[ cheers and applause ] gary clark jr. , blak and blu is out now. I want to thank simon cowell, stacy keibler. Apologies to matt damon. Tomorrow night, tim gunn and music from preservation jazz band. Thank you for watching. Nightline is next. Good night. Tonight on nightline. Defining moment. President obama makes his plea to a skeptical American Public for military action against syria. This would be a targeted strike to achieve a clear objective deterring the use of chemical weapons and degrading assads capabilities. But is it too late . We can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, i believe we should act. Clean and simple. 19 firefighters perish, did they have to die . There have never been more forest fires or fewer resources to fight them. Nightline investigates is an aging fleet of tanker planes putting lives at risk. Honesty policy. An ohio man confesses on youtube he killed a man. That drunk driver was in court today and things did not go as planned. That is not how it works in this Court Announcer this is nightline with dan abrahms in new york and terry moran in beirut. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. Tonight president obama spoke directly to an American Public increasingly wary of any military action in syria addressing concerns articulated by citizens and lawmakers alike he described the dire consequences for america of ignoring syrian president assads actions. But there are also, according to president obama, encouraging signs on the diplomatic front. Abcs chief Foreign Correspondent terry moran is in beirut with full coverage of the crisis in syria. Terry . Reporter when a president speaks about possibility of taking america to war he addressing not just the nation but the world. I am here in beirut, a city wrecked by war twice in my lifetime. In lebanon, a country where the Syrian Civil War is already spilling over, refugees pouring in, the economy staggering, violence spreading. And just a couple hours from where i am standing syria and the horrors there. People here in the middle east who have seen so much of war over the decades are a lot like americans, they are skeptical about this crisis. Theyre anxious about it. So tonight in a makeorbreak moment for him, president obama addressed all of these audiences trying to clear things up. Make his case. And lead. President obama strode down the great hall of the was to talk to the American People about war. Tonight i want to talk to you about syria. Reporter he had taken the long walk once before under very different circumstances announcing the killing of osama bin laden. Tonight i can report to the American People and to the world, that the United States has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden. Reporter there was no victory in his demeanor tonight. Now i know that after the terrible toll of iraq and afghanistan, the idea of any military action, no matter how limited is not going to be popular. Reporter tonight the nation saw a president struggling to convince the country of the rightness of a dangerous course of action, a country that has shown skepticism toward a new war. We cannot afford to turn syria into another iraq. My short answer to this is not no, but hell no. Reporter in the face of strong opposition, left and right, obama sounded almost defensive at times as he tried to respond to his critics. Some members of congress said, there is no point in simply doing a pinprick strike in sear yea in syria. Let me make something clear, the United States military doesnt do pinpricks, the president tried to reassure america about what sert yeah policy is not. I will not put american boots on the ground in syria. I will not pursue an openended action like iraq or afghanistan. I will not pursue a Prolonged AirCampaign Like libya or kosovo. This would be a targeted strike to achieve a clear objective. Deterring the use of chemical weapons and degrading assads capabilities. Reporter this crisis is in part of the president s own making. A year ago he some what off handedly at the press conference drew a red line for syrian president Bashar Al Assad and for himself. A red leine for us is we stat seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons movement around or utilized. That would change my calculus and change my equation. Reporter then came august 21st this year and the terrible images, the unspeakable suffering, the dead children. The red line, the u. S. And allies believe has been crossed. Obamas calculus would now change, but how . When dictators commit atrocities they depend upon the world to look the other way until the horrifying pictures fade from memory. But these things happened. The facts cannot be denied. Reporter tonight he sought to explain his some times confusing leadership on this issue. America is not the worlds policeman. Terrible things happen across the globe. And it is beyond our means to right every wrong. But when with modest effort and risk we can stop children from being gassed to death, and thereby make our own children safer over the long run. I believe we should act. Reporter in syria, meanwhile, Government Troops continue to bombard rebel positions in the suburbs of damascus. And Bashar Al Assad, he was winning the day putting the u. S. President on the wrong diplomatic footing again. He is a strong survivor. But his strength is deceptive. He doesnt look like your typical ruthless tyrant. You feel sorry for the lives that have been lost. The soft lisping voice. No government in the world kill its people unless it is led by a crazy person. Reporter