[Banfield:] Welcome back to LEGAL VIEW. Tonight, the president outlines his plan to bring down the militant group known as ISIS. We're told he's going to be specific about the military missions to take out the fighters on the ground, and also missions to take away their money and cut them off from the rest of the world as well. So the specific part comes from the secretary of state, who is in Baghdad right now. John Kerry calling ISIS a cancer that needs to be stopped. He also said there is no way the U.S. is going to do it alone.
[John Kerry, Secretary Of State:] Nearly every country on Earth could have an ability and an interest to join in this effort, whether by providing military assistance, by helping to track and stop the flow of foreign fighters, helping to track and stop the flow of money, All of these are things that sustain ISIS'terrorism, and all of them are things that are subject to impact by other countries in the world.
[Banfield:] CNN military analyst Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona is here to talk about this. Also Professor Austin Long from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, who also just so happened to be a former analyst and adviser for the multinational Iraq forces. You're perfect, both of you, for this. I'm going to start with you, colonel, if I can. If that's the case, if what we're going to hear tonight is that yes, indeed, bombs from the skies will start dropping over Syria sometime soon, what could possibly go wrong?
[Lt. Col. Rick Francona , Cnn Military Analyst:] There are so many moving parts in Syria, a lot could go wrong. As long as we know what we're doing there and who we're going to hit. But the problem will be, who are you going to bomb, what are you going to bomb, what are the target sets going to be? In Iraq, it's much more defined. We know who the bad guys are. We know where they are. I don't think our
[Banfield:] And by the way, we have people who have specific expertise in calling those kinds of strikes in with their boots on the ground.
[Francona:] Yes, but are they in Syria?
[Banfield:] Right.
[Francona:] Are we willing to put them in Syria? Are we going to put them in harm's way there? Iraq is one thing because we control the airspace and we have a lot of sway in what goes on in the country. Syria, still kind of a wild card and many, many moving parts, so it would be very dangerous.
[Banfield:] Speaking of the moving parts, Austin, this notion that there's this potential for arming and training the friendly insurgents I hate to even use the word because I know many, many years ago we called the mujahedeen in Afghanistan friendlies. How do you determine who are the friendlies? How do you determine how long they'll stay friendlies?
[Austin Long, Former Adviser, Multinational Forces, Iraq:] That's the real issue is it's very difficult to tell who is friendly at all. There are many groups that are fighting against the Islamic state. But it's not clear in ideology they are all that much different. So finding out who your potential and I think you have to put friends in quotation marks, your "friends" are is very difficult. It's probably the key intelligence challenge.
[Francona:] And it changes day to day because you'll see this patchwork of different Islamist groups and the Free Syrian Army and they will make temporary accommodations in a certain area to do certain fighting. So on one day you would be allied with one group and then anti them the next day.
[Banfield:] For the kids that are 25, the friendlies were the mujahedeen, who ultimately turned into al Qaeda, as we know them, who ultimately, you know, morphed into what we've got now with ISIS. Let me just ask you guys both to weigh in on a statement from Marie Harf, the State Department spokesperson, who talked yesterday about what this coalition needs to deliver, effectively not just a military coalition but a financial coalition, a diplomatic coalition, a coalition to fight foreign fighters and a humanitarian coalition. Are all of those the buzzwords that you need to bring in, say, a Qatar, a UAE, a Saudi Arabia, A Jordan, a Lebanon, you know, who have been pretty darn quiet up till now?
[Francona:] I'll start. On the military side, I don't think you're going to see any coalition troops on the ground until the U.S. commits to providing the leadership. And that means U.S. boots on the ground. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, even the Turks, we could see them provide forces, but they will not do it unless there are U.S. troops there. The U.S. has to pony up.
[Banfield:] But even though these are the countries, you know, Qatar, you know, excluded, that actually share borders and could ultimately end up as ISIL territory. Don't they have the most at stake, Austin? Shouldn't they be the ones putting boots on the ground?
[Long:] They do, but they can't agree on what to do. I mean if you look at Libya right now, Qatar and the UAE are essentially fighting a proxy war against one another there. So you can draw a big tent, but you have to get everybody on the same page inside that tent. So
[Banfield:] So, colonel, are you serious that these other countries won't join the coalition with boots on the ground unless America puts boots on the ground? So no one effectively is going to be actually willing to step on that turf?
[Francona:] I don't see them doing this is you know, you've talk a good game, United States, but, you know, and you're willing to do air strikes. But when it comes to putting boots on the ground and have to do the slugging out and fighting, you know, face to face these guys, you want us to do it? I think they're in a they're in the position, they have the luxury of sitting back and watching because they believe that we broke Iraq, now we have to fix it.
[Banfield:] And just one last question as to the money, because that seems to be a big part of discussions, and we may hear a lot about it from the president tonight. Austin, money and things that money can buy, can they be easily tracked, say, five years down the road when those things can, you know, all of a sudden be overrun and taken by an enemy of the United States?
[Long:] Yes, that's true of everything. It's true of money. It's true of weapons, et cetera. And the Islamic State, one of their core strengths is the ability to get money and do things with it.
[Banfield:] All right, well, both of you, terrific, and I'll be looking forward to see what the president has to say and we'll have to have you both back to reanalyze whether we had the right idea or whether we are in for a big, long haul. I think no matter what, we're in for a big, long haul on this one. Austin Long, Colonel Rick Francona, thank you. Remember, you can tune in to see the president's speech on ISIS tonight,
[Cnn, 9:] 00 Eastern Time.