Includes controversy. The scientists here are spicing corn with rice genes. This d. N. A. Tinkering goes against the grain for many environmental activists. Ifill plus, ken burns discusses his new documentary, the roosevelts, how one family shaped american history. They really felt that government had to be a kind of countervailing force against what was hugely large industry and an inability of workers and ordinary people to have a voice in that equation, that government could help balance the scale. Ifill those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill questions swirled today around the u. S. Strategy for destroying Islamic State forces in iraq and syria. Topping the list, whether u. S. Troops will or will not get involved in fighting on the ground. I want to be clear, the American Forces that have been deployed to iraq do not and will not have a combat mission. Ifill the president underscored his policy, at u. S. Central command in tampa, headquarters for operations in the middle east. Hundreds of u. S. Special forces are already in iraq, but mr. Obama insisted they are only there as advisers. They will support iraqi forces on the ground as they fight for their own country against these terrorists. As your commander in chief, i will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in iraq. Ifill white house spokesman josh earnest said the president would consider sending u. S. Advisers out with iraqi troops, but they would not be personally or directly engaging the enemy. The chairman of the joint chiefs, army general martin dempsey, told a Senate Hearing yesterday that under specific circumstances us forces could ramp up. If we reach the point where i believe our advisers should accompany iraqi troops on attacks against specific isil targets, ill recommend that to the president. If i found that circumstance evolving that i would of course change my recommendation. But for the daytoday activities that i anticipate will evolve over time, i dont see it to be necessary right now. Ifill today, dempsey and army chief of staff general ray odierno followed up, saying air strikes in iraq alone will not be enough to drive back the Islamic State group. Instead, they said, rebuilding a competent Iraqi Military is the key after its collapse in the face of Islamic State attacks. There is always a reality which is that the majority of the iraqi army system collapsed. Ifill fuad hussein is chief of staff to masoud barzani, president of the kurdish region in northern iraq. The newshours Margaret Warner spoke with him this morning in washington, where hes pressing for military aid. Reporter do you think that u. S. Military personnel will have to be on the ground embedded with these units . We think we can do the job. American support is very important to us. And if the air strike will continue and if we will get heavy weapons like tanks, and artilleries, i think we can do the job. Reporter but if the American People want to know how long this commitment will need to be what would you say . I dont think it will take long. I mean, destroying main bases main bases of isis will not take a long time but to uproot isis as a terrorist organization, then it will take a long time. Ifill hussein said americans need to understand they, too, have a vital interest at stake. Isis terrorists they are not only dangerous for us, but they will stay somewhere and they will come to other places in the world. They are dangerous also for the United States. So our fight is your fight. Ifill the secretary of homeland security, jeh johnson, and f. B. I. Director james comey expanded on that theme at a house hearing. They warned the risk of attack rises as the Islamic State and al qaida jockey for primacy. These groups are in competition with one another for attention, for fund raising, for recruitment, and one way to compete is to show that youre the biggest and badest group out there. The logic of it is compelling. Youre not going to be the leader in the global jihad without striking america. Ifill later, on the senate side, secretary of state kerry talked up efforts to build a coalition against the Islamic State. The president says 40 nations are taking part, but there have been questions about who is contributing what. Not every country will decide their role is to have some kind of military engagement, but every country can do something. And well show, exactly, what that means. Ifill also unsettled, a house debate over providing 500 Million Dollars to train Syrian Rebels to fight Islamic State forces. Democrats like californias Loretta Sanchez said theyre worried about the unknowns. Id really like to know who our coalition is and what theyre really going to do before i vote for any plan. What dont we know . We dont know how moderate these Syrian Rebels really are. We dont know if somewhere down the line they will turn our guns right back on us. Ifill but some republicans argued the president s plan doesnt go far enough. Still, lawmakers like Ileana Roslehtinen of florida said they were likely to back the request. If our military officials believe that it is absolutely necessary to use the us military on the ground i would fully support that. We cannot take anything off the table and showcase to the terrorists what we are not willing to do. Ifill the senate could take up the funding resolution as early as tomorrow. The final vote in the house was 273 to 156. Well return to the issue