Congress to take action on authorization of military force. Well talk to one of the congressman demanding that. Plus, new political attack ad highlighting isis. President obama and senator shaheen seem confused about nature of the threat. Not me. All in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. Its being described by the pentagon as only the beginning. Part of the expanded Bombing Campaign which began with an extensive attack on isis in syria last night and now includes strikes on a different group. President obama announced this morning that five arab countries are participating in the operation. A key victory looking to tout its broad support, particularly from sunni nations. We are joined in this action by our friends and partners, saudi arabia, jordan, bahrain and gitar. Well, bahrain, jordan, saudi arabia and the uae all confirm they have flown missions in saudi arabia. On the sidelines of the u. N. General assembly in new york, the president later met with some of those partners to recognize their participation. I just want to say thank you to all of you. This is obviously not the end of an effort but is rather a beginning. Im confident weve got a partnership that is able to be successful. More successful detail today in syria, and 20 missile attacks and lasting several hours. Coalition strikes targeting commanding control facilities, logistical nodes, Armored Vehicles and leadership. We are striking through the depths of isils formations because we are trying to disrupt their support basis. According to the london base, syrian observatory for human rights, theyve been monitoring casualties throughout the civil war. At least 120 militant fighters as well as eight civilians including three children. The u. S. Has received no indication any children have been killed. We are unaware of any civilian casualty, obviously limiting civilian casualties is a top priority for the United States. And if any reports of civilian casualties emerge, we will fully investigate them. At least one key figure offered cautious support for the military action in syria. For more than a year, i have sounded the alarm bells about the brutality of extremist, armed groups in syria. I think it is undeniable, and the subject of Broad International consensus that these extremist groups oppose an immediate threat to peace and security. He said his country might add it supports the air campaign. Iran condemns the u. S. Air strikes as illegal because they were not approved or coordinated with syrias asaad government. But though the Obama Administration denies, u. S. Officials confirm the Syrian Government did have advance warning. According to Deputy National security advisor, iran got an advanced notice from the u. S. As well. Joining me now, nbc news foreign correspondent, eamon. What struck me was this was a pretty bold move to begin this on the eve of the u. N. General assembly. Youre going to be facetoface, rubbing held bows with all the world leaders. And what struck me to do was not much but a shrug and a thumbs up from a wide variety of nations that are in new york for u. N. G. A. Absolutely. It gives you a sense about how there is International Consensus about the need to address this issue. On the eve of the ewe nighted nation, i think that was a very important sign that we sent. It gives it that type of arab legitimacy that this is not u. S. Military unilateralism again in the middle east. But there is broad public support among some very important arab countries. I was thinking today running through the entities that are tacitly supporting military action against isis. Its everything from iran to israel to france to the u. S. To alqaida. Who is also fighting isis. Never in the history of the nation, perhaps the world, has one entity united so many across so many lines as isis has in this very moment. It speaks to the brutality of the group. It speaks to the fact that it is widely rejected by the entire muslim world. Its recruits, really, and the people who are joining its ranks come from a small minority. Their extremist ideology does not resonate loudly in any part of the world. The problem is they are lethal. Theyve demonstrated their willingness to be barbaric. Theyve killed a lot of people in the name of what they say is their version of religion. So i think, at the end of the day, these people are all uniting against them because theyre not carrying any broad message of hope or any kind of message that matters. But the fear that theyre instilling in people is a major, major nuisance to the entire region. The big question now becomes what this intervention into the most complicated battled field in the entire world, that is the Syrian Civil War in which there are six, seven, eight, probably hundreds. What happened next . And, now, adding this intervention to the very intense chemical mix which you are thats happening there. What it does. What happens next . Oh, it has complicated the situation on the ground in so many ways. It definitely has compounded the problems taking place. Not because the u. S. Doesnt have a basis to attack isis, but, by doing so, it has inadvertently aligned its interest with the Syrian Government. Keep in mind that syria had been warning for some time that it was not going to accept the u. S. Carrying out these strikes. It had warned the u. S. Not to do it with with without its con sent. So its an indication that at least the Syrian Government tacitly accepted this reality. But the question is why . And the indication is because of the fact that the Syrian Government wants isis destroyed just as much as the United States. But so do the moderate rebels who are now going to be empowered to take on the regime in damascus even more, perhaps. Since president obama announced the expanded campaign, this is no secret that this is an operation expected to go on for quite some time. Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like isil. This will not be an easy or brief earth. I can tell you that last nights strikes were only the beginning. Last nights strikes were the beginning of a credible and sustainable campaign. This is not something that is going to be quick. And its not something thats going to be easy. While the white house may be committing to years of more work, its not particularly rationale what the legalness is right now. So senator, your understanding is we have now struck in a nation that we have not been in military activities before. Your understanding that the white house is allowed to do this without any explicit authorization from congress. Well, so far, the white house has run the gamut in terms of running authority. Theyve drawn on the Constitutional Authority, theyve drawn on the 9 11 amf saying that this is essentially a follow on organization from al qaeda. And then were hearing today that theyre also drawing upon the iraq war authorization, which, ironically, the administration is offering to have repealed. Numb of them work. The reality is there is no legal justification today for the administration to engage in a long term conflict with isis. And the complexity that this war has now entered into as we are a fullfledged participant in the civil war and syria, begs congress to come back and debate this. It looks as if we may be headed to a debate after the election. But the horse may be out of the barn at that point. We should be coming back and talking about this now. So, senator, are you saying what happened last night was illegal . I dont think the president has the statutory or Constitutional Authority to undergo this level of air strikes without congressional authority. Now, its not illegal in the sense that hes still under the war powers act. When the time frame expires, then he needs congressional authorization. But, at that point, this is a war in a conflict that doesnt have constitutional cover. So the war powers act is a separate kind of architecture permission than the authorization for use military force constitution all being floated by the administration on the table. More power Speaker Boehner received a war powers notification that sort of starts a clock running. What does that mean now . So the war powers act is not an authorization. Its effectively the understanding between congress and the executive that were going to give the president a 60day period of time before he explicitly needs the authorization of congress. So the clock has started on authorizations in syria. Chris, whats mystifying to me is the unquestioning applause of these air strikes. It may be that this is necessary to take out isil. But there is no way to beat this organization with a military strategy alone. You need a political component. And it is still a little murky as to whether we have any realistic strategy to take out isis and isil in the long run. Joining me now is the democratic congressman. Come back right away and deal with this. Vote on the fact that u. S. Is bombing syria and up or down, either authorize it or say its not authorized. Why do you say that . Because, chris, i think congress has a duty and a responsibility to weigh in on this issue. They have the 2001 authorization to use military force. If congress doesnt come back and make it clear, that that authority should allow u. S. Combat troops to go into iraq and syria. It is a dereliction of duty. Under the current interpretation, it would be allowed. It seems to me that weve got to be sure that we dont get dragged into another iraq war. The president has made clear his intention not to put Ground Troops into syria and iraq. But it seems to me that congress has an absolute obligation that that is clear that hes not authorized going forward. Everyone knew this was coming. And, you know, it was pretty clear. There was not a lot of appetite. The one vote it was on was arming and training the syrian rebels. That passed in both the house and the senate. There was zero appetite to vote explicitly on this. Well, first of all, chris, i did have serious misgivings about the authorization on the syrian rebels. I voted against that provision. But youre absolutely right. This question of redefining and having a new vote on the 2001 aumf has actually been something some of us in congress have been trying to get for two years now. Congressman adam shift for each of the last two years, has proposed an amendment on the Defense Authorization bill that would have sunset. And then forced congress to grapple with whether we want to get it off the books or whether we want to reshape it to make sure that we dont get sucked into another iraq. And that amendmented has been defeated. Its way overdue. The president , himself, last year, indicated that the Current Authority was very expansive. That it gave the executive branch a huge amount of running room. And the president said to congress he wanted to work with congress to reshape it. Congress ducked the issue, again, by a majority vote saying they didnt want to do that. They didnt want to act in an affirmative way to run a reauthorization. I Hope Congress does its duty, comes back and deals with this one way or the other. Speaker of the house has shown no reticence on a whole wide variety of things including suing the president over the oneyear postponement of the collection of a single tax, the aca, but m. I. A. On war and peace. Thank you, chris. More coverage and debate of this years military action to come in this hour. And former congressman barney frank will be here ahead. Whos going to do it . Whos going to make it happen . Discover a new energy source. Turn ocean waves into power. Design cars that capture their emissions. Build bridges that fix themselves. Get more clean water to everyone. Whos going to take the leap . Whos going to write the code . Whos going to do it . Engineers. Thats who. Thats what i want to do. Be an