trump vote. we are going to win. what is his strategy with a tweet like that? part of it is self-preservation, right? trump thinks high hi of himself and his brand and part of his candidacy is based on him looking like a winner. when the polls don t reflect that, we ve seen him over the course of this election cycle cite the polls at his rallies to give himself the sense of being a winner. when the polls don t reflect that, it becomes more challenging for him to sell that message. but it s also about voter enthusiasm. if your supporters or potential supporters don t think you have any chance to win this election, how does that affect turnout on election day? that would be a major concern for donald. he tweeted also today on the kurdish/iraqi military offensive designed to liberate mosul, the second largest city in iraq from isis, he said, the attack on mosul is turning out to be a total disaster. we gave them months of notice. the u.s. is looking so dumb.
guests. we ll have full coverage of all the day s top stories. let s begin with our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. barbara, what are you hearing about this iraqi military offensive? wolf, what is becoming very clear is ramadi is a test case for the iraqi military, can they really win against isis? iraqi troops roll across a floating bridge opening a path towards central ramadi. [ gunfire ] heavy gunfire continues to ring out, iraqi armored vehicles on the move fighting street to street. the entire area is mined and booby-trapped by isis. entire houses wired to blow up. tough work for iraqi troops even after weeks of u.s. training to prepare. this enemy has had time to set up their defense inside of this city. and it s going to be very difficult and it is going to be a very slow process for the iraqis to slowly, methodically
iraq announced it s launching a major offensive to reclaim territory it lost to the islamic state. anbar province is iraq s largest and isis made major gains there recently. since friday, tens of thousands of people have been displaced from the ramadi area, many trying to get to baghdad to flee the threat from the isis. in an interview with the bbc, iraq s prime minister pledged to take action. i can assure you we can bring it back soon. i m talking about days now. the iraqi military offensive comes as top u.s. officials are questioning the security forces there. these candid remarks from are ash carter came in app interview with cnn. the iraqi forces showed no will to fight. they were not outnumbered. in fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force. and yet, they failed to fight. the white house danced around questions whether president obama agreed with secretary carter s assessment, instead pointing to military action by the iraqis.
grip of isis fighters right now. our senior international correspondent initial peyton walsh is joining us live. he s in baghdad. what do we know about this iraqi military offensive? who exactly is taking part? at this stage, wolf i ll explain the scene around me. we know the last hours or so have been fraught by a sandstorm. we re in the back end of this here in baghdad. which explains the mist you re seeing behind me. that will have substantially slowed progress on the ground militarily. who is involved in this? well for the most part people in fact who will not benefit too much from the cover the sandstorm provides. on the pro-government side the shia militia, also we are aware that the police and military are involved in this too. isis have had a week or so now to dig in. this flurry of activity began with announcements this morning,
liberation. the battle took a month. government troops were aided by iranian backed shiite militias and u.s. air strikes and now if religious tensions don t tear the iraqi forces apart, tikrit may be the jumping-off point for the next iraqi military offensive. i ll speak live this hour with senator tom cotton of the intelligence and armed services committee. he s standing by. also our correspondents and analysts they re standing by with full coverage. we ll take you inside tikrit in just a few moments. but let s begin with our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. she has the very latest. reporter: wolf when iraqi prime minister abadi showed up in tikrit today, it was a message to the world he was trying to send that iraqi forces have their victory, that they have entered tikrit and driven isis out. but many people here at the pentagon say not so fast. clearly, there are several hundred isis fighters still scattered throughout the city. the iraqis still working to