The deck. First this afternoon, new military action in iraq. Its possible, if not probable. A humanitarian crisis happening in Northern Iraq, and humanitarian catastrophe is upon us according to the white house. So president obama is considering ing air strikes, according to the reporting of the New York Times and the wall street journal and others, but the white house would not confirmed it to. The target here Islamic State fighters who are terrorizing christians and other minorities. This group is called isis, establishing a caliphate. Now they have taken americanmade humvees and weapons that iraqi troops abandoned and marching through towns and villages in the kurdish region, demanding residents convert to islam or be killed. Hundreds of men have been slaughtered. Women and children sold as slaves or into the sex trade. Tend of thousands of people could be dead in days unless someone steps in to save them there are two areas of immediate concern. First, the United Nations groups reports as many as 40,000 religious minorities are stranded on a mountain top with no food and no water. State militants surround the base of the mountain and will not let them leave. So with temperatures reaching 100 degrees daily. Theyre dying of heat and thirst. Because according to local legend the mountain is sacred because its the final resting place of noahs ark. So there the religious minority sets 4 , thousand trapped. They tell us as children die theyre being buried under rocks. All 40,000 will die without immediate help. Theres a second crisis point as well. In the Northern Iraq city if irbil. The residents, christians and other religious minorities, have need with belongings. Many thousands have arrived in irbil over the past day and have no place to stay, sleeping in parking lots and construction site. Its night now. Nothing there tomorrow, and islamist state fighters threatening to kill or sell the ones left behind. Where is thearchy iraqi army . Nowhere to be found. The persecuted are asking for help. What do we do . The New York Times and the warm wall street journal report air strikes are one in a range of options the president is weighing. A Senior Defense official tells fox news the u. S. Has been working with the Iraqi Government to coordinate air drops of food and supplies and the pentagon has reviewed possible military options. Lets look on the wall. Isis, or the Islamic State, theyre now calling themselves, has taken over this huge portion of syria and iraq, all of that in the red up there. Slaughtering anybody standing in their way. The militants, two days ago, seize iraqs largest dam after a week of trying. That has created widespread panic. You see, the dam gives isis enormous control over the countrys infrastructure. They could cut off the power or the water to everybody or they could flood much of the area, including mosul. If that dam goes, a pentagon report indicates that a 65foot wave of water would drown anything and everybody in parts of the kurdish north, including one and a half Million People in mosul. Flooded with six stories high of water. So big picture now. The reality is stark and horrifying. Terrorists are on the move. Town to town. Theyre on american vehicles, with american weapons and american guns, overpowering the local authority, and murdering innocents while selling others as slaves, and unless somebody somewhere intervenes, immediately, tens of thousands of people will most certainly die within days. We have extensive coverage head. Let begin with ed henry at the white house. I dont know where you begin. What are the president s options here . Anyone being straight with you there . Well, shep, theyre being very careful not to show their hand but theres really two major options were told. One would be, as you mentioned, u. S. Air strikes. The cuckoo could be sending in human tarean relief and theres a third option which is both. Officials say you cant provide humanitarian relief when isis is out there trying to kill people. You cant just get humanitarian relief in, have u. S. Planes hovering over, dropping this relief, without an expectation theyre going to get hit. So you anyway immediate to do a little both. U. S. Air strikes that open up a safe corridor to get this humanitarian relief. Interesting, josh earnest, when we pressed him, said, theres no u. S. Military solution here, in part because of the searing experience of the iraq war. They dont want to get locked in another war in iraq but says if theres american core interests at stake here, the president might move forward with military action. I pressed him on that point. Listen. When asked about americas core interests you were saying we decide these on a case to case basis. I think you i think you were asking about specific humanitarian situations, and that we evaluate casebycase what implications those humanitarian situations have on core American National security interests. The administration saying theyre deciding on a casebycase basis about whether to get involved in a potential humanitarian catastrophe. Great pressure on the white house to intervene right now because, as you lay it out, this could be a genocide. The situation is as it is because of the fact that the iraqis have not yet established a government. Secretary of state kerry is working to help with this sort of situation, its my understanding, and Nouri Almaliki has been an unmitigated disaster. Yes. And josh earn most made that point several times. A fair point for the administration to make. How did we get to this point . The fact that Nouri Almaliki