Address at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. Its also the heart of the u. N. Security Council Meeting president obama will personally chair this afternoon. On morning joe, his National Security adviser, susan rice, says today his outreach is the latest step in a long process. Weve been doing a lot of hard quiet diplomatic work that we didnt advertise publicly, and that culminated in this very important collection of countries coming together yesterday. The speech follows a tuesday meeting between president obama and arab leaders who took part in those strikes. Right now, we have a very severe and significant threat. What weve seen from the World Community is a recognition of that threat and we are very appreciative of our partnership with all the countries here. And this morning, more air strikes. The military tells nbc that at least five were launched. One in syria, four in iraq. American officials believe the initial wave of strikes was a success, although theyre still assessing the results. One key part of that is determining the fate of the leader of an Al Qaedalinked group known as the khorasan. Local militants say he died in the air strikes. A report the u. S. Is working to confirm. Well walk through all these developing angles, right up to the moment the president takes the podium. Its a very busy news morning. I want to bring in jim miklaszewski. Mik, so good to see you. What can you tell us about the air strikes . After the initial wave of more than 20 strikes against a multitude of targets, were going to see some mopping up. What the u. S. Military calls targets of opportunity. And thats what they apparently saw when they saw military vehicles moving around the iraq border there in syria and were told that at least one u. S. Military and one coalition member, you know, there are those five arab nations who have joined in the air strikes there in syria. Which is a monumental achievement on the part of the u. S. To bring in those arab nations in this sunni fight against these sunni extremists. But the major point now is to look at the bomb Damage Assessment of the initial strike of monday night, determine where exactly were they successful and where do they need to mop up or increase their efforts to take out those specific targets that theyre after. That bda, they call it, is still in progress. Rest assured were going to see more nights where theyll be substantial bombing campaigns, waves of fighters, cruise missiles. But so far, it doesnt look like theyre quite ready to go that root again yet. Interesting, jim, as you say that, because four of these at least four of these attacks were in iraq, telling us iraq still has a lot of places where isis is very busy. Thats where a majority of the u. S. Aircraft are concentrating their efforts, primarily because those isis fighters are engaged with iraqi and Peshmerga Forces there in iraq. And after all, that was the primary focus to begin with, until it became quite evident. As the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general dempsey said, there is no way that you can defeat isis from the air alone, number one, but certainly without going after isis there in syria, where they have their de facto capital. Jim miklaszewski, thank you. For more on the ground, im joined by nbcs chief fortunate correspondent bill neely. As strikes are still hitting iraq. Whats the impact in that country . Yes, as jim was saying, of the five air strikes in the last few hours, four of them have been on iraq, near baghdad, and two near where i am in erbil. So weem had 20 air strikes on syria in the last 36 hours, but 198 on iraq in the last six weeks. The big question is, as you say, whats the progress. How do we judge success . Is the u. S. Counting . Are those dead soldiers foot soldiers, commanders . We know they hit buildings in the last hours as well. Are those buildings occupied . Are they empty . How do we judge isis losses . Is it just in terms of men or has isis momentum been stopped . Its pretty clear, i think, there has been no knockout blow to isis. But they have been, perhaps, knocked off thousands, and the u. S. Saying degrading isis has been achieved, but the key problem is, in six weeks, weve had nearly 3,000 u. S. Missions over iraq. Nearly 200 air strikes. In fact, 198. But all the evidence is that isis positions havent really moved that much. And in syria, isis has been moving its men and its tanks closer to one border town. And the result has been a refugee flow of about 140,000 people fleeing into turkey. So these are early days. As you say, the key thing is the metric of success. How do we judge success. Thats what theyre looking at, at the pentagon right now. Jose. Bill neely, thank you very much. You bring up these numbers. 145,000 refugees since last friday alone. Think about that. The amount of people that are being displaced because of this issue. For now, americas air Campaign Continues unchecked. I want to show you live pictures of the United Nations. In about an hour, president obama is expected to speak. People filing into the United Nations. Live pictures. Getting ready. Its going to be a very important day at the United Nations. People are filing in. I want to talk about the political aspects of this, as well as the National Security aspects of this war against isis. Joining me now, Florida Democratic senator bill nelson, member of the Armed Services committee. Senator, good to see you this morning, thanks. Thanks, jose. You voted in support of the president s plan to arm syrian rebels. You also wanted clarification to the president s authority to launch air strikes. Do you believe the revelations, for example, the Khorasan Group has changed the perspective on whats going on in syria now . No, i think thats just another indication of how much of a threat is out there, jose. At the end of the day, we can provide all these air strikes, which i support. But i happen to agree with tom friedman of the new york times. At the end of the day, this is going to have to be the arab world and the muslim world that are going to have to do this fight on the ground. Theyre going to have to decide to protect the soul of islam and the arab culture. Otherwise, its going to be taken over by this very radical group, whether its those that are trying to do harm to us as the Khorasan Group and isis or isis that is obviously perpetrating all of this violence against their own people. All right. So while we wait for that to happen, and it could be weeks, it could be months, it could be years before there is a real effort under way by those people that live and are from that part of the world, to deal with this issue. We have to deal with what the cards were handed. Are that this group, as well as others, according to the administration, are planning to do us harm. What is it that the president should be doing . And let me tell you, what is it that congress should be doing . New york times has a great editorial this morning. Talking about the fact that congress ran to deal with the elections and maybe should be coming back to d. C. To deal with this. Well, first, with