engineer. [ male announcer ] join the scientists and engineers of exxonmobil in inspiring americas future engineers. Energy lives here. Tonight, theres a News Organization thats reporting following the air strikes in syria, theres a new terror alert here at home. That is just not true. A terror alert would be a notice to raise the threat level and that has not happened. What has happened is that Homeland Security and the f. B. I. Have advised local Law Enforcement to be on the look out for any possible retaliation. But there is no information about anyone such plot. This kind of bulletin has become routine after u. S. Military actions. Again, there is no new terror alert. Well be right back. Can you start tomorrow . Yes sir. Alright. Lets share the news tomorrow. Today we failrly busy. Tomorrow were booked solid. We close on the house tomorrow. I want one of these opened up. Because tomorow we go live. Its a day full of promise. And often, that day arrives by train. Big day today . Even bigger one tomorrow. When csx trains move forward, so does the rest of the economy. Csx. How tomorrow moves. For over 19 million people. [ alex ] transamerica helped provide a lifetime of retirement income. So i can focus on what matters most. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. Transamerica. Last night, we also took strikes to disrupt plotting against the United States and our allies by seasoned al qaeda operatives. Once again, it must be clear to anyone who would plot against america and try to do americans harm that we would not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people. One of the most remarkable things about the president s speech today is that he almost casually noted that in addition to hitting isis targets, 5 group that weve all been focused on for months, theres another group called the corison group. The strikes were asked for as a lastminute addon. Eric holder says the u. S. Intelligence agencies have been on the group for two years. We hilt them last night out of a concern that they were getting close to an excuse phase over the last two years and the hitting that we did last night will probably continue until we are at a stage when we think they have degraded their ability to get at our allies or to the homeland. Officials today stressed the dangers of the group. Before today, there were about 90,000 Google Search results. In the last 24 hours, its jumped almost 700,000. Not only is the name out, but a group that most americans never heard of before today is a group that most people led. The group is associated with the al qaeda syria affiliate, a group that is officially, right now, at war with isis and fighting them with a lot of vigor, the other people that were bombing. Joining me now, we were going to go to istanbul. Joining me now, william mccantz, director at the brookings institution. I think a lot of people were scratching their head. Who are they . Whats the deal . Yeah, thats right. It sounds like something out of star wars. But the group has been talked about, albeit not with its name attached since last year. Its headed by a fella who might be dead now. Who used to run al qaedas operations through iran. He was the money man who also helped move recruits. He was sent to syria in order to investigate and see what the nature of the split was between this nyrsa organization and isis. He later shifted under the authority of the head of qaeda. So theres a bunch of things that kind of you could get your head around here. First, and very importantly, is the kind of official franchise in the syrians war. Theres also reports that corsine may have split from them. Its very murky. Theres not a lot of detail about this group. What weve been told by u. S. Intelligence is particularly bombmaking and being able to put bombs 234 items that would be carried onto airplanes. They were described by some senior officials as an imminent threat. Not imminent in the sense that there was a plot that was in motion that was going to happen in a matter of weeks. Again, it remains a little unclear, the specific nature of the concern. We have just been told that it was imminent. The definition as a legal matter has been something thats expanded quite a bit over the last 13 years. Thats right. I share the publics confusion. I couldnt make sense of the contradictory statements of the officials. It seems like the baseline was plotting attacks in the near term within several months. Now we have associated with al qaeda and the khorasan group. They have been at each others throats and fighting brutal battles together. One question about the bombing here is if the u. S. Starts bombing the al qaeda affiliate and theyre also bombing isis, what ends up happening is through our bombs, we bring them back together and take them from fighting each other to collaborate with each other. There was some evidence today from both folks calling for the two to unite against the u. S. How likely do you think that is . I think that brings jihadis together, like the United States. But its going to be so much to do. There is blood on the floor, they have been fighting one another tooth and nail. Its going to be hard for them to reconcile. But the pressure of u. S. Strikes continuing over several weeks may be what it takes to bring them back together. Can you explain what the fight is . I think its the assumption that theyre all jihadis. Why are these groups fighting each other as violently as they have been . Right. Its a question of who gets to control the rebel pushback inside of syria. And the main beef is who controls the territory. I hear he had to settle the mess and kick isis out of the organization. You know, in a really interesting interview with a nysra official saying we are fighting with the rebels, we are fighting against our alliance against the other alliance, why attack us. We didnt do anything against the u. S. , we just want to fight asaad. Do you think thats true . I dont think they have any aspirations to come off the United States any time soon. Thank you very much. My pleasure. The enemy that wont explicitly threaten us but will be far more destructive when all is said and done. Thats isis, thats ahead. Ietly] right on cue. [cat meows] meow, meow, meow, meow. Its more than just a meal, its meow mix mealtime. With great taste and 100 complete nutrition, its the only one cats ask for by name. If you dont think when you think aarp, you dont know aarp. Aarps staying sharp keeps your Brain Healthy with online exercises by the top minds in brain science. Find more real possibilities at aarp. Org possibilities. The smartest or nothing. The quietest or nothing. 