Hes not a political cause to them. Hes not a prop in a social drama. This is a human being they brought into this world. We should not rob his legacy of who he was if, in fact, we really want justice. To have justice, we must act justly. Michael brown deserves more than an outburst. He deserves justice. Thanks for watching. Im al sharpton. Hardball starts right now. A threat to the civilized world. Lets play hardball. Good evening. Im in for chris matthews. Let me start with decisions facing president obama following a soberer assessment from the statement that the president
that air strikes wont be enough to slow the insurgents of isis. President faces a twosided struggle now. You have a terrorist organization so evil that they were outcast by al qaeda then there is the u. S. s ability to defeat them, but at what cost. Today we got a disturbing reminder of the serial killer mind set that drives isis courtesy of an image being circulated online but thats too gruesome to show you. This is secretary of state john kerry talking about it at a press conference with australias foreign minister julie bishop today. This image, perhaps even an iconic photograph that julie has just referred to, is really one of the most disturbing, stomachturning, grotesque photographs ever displayed of a 7yearold Child Holding a severed head up with pride and
with the support and encouragement of a parent, with brothers there. This is utterly disgraceful. It underscores the degree to which isil is so far beyond the pale with respect to any standard by which we judge even terrorist groups that al qaeda shunted them aside. Thats why they represent the threat that they represent. Chief chuck hagel is calling isis a threat to the civilized world. Today more u. S. Air strikes bringing the total to at least 17 over the past four days. Nbc news is reporting that the u. S. Is sending more than 120 additional military advisers into iraq to help address the refugee crisis up north. Just how far back down the rabbit hole is the president willing to go . Putting it a different way when confronting a group of armed sociopaths how far back down the rabbit hole must you go . Retired colonel jack jacobs is with us. First, marie harp, deputy spokesperson at the state department. Marie, lets start with what Lieutenant GeneralWilliam Mayville told reporters yesterday about the current u. S. Strategy. Take a listen to that. We assess that u. S. Air strikes in Northern Iraq have slowed isils operational tempo and temporarily disrupted their advances toward the province of erbil. However these strikes are unlikely to affect isils overall capabilities or operations in other areas of iraq and syria. I dont want to suggest we have effectively contained or that we are somehow breaking the momentum of the threat posed by isil. That caught a lot of peoples attention. A top official at the pentagon saying we havent even stopped their momentum. None of this will change their basic capabilities here. It raise as simple question to
me. Whats the goal for the United States . Can you define United States when it comes to the air striex and humanitarian drops, what will make it a successful venture for the United States . Thanks for having me on today, steve. What he said yesterday is completely in line with the goals the president outlined when he announced the military action last week. First to prevent isil from being able to move on erbil which the air strikes have done. They have succeeded in the mission over the past few days. It was also to prevent a worsening humanitarian catastrophe from turning into a full scale genocide on top of mount sinjar and they have done that in combination with humanitarian air drops and air strikes over the past 36 hours to protect these people. The discrete goals outlined in announcing this action has been met. There is a broader question here which is what you are getting at. How do we fight isil long term in iraq and syria. There is a broader strategy in
place. One thats not fully an American Military solution. We have been clear about that. The Iraqi Military forces working with the kurtds need to regroup, retrain and reequip. Well help them but thats the longterm strategy here. As a longterm goal then is it the goal of the United States to defeat isis . Clearly we want to see this terrorist group not able to threaten people anymore. I know you want to. Is that the goal of the United States to defeat it . Of course the goal is to defeat them operationally, yes. What does that mean when looking at a terrorist group . What does it mean when look at their ideology . If you look specifically at what they have done in iraq, what we want to do is not allow them to take more territory. Not allow them to move on erbil. Further down towards baghdad and help the iraqis push them back. Basically retake territory. We are helping the iraqis do that now. Its a broader question. You are always going to have a
terrorist threat. Its how you contain it and when they try to go after your interests as we have seen them do in syria, in iraq, how we can bring our capabilities to bear to fight that. Its different every place you look. You have to use different tools to fight the threat. I guess the reason im asking so specifically there is when you hear what secretary kerry was talking about. When you hear chuck hagel. These are top official miss your administration talking about a threat to the civilized world. Then i hear you saying ultimately this is not the fight for the United States. This is a fight for the iraqis. It does raise the question, given how you are describing isis. Given the very real things people in your administration are pointing to it raises the question, why isnt this the United Statess fight . Well, look. This is a fight we are invested in and well continue to be invested in. In terms of iraqi territory specifically at the end of the day, thats a long term fight. The Iraqi Security forces need
to be able to handle with our support. To be able to handle on their own. Well work with them as we did with many countries around the world who faced serious terrorist threats to share intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, help them find targets to go after these guys. Just because there is no longterm massive American Military solution doesnt mean we wont play a role. Doesnt mean we are not going to be helping. At the end of the day we cant do it for them. We want to take steps to help them fight this threat on their own. In terms of the current operation with air strikes, lets focus for a minute. The president said the other day ultimately now this is an openended commitment. He talks about it being a limited commitment. We are now talking about 17 discrete instances of air strikes in the last week. 17 limited how far is this going to go . Is it a weeklong thing, a monthlong thing . I dont think anybody could tell you at this point exactly how long well need to take
these strikes. Both around the Mountain Area in this very urgent and dire humanitarian situation but also around erbil. We have been successful at preventing isil from moving further toward erbil. One of the things we have learned here is things happen fast on the ground. The United States military and the president has to make decisions quickly about how to respond. So we cant say what the threat picture will look like in the next 72 hours, in the next two weeks. Well make decisions as we go. These discrete, limited goals are what we are operating under right now. Well keep going after them in any way we can. All right. Thank you to marie. Appreciate that. Colonel jack jacobs is with us now. Colonel, thats the perspective from the administration thinking about limited scope in terms of what they are trying to accomplish. Im curious what you make of what you heard from the administration. I find it interesting the number of strikes has been as limited as it has. The administration has been
