Aircraft are in action in the skies over iraq. The white house has released a photo of the president in the situation room with his National Security staff. While the last of the u. S. Combat troops pulled out over two years ago now, the concern is this violent isis movement the rebels who have been sweeping across the country with very little resistance in their path. They have been rooting out Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities. 40,000 of whom are said to be on the run and in great danger. Less than a decade ago, of course, the u. S. Had 145,000 troops in iraq. The u. S. Spent 2 trillion on the invasion of that country. And the sustained combat that followed. The problem tonight is twofold. Theres a humanitarian crisis, and theres a u. S. Consulate in the city of irbil. Thats why aircraft are back in action. We have two reports tonight. Richard engel in the middle east, and Jim Miklaszewski on duty at the pentagon for us. Well start there tonight. Jim, good evening. Good
i ve got something i m very excited about. christie schiller started this amazing program calls caninesforkids.org. she thought about this idea in response to violence and shootings in schools. take a listen to what she has to say about the program. i think that canines provide a softer, gentler alternative to a gun. and i m sure that there s some teachers out there that are qualified to handle a gun, but i think forcibly acting them to do so just puts those teachers in a bad position. that s from a sit-down with jamie colby about this organization. her organization will, in fact, provide the training, pay for the dogs if you apply to have one of these dogs come to your school. it s a unique approach. children love dogs, and they re specially trained so if the child is allergic or fearful, the dog knows to stay away from that child. i m all for making schools safer and protecting our children, so it s a great idea.
0 this mess, but one of them is robert gibbs, the president s former press secretary. i think they re going to have to hold somebody accountable for the botched rollout and the website not working. somebody at hhs or a group of people. you think somebody should lose their job? i think if this were to happen in the private sector, somebody probably would have already lost their job. i think the only way to restore confidence going forward is to make sure whoever was in charge of this isn t in charge of the long-term health care. 39 house democrats voted with republicans on the keep your plan act. facing that kind of opposition, tonight the president is going to try to rally his troops with a conference call from the white house. let me first play this sound bite from minority leader pelosi and then david plouffe from the sunday shows who they think the democrats don t have a problem. listen to this. i don t think you can tell what will happen next year, but i will tell you thi