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So if your business deals with the unexpected, hp big data and Cloud Solutions make sure you always know whats coming and are ready for it. Make it matter. Welllllllll, not when your travel rewards card makes it so hard to get a seat using your miles. Thats their game. The flights you want are blacked out. Or they ask for some ridiculous number of miles. Honestly, its time to switch to the venture card from capital one. With venture, use your miles on any airline, any flight, any time. No blackout dates. And with every purchase, youll earn unlimited double miles. From now on, no ones taking your seat away. Whats in your wallet . All eyes were on new york city in the runup this week. It was set to be the site where organizers built the largest climb in history which even surpassed expectations with an estimated 400,000 people marching through new york city. More than 120 heads of state, including the president himself were headed to the summit. That will basically be the kind of doordie moment for global collective action to cap and reduce emissions. Either get it together, start off on a path toward recovery or start our decent into distopian chaos. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, the question of whether or not were trying to save our planet from doom and then this happened. I have breaking news. The pentagon has just released a statement confirming that u. S. Military aircraft have just commenced bombing in syria. With that, the theme of this weeks News Coverage took a turn. Today, the president was speaking live at the u. N. Calling fr syrias action. We know what we have to do to avoid irreparable harm. We have to cut Carbon Pollution in our own countries to prevent the worst effects of Climate Change. We have to adapt to the impacts that we can, unfortunately, no longer afford to avoid. Of course,thats the entire problem in a nutshell, isnt it . Carbon pollution does not release, but it does threaten our way of life. It should be noted that Climate Change as a threat is already lapping at our shores. The Climate Change threat is one that we can be sure wont be solved with military might. Well be right back. Want beautiful, healthier hair . Put pantene to the test. When hair loses protein, it splits. Pantene helps stop split ends before they start. So your hair passes the needle test. Get hair so healthy you shine, with pantene. Here we go, here we go, here we go. Fifty omaha set hut losing feeling in my toes nothing beats that new car smell chicken parm you taste so good nationwide is on your side mmm mmm mmm mm mmm mm mmmmmm machines will be sprayed to be made. And making something stronger. Will mean making it lighter. One day, factories will work with the cloud. One day. Is today. Mm. Feel it. J. J. Watt . You know theres a game on tonight right, amy . Oh, i know, but its my turn to chaperone. Right, but you could do both. How . Nfl mobile is now free with the more everything plan from verizon. I have verizon download it, you can watch the game right here. Come on, lets boogie oh, helen. For the first time watch live local sunday games on nfl mobile. Included with the more everything plan exclusively from verizon. Didnt take very long for politics to reenter the fray. Former u. S. Senator scott brown of massachusetts would like to become senator scott brown of new hampshire, today, released a campaign ad targeting his opponent. Anyone who turns on the tv these days knows we face challenges to our way of life. Islamic terrorists are threatening to cause the collapse of our country. President obama and senator shaheen seem confused about the nature of the threat. Not me. There are a number of things that could be said about that ad. But most importantly, the threat to cause the collapse of our country serves essentially to convert Senatorial Campaign because no one other than isis thinks theyre a threat to collapse our country. Well, no one other than isis and, possibly, apparently u scott brown. The government finds themselves in a position for more than a decade quite well now. Because the situation is trying to defeat isis and unify an Iraqi Government and stay out of a sectarian civil war is a complicated mess. Of course, there are those senators who are quite consistent in their support for increased military escalation and wider war. While scott brown uses isis to attack the senator, theres also senator rand paul who amounted last week even though he supports the air strikes themselves. Just today, paul said in a statement i support action against isis and believe it requires the president to receive congressional authorization. The president is doing more or less what republicans want him to do. The big question six weeks before the election is what exactly is their message on this war and on Foreign Policy right now. Robert, the most illuminating part to me is john boehner is not going to have a vote. They do not want to touch this. They do not want to have to vote on it. They do not want to have to choose. Theres been a surprising, hawkish term. But youre right. Theyre not wanting to have a full war debate on authorization