Critical in terms of sustaining the stability and calm in iraq, and our hope is that mr. Maliki will not stir those waters. Also news today, warnings about a potential military coup. Military forces rolling around baghdad today in the green zone. The other Big Development in the u. S. Perspective today, officials tell nbc the cia is now directly arming Kurdish Forces in the north. That is a major shift in how the u. S. Helps the kurds. Previously, it only funneled those weapons through the Iraqi Government. With the help of u. S. Air strikes, the Kurdish Peshmerga has driven out isis from two northern towns, but isis is armed with u. S. Made tanks and humvees theyve stolen from Iraqi Government. Those kinds of weapons helped them capture another town outside baghdad. All this as humanitarian efforts get an international bump from the u. K. And france. So far the u. S. Has delivered 74,000 meals and 15,000 gallons of fresh drinking water. U. S. Central command released this night vision video of the aid drop. We have the iraq story covered for you on the battlefield. What it means for our president and what many used to call the war on terror. Were going to begin with nbcs Duncan Golestani on the ground in erbil. Duncan, thanks for joining us. How is the situation there changing given these air strikes . Reporter well, its been a really big change compared to last week. Its turned the tide slightly more in favor of the Kurdish Forces fighting isis. Last week they were put on to back foot. The peshmerga, the Kurdish Forces, had to retreat slightly under this isis onslaught. But over the weekend, weve seen them push forward. That is because of u. S. Air support. So yesterday we know from the u. S. Military that u. S. Airplanes fired down on an isis convoy, which was heading for a peshmerga line of defense. A line of defense defending erbil. We also know that over the weekend the kurds were able to retake two important towns, important because theyre about half an hour away from here. So very close. But also because theyre on the transit route. Again, in those two towns, the kurds were able to do it because of u. S. Fire power helping them out. Now the question is, can the kurds hold on to that territory . Can they perhaps push even further. U. S. Air support is also having another effect in that unfolding humanitarian disaster that im sure you know about. The yazidi people, the minority religious community, theyve been forced up into mountains of sinjar because isis fighters believe wrongly that theyre devil worshippers and have driven them from their homes. For those that have been left behind, there have been claims of horrific deaths, of women being taken as slaves, some people being buried alive. So tens of thousands of yazidi people have gone up into the mountains looking for safety. But of course, theyve been up there for a week in the scorching sun. Dehydrated, starving, many of them dying there. But over the week, peshmerga were able to open a small route so a few thousand of the yazidi people were able to get out and reach kurdish iraq, bringing with them horror stories. So theres been that positive difference, if you like, from the air support over the weekend. But you can never underestimate isis. Theyre a formidable force. They just keep popping up on different front lines. Today weve been hearing about the town of jalala, which is about an hour away from baghdad. Fierce fighting there between isis and the kurds over the last few weeks. Just yesterday an isis suicide bomber killed some kurds. Today they finally took the town. Lots of change going on around the map. The next thing really too look out for is to see what kind of a difference getting more ep withes from the United States makes for the peshmerga. It is something that the kurdish leaders have wanted because they are so outgunned by isis. Isis, of course, took all that weaponry, heavy armored duties that iraqi army had. Much of it is u. S. Made. So the peshmerga have been heavily outgunned. Theyll be hoping getting those weapons direct from the United States makes a difference. Back to you. Duncan golestani reporting from iraq. Thank you. Joining us at the table, michael kay. Good to see you as always. What is your view based on what we know . I think the strikes are a shortterm solution to a longterm problem. We look at the center of gravity of isis. What do you have to target within isis . What makes isis so potent . The thing we came up with is ideolo ideology. Its an incredibly hard thing to target. Its something you have to take a longer term approach to. Now, if you look at how that might fuel the ideology in terms of air strikes, you have potential collateral. Weve seen this with assad. Assad in syria using the barrel bombs has created all sorts of collateral and fueled the insurgency. Its fueled people wanting to join isis to overthrow the government. Then you look at maliki, whos a divisive Prime Minister. All the u. S. Is doing with these air strikes is fueling that notion of maliki being that divisive Prime Minister. So we will not solve this problem with bomb and bullets until we solve syria. What happened in afghanistan was we went in there after 9 11 and did a formidable job in targeting the al qaeda camps. All that happened is al qaeda ran across the border into pakistan, which is where we found erbil, and they stayed there until they regrouped. Until we do the same with syria, youre going to have isis on the back foot. Theyll just go back into syria. Al baghdadi is in aleppo. Theyll regroup when the u. S. Have left. So michael, understanding this is a longterm problem, but when