general said he was informed aheaof t air strike. of course, the russians were informed ahead of the air strike through the using deconflicting hot line that the united states uses to communicate with russian forces over syrian air space in order to avoid, basically, airplanes bombing each other, hitting each other or bombing each other s forces on the ground. so, this says a lot about how this is going to be moving forward because that russian/american link, that hot line, the russians announced today they re going to be suspending it. that s something of a response to an air strike that the russians have said is basically helping out terrorists in syria. now, again, as you mentioned before, saying that the syrian conflict is complicated is very much an understatement. but the reaction that we ve heard across the region does kind of fall into the expected categories that you would normally think or expect to see. saudi arabia has voiced fulsome praise for donald trump s intervention,
one people is a very bad idea. what you need if you re ever going to have it, is something of a catholic solution, one that encompasses everyone, and that ain t going to happen any time soon. i think calling syria a complex situation is an understatement. the world s grossest understatement. colonel jack jacobs, stick with us. last night rex tillerson said it s important for the u.s. to take some action on behalf of the international community to make it clear using chemical weapons is a violation of international norms. adding, the strike was coordinated with international partners. joining us now from beirut, nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley. matt, let s speak a little about that international response, particularly those coming from our allies in europe as well as in the middle east. who do we know that was made aware of this strike before it happened? who was left in the dark? what does that say about how this is playing out? well, ayman, all we know right now
tonight is not symbolic. i think it has strategic value to it. the question is, what happens next? is there a comprehensive plan to follow this up? what i hope happens is conditions for alternative for assad to emerge. i don t think syria will be a stable, u.n. tear government in any time in the future but i think we can take steps to provide alternatives to assad s role. not every republican supported last night s strike, however in a series of tweets senator rand paul said the president needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the constitution. our prior interventions in the region have done nothing to make us safer and syria will be no different. on the democratic side, senate minority leader chuck schumer had praise for the strikes, saying in part, making sure assad knows when he commits such despicable atrocities, he ll pay a price is the right thing to do. but he called on trump to come up with a strategy on syria and consult congress.
honor recipient and msnbc military analyst, colonel jack jacobs. what happens from your perspective from the u.s. and what will their response be? at the end of the day, what s really important is we have a strategy and at the moment we do not have a strategy. we shouldn t confuse this attack, which was very limited in scope, so only on one target, with a strategic strike, at one point, one of the senators said it was a strategic strike. it was not. it was a tactical strike. and it s entirely possible as a matter of fact, it s probable it won t have any effect over the long term in syria. may i ask you the difference, strategic strike, tactical strike? well, for it to be a strategic strike it has to be