welcome back. what does victory look like in iraq, and how do we get there? it s a question that has vexed american decision makers for many years, and nbc s andrea mitchell has covered every twist and turn along the way right from the beginning. andrea? good evening, richard. it has been 15 years of blood, sweat, and tears. and if the history of this war teaches us anything, it is that military victories can be temporary without a political strategy to pull together iraq s bitterly divided ethnic groups. what started 14 years ago with shock and awe and the march on baghdad led to a hard fought but deceptively straightforward victory. since then, iraqis and americans have been living with the results of tragic miscalculations starting with that banner declaring mission accomplished.
welcome back. what does victory look like in iraq, and how do we get there? it s a question that has vexed american decision makers for many years, and nbc s andrea mitchell has covered every twist and turn along the way right from the beginning. andrea? good evening, richard. it has been 15 years of blood, sweat, and tears. and if the history of this war teaches us anything, it is that military victories can be temporary without a political strategy to pull together iraq s bitterly divided ethnic groups. what started 14 years ago with shock and awe and the march on baghdad led to a hard fought but deceptively straightforward victory. since then, iraqis and americans
u.s. military cargo planes have air-dropped some 15,000 gallons of water and 74,000 meals on the mountain. we have been hearing about isis. most americans don t know much about this violent army of islamic jihadists. in fact they caught much of the world including iraq offguard. abc s martha raddatz has more. reporter: it is the islamic militant group so extreme that traditional al qaeda has disavowed them. and now from vice news, video from inside the militant s stronghold. surreal scenes from the syrian city of raka, families enjoying the coolness of the euphrates, but there is no relaxing, even the kids are deadly serious. [ speaking foreign language ] reporter: what happens in syria affects iraq. and vice versa. the treasures from the march on baghdad are proudly paraded through raka along with new recruits from around the world.
government that could be a unity government that could reflect a greater capacity for success. militants still control much of northern iraq. their march on baghdad seems to have somewhat stalled as the iraqi army, we re told, is regrouping. but that s a big effort. they are not being helped by u.s. drone strikes. on the subject of those drones, this is a good one. a secret obama administration memo making the case for drone strike execution on an american terrorist living overseas is no longer a secret today. the government lost a court battle to keep it under wraps. our legal team has a lot to say about this. you will probably remember this guy. he s the al qaeda leader anwar al awlaki. he was born in new mexico but he was killed not in the united states, he was killed in yemen
they are hitting them with air power on the move as they march on baghdad is pretty iffy. we don t have eyes on the ground. even though they are a new form of army they are not as recognizable as traditional targets. so the way you will have to hit them is go to what used to be syria and hit their bases. and frankly that will hurt them. slow them. but air power alone won t stop them. bill: it s a bigger and wider war, are we ready for that? we don t have to get into boots on the ground at this point. this is not just people are saying we have to prevent an iraqi civil war. there is not on an iraqi civil war, it s a civil war raging throughout the arab middle east and persia into iran between sunni and shiia and the