Andrea Mitchell: Entire Middle East Thinks We’re Fighting with ‘Hands Tied Behind Our Back’

SCHIFF: “I think the overarching impact may be a consolidation of opinion within the Arab world that this cancer really needs to be extricated from their midst.”

MITCHELL: “Well, in fact, according to my reporting, that is the view in the Arab world, at least among the allies in this partnership. But they feel that America is fighting this war with our hands tied behind our back. We know the domestic reasons for not wanting to go back into Iraq and not wanting to go into Syria, but this is what we’re hearing from Saudi Arabia, from Jordan, from some of the others as well in the Gulf coalition, that the U.S. needs to put more troops in, more special forces in, more forward deployed people to help these airstrikes be more targeted.”

SCHIFF: “Andrea, that's always going to be the case. Our allies are gonna want to put more American lives at risk rather than more of their own citizens’ lives at risk. But there are many reasons why that doesn't make sense for us. If you look at the situation in Iraq for example, had we moved in too precipitously too early on, we'd still have Nouri al-Maliki in the leadership in Iraq. Instead, we have al-Abadi."