of whose Ground Troops will face off against Islamic State fighters, after the news summary. Schools in part of northeastern pennsylvania closed today, as authorities hunted the ambush killer of a state trooper. The sniper attack took place late friday, at a remote barracks in the pocono mountains. A second trooper was wounded. The suspect, eric frein is described as an expert marksman and survivalist. Officials say he has a grudge against Law Enforcement and has talked of committing mass murder. The National Football league and its Players Union have agreed on a new policy governing performance enhancing drugs. The announcement today said testing for h. G. H. , or human growth hormone, should begin this month. Thats in addition to testing for steroids and diuretics. Players who use banned stimulants in the offseason will be referred to a Treatment Program instead of being suspended. The Federal Reserve signaled today its still in no hurry to raise shortterm Interest Rates. Instead, the central bank announced its keeping the benchmark federal funds rate near zero for a considerable time yet. Fed chair, janet yellen, said key Economic Indicators including wage growth and long term unemployment still need to improve. If the pace of progress in achieving our goals were to quicken, if it were to accelerate, its likely that the committee would begin raising its target for the federal funds rate sooner than is now anticipated and then might raise, might then raise federal funds rate at a faster pace. And the opposite is also true, if the projection were to change. Ifill the feds announcement helped push stocks higher on wall street today. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained nearly 25 points to close at 17,156, a new record; the nasdaq rose nine points to close at 4,562; and the s p 500 added two points to finish at 2,001. The oncedominant Electronics Giant sony now projects it will lose 2 billion this fiscal year. Officials also announced today theyre canceling dividends for the First Time Since the company was publicly listed in 1958. Sony has suffered years of red ink, and is struggling to salvage its smartphone business. Still to come on the newshour. How best to fight Islamic State militants . Why the n. F. L. s troubles have yet to hurt profits or ratings. One final day of campaigning before scotland votes on independence. The controversy sparked by genetically modified rice in the philippines. And documenting the lives of theodore, eleanor and franklin rooselvelt. Ifill one central question being asked of president obamas plan to combat the Islamic State group can the u. S. Rely on the Iraqi Military and moderate rebels in syria or will u. S. Ground troops eventually be needed to destroy the militants . We get two views, retired colonel derek harvey was an Intelligence Officer and special adviser to the commander of u. S. Forces in iraq, general david petraeus. Hes now director for the Global Initiative on Civil Society and conflict at university of south florida. And Janine Davidson was an air force pilot during the 1990s and was Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for plans during the first term of the obama administration. Shes now a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. Colonel harvey, the president doubled down today on this effort to keep us out of a ground war. Was he right . Well, i think we have the Pay Attention to what he said, and he has clear red lines. Clearly he does not want combat troops on the ground. But it doesnt mean were not going to have other capabilities on the ground that will be providing that support to the Iraqi Security forces and to others eventually. Ifill Janine Davidson, what do you think . Was he right to draw that line so brightly . Well, i think policy is different than a plan, so i do think that he is right to say that we dont need Ground Forces right now, american Ground Forces, but then again, you know, general dempsey did say, im holding this idea in reserve, but thats sort of the role of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is to offer options to the president when he may need them at a later time. I think for now we should see how this goes. Ifill derek harvey, we did hear general dempsey say, if this happens and that happens and this happens, then i would go back perhaps to the president to ask for a more rebust presence of u. S. Troops on the ground. Do you think that the general is basically laying the groundwork for the potential that this could be a slippery slope, or is he just speaking general speak . I think hes speaking general speak. I believe that the administration has a comprehensive approach that will take time, and theyre looking at the long view. Theyre going to go after the financial networks, the foreign fighter flow both into those countries as well as out. Theyre going to try to delegitimize the Islamic States brand of islam. And theyre going to do other things, like build, train and equip the Iraqi Security forces and build up other capabilities in the region. So theyre taking a long view. We have to take the president s speech at its word. He wants to model it after the yemen and somali campaigns and not have u. S. Troops on the ground. Ifill let me ask you, david Janine Davidson, is it possible not to have troops on the ground, or is it someone elses troops we want on the ground . I think it is possible, and i think it might be the