has not had an inclusive government, and his power has been weakened, and led to this vacuum that isis has filled. The problem for the administration is their critics are noting, that is how we got here. Now will there be American Leadership to help the iraqis get out . Listen to retired colonel ralph peterson. Theyve been burning churches, burning ancient manuscripts, got a minority, 40,000 people, perhaps more, surrounded in barren mountains where theyre starving to death and president obama is not interested. If john kerry wants to crisis, this is the crisis. There have been protests at the white house throughout the early afternoon. You can see these folks, iraqis and also we talked to one former american soldier who served in iraq who told us, there was so much sacrifice, we know that war has essentially come to an end. The u. S. Forces have been pulled out. But he said people are about to be slaughtered, somebody already being slaughtered. He was pressing for u. S. Action there may be u. N. Action as well, now been an emergency meeting of the u. N. Security Council Called for 3 30m. I want to bring in john busse, the editor at the wall street journal warm. I guess this has been building but who is to think we can end up in a position where there are tens of thousands of people on a mountain where they think noahs ark was, thinking theyll be safe. No food and water. A lady from the mountain has gone down to the government and made a plea in the kurdish north. Listen to this. Translator we call on anyone that can help us because our families are dying. We do not know their fate. Old people and children are without food and they are scared to death. And the Islamic State is slaughtering them. We heard there was another sound bite from a woman who is in a government cometogether, theyre like we got to put aside our religious differences and save these. 40,000 people could be dead and if they collapse that dam, millions. Julia barnes, our pentagon reporting, is reporting the air drops of humanitarian aid could start tonight. Thursday, in iraq, to begin to address that. The question is, what would the limited and the administrations limited air strikes be targeted at . Would it be to clear a path for humanitarian aid or some other part of the battlefield which is across most of iraq. The problem one problem is the Iraqi Military milted away and when it did, it left the weapons we left them behind. The isis militants now have that. And the concern must be that if we get involved militarily, and isis is able to do something to us militarily, we have a new game. Thats right. They are enormously empowered. They have the vehicles, the weapons, the cash, that has been left behind. Hundreds of billions of dollars. As a result. Thats going to empower them for quite some time. I think one thing to watch is what our reporter has reported on, which is that separate from discussion of air strikes, theres conversations going on between some of the provincial governors, who are sunnies, saying we here, civilians and the tribes, are interested in u. S. Assistance in fighting the militant sunnies, just as they did during the anbar awakenings in 2008 and 2009. The question is whether the u. S. Can provide enough assistance to the governors. Whether or not the u. S. Is inclined to provide that assistance, whether they think it would be effective, and whether or not the tribes would be willing to associate themselves with a civilian a governmentbacked military force, even if almaliki is still in power, they all argue he has to go before anything happens on the ground. This is sunni verse shia, which has dividing lines that separate all parts of the region and puts us on one side of a much broader fight. Thats not where we want to be. A very complicated one. Theyre a mixed religion of preislamic faiths, built of islam, a bit of christianity in there, its a declining faith but its found in this part of iraq, its found in armenia, syria. And its a minority. Just as christians are a minority, and thats what the Islamic State is very keen on wiping out. They do not want religious minorities, in their minds, in the way. Because anyone who is a religious minority has gob against the wildfires allah, and anybody who has must be killed. Thats their rationale. Thats correct. And for the United States, watching what now happens in these provinces, where some of the governors are stepping up and saying the current government in baghdad is unable to address this problem. We are willing to organize forces here as we did in 2008 and 2009 to fight the militant part of the sunni sect. Ed henry, 2002 statement from the pentagon on this dam that gives us clarity on what would happen if they knock it down, and im sure, one of the things being calculated now is, if the United States gets involved, and if isis starts to feel like its about to be overrun, to what length would isis go . Would isis knock that d down and kill millions of people . Look, it seems like the door is open for them to do anything. This is a Ruthless Group of people. Josh earnest said that isis is cold and calculating, theyre killing people. This is outrageous. It has to stop. What is fascinating to watch this play out and how quickly its going and how tragic it is, its the white house itself making the case for why isis needs to be stopped. But given the searing experience of the war in iraq, this president seems to be very cautious in terms of, are we going to get deeply involved in iraq again . Josh earnest, after laying out the case for action, went on to say, theres