will of iraqis to fight isis and defend themselves. nbc news richard angle is here in the studio with us today. thanks for making the time for us to get us updated here. you hear the defense secretary questioned the will of the iraqi forces. why would you believe this to be successful? i think you have good reason to be skeptical of that. the iraqi government is not being effective so far in the campaign to fight against isis. the iraqi army has collapsed now twice. first it collapsed in mosel which helped create this whole problem and now in ramadi. whose coming in to try and liberate the city? it s a combination of sunni and shiite militias.
and churches. this is video of a tomb in mosel, how creepy is this? isis has sites set on one of islam s holiest sites. could that backfire? a retired pilot and fox news contributor. could it? you ve got them running around destroying islam s holiest shrines and tombs? now, possibly targeting mecca? they re fast turning the muslim world against them, this will probably the shortist-lived announced. on all sides the world is turning against them, they re doing things that are just not smart politically, or religiously.
particular situation. certainly the administration is well informed on the threats there and what has been developing. why now do you think the president needs additional time? and certainly there s a lot to weigh, having left there, but thousands of american lives lost in helping to liberate iraq, give it the chance at democracy. certainly there s got to be a lot going on at the white house and weighing on this president. shannon, it s baffling. you ve had four months. you ve had these terrorists in our sights. you know where the encampments were. you know where the columns are on the roads. at the same time they only get richer. this is now the richest terrorist organization in the world because they just took $450 million from the central bank in mosel. so as they continue to move town to town and pick up equipment we ve known all along, iraqi forces lack air support. what do you need against a force like this? you need to be able to call in drone strikes. at the end of the day th
sunni population, who in return had really welcomed with open arms these sunni fighters coming in from syria. right now these al qaeda-inspired militants are knocking on the door of the capital. only about 60 or so miles outside baghdad. they control the major cities, as i said, of fallujah, mosel, and tikrit. they also appear to be consolidating their grip around baghdad before moving into the capital, which many people do believe there will be some type of assault on the capital within the coming days. they re using very brutal methods, essentially killing anyone who opposes them, in some cases even beheading people in these cities, trying consolidate their grip. as a precaution the pentagon has sent the uss george h.w. bush to the arab gulf. so the white house says they are weighing all of the options. shannon, the real difficulty, though, is there are no good options in iraq right now, and whatever decision the u.s. makes in terms of intervening or not intervening it may be way t
effort. that s why you have to have the arab league with you. conor powell is following the story from our mideast newsroom. hello, conor. hello, shannon. well, in baghdad and in basra young shiite iraqi men lining up to join makeshift forces trying to slow down this advance of these sunni militants who ve swept across the country, but make no mistake about it, the country is splitting up before our very eyes. militants of the islamic state of iraq and syria now control three of the major cities in iraq mosel and fallujah and also tikrit. they want to create a wider sunni islamic state that basically goes across the entire middle east. now, in recent months the government in baghdad, which is led by prime minister nouri al maliki, who are primarily shiite, they have ties to iran, they really tried to consolidate their power among the shiite population. this has alienated a lot of the