very significant the president just spoke to vladimir putin, the president of russia, because those air defense systems in syria are likely manned by russians. shepard: let brain in former assistant secretary of state and now a professor of practice at george washington university. has the ask lated? escalatessed? feels like it. i think the red loan has been crossed and the administration is right to seek international support for the next step anding too to use this also leverage to get the uhate toed nations involved. we re not talk can about ground troops. right? no, i think there s a parallel to the weapons inspections we did in the aftermath of the first gulf war. u.n. ininspectors on the ground, monitoring and securing weapons, and i think that s where perhaps this is part of a step to force assad s hand in terms of