly not just yet. So this campaign to degrade isis and we shouldnt make any mistake or having illusions, thats all its going to be able to do, is going to continue for some time. One of the interesting things is to look at this air campaign and to factor off the u. N. Meeting in new york, its kind of an interesting juxtaposition. But its going to be these are powerful attacks but theyre really just tactical and they are going to take a long, long time. Dont forget also you mentioned it. A lot of the assets now are going to be in builtup areas. And were not going to attack those, certainly not with any precision, unless we have a high degree of confidence, were not going to have any collateral damage. Look for this to go on for quite some time. From the propaganda perspective of isis, they talk about a crusader war. From the u. S. s perspective, part of the reason theyve been so careful, the white house has been insistent on this kind of coalition of regional arab partners is to cut against two possibility, one, this being viewed as the u. S. Essentially aligning with the shias against the sunnis, which is part of the perceptions that gave rise to isis, right . So were not just going to be the air force for the shia militias who are in many cases doing horrible things to sunnis throughout the region, and, two, that this isnt a crusader war heres the kingdom of saudi arabia, the guardians of the holy land who are also involved in this. But will that scan . Will that read . Will that matter . Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, isis views the shiites are all on the side. The sunni regimes, the kingdom of saudi arabia and jordan are apostate regimes. If anything, proxy regimes protecting the interest of the United States. They claim these are where the drones come from, from saudi arabia, the intelligence apparatus provides to the United States. They look at them as proxies for the United States. They see it as spearheaded by the United States and see it as a crusader war, even if its involving other sunni regimes. But of course, colonel jack, part of the battlefield here in terms of perception, youre not going to convince isis, obviously, theyre not engaged in a crusade. But the possibility of what broader Public Opinion is globally which is going to have actual effects on the ground in terms of what these countries that are now engaging in this military escalation can and c cannot achieve, isnt that right . Yeah, it is. It looks to me like the coalition has come together with great reluctance, ranging from reluctance to great reluctance. And over the longer term, i think its going to be extremely difficult to engender the actual kind of military support that the coalition is going to need to defeat isis. And that means people on the ground. Weve been talking about training the moderate rebels, which is something of an oxxmoron, it seems to me. To go into syria and take care of isis. But youre only talking about maybe 5,000, we can identify. Its going to take some time to train them. Were going to need a lot more of those and coordination inside syria in order to really defeat isis. And in the interim, all were going to see are attacks on targets of opportunity, ammunition dumps, tanks, conv s convoys, things far away from builtup areas. Command and control facilities when we can find them. We can also identify them from their electronic signature. But to the extent that isis is still underground, its going to be extremely did i feel. And this means that theres going to be more and more pressure on these Coalition Countries to do something. Otherwise, nothing will be done positively against isis. And youre absolutely right, theres going to be a great deal of pressure internally in those countries for there not to be any action at all, maybe no action is good action from their standpoint. And thats one reason thats one thing that will contribute to this lasting a long time. We should note here also, just as a matter of sort of the record, that when were talking in the kind of moral standing of all this and the optics, saudi arabia is a country that beheaded someone for sorcery last month. Bahrain is a nation thats brutally repressed nonviolent protests in their own version of the arab spring. These states that have aligned here are not necessarily beacons of human rights and democracy. We should be clear. Colonel jack jacobs, thank you. Laith, thank you. We are following breaking news tonight. The american war on isis. U. S. Began air strikes in syria about 2 1 2 hours ago. Stay with us for the latest live on msnbc. And making something stronger. Will mean making it lighter. One day, factories will work with the cloud. One day. Is today. You loved brad. Ar for four you named it brad. You loved brad. And then you totaled him. You two had been through everything together. Two boyfriends. Three jobs. Youre like nothing can replace brad then Liberty Mutual calls. And you break into your happy dance. If you sign up for better car replacement, well pay for a car thats a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. See Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Right here. With a control pad that can read your handwriting, a widescreen multimedia center, and a headup display for enhanced driver focus. All inside a newly redesigned cabin of unrivaled style and comfort. The allnew cclass. At the very touch point of performance and innovation. At the very touch point of performance and innovation. Hi, are we still on for tomorrow . Tomorrow. Quick look at the weather. Nice day, beautiful tomorrow. Tomorrow is full of promise. We can come back tomorrrow. And we promise to keep it that way. Driven