we look at the military operations right now, we saw the u. K. And france decided to join our humanitarian efforts. So far Prime MinisterDavid Cameron has said hes not going to get any further involved. But there seems to be quite a bit of pressure on him already within britain to do something more. What do you think the likelihood is that the u. K. Will kind of join in our special relationship here and join us in iraq pushing back on isis . I think the u. K. Will always support the u. S. In any military action it will take. Thats the Great Partnership weve had ever since 2003. I think that relationship will remain. I think youve got to look at this in terms of whenever theres a humanitarian problem, people are quick to try and react. However, if you look across the border in syria, the United Nations has become paralyzed and its one of the biggest humanitarian problems known in contemporary history. Id look to syria, look at whats going on in iraq. Id say to ourselves, we need to take a comprehensive approach to this problem. We need to understand how we target the real central gravity of isis, which is occurring right in aleppo. Thats where hes fuelling this insurgency. Thats absolutely right. Weve all seen these chilling videos of isis rolling around on these tanks, our tanks by the way, with big machine gun and the black flag they showcase everywhere. The black flag has now come down from tanks, which makes me realize these guys are not stupid. They know were now targeting them and this is a way to blend in with civilians. Should we see that as a sign that they are now a little bit frightened by what we are doing or that theyre just really smart and we should be concerned . I mean, it will maybe stymy the flood flowing from the wound, but its not going to heal the wound. Were seeing shortterm repercussions. We may in the very short term, this week we may see isis halt and not actually get into erbil. But what about next month . What about in six months time . Thats the approach that the west has to take to this. To rather than keep throwing guns, bombs, rockets and mortars at this problem, what they have to do is take a step back and look at it holistically and go, we tried this in afghanistan. Were just about to leave afghanistan after being there for ten years. Personally, i dont think were any better off than when we first started. People will argue against that, but you see how resurgent the taliban are. People think of a deeper involvement, to the point abby made. Lets listen to a point that came up yesterday. They are now looking at a force that is using American Equipment that we left in iraq for the iraqi army against people we now want to protect. Doesnt that speak to a need for the u. S. To be pretty careful about who it gives weapons to . Well, obviously isis in the last few weeks, while weve been waiting for a change from maliki, they now control the two major dams in iraq. They have the possibility of flooding parts of the country and cutting off energy. Meanwhile, isis is moving towards erbil. The president says that hes going to protect american troops and try to prevent humanitarian disasters. Thats the extent of his policy. There is no policy. Senator mcchrystain right to this belies the lack of a larger policy on behalf of the Obama Administration . I dont see eye to eye usually with the senator, but i think absolutely. Foreign policy is lacking. Just to point of providing weapons, we are not learning from history. The cia applied billions of dollars to the moou ja done a. The narcotics that we fueled in order to drug the russians out of afghanistan, that was used and it used to this day by the taliban to bankroll the taliban. We have to look at the consequences of the shortterm actions were taking now because theyll come back and bite us. It bit us in afghanistan and l do the same in iraq. Lieutenant colonel michael kay, thank you. Lets bring in live from iraq former u. S. Deputy undersecretary of defense Paul Brinkley. Paul, is isis more compromised today than it was last week . I dont know that i would describe isis as necessarily compromised, but i would say that the actions, u. S. Air strikes in concert with renew aggression by peshmerga, have certainly arrested the momentum isis was building. That was a momentum really leading to a spiral of humanitarian and strategic disaster here in iraq. So thats a positive step. However, as colonel kay indicated, its a very early beginning in establishing what needs to be a comprehensive, multifaceted strategy to reestablish order in places that frankly now are subject to chaos that can only be described as horrific. Paul, the cia is now arming the kurds in this fight against isis where they are highly outgunned. What the kurds really want is for us to send our own troops on the ground to help them fight. We just heard from the pentagon that these air strikes are actually unlikely at this point to have a real effect on isis capabilities. Do you see a situation in which we will be sending troops on the ground . Is that realistic . Well, here in erbil, i havent heard that from any of the kurdish officials. Ive met with several of them here just today. Ive actually heard quite the opposite. That they do believe that this is going to be a long, difficult challenge. They also fully understand that the American People are in no way supporting a reestablishment of troops here in iraq. More importantly, and this was clearly stated and ive seen it on multimillion Media Outlets today, that they do not, in fact, expect or desire american troops on ground. They would like to see some of the advisory capacity