the weak chin. Bashar doesnt look like this guy. Or this guy. But while other arab dictators are toppled, dead or both, Bashar Al Assad has proven to be far mr. Tenacious, wily and maddeningly successful than u. S. Officials guessed during this highstakes, 2 1 2yearlong showdown with barack obama. I had no doubt the assad regime will soon discover that the forces of change cannot be reversed and Human Dignity cannot be denied. Assad will leave power. Not a question of if, but when. We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian People or transfer to terrorists. The world is watching. We will hold you accountable. Reporter yet here assad still is taunting the American Public in his interview this week with charlie rose of pbs. Nobody expected it until september. You cannot expect, it is difficult for any one to tell you what is going to happen. It is an area where everything is on the brink of explosion. You have to expect everything. Reporter president obama tonight hardly mentioned his adversary. Instead he tried to explain why he believes military action is necessary but then he hit the pause button again embracing a new russian proposal to bring assads chemical weapons under international control. This initiative has potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force particularly because russia is one of assads strongest allies. Reporter in the end, this was not so much a case for war, it was a plea for understanding for support and for time. Our ideals and principles, as well as our National Security are at stake in syria. Along with our leadership of the world where we seek to ensure that the worst weapons will never be used. A tough sell in america and around the world. The next steps now are diplomatic as the United States, russia and other powers try to hammer out a deal at the u. N. That will verifiably strip assad of his chemical weapons. Does that sound familiar . This crisis is far from over. Dan . Thank you, terry. We will be following your reports from the region. Next, Fire Fighters on the front line battling wildfires. Say they badly need new planes to save lives. But they just cant get them. Announcer abc news nightline brought to you by progressive. Ill stand by you yeaaaah yeah. So thats our Loyalty Program. Youre automatically enrolled, and the longer you stay, the more rewards you get. Great oh ill stand by you wont let nobody hurt you isnt there a simpler way to explain the Loyalty Program . Yes. Standing by you from day one. Now, thats progressive. And this park is the inside of your body. You see the special psyllium fiber in metamucil actually gels to trap and remove some waste. And that gelling also helps to lower some cholesterol. It even traps some carbs to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels as part of your diet. Now thats one super hard working fiber. Metamucil. 3 amazing benefits in 1 super fiber. When we think of Fire Fighting we most often think of the brave boots on the ground heading into a burning building or perilous ter rterrain to sav lives. For the biggest blazes the ones that threaten communities and swaths of land, help has to come from the air as well. But the u. S. Forest service says they just dont have enough planes to do the job and the ones they do have are relics from the time of the korean war. Abcs brian ross investigates. Reporter it has been a decade of unrelenting wildfires in a vicious cycle of drought. Millions of acres burned. Thousand of homes destroyed. Some 200 firefighters dead. This has been ongoing really for about the last ten years. Each year it seems to get worse and worse. Reporter with the fire now raging north of san francisco, and the fire that went through yosemite two weeks ago, this year may become the worst of all according to the federal official in charge of fighting the fires, chief tom tidwell of the United StatesForest Service. We are having just tremendous problems being able to control and suppress the fires we are having this year. Reporter and for the firefighters on the ground, including the socalled Smoke Jumpers and hot shots the ability to call in reinforcements from the air has never been more critical. Yet an abc news investigation has found that even as the number of fires has dramatically increased over the last decade, officials in washington have allowed the fleet of large Fire Fighting tankers to shrink dramatically by 75 . And the 44 planes available just ten years ago. A move that Fire FightingOfficials Say has put lives at risk. How many air tankers do you have available on any given day right now . 11. Reporter you have a lot more fires. We have more fires. Reporter drought cycle unrelenting. Yes. Reporter is that really enough . 11 is not enough. Reporter the impact of the diminished fleet and the value of the aircraft was clear in one of this years big fires, mountain rage near palm springs, california. The fire has been burning 24 hours. 