to the midterm. But, other than that, theres a lot of disagreement within the gop. And i think also, everyone learned a lesson in 2003, which is that one vote may look like a good idea at the time, but two years, four years, five years, six years, if the whole thing is a total disaster, instead of learning the lesson of lets vote and maybe vote no, the lesson is just dont vote, sit in the backseat and criticize the president s drive. The one thing ive heard from leadership sources in both the house and senate is that a lot of republicans, right now, back home and in their districts, are hearing mounting pressure to have a vote. I think theres going to be pressure on both sides. Sometimes its just a little bit hard to separate out. Whats the bubble of intensity inside the kind of media, political complex and what is happening at home in districts and states. Its interesting to hear that youre hearing that the people want to vote. I think people on both sides of the aisle would like to see Congress Debate this. Hardly anyone in the u. S. House was in the chamber for the final hours of the debate. Skeptical whether there was the kinds of robust means necessary. There was this libertarian imbus thats been overtaken by a more hawkish impulse. Take a listen. If you ever became president , would you advocate a permanent u. S. Troop presence in the region . Permanent. Absolutely. Let me give you two examples of why. The mission to target bin laden would have been impossible. Second, youve seen whats happened in iraq. People think that having troops on the ground in iraq would have prevented isils advance. To some extent, thats true. After what weve been through through the last 13 years, its pretty remarkable to hear someone angling it looks like for president. They really believe they have to challenge the president to say hes not doing enough. But theyre going to talk about boots on the ground. I think people are going to have some questions. Ive been surprised id be shocked to see boots on the ground because i think thats a massive miscalculation of where the party is. Robert costa, thank you very much. Ugh. Heartburn. Did someone say burn . Try alka seltzer reliefchews. They work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. Mmm. Amazing. Yeah, i get that a lot. Alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. Enjoy the relief. Take and. Exhale. In. Aflac and a gentle wavelike motion. 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[ male announcer ] join the scientists and engineers of exxonmobil in inspiring americas future engineers. Energy lives here. The overall effort will take time. There will be challenges ahead, but were going to do whats necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group. For the security of the country and the region and for the entire world. Last night, the u. S. Began an air campaign against the i Islamic State in syria. There seems to be two Big Questions here the administration doesnt have a definitive answer. One, how long will this go on . The pentagon suggested the country think in terms of years and that last nights strike was only a beginning. The second was how much is it going to cost . Last night, the press secretary couldnt even give a ballpark figure. I dont have an estimate on that. I know were interested in having an open dialogue with congress to ensure that our military has the resources necessary to carry out the mission that the president has laid out. Will we do know that this country has been waging war for 13 years. Now were starting to look what looks like a new chapter of war. Everyone if it was created by the disasters and debacles before him. Gallop polling shows that almost a third of democrats oppose the militarys action u. S. Is taking against iraq and syria right now. Nearly a third of his own party. And that supports what im talking about. They they theyre going to completely destabilize a region. They worry that they might threaten the u. S. On the other hand, theyre also horrified by another Bombing Campaign and another middle eastern country that might stand little chance of improving the situation. Barney frank talks about, is it a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason . When you told me about this candy crush game at first i thought so what . , but now i cant stop playing. Thats not how it works. I mean its so simple. Its like my Car Insurance. I saved 15 in fifteen minutes. 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Were back. Joining me now as promised, former congressman barney frank, msnbc contributor, someone who voted against the iraq war back in 2002. Congressman, explain what you wrote today, that this was the right war for the wrong reasons. We acknowledged the mistake in the country because we did not intervene in ruanda. They were threatening to murder thousands and thousands of people. That is we intervened to stop a genocide, on a smaller scale, but one that was going to go forward. I think thats because theres some ambivalence on the part of people like myself. No, there is no basis for us going into any of those nations and running the kind of war that was intended to change the way in which they were governed. There is a different case here, which is terrible people have threatened to murder people and we need to intervene and stop it. Im in favor of some military effort to degrade their effort to murder people. But to the extent it becomes a notion in which we have to intervene in a society, its a mistake. They are not a threat to us. They are a threat to our values. They are doing terrible things to people. They are not focused on coming to the United States. While i appreciate the president saying he doesnt want to send in Ground Troops, im afraid his reasoning is lending some support to that. No, they are not a threat to the United States. It would be obviously far better if they did not have