0 regime and people joining together getting outside backing. it's very difficult to say they have a consistent ideology. >> where is, if you know, the syrian president? is he? damascus? has he been seen in public recently? >> about a year ago a bomb went off during a meeting inside damascus. ever since then they don't really broadcast his movements. from time to time pictures will show up on the official press on state tv of him visiting sites or holding meetings, but his location is kept fairly hush hush. it's not a situation like saddam where he was moving every night to 52 different palaces but certainly the syrians haven't wanted the rebels to know where the president and top officials are, let alone nato. >> is he the one who has the power in this country or is someone else in the some of that emanates from the fact there is no ownership over the acts that take place. >> there's a lot of attention on what t what the u.s. is going to do and the british prime minister is going to convene parliament to see if he can get authorization. why are we deferring to the arab league to sort of discipline or punish or do a military action themselves? why would we be doing it in front of them? >> well, i think the president, the leader of our country has announced, whether you like it or not or whether you supported him or not, that if a red line was crossed, action would be taken. i think in this case they think there is no question whatsoever that this action has been taken. and i will say that, you know, iran is watching as we make statements, are we going to back those statements. let me just say this, greta, i strongly support a targeted, surgical, proportional approach to syria on this. at the same time, do i not want it to be the kind of approach militarily that gets us off the policy that we now have in place and that is syrians taking the lead. we have announced that our policy is going to be to quip and train the moderate, vetted opposition. to me that is a policy that should continue. so to me the syrians need to be the ones that continue to carry this out. i think you know that they're very unorganized. i know your last person said that. candidly general idris who we're consolidated around isn't really operating inside syria. the coalition of civilians is operating out of cairo. so there really isn't any consensus in the country as to who would take over if assad goes. so there's a lot of work that needs to be done on the ground by the opposition. we need to let them take the lead. our role should be equipping and training and giving humanitarian aid after we do what i think is going to happen over this next week if the intelligence reports are made available to all of us, if we take those steps, i want to make sure that it doesn't take us off our stated policy as it relates to the opposition. >> what is our -- what are we seeking to achieve or what is our target? i assume if we go up to the chemical weapons, we run the risk of another humanitarian crisis. if we go after assad, he moves around, he's hard to find. what is our actual target if we do make these surgical strikes? >> i know those options are being presented. we've been obviously in conversation, those options because they're still discussing what they are and what the chances are success are with those, i don't know what those options are yet. you've heard people -- i've heard people on your program talk about the various options, everything from the presidential palace, which apparently the white house is saying is not i want to see what our intelligence officials have found on the ground. it's interesting that the united nations is there. candidly they don't even have a mandate to assert blame in this case. they're just trying to see if there's been any kind of chemical warfare. to me it's very important to understand what it is we're relying upon, to know for sure and i think this administration feels very sure, but i want to know what it is they're relying on to be sure there's actually been chemical warfare that's been utilized. >> senator, thank you, sir. >> thank you very much. >> at this hour battleships are in position so how would an attack be carried out? let me go, major, to something blunt that you said, quote, what we're about to do is dumb, i know of no credible officer who thinks this is the right thing to do. every sane war fighter is against this. >> yup. war should not be made to make people feel good, to elevate the president's gravitas. you have a purpose and tactical actions like this coming cruise missile strike on syria, they have to culminate in some sort of strategic end. i don't know how this end. i know how it's going to start. if we're going to put the lives of our men and women at risk, we need to tell them that the strategic end is something else than somehow making the administration feel good about retaliating to this horrible chemical attack by the syrian army. >> are we really putting our men and women at risk if they're firing a cruise missile from the mediterranean? i suppose there's a risk of something going dreadfully wrong. the second thing, i don't know what we achieve. are we trying to take out president assad? if we do, who takes over? what about the chemical weapons? where do you fit in on this? >> first of all, i'm concerned that -- about risk. there's very little risk in the initial stage. but wars don't end cleanly. they certainly don't end with the delivery of 250 cruise missiles and that's the end of it. you know, the enemy has a vote. war is intrinsically a two-sided contest where the minute can retaliate. he may well do that, he may try to shoot down our aircraft and attack israel, use hezbollah as a surrogate to strike the united states either overseas or the united states with terrorist attacks. the enemy is not going to sit back and let this happen. what happens after all the explosions and assad is still standing and willing to fight? it's not the libyan army, the syrian army, these are tough, blood thirsty killers. >> the arab league, they threw syria out, suspended him in november 2011 because of what was going on in syria. you'd think there would be enough regional muscle. they have a huge interest of this and they've already taken the action of throwing syria out of the arab league temporarily. >> i think it's because we're involved. >> why don't they lean on them to do it? >> they can't. they don't have the military mite, the commanding control, the cohesion. frankly, they don't have the military skill to go into -- >> i mean, then that's the answer. that's the answer. >> absolutely. >> so what is our goal here? >> i think our goal is retaliation and vengeance. i think it's pretty obvious that the syrian army used chemical weapons. the president called that a red line and so he feels we have to retaliate. >> but it's been a little weird. if you go back to the present statements, all these predictions going back two years, president assad is on his way out, he's going back to may 19, 2011. we keep saying he's about to leave but he hasn't left. >> evidence suggests he's getting stronger and this weighs heavily on the administration. and not only that but the people who are fighting assad, many of them don't appear to be any better it and assad. so god forbid we start an act of war where we wind up aiding people who hate us. i mean, i don't get this. there are no clean lines here. this is the middle east. but we ought to be a little bit more clear in where we're going with this because i will guarantee you the delivery of a couple of hundred t-limbs are not going to end this. >> t-limbs are the cruise missiles? >> yes. >> i thought i'd explain that. should president obama get authorization before ordering a strike on syria. vote now on greta.com. and coming up, about obama and comparing it to the civil rights movement. is health care a civil rights movement? and did you a hear what reverend jesse jackson said about the tea party? well, you will. two tea party members are here to go on the record to respond. plus is rush limbaugh looking for a second career? coaching college football? really? we'll hear the evidence and then you decide for yourself. so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, whe experts watch over all drilling activity twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. our commitment has never been stronger. does your dog food have? 18 percent? 20? new purina one true instinct has 30. active dogs crave nutrient-dense food. so we made purina one true instinct. learmore at purinaone.com like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. 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