to preserve the environment, csx moves a ton of freight nearly 450 miles on one gallon of fuel. What a day. Cant wait til tomorrow. Everyone is looking for ways while to cut expenses. S unique, and thats where pg es Online Business Energy Checkup tool can really help. You can use it to track your Actual Energy use. Find rebates that make equipment upgrades more affordable. Even develop a Customized Energy plan for your company. Think of it as a way to take more control over your operating costs. And yet another Energy Saving opportunity from pg e. Find new ways to save energy and money with pg es Business Energy checkup. Air strikes came in raqqa, syria. On twitter, breaking, huge explosions shook the city in what might be the beginning of u. S. Air strikes on isis headquarters in raqqa. Sounds of warplanes can be heard clearly. And finally, the sky is full of drones over raqqa now. Joining me live from london is nbc news Foreign Correspondent ayman mohyeldin. Ayman, your reaction to the news tonight of the coalition that has been part of this which is a fairly remarkable diplomatic feat that this was put together if in fact these five countries, braun, uae, qatar, jordan and saudi arabia are operationally involved. Reporter absolutely. I think when youre looking at these ongoing strikes, you have to kind of look at it in c cocentric circles. What it means for neighboring countries and the region. You talking about those arab countries involved, you have to think about it both operationally and ideologically. Egypt, not necessarily involved militarily but giving diplomatic and Political Support to the ongoing operations. Theres no doubt the u. S. Is going to be the lead military force in this. But the question is what the other countries are providing in terms of logistics, intelligence, in some cases, like jordan, perhaps,overflight capabilities over its airspace. Its a Significant Development that so many arab countries have recognized the threat of isis so quickly and are now willing to get involved behind American Leadership in terms of trying to quash isis. But the real question is going to be about what the Iraqi Government does in the coming days. Does it regain the territory it has lost and more importantly, what will the Syrian Government do . It has been very public in saying that it does not welcome u. S. Air strikes inside its territory. It warned the u. S. From doing it. The real question is going to be whether or not in the coming days it tries to respond any way it can. Yeah. You have to wonder what assads move will be here. Some have speculated theres been so sort of Different Cases about this. Some have speculated that assads forces are going to take up whatever territory isis has pushed back from by this coalition activity. There are others who say that isis and assad sort of feed on each other and actually taking out isis is bad for assad because assad has consistently pointed to isis basically saying, its me or them. What do we anticipate seeing from the syrian army here . Reporter that is the milliondollar question that i dont think anyone really has an answer to. But you are absolutely right. Youve touched on an important point. As the u. S. Weakens and degrades isis, this then inadvertently strengthens the Syrian Government. This has essential been a major concern for the turkish government which says it will not take any military operations that could inadvertently strengthen assads hand. This is very important, that as the u. S. Weakens and degrades isis, will the syrian moderate rebel forces, the free syrian army, others that the u. S. Says it has vetted out, will it be able to move in and take that territory . Will they shift their guns away from the assad regime and fight isis to try and weaken that . It is a very complex situation that definitely has a lot of dimensions to it. Ayman, what do you think were going to see at the u. N. General Assembly Tomorrow . It does seem that isis, because they didnt exist as a state before and because they have been so monstrous and have kind of antagonized everyone, theres no one really that likes these guys. They are pretty universally loathed. At the same time, nations are reticent about u. S. Military presence inside their nations borders. What do you anticipate were going to see from nations at the u. N. General assembly with this news now spreading . Reporter i think youre going to hear every country try and claim a little victory and why this is an important fight. You start off with, for example, a country like egypt. President sisi expected to make a statement. Obviously hes battling a growing insurgency in the northern part of the sinai. He also has the situation in libya really escalating with similar fighting taking place. Youre going to hear countries make the case as to why this is an important fight. Youre going to hear it obviously from president obama. Youre going to hear it from the jordanians and others. But youre also and you can certainly expect others to raise the flag, as you mentioned, about the issue of sovereignty and another u. S. Military involvement in the ugs. Perhaps countries like russia who are their own crises with ukraine. Theyre not going to make this easy for the United States in terms of the ongoing diplomatic situation at the United Nations and other countries like china. Expect a lot of diplomatic wrangling. But the countries closest to the conflict are certainly going to stand up and say, this is an important fight and everyone try to shape it in a little bit of their own narrative as to why they had to get involved and do this. The syria civil war has been so bloody and complex, its created all kinds of tangled