no u. S. Military solution to this. The iraqis have to work this out. They have to form a new government. Shep you know better than anyone. Is might take the iraqis months or years to work out a new government in the meantime you have 40,000 people on a mountain that might be slaughtered. Thats cold comfort for them. And im not saying the u. S. Has a magic below let here but if we wait for the Iraqi Government to be formed and be fair, that could cake years. This was without question the safest, most secure region, the most peaceful region. The kurds and they had skin in the game and won. And retreated. Until, until isis had the weapons which came from america, and you wonder if thats not going to come back to bite us as well. Thats right. They retreated and that exposed this region to isis moving in. Mine you, its not just the white house that is cautious about putting boots on the ground. That was stated today. No boots on the ground. Its the American Public that is not in favor of doing that. They look back on the last 1012 years of war in iraq and afghanistan and say what has been accomplished . There are concerns that more u. S. Sacrifice in that region will be equally unproductive. Catastrophe in iraq. The potential that putin is going to invade ukraine, and hamas saying, theres no deal yet, we may restart this war. Three different fronts. And what is america to do . Honey, look i got one to land. Uhhuh announcer theres good more. Honey, look at all these smart rewards points verizon just gave me. Ooh, you got a buddy. Im like a statue. I just signed up and, boom, all these points. And theres notsogood more. Youre a big guy. Huh. Oh no. Get the good more with Verizon Smart rewards and rack up points to use towards the things you really want. Now get 50 off all new smartphones. Your studied day and night for her drivers test. Secretly inside, you hoped she wouldnt pass. 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The wall street journal and New York Times reporting drop air strikes and dropping supplies to religious minorities trapped in iraq. Theyre rung from the Islamic State, what we used to call isis, which is threatening to murder all of them. The u. N. Security council set to hold a meeting two hours from now. David lee miller is at the United Nations. What can we expect from this meeting . Bottom line, not a great deal. Interestingly, this meeting has been called for by the french. The French Foreign minister called the meeting of the security council. The french seem to have beat the ute to the punch here. We will not see any type of resolution coming out of the u. N. Security council. What might result is a strongly worded statement condemning isis. The u. N. Has a mission in iraq but they really do not have the infrastructure in place to offer any meaningful help to the thousands and thousands of people now trapped on the mountain. The ten0s thousands of people have been forced from their horses and in urgent need of lifesaving assistance. While the situation remains fluid and numbers cannot be independently verified, thousands of families, many of them women, children, and the elderly, now cropped trapped on the mountain. We expect the meeting to get underway in a little over two hours time. For now there are tens of thousands of people dying of thirst and hunger, and its 10 00 at night on this mountain and theyre in desperate need of help. We apologize for the audio problems for his broadcast. Breaking news in another hot. So our coverage of iraq will continue but a hamas spokesperson is now making new threats and new demands. We thought the israel and Hamas Conflict is over, hamas says we were flat wrong. Well go live to Rick Leventhal next. We come into the world hungry. And never quite get over it. Seven billion hungry people who never stop eating. Whats a world to do . Well, we grow a lot of food. We also waste a lot of food. About a third of everything we grow. We thought we could improve on the math. So, we put our scientists to work on the problem. Theyre good at math. Not to mention biology, physics and chemistry. And they came up with ingenious ways to keep the food we grow fresher, longer. Using innovative packaging. There are still a lot of hungry people in the world. But we have a lot of scientists. This is the Human Element at work. Dow. Then you dont know aarp. E trip when you think aarp, get inspired with aarp travel. Plan and book your trip online and get hot travel tips from the pros. Find more real possibilities at aarp. Org possibilities. Noyou can watch live tv anytime. Its never been easier, with so Many Networks all in one place. Get live tv whenever you want. The xfinity tv go app. Now with live tv on the go. Enjoy over wifi or on Verizon Wireless 4g lte. Plus, now you get up to a 100 prepaid card when you purchase any new Verizon Wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. Visit comcast. Com wireless to learn more a fox urgent. The war between israel and hamas is not over. Munches ago a spokesman for hamas said theyre prepared to resume fighting. There will be no cease fire extension unless hamas demands are met. That is in the the last few minutes. Heres the demand. Israel must lift the blockade and open a port for gaza. You know, the gaza has a number of different access routes into israel. All those are closed. The one out of egypt is closed. And the water space in the mediterranean is closed to fishing. Thats how they get food and make money. So they want that open and the border crossings reopened. Good luck getting. That from israel. The