touting this offensive against isil. I have been in gun fights with bad guys in vietnam where we had more than 17 strikes all in one day. This is very, very limited indeed. Ultimately what the administration is planning to do, what the pentagon is planning to do is to target isil the same way we have been tar t targeting al qaeda. Find targets of opportunity through intelligence overhead and on the ground. Send precision guided munitions to specific targets. There is not going to be any longterm american involvement here except insofar as you have reported we are going to send special forces and special Operations Forces in order to bolster the peshmerga and others on the ground to take and hold terrain. Anybody can take terrain. Its holding it thats really important. We are going to focus attention
on the northern part of iraq in assisting peshmerga and iraqi army in seizing and holding terrain up north. Do you think in terms of the american support taking territory and sustaining it do you think we are doing things to allow that to happen . Not right now. But the administration is gearing up to do it by sending more people, special forces and special Operations Forces having more aircraft and precision guided munitions available to hit specific targets. Obviously when you Start Talking about sending more advisers people get nervous given the history in general, specifically the history in iraq. How big are you talking here well need . Not very big. I dont think the plan is for it to be big. If it doesnt succeed with what they planned to put in there, i
dont think they will put more. The administration will do what they can to do that. The important thing isnt the south. Ultimately peshmerga will be able to hold its own. It will take a while. It will be something of a blood bath in the interim until the kurds can seize and hold control of their own terrain. Its not going to be over for months. The u. S. Suggests the entire strategy in iraq depends on the success of the Iraqi Government which has been thrown into crisis. Al malaki is refusing to cede power. This is john kerry discussing the Critical Role the Iraqi Government is playing particularly when it comes to the u. S. Strategy. Let me tell you in the simplest terms where the discussion begins. There will be no reintroduction of american combat forces into iraq. Thats the beginning of the
discussion. This is a fight that iraqis need to join on behalf of iraq. And our hope is and the reason president obama has been so clear about wanting to get the government formation, before beginning to tackle isil and the most significant way accepting the kind of emergency circumstances that have arisen is because if you dont have a government thats inclusive and that works, nothing else will work. Plain and simply. Colonel, this is the key to what you are talking about, to what marie was talking about with the United States playing a support role but this is a fight of the iraqi army. That being an extension of the Iraqi Government. Therefore you need to get the government in place and functioning in iraq properly. My question is there is the universal consensus that al malaki is a failure. Given the secular realities of iraq, all the divisions that
exist that have torn the country apart forever, can anybody create a real functioning government in iraq that can do what we need it to do . Over the short term, no. Its interesting that the history of the middle east and particularly iraq goes Something Like this. The only way to control the terrain of iraq is if you have a blood thirsty despot. That may be the only thing that will hold iraq together. In the alternative youre going to wind up with a country that dissolves into its three component natural component pieces. Thats not going to be fun for anybody either. It means you have the danger of the kurds in the north deciding they dont want to be marginally selfgoverning. They want to be selfgoverning. There are kurds in six different chr countries up there. It will be dangerous if it happens. In the southern part of iraq you
have two different ethnic groups, religious groups fighting each other for 1300 years. Thats not going to change. What it is going to take is an extremely strong leader in baghdad. That isnt going to happen any time soon. Even though al malaki decided to back away from the statements he made a couple of days ago. About threatening the stability from inside baghdad, sending tanks into oh the green zone and all the rest of that stuff. Expect there will be continued constitutional challenge to permit him to continue to role. That will be a mess and will take time to resolve. Blood thirsty strong man. That was hussein. Thats what we had. Thank you. Appreciate the time. Coming up, racial turmoil outside of st. Louis. How does this most recent shooting of an unarmed black man square with the claim by some lawmakers that we are witnessing a war on whites. Plus, president obama reportedly used a two sill billion compound
word beginning with horse about his criticism not to arm rebels before Hillary Clinton began separating herself from his Foreign Policy with the interview in the atlantic. We are still absorbing the news about Robin Williams. He spent a lot of time on stage poking fun at politicians. Where did they get sarah palin . Where did they find her . Wow. Did Ronald Reagan have a kid with posh spice . Finally, what happens when you have a coronation instead of a campaign. This is hardball, the place for politics. It was the biggest decision kings hawaiian had faced, since robert taira opened his first bakery in a small hawaiian town. Making bread so good, that people bought two loaves one to take home, and one to eat on the way. So good, they grew from here. To here. To here. But to grow again, to the east coast
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the officer fired on brown, killing him. St. Louis county police say brown didnt comply with the officer saying there was a struggle over the officers gun which then prompted the officer to shoot brown. According to dorian johnson, a friend who was with brown at the time of the incident, it was the police who escalated the confrontation. He said brown had his hands up in the surrender position when he was shot by the officer multiple times. President obama issued this statement this afternoon. I know the events of the past few days prompted strong passions but as details unfold i urge everyone in ferguson, missouri, and across the country to remember this young man through reflection and understanding. We should comfort each other and talk in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds. Joining me now, msnbc political analyst Jonathan Capehart and an allred from ksdk in st. Louis. Ann, youre out there. I will start with you for the latest on this. We have the police saying essentially Michael Brown instigated a confrontation and the shooting apparently, they
are saying came in response to this. You have a friend of Michael Brown saying he was there, watched it happen. Thats not what happened at all. Are we any closer now to getting a definitive accounting of what did play out . No. I think the lack of details is what continues to kind of insight the issues that we have seen so far over the last two days.