alliances. Were seeing in terms of these five sunni nations who are engaging operationally in u. S. Air strikes against a group that is a selfproclaimed sunni militant group in the midst of massive sectarian violence both in iraq and in syria which has become a very sectarian conflict probably was from the beginning. I talked to laith about this. It seems to me the significance in the broader perception of this is quite large that you do have these five sunni nations participating in this. Reporter it is. Its extremely important that you are building this coalition of countries, important countries, ideologically like saudi arabia and other countries in the gulf who are certainly financially important, logistically important, no doubt about that. But there are also questions as to whether or not there was any communication with the iranian government which has been also very strong in its condemnation of isis. But has been left out of some of the talks, the diplomatic talks taking place in places like paris that brought together dozens of countries to address the isis problem. Now, iran has been saying all along that it wants to address the issue. But it says the coalition that is being built by the United States was not going to achieve anything. It obviously questioned president rouhani in an interview with ann curry said he questioned whether or not air strikes are going to get the job done and whether or not the u. S. Was afraid of putting boots on the ground. There are players in the region that are being left away from the table. And i think that goes back to the point you were making. It widens some of that sectarian tension that exists in places like iraq and syria. Ayman mohyeldin, thank you. We are following breaking news at this hour. The u. S. Has begun air strikes against isis in syria. Stay tuned for the latest live right here on msnbc. Want to change the world . Create things that help people. Design safer cars. Faster computers. Smarter grids and smarter phones. Think up new ways to produce energy. Be an engineer. Solve problems the world needs solved. What are you waiting for . Changing the world is part of the job description. Join the scientists and engineers of exxonmobil in inspiring americas future engineers. Energy lives here. Whenwork with equity experts who work with regional experts thats when expertise happens. Mfs. Because there is no expertise without collaboration. By telling you where you can earn bonus cash back. 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Defense secretary chuck hagel told a house panel just last week that the plan for the campaign against isis included military action inside syria. That action has commenced tonight. The pentagon announcing the u. S. Along with unspecified partner nation forces are now engaged in strikes inside syria. While the pentagon did not say what other countries are involved, sources tell nbc news that saudi arabia, United Arab Emirates, braun, jordan and qatar are all involved operationally. Administration officials tell nbc news the u. S. Plans to include up to 20 targets including isis command and control headquarters plus isis logistics sites including fuel depots, weapons depots, and isis troop encampments. Joining us by phone is a reporter from the washington post. Im looking at a statement from a republican congressman from california, on the House Armed Services committee, he talks about our men and women in uniform striking an enemy that threatens our freedom. This is one step in what will be a long fight against isil, long fight is also something that the president said and the white house has said. Yes. And its worth noting when folks on both sides of the aisle say that plus your military analysts plus pentagon leaders, this, to me feels like i dont want to be to hyperbolic here, but the Opening Night of the attacks and the commencement of the air war against a saddledome hussein government in iraq in 2003. Theres the sense, big wave of air strikes. Were going to see a momentous change on the ground. And what we learned is it was a huge, long fight ahead of us. It may not be eight years of warfare to come from this. But its not going to be over anytime soon. Were seeing the commencement of whats going to be the second phase of this war. Were hitting easy targets. Thats going to take place over the next several days and weeks. But the isil leadership is going to ground. Theyre going to be much harder to strike. And we just dont have the necessary intelligence to go after the senior leadership. So were going to be moving into a far more difficult phase of this campaign. And that difficulty is going to mean its going to drag out for quite some time, i think. The president has resisted calls for military action in syria. He resisted calls for arming and training rebels. There was the point a year ago in which u. S. Military intervention against assad in syria almost happened over assads use of chemical weapons. Three years into the Syrian Civil War, this president is now engaged in the u. S. In the midst of that civil war. And youve got to wonder what he and his advisers think having tried so hard for so long to stay out of it. Well, i think its hard to look into their heads. Its impossible, quite frankly. But whats changed is the situation on the ground in iraq. Large swaths of that country have fallen to the hands of isis. What thats meant is the Syrian Civil War spilled out over its borders, no longer became a situation where the white house could say, look, this is two difficult of a problem for us to engage in, this is not something that we have to be involved in militarily. The iraq situation forced their hands. But even