as you know so well, we know assad is fighting isis in syria, latest u.s. strike not targeting isis. when you put it all together, courtney, how will this complicate the administration s message to the american people? well, this is why we saw a very targeted strike. a lot of people focus on the fact that in april of 2017, the u.s. took a strike against one syrian military airfield. they popped the runway. they took out a number of syrian military jets and aircraft. this one was bigger. what we saw two days ago now was the u.s. military in conjunction with two alleys, french and british, took a broader strike. it involved three targets, rather than going after the syrian military delivery mechanism, the way they were able to deliver the chemicals in 2017, this time the strikes targeted their ability to produce some chemicals. their ability to store chemicals. and they went after what is a
the rationale for the targets that they re specifically tied to the chemical weapons program. a research facility near dpakz, the capitol, involving the chemical weapons program and a storage site near homs and a commander center near homs. all secretary mattis saying affiliatewood the syrian regime chemical weapons program. the strikes designed to both help degrade that program as well as deter the regime from using chemical weapons in the future. now, there is we re told that u.s. b-1 bombers were involved in the strikes, firing air launched cruise missiles. one u.s. navy ship in the red sea participated. the french said the jets participated in the strikes and british said some tornado jets launched missiles against targets in syria as well. a multilateral operation. and unlike last year in april of 2017, secretary mattis saying double the number of weapons were used.
retired green beret commanders lieutenant waltz and army special forces veteran jim hanson of the securities studies group. thank you for joining us this morning. general newton, let me start with you. first of all, your response to the level of fire power, the was the response commensurate with the violation? i believe it was. particularly it was a much more complex, i think a more lethal strike than what we saw last april of 2017. it s a measured response. i think it s been an effective response. we re going to be going through our battle damage assessment right now. we will be hearing from the pentagon here at 9:00 this morning. we will get an update in terms of how effective the strike was. but i think this was a correct measured response. and just waiting to see what the battle damage assessment tells us in terms of what our next stepping could be. abby: what do you think the next steps will be, jim, from russia. they have said that there will be consequences. we know how russ
specifically asked about that too. so in april of 2017 when they hit shea rot airfield, the u.s. military specifically did not target where they new chemical weapons were stored. they were concerned about did going into the atmosphere, the groundwater, what not. tonight they hit one of those storage facilities. we don t know what was stored there, whether it was chlorine or some sort of a nerve agent. when secretary mattis was asked specifically could you guarantee that none of that would get out, he said, no, of course i can t. and we still don t know with any certainty if air defenses engaged with seriousness and if any aircraft from any of the three nations were hit either on the way in or on the way out. or missiles for that matter. but general dunford did say that there were no u.s. losses. you know, the british and the french didn t speak of anything. they weren t going to get out
so what is it? was it a success or not? they struck the targets they were going after. we don t know whether there was syrian military killed or civilian casualties. we were told late last night in a briefing that there were no u.s. hits. so all u.s. aircraft returned back to their bases safely. so what they did not go after that would allow the syrian regime to continue to hit their own civilians with chemical weapons is the delivery mechanisms. april of 2017, we saw the u.s. strike a specific syrian military airfield and take out some aircraft and pock up the run way. that was meant to target their ability to deliver these weapons. we don t have a good sense yet how many of a chemical stock may have been impacted here. secretary mattis said this would