the president. I think hes doing exactly what he should. Building a coalition. Hes had intelligence flights over syria since august 25th. Hes doing exactexactly. Hes turned it other to his experts, his commanders, to execute the strikes. The president s doing exactly what he should. Now, with regard to congress, we ought to be back in session. We ought to be debating war and peace right now and ultimately voting to give the authorization for the use of military force. By the way, you would support the authorization to use military force today if that vote was up . Yes, as a matter of fact, the last speech i gave before we left washington was we ought to stay there and have that debate. In that regard, i agree with senator tim kaine. And hes very passionate about it. What i believe, however, is the president , as commander in chief, under the constitution, has the authority to go ahead and strike in syria, as he already has. Florida democratic senator bill nelson, its good to see you. Thanks for being with me this morning. I want to go to the United Nations. We have lime pictut live pictur. We have a very busy two hours of news to go through. Theres a lot to discuss. A lot of perspectives to bring in. A lot of thoughts to examine. These are, as you can see, the security checkpoints. At least some of the entry areas to the United Nations. Bang ki moon is speaking as we are right now, broadcasting live. Were going to go to a quick break. Theres a lot more to discuss. Well be hearing from the president live from the United Nations at the top of this hour. And a lot more to discuss. But first the air strikes. Syria. The reaction. There will be challenges ahead, but were going to do whats necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group. For the security of the country and the region and for the entire world. Staying active can ease arthritis symptoms. But if you have arthritis, this can be difficult. Prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain, and improve daily physical function so moving is easier. Because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain. And its not a narcotic you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. All prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. They all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. 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Its an opportunity for him to speak to the world. So he is going to lay out the justification for these strikes. The reasons why the world needs to get behind the fight against isis and other extremist groups. Including the one we just learned about, khorasan. Additio additionally, hell touch on some of the big topics including ebola, afghanistan. But really this is about expanding that coalition. About 40 nations so far. And theres a lot of things they can do beyond the military. We did see some of those arab nations getting involved in the air strikes. France has been involved in the air strikes in iraq. But they could be everything from intelligence sharing, information gathering, border security, financial help. And of course weve seen a lot of the countries in that 40 doing humanitarian aid as well. Whats key is those sunnimajority countries. Hes going to be focusing on places in the gulf states that can give this operation what they call regional legitimacy. They have one simple message the white house wants to get out. This is not a situation of the United States against a muslim country. Its the world uniting against terror. So thats going to be the main message here. A little later on in the afternoon, hes going to be doing something unusual. Hes going to be chairing a session of the security council. Thats focused on the foreign fighters specifically. The ones would leave the United States, europe, and train in syria and potentially could come back because they have passports and prove a threat to the region. Jose. In new york, thank you very much for your time. As we continue to wait for president obamas remarks, not far from the u. N. , right now, someone we have not heard from yet on these actions, Hillary Clinton, is at the Clinton Global Initiative. There you see her speaking right now. We have heard from her husband though, president clinton, saying hes expecting an exte extended involvement in syria. When hes working with syrias leader, for example, he stopped short of giving his thoughts. Thats now above my pay grade. The more i say about that, the more likely i am to cause trouble for the decision makers. Im not sure i know enough to make an intelligence comment. Ill defer to whatever the americans say about that. Joining me now to talk about the clinton political angle to the syrian air strikes is nbcs senior Political Editor mark murray. Good morning. Good morning, jose. Now president obama has said he agrees with his wife. Now president clinton says he agrees with his wife that we should arm the rebels. Why is he making these comments . Thats the sensitivity issue, that if he does more than that, he causes trouble for the decisionmakers. Meaning obama and his administration. Also maybe Hillary Clinton and her own aspirations. Weve seen bill clinton be a tremendous communication asset for president obama in 2012. Also for hillary on the campaign trail in 2008. Sometimes hes also a liability as we saw in 2008, 2012. The clintons want to keep all the focus on the Clinton Global Initiative. Realizes that the more he says about syria, the more kind of daylight he might end up opening with what he wants to do and with the obama administration. So thats him. Lets talk about her. What do we expect to hear from the hillary camp . Will she stay in line with president obama on this . Will she comment on this . I dont think were going to hear her moment at all. Todays panel, as of yesterdays, is all about empowering women, empowering young girls. Thats the message from the global initiative. Jose, what Hillary Clinton has made known in the past, she said it in her book, she said it in her interview with the Atlantic Monthly and with the atlantics jeffrey goldberg, is he always favored president obama on arming the syrian rebels. That provides her a little bit of daylight if this remains a big issue in 2016. And if she ends up running. Thats a very smart piece that was in politico this morning about how any kind of daylight that might exist between president obama and Hillary Clinton is pretty much erased by the fact they both need each other. Hillary clinton, if she runs in 2016, needs Barack Obamas voters in a democratic primary and also general election. Barack obama would need Hillary Clinton as a third term to cement his legacies, particularly the health care law. Thank you very much, appreciate your time. By the way, the images youre seeing are from the Clinton Global Initiative, Hillary Clinton speaking with the Prime Minister of japan, as we speak, im being told. Were listening in on it. If she does mention any of these issues, well of course bring them to you right now. But coming up, president obama is arriving at the u. N. This hour. Where we expect his live addres