though we have commenced this action here against targets in raqqa tonight, its not yet clear what the eventual u. S. Game plan is here. You can only accomplish so much with air strikes. There is a plan to train 5,000 syrian resistance fighters, according to the administration. Thats a drop in the bucket. As youve been noting in the earlier minutes of this program, its going to be very hard to see exactly how the assad regime reacts. They could be wellstrengthened by this and seek to claim more territory. How the interplay between the various syrian resistance factions kind of plays out as isis reels from some of these strikes but certainly doesnt go away anytime soon, a huge unanswered question. Theres not a clear path to what might be victory or stability in syria anytime soon. Victory instability in syria or iraq. What the final end state looks like and theyre hard to say. In iraq, it might be clearer than syria. But difficult in both cases. Thank you. We are monitoring breaking news tonight as the u. S. Has begun air strikes inside syria. Stay with us. Your customers, our financing. Your aspirations, our analytics. Your goals, our technology. Introducing synchrony financial, bringing new meaning to the word partnership. Banking. Loyalty. Analytics. Synchrony financial. Enagage with us. Opping fizzing sounds] support both mental sharpness and physical energy with berocca. Proud sponsor of mind and body. Were following breaking news tonight. The u. S. 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Were not going to coordinate. Its not a cooperative effort. Were going to do what they havent done, what they have plenty of opportunity to do which is to take on isil and to degrade it and eliminate it as a threat. Tonight u. S. Air strikes. Isis targets inside syria have begun. Just last week secretary of state john kerry emphasize bad schar al assad may also consider isis the enemy but that does not mean the u. S. Will work with the syrian regime. According to the pentagon, u. S. Bombing began around 8 30 eastern time tonight. Sources tell nbc news that saudi arabia, the United Arab Emirates and bahrain and qatar are all involved in the air strike campaign. Well have the very latest on those air strikes next. The lightest or nothing. The smartest or nothing. The quietest or nothing. The sleekest. Sexiest,. Baddest,. Safest,. Tightest,. Quickest,. Harshest. Or nothing. At mercedesbenz, we do things one way or we dont do them at all. Introducing the allnew cclass. 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A senior diplomat says saudi arabia, the uae, bahrain, jordan and qatar are involved operationally in these ongoing air strikes inside syria. The targets include isis command and control, its headquarters, logistics sites, fuel depots, weapons depots and training encampments. Joining me by phone is steve clemens, editor at large at the atlantic. You just tweeted this is the first wave of west and arab regions assault on isis. There will be blowback and significant money and lives cost ahead. Not a oneway war. What do you mean by that . Well, weve taken a very bold step. Pulled together a very Big Coalition to throw a lot of fire at isis. And theres going to be a next day. And what weve seen when we stepped into arenas like this is we dont know a number of things. We dont know how much sympathy exists for isis in many of these countries. Will they begin to take action and be activated. We dont know how activated isis command and control struct sur, whether theyll be able to animate a return to fire or theres been a lot of discussion. But its a mistake to think where there is an action taken like the one were seeing tonight as, you know, clearly dramatic as this is, theres always going to be a return. Theres always going to be a hard fight. The president talked about it taking a long time, years perhaps, and so it would be a mistake for us not to think there would be serious costs and sacrifices ahead for those involved. What do you think well hear from the president as he talks about this in new york this week at the u. N. General assembly . I think he said were a league in the United Nations of civilized nations. And theres nothing civilized about isis. We brought together rivals like qatar and United Arab Emirates to be on the same side recognizing this. He wont reference iran in this strike, iran has expressed its own concerns and problems. John kerry has been talking to zarif and others in iran about their own antiisis efforts. So theyll say this is a court of civilized nations taking coordinated steps to try to pull the plug on isis. I think youll see a very bold statement and a lot of posturing. Again, i think any time you see this size of military footprint somewhere, we need to begin thinking about what other parts of the tectonic puzzle move. How does russia move . How does china move . How does Bashar Al Assad try to survive it . Steve clemmons with the atlantic. Thank you, steve. That is all in for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts now. At 8 30 p. M. , the u. S. Military says they started bombing inside syria. It is awkward to say that the u. S. Is bombing inside syria instead of just saying they are bombing syria. But that awkward phrasing is because this Bombing Campaign tonight is not against the Syrian Government. Or the syrian military. Its against a group that in fact is fighting the Syrian Government. A group that controls huge swaths of both syria and iraq. U. S. Bomber and fighter jets and drones have been bombing inside iraq since august 8th. The Iraqi Government welcomed and in fact begged for those air strikes to help Iraqi Security forces fight against isis