power in the places where they have power. But it does not its not within our power to stop that from happening from outside. We can do what we did, intervene to protect innocent people to some extent. So the question then becomes then if fundamentally, the kind of architecture for justification here relies on this kind of humanitarian architecture, in the case of christians and kurds, they kicked the christians out of muslim in the most despicable way possible. They say thats the justification for going against asaad. Its been the justification for three years as the guys engaged in a campaign for war crimes. If the humanitarians are Strong Enough for isis, its certainly Strong Enough for asaad for the past three years. When you take it into action, you take it into account. The fact is that intervening in syria would have inevitably meant getting involved in that country. What we did was bomb people who were attacking other people. It did not involve this on going effort and i would be opposed to that kind of an on going effort. It is also the case that you take into account youre able to bomb them because theyre out in the open. If they are controlling the territory, then the bombs righthand turn going to work and then theres not a justification for it. I do believe what the islamist state wasnt able to go. There are a lot of countries that are run by a lot of terrible people. That doesnt mean that you automatically militarily intervene to make things better because you dont have the capacity to do that, either financially or in fact. But when you have that situation, i do think they are qualitatively worse than others. Its a mistake to say if you cant do anything, then dont do anything. Theres a pretty discreet incident there. It recalled in which there was a fear in what he would do to the rebels in benghazi. Now, do you worry about a kind of quick sand effect . Oh, absolutely. And the libya is a good case. I think retrospectively, we get too deeply involved. You can stop bad people from doing things in a discreet situation. You cannot from outside driven by its own hatreds and disagreements. Go in there and make things better. Libya is in shambles right now. Its a terrible place and people are under great attack. I think iraq was to some extent before the isil people started it. The way you do it, the president remembers what you said before. Not doing stuff that doesnt make sense. Yes, it is legitimate for us. And we all felt that impulse, most of us, to stop these people from murdering people. But theres a limit to what we can do and the notion that were going to destroy them, get rid of them, i wish. I wish it was possible. But i dont see how it can be. I was reading the economists, the responsible, moderatetype magazine. And they say america now has to go into iraq and syria and fix things. And we cant. Yeah, thats the hardest thing, i think, to center in american Foreign Policy. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Joining me now, p. J. Crowley. I want to pick up this point because it seems to me that theres two ways to analyze. At least two. I think theres a legal question that we can get into further. But lets talk about efficacy and legitimacy. It looks like the Obama Administration has done a pretty good job and john kerry about assembling this coalition and the reaction today was not the kind of widespread condemnation you saw, for instance, internationally, the u. S. Iraq war in 2003 does seem to have a national legitimate sill even under the letter of the u. N. Law. I think, chris, because of the major sunni majority of powers in the region, saudi arabia, bahrain and the united emeritus. These are actually the countries that if the region is to reject the vision of the Islamic State, these countries and these people will play the most decisive role. And so theres this legitimacy question. Again, i thought it was striking today that he endorsed this the morning after this. He came down and said theres some pretty bad dudes in syria. Then, theres the efficacy question. Things seem to get much more difficult to predict and theres an article in the New York Times today saying that the air Strike Campaign in iraq itself of isis, isis has basically held its position. Its stopped their advance, but rolling them back is much more difficult. Well, i think thiss reasons to be optimistic on the iraqi side of the equation. And the air strikes there are designed to give them time to recover, to improve and then, you know, also to try to change the calculations of sunnis within iraq that have looked at the Islamic State as the lesser of two evils compared to an ineffective and divisive government if baghdad. The dilemma, on the syrian side of the equation is right now we do not have effective forces that are going to be able to retake their territory. Can you imagine can you describe for me the bestcase scenario, the happy ending in syria of a successful, coalitionled effort like the one we started to engage upon last night. What is it what is a thing to look forward to . I think the most realistic scenario is the opposition will control some territory and then the kurds will control some territory. This will go on for some time. It will go onto some kind of political settlement. Thats a good question. Bosnia in the 1990s is where some elements have held together and some didnt. Thank you very much, p. J. Crowley. I want you to post on our Facebook Page or tweet at me, questions you have about whats going on. They could be very difference between whats the difference between sunni and shia, or how did asaad get to pow i recall. We are going to try to answer those questions as we go forward. That is all in for this evening. Thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Tomahawk missiles have been around since the 1970s. Theyre about 18 feet long, theyre about 20 inches in diameter. On a guided missile cruiser