right approach not to put american troops on the ground, not because we dont want skin in the game, but because it may be more effective. We have to draw a tight line here between doing what we can to destroy isis, and american firepower is huge. Sure, we could go in there with everything we have and do some real damage, but on the other hand, the bigger we go in, the more likely we are to draw a blowback and also get a lot more antiamerican sentiment. So its a real delicate line to have, you know, where we can do some damage l to isil without generating so much antiamerican sentiment that we continue this cycle on and on and on. I think the administration gets that. Thats probably what theyre struggling with. Ifill derek harvey, i wonder sometimes if were arguing something, an arcane distinction without a difference, which is to say there are already americans who, they may not be wearing boots or whatever, but theyre already on the ground. Theyre just called advisers. Is there a distinction to be drawn there . The distinction is those that will be in direct combat, closing in close combat with the enemy, and that is not what the president s going to put on the ground. But i do believe that the president and the administration need to think serially is about significantly expanding the ground presence in terms of advisers, trainers and the capability to support engagement with the sunniarab communities, to build the National Guard structure there and to build a confidencebased system, an interlocking system where we can engage and support the political process going forward. That does with a significant military presence of the right kinds of capabilities. When you say significant, can you put a number on that in. I would say 6,000 to 8,000 in a combined joint task force, but not directed at a Ground Combat role. Ifill Janine Davidson, when the president invoked the examples of somalia and yemen, are they reasonable comparisons to what were going through now . Well, it depends on what he means by that. If hes talking about the way in which we coordinate with local actors to conduct these operations, then i think thats the right model. If hes talking about the other part about the yemen and somali model is drone strikes that appear to sometimes be arbitration or that are just aimed at taking out senior leadership, and that could potentially backfire. And so i think we have to be very delicate. So working with local actors for them to take the fight to the enemy as opposed to just trying to put warheads on foreheads, as the military says, across the region. Ifill derek harvey, we saw in todays debate on the house floor and also in the hearing with secretary kerry a lot of scepticism about whether those actors on the ground, actors from allies on the ground, will actually step up. What is your sense of that . Well, thats the feedback that im hearing from my sources. And i think what we have to keep in mind is there are a lot of pieces in play that make the president s strategy viable in iraq. But im not sure that we understand what the end game is in syria or that we have the pieces in play to work with that. Because we dont have a partner in government, in the military, we dont have a Political Program to offer there. So thats the big question mark. How do we square the syrian piece of this twostate problem. Ifill Janine Davidson, and i want to ask you this too, derek harvey, in a moment, but the president said today again that part of the overall longterm mission is to destroy isis, isil, the Islamic State group. Is that word even achievable . Yeah, i mean, i think words really matter here. I think that its feasible to stop isil. I think its feasible to degrade their ability to operate. But ending isil will take a long time. Defeating it or destroying it, it all depends on what you mean by that. I think the roots of what has caused isil are going to continue until the leaders in the region come up with a political solution that acome accommodates all these various actors. Derek is right. Sear that is a witchs brew of bad guys. I mean, its nearly impossible to pick the right side. What weve chosen to do is choose the least bad side for now to get the worst bad actors off the street. And then what . Well, well sit and see, sit back and see who the next bad actor is and see if we can continue to work that and nudge that. But the american role is not to do it all because its impossible for an outside American Force to do what needs to be done politically over the long term in this region. Ifill derek harvey, what do you think about the use of the term destroy . It was an overreach by the president. It was inappropriate for this context. I agree with janine very much that this has the capability to be neutralized, pushed back, rolled back. Were on the edges of being they were on the edges of being defeated when they found sanctuary in syria. I think its unfortunate the president used that term because it raised expectations and showed a gap between strategic aims and the resources that hes willing to put at the effort, and i think thats what caused this debate. Ifill all right. Well, well be watching to see where the debate goes from here. Derek harvey of the university of south florida and Janine Davidson with the council on foreign relations, thank you both very much. Thank you for having me. Thank you, gwen. Ifill for several weeks, the n. F. L. Has found itself fron