in iraq. 9 million dollars a day. we re not really bombing as much as we can. how are we spending $9 million a day and doing four or five sorties or whatever? to support 3,000 soldiers and aircraft carriers and everything else, that s about the price tag. the point is it isn t working. they re not stopping isis. they re getting more territory in iraq and syria and moving to afghanistan. but let s talk about iraq. we keep hearing about ramadi. we re getting it. isis is getting it. the iraqis are getting it. what is the significance of ramadi? what is that all about? the center of al anbar province, but more importantly isis is gaining territory while we re bombing them which means the bombing we re doing isn t working. so they start out, isis, as a jv team. then the big united states comes in and they re getting bigger. they re getting bigger than before. now, what i found amazing was
iraq. it s in iraqi kurdistan. and it s generally considered a safe area and considered to be out of the reach of isis but militants managed to drive a car packed with explosives into the neighborhood, filled with bars and restaurants, popular with consulates. cnn s global affairs correspondent elise labott reports. reporter: a brazen attack, detonating a car bomb outside of the american consulate in erbil, leaving at least four dead. images show flames and smoke rising homes to hundred of u.s. diplomats. all chief admission personnel have been accounted for. reporter: as it continues its push to the sunni-dominated al
our reporter on the ground making her way to ramadi says isis is making gapes in this crucial al anbar province. what why are we hearing such different things? well what you re hearing from arwa is a very very precise view of one of the challenges that exists in iraq and i would say across the board there have been some gains, but this human tragedy that s taking place in ramadi can t go without some type of comment or some type of a response and you heard marty dempsey talk about it earlier today. so of course you re going to have some disparate views. it is how you define the center of gravity. where should the united states apply its maximum pressure to achieve the greatest results? clearly, we have decided ramadi could, in fact be a casualty as long as we can hold in other location and make sure those aren t lost. that will be interesting to see, interesting to see the impact of that given, as arwa points out it is the capital of the sunni heart land in iraq and so strat teen
mortar. much rather that ramadi won t fall but wouldn t be the end of a campaign, should it fall. not symbolic in any way. not what our reporter on the ground is saying. we have this covered from washington and baghdad tonight. i want to begin with arwa damon, who is in baghdad. arwa you have made your way toward ramadi. when you hear the chairman of the u.s. joint chiefs one of the most senior people in the entire american military say ram mad i did not central to the future of iraq what do you think? reporter: i think it s a fairly simplistic way of looking at exactly how strategic ramadi actually is. the 300,000-plus residents living there in sheer terror half of whom have already fled ramadi is the capital of al anbar province iraq s sunny heart land. a juncture the shia-led government has to try to win over the sunni population if it even is to have a hope of trying to defeat isis.
were fleeing, children completely shocked in the arms of their parents, the elderly being pushed out by carts. speaking to officials inside ramadi a description of an enemy barrelling down on them that they are barely able to keep at bay, threatening the center of the city launching numerous attempts to try to take over the government complex. yes, there were some air strikes that took place that at the very least stopped that isis advance but the fighting force there is outgunned and outmanned and the cries for help are growing increasingly stronger. they need those air strikes. they need those additional boots on the ground to begin to defeat isis because, yes, isis what i have been defeated in tikrit but made significant gains in al anbar province, into the city of ram mad day not to mention the ability that isis portrayed when it moved into iraq s largest oil refine you were talking about earlier in baiji, managing to penetrate those defenses and the