potential for drone strikes in iraq. as you know, the obama administration just released their legal justification for drone strikes. there s been a lot of conversation about the legality of the process around choosing targets and those sorts of things. but you have a view on how effective drone strikes are. yeah, you know, drones work fine in low-threat areas can like afghanistan and yemen and places where nobody shoots back. okay. but you put them in an environment where there s an aircraft fire, s.a.m.s., other fighters, and they re not going to survive. that isn t the problem in iraq because there s no air threat, really. the problem in iraq is one of what s a target? this is a civil war. this is not something that s going to be solved by outside forces. this is not going to be solved by our military. this has got to be solved by them. frankly, you know, after ten years and over $8 trillion that we can t account for, i think we ve done enough. yeah, and do you see the 300
their future leadership. secretary of state kerry today tried to convince the powerful leader of the iraqi kurds to work toward a unified government. the sunni kurds are one of iraq s three major ethnic groups along with shia arabs, who dominate the government, and the sunni arabs, many of whom are fighting alongside isis. iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki has left the sunnis and kurds out of government circles. the kurds have reacted by creating a largely autonomous region in the north. they say it a new iraq, and they want independence. nbc s ayman mohyeldin is in iraq. do you expect any movement after today s meeting? well, if there s going to be any movement, it s certainly going to happen in closed doors, and it s going to be very private. there s a lot of power sharing that takes place here in iraq. the way the constitution is set up. and more importantly, this country recently had elections. it s time for the presideime mir
have your insights. thank you. up next, president obama considering air strikes, kerry holding high-level talks. the impact of iraq s conflict here and around the world as the cycle rolls on for tuesday, june 24th. ups is a global company, but most of our employees live in the same communities that we serve. people here know that our operations have an impact locally. we re using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. the trucks are reliable, that s good for business. but they also reduce emissions, and that s good for everyone. it makes me feel very good about the future of our company. the summer of this.mmer. the summer that summers from here on will be compared to. where memories will be forged into the sand.
authoritarian behavior. i think the problem now in iraq goes beyond one particular person. we re talking about the 1st of july, when the parliament meets. the situation has gone too far. when the parliament meets on the 1st of july, probably isis, the islamic states, and sunni groups would control 60% of iraq. the next target is baghdad. and i don t think that the islamic state is capable of taking over baghdad for a variety of reasons. it does not have the numbers. it does not have the weapons. baghdad is a city of 7 million people. you have tens of thousands of militiamen. but the reality is their strategy is to lay siege to baghdad, to starve baghdad, to terrorize baghdad, to deny baghdad basically food and electricity. obviously, now the islamic state and the various islamist sunni groups control most of the border crossings between syria and iraq and between jordan and iraq and this tells you the
that they otherwise wouldn t be strategically interested in? because there s a political line here very clearly, we re not going to do a ground invasion number two or three on iraq. just like in libya there was a discussion about using nato and having an air war without the ground. but at some point, does that concern you, or do you think that s the right balance? no, it concerns me. you cannot win a war from the air, okay. you can lose one without air superiority. and obviously i m a big advocate of air power. but you re not going to win a war solely from the air. that s something that washington has never quite grasped. they like to use air strikes because instead of sending in 1,000 guys, they re sending in one or two or three, right. it really sucks if it s you that gets shot down 500 miles behind enemy lines. bu but the pentagon and washington all shrug their shoulders. any words of advice to my brother and the next generation of pilots? yeah, don t screw up. no, my hat s of