go? will mosul be next? that s another key point. after 9/11 the united states did a great job of neutralizing camps in afghanistan but they flew across the border into pakistan. syria has porous borders. at the moment you have a governance vacuum in yemen which in part is being led by the saudi created bombing campaign and a governance vacuum in libya. what we need to be doing is looking well beyond ramadi and sinjar and raqqah and understanding where the leadership is goeg to go. it s not going to hang around in raqqah and wait to be bombed. it will go to libya. how do we parallel plan and deal with those governance problems we are seeing in yemen? let s talk about turkey and saudi s role in what is going on and get them focusing on the islamic state and not, for example, a principality across syria. we need to understand what russia s view is in terms of where we go with the geneva talks in january. hugely complex. ramadi is a tactical win. there s a long way to go.
breaking news, a government compound in ramadi is back in the hands of iraqi forces, iraqi flag raised over it just minutes ago. there you re looking at the video there after the city spent months under isis control. this new cnn poll paints a sobering picture of how the american public feels about the war on terror, a growing majority dispelled overall. we ll go through the numbers in that new information coming out of ramadi in just moments. let s bring in a senior fellow at defense of democracies and a counterterrorism expert and lieutenant colonel mark hertling. he s an analyst and former commanding general in europe and the 7th army. i want to talk to you about ramadi. you know the landscape over there. how important is this victory in ramadi and raising that flag? a very important tactical battle, don. it s part of a awe much longer campaign. truthfully we ve seen things
police when i was in iraq. i m sure that s still the case, especially in ramadi where a lot of policemen were killed in the initial doonslaught of isis. not only police to provide security but turning on electricity, water, getting the government working again. they re ready to do that but it s still going to take a little bit of time. i wonder if that will change from americans think about this. look at this poll obviously taken before this, 18% of americans say we are winning the war on terrorism. is there any truth to that? is perception reality here? i think perception is accurate in this case. compared where we are now compared to five years ago, the signs are not positive in any way. five years ago, iraq was relatively stable. today, isis controls a broad swath of territory in iraq. syria has fallen apart. libya has fallen apart and jihadist groups are a large part of that landscape.
towards mosul. reporter: north of baghdad and sinjar mountain where the fight against isis began, b bagdadi says isis remains strong promising an epic final battle. today iraqi prime minister tweeted what he called complete confidence iraqis are going to liberate mosul but spokesman says first the iraqis have a lot of work to retake and secure the province but mosul is considered the big prize in freeing iraq, brianna and from isis and the coalition says it s determineed to help the iraqis do that. it will obviously take some time. we ll see what pans out. thank you so much. the white house says that president obama is briefed on the iraqi military s progress against isis in ramadi. let s go to our senior white house correspondent with the president in hawaii and the president is on vacation, jim, but certainly terror concerns are very front and center for
administration s ability to stop a terrorist attack and defeat isis. here it is, our latest cnn poll finds only 18% of americans believe the u.s. is winning the war on isis while 40% believe that terrorists have the upper hand. get this, just 51% of americans are confident the government can t thwart a terrorist attack. that is way down from 65% for president obama s administration back in 2010. but the public appears to be uncertain about what to do about this. our poll finds americans are split right down the middle, 49% to 49% on whether to send in ground troops to battle isis and keep in mind, this poll was conducted before iraqi security forces apparently succeeded in retaking the key city of ramadi over the weekend. that s a crucial development as it is in line with the president s strategy to use local forces on the ground with air support to go aftdo that. the white house also wants to sharpen the administration s