10,000 acres have been scorched. One of the biggest fires in the area in 30 years. Both state and federal Fire Fighting aircraft have been brought in to fight the fire. Helicopters are dumping water directly on the fire. Big air craft tankers are dropping fire retardants. Orange material that sets up a lynn to stop t line to stop the fire in its tracks. It is lakeike a military combat operation. Spotter planes identify the target. The hot spots. And then they guide in the air tankers. Flying low through smoke and rough terrain to drop the load of fire retardant chemicals and set up a kind of no burn zone. More we can get dropped with ground crews or dozers, it will make the difference in the perimeter line. They were floog out of a nearby air base where we saw firsthand another huge problem. Of the few planes still flying, some of the aircraft are 50 years old or older. Military submarine chasers going back to the korean war. Like Museum Pieces still on active duty. It is no secret to the u. S. Forest service which has been on notice since this 2002 report and eight others after it that its big aircraft tankers were badly aging and should be replaced. The first report on the need to upgrade the fleet was in 2002. This is 2013. You still dont hatch the nve t planes. Whats ben goien going on for t last 11 years . We have been moving forward using the aircraft we have. Reporter in some cases it led to more tragedy. Here the wings of one aged Fire Fighting plane nearly tore off in flight. Last year, two for planes crashed. As a safety precaution, more aircraft have been grounded bet were never replaced. The chief of the california wildfire forcest services said the diminished fleet risked fires and lives and resources. You accept that . Yeah, we moved forward to acquire additional aircraft. Reporter in our interview, chief tidwell told us the same thing, 54 different times the Forest Service is moving forward. We are moving forward. Move forward. Moving forward. Move forward. Reporter the service can use military cargo plane when needed and blamed federal contracting process. He would not answer why it has taken so long. More than a decade to replenish the air fleet of big tankers. How much time do you need . 11 years is not enough . We are moving forward with the next generation. We already have some of the planes on. We are going to have rest of them on. Reporter how many . We have two of them flying to day. Reporter a handful at most it turns out. Still nowhere near enough t according to state Fire Fighting officials in states most prone. Including those in arizona could not get the air tankers they wanted on the day 19 hot shot firefighters died in yarnell this summer. There were six air tankers ordered. Air tankers are rare in todays fire world. You ordered six. One committed but didnt get here. Reporter one of the korean war vintage planes like this one. Had engine problems to return to base in california. No large air tankers on route. It took off. Wind changed direction and inkrei increased in speed. [ indiscernible ] reporter the 19 hot shots were trapped as flames raced towards them nothing in the fires way. Badly burned bodies were discovered a short time later. [ indiscernible ] chief daryl willis says he still wonders although not precisely clear if the men would have survived had any of the requested large tankers made it to the fire. Of in about five minutes. May have bought him 10 minutes to get ape safer place. Could that have made a difference . Ten minutes could. Absolutely. If they had ten more minutes. They could have made it. The crew was totally fit. No question. Reporter the final investigative report on the yarnell fire is being worked on by official. U. S. Forest chief tidwell says no one will know if the tankers would have made a difference. On any given dave when weep get hundreds of fired started any given day. Well never have enough aircraft for every single fire. So there always has to be priorities set. If you uh had a bigger fleet it wouldnt be as difficult i take it . We would be able to respond to more requests. Reporter yarnell did not become a priority until after the firefighters died. And there simply were not enough air tankers to spare before that in the the three that officials in washington have allowed to shrink to 1 4 its size in ten years. What you had a decade ago, you dont have to day. Thats correct. Reporter how urgent would you say is the need . If you talk to firefighters on the ground its extreme. We need them now. Reporter ment u. S. Forest service has a plan for a brand new fleet of fire fifting aircraft. Neither the bush would come up with the money for what firefighters in the field say is this extremely urgent need. Dan. Brian. Thank you very much for the report. Next, this drunk driver admitted on you tube to killing someone. Today he was supposed to plead guilty. So what happened . For another landmark study. This time looking at eye health. My doctor he knows his stuff. [ male announcer ] centrum. The most studied. The most recommended. And the most preferred multivitamin brand. The choice is clear. And the most preferred multivitamin brand. Fby eating healthier, drinking plenty of water, but still not getting relief . Try dulcolax laxative tablets. Dulcolax is comfortcoated for gentle, overnight relief. Dulcolax. Predictable overnight relief you can count on. [ dog ] on a walk, walk, walk. Yeah, we found that wonderful thing. And you smiled. And threw it. And i decided i would never, ever leave it anywhere. Because that wonderful, bouncy, rollaround thing. Had made you play. 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A crowd gathered in an ohio court to hear a man plead guilty to aggravated vehicular home sigh as he said he would in a stunning youtube confession. With his face blurred and voice distort heed admitted to a mistake after a night of heavy drink. But then he revealed himself. My name is matthew cordal. On june 22nd, 2013, i hit and killed vincent canzani. Reporter the confession has gone viral. I am begging you please dont drink and drive. Reporter south think cordal did it hoping he might get a break in sentencing. The victims exwife disagrees. He