thats been placed in baghdad, some of that expanded to erbil and the kurdistan raegion of iraq to hep buttress the leadership structures within peshmerga and as a sustained air Asset Campaign can be put in place to help support peshmerga rolling back these forces. Thats what i have heard from kurdish leaders. I dont sense anywhere here an expectation of a renewal of american boots on the ground, so to speak, in this conflict. Paul, given your experience at the pentagon, what else can the u. S. Do tangibly to deal with maliki if hes refusing to go anywhere despite all the pressure, internal and external, at this point. I think that, you know, were in an unfortunate situation and that this has been a fouryear steady degradation of behavior by the baghdad government thats led us to this place. You know, colonel kay was talking earlier about lessons learn and making sure we dont make mistakes. I think theres lots of lessons learn we can look at over the last four years and how weve interacted with the maliki regime and ensured that it has demonstrated the values we sacrifice so much to try to establish here. I think in the current state weve played this pretty well in baghdad and not trying to be overt, not trying to force a decision, simply letting the circumstances become clear to the shia leadership within the national alliance. That situation is already clear to the kurdish leadership and sunni leadership. I think now were seeing this transition begin that is necessary to a government structure that is more inclusive and that can begin to draw a particularly sunni and kurdish Leadership Back into a unity government at which point youve got the base foundation put in place to Start Building the strategy colonel kay was talking about to reverse this degradation and security thats taken place recently. Former u. S. Deputy undersecretary of defense Paul Brinkley joining us from erbil. Thank you so much. Up next from these violent clashes in the north to the political in fighting in iraq, why some are concerned about a potential military coup. Plus, how big is the threat from isis to all of us here at home . Were going to ask counterterrorism expert evan coleman. The cycle rolls on with your breaking coverage of the crisis in iraq. So factors like diet can negatively impact good bacteria . Even if youre healthy and active. Phillips Digestive Health support is a duoprobiotic that helps supplement good bacteria found in two parts of your digestive tract. Im doubly impressed phillips Digestive Health. A daily probiotic. Once there was a girl who never even in her laundry room. With downy unstopables, she matched her oneofakind style with oneofakind scents. Downy unstopables inwash scent boosters. Wash in the wow. Were changing the way we do business, with startup ny. 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Officials continue to pressure iraqi Prime MinisterNuri Al Maliki to step down for the good of the country already overrun with violence. Today the party named a new Prime Minister. But maliki, whos seeking a third term as Prime Minister, is defiantly refusing to go. The clock is ticking for a solution. Mr. Al badi has only 30 days to form a new, inclusive government. Joining us now is max boot, senior fellow at the counsel sill on foreign relations. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Obviously sh th is a very fluid situation today. Last thing this country needs, already overrun with military crises, is to have a political crisis on top of it. How do you think this is going to play out . Does al badi have any chance of forming a new Coalition Government against the backdrop of so much uncertainty . I think al badi does have a decent chance. I think most sides in iraq have gotten tired of Nuri Al Maliki. At this point, pretty much the only person who still wants maliki to be Prime Minister maliki himself. There are even rumors that iranians are withdrawing their support. I think if we can make the transition, that will be very good news for the future of iraq because you really need to have a new Prime Minister who can form a unify government who can reach out to the sunnis and heal the divides in iraqi politics. Maliki has proven himself completely incapable of doing that. He needs to go quietly. Max, Thomas Freeman was on morning joe this morning. He said there are two realistic outcomes. We either have to accept the fact were going to be over there for years and years or accept the fact that forcing a democracy on other nations is actually not the best outcome. Heres what he had to say. The two most successful arab spring nations are the two countries weve had nothing to do with. Tunisia and kurdistan. Why did they succeed . We helped the kurds early on, but they basically made it themselves. I have to agree with him here. Its hard to see at this point a middle of the road approach being the most successful. What are your thoughts there . Well, in the first place, weve done an awful lot to midwife the success of the kurdish region. We need to protect that success from isis. We dont have to have iraq as being this model showplace of democracy. That has not been our objective and should not be our object i have. What we need to have, however s a government in baghdad that can move over the sunni tribes away from terrorists in isis. As long as you have a regime that looks like its a sectarian shiite regime, youre going to drive the sunnis into the arms of al qaeda, and youre going to drive the shiites into the arms of iranianbacked militias and have the situation you have today with a terrorist state that sprawls across iraq and syria