ground that can focus on where you want to do that. of course, our equipment is very capable of doing things without people on the ground, but ultimately when you re talking about mixing civilian populations with militants and military combatants, you want to be able to separate them out. adam, and very briefly, too, when you look at the political landscape in iraq and the fact that nuri al maliki has concentrated power around himself and basically stepped on anyone who was a challenge to him, sunni or otherwise, by the way, do you see in that landscape any secular alternative to the man? i do not. i really don t. and i would actually like to piggyback on what the general just said about having boots on the ground for these air strikes. without that happening, which i m not in favor of, of putting boots on the ground for the air strike, there s going to be a lot of collateral damage and
a backlash to what the shia government has not done to help them. so subsequently, this is their way to push back. yeah. absolutely. couldn t agree more. adam, you fought in iraq and in particular in fallujah in anbar province and where the insurgency was turned around with the sunni tribesmen and now assisting isis or allowing them to carry forward. what do you think when you look at it now? i think things have fallen a long way from where they were at the end of the operation in 2004 and early 2005. i think the iraqi security forces that we operated with in fallujah did an excellent job taking charge of what they considered to be their fight. that has that tide has seemed to have turned, whether it s a fear of the isis individuals or the al qaeda in iraq or maybe an overreliance on hopefully more
done due to military victory. i don t think it was due to a mission accomplishment on the ground but much more political motivation into it and if we go back in to iraq, we would go in with one arm tied behind our back and won t cut the graphic situation. we need to send in large-scale forces to complete this job. i don t think air strikes would work. i think that could present a bigger problem with potential collateral damage and the onus should be on the iraqi people, the iraqi military. it was ironic, adam, the iraqi prime minister who really is seen as being at the root cause of a lot of this shoving the u.s. out the door, made it his election platform to get the u.s. out and not have them stay unless they were subject to iraqi law which was never going to fly. did you have confidence in the iraqis military s ability to maintain security? i went on a lot of missions,
i m michael holmes. welcome back to our special look at the crisis in iraq. the state department announcing new security precautions for start staffers at the u.s. embassy in baghdad. extra personnel being sent in to protect the embassy. some staffers will be sent out of baghdad. most will stay, it s important to point out. those isis militants pushing ever closer to the capital. and now baqubah, that s a 40-minute ride away. contributor michael weiss and retired marine corps major general james william. adam, i want to start with you as a man who has truly been on the ground and explain something to people. when you talk about the iraqi army cutting and running basically, we re talking about an army that is sunni and shia, but when the enemy is an enemy that is not only not afraid of
middle east. this, of course, coming as terrifying and graphic images are emerging. you may want to let children leave the room for this segment. isis militant group releasing some style photographs today that reportedly shows mass executions of iraqi security forces. photographs that show dozens of men, you see them there lying down in a shallow ditch. gunmen, you can see what s about to happen there. we can t independently confirm the photo s authenticity. the military is in tatters as they snatch up territory, more and more every day. our panel is with us. adam bonotai. did you agree with the message that the u.s. should stay out of this? i absolutely do agree. mainly because of the way the american withdrawal from iraq occurred. it was i don t think it was