and we are now seeing years later, we ve seen the rise of isis, mass atrocities, the re-insertion of russia that has emboldened hezbollah and iran, the mass migration of refugees that has completely destabilized europe. it s going to be a stain on his legacy. martha: respond. if you prefer those 1300 tons of chemical weapons be in the hands of isis today, i m happy for you to make that argument. was it a perfect solution? they would ve been in the hands of the assad regime today. let me finish. was it a perfect solution? no. was it the best option we felt we had at the time? yes! look, i said last night on television that president trump made the right decision. the bigger question for all of us should be one strike does not make a strategy and what is the strategy for solving the syrian crisis going forward? what is the strategy that rex tillerson will take to
off on the strike. and we are now seeing years later, we ve seen the rise of isis, mass atrocities, the re-insertion of russia that has emboldened hezbollah and iran, the mass migration of refugees that has completely destabilized europe. it s going to be a stain on his legacy. martha: respond. if you prefer those 1300 tons of chemical weapons be in the hands of isis today, i m happy for you to make that argument. was it a perfect solution? they would ve been in the hands of the assad regime today. let me finish. was it a perfect solution? no. was it the best option we felt we had at the time? yes! look, i said last night on television that president trump made the right decision. the bigger question for all of us should be one strike does not make a strategy and what is the strategy for solving the syrian crisis going forward?
photographs of his torture victims, political prisoners who were tortured in his prisons, he called it doctor, he used the se fake news adopting our terminology. today in his response, he adopts the language of the alt-right and talks alluded to the concept of a deep state. he said that this was despite the new president, new administration, the policies of the the deep policies of the united states stays the same, represented by targeting states, subjecting people and attempting to dominate the world. i spoke to a source close to the assad regime today. said this is a reference to from the syrian perspective. these were hawkish elements in the cia and the d.o.d. who manipulated trump into taking this action. ambassador, how important is putin to assad? putin is very important.
important for this town, shepherd. it is on a hilltop 40 miles north of damascus. the syrian army held it for a longtime during the civil war. the christians are loyal to the assad regime today. syrian state television shows syrian soldiers re-taking the town square there and some of the pro government militias are helping with the fight. they say there are about 1500 lawyers loyal to al-qaeda. they had to go street by street to clear the jihad fighters out. 3300 christians inside this city. there are two very old money gnaw stares that are important. we heard nuns were hiding children in caves. syrian state television a number of those folks have been rescued as the street to street fighting continues. once they retake the town what will they find at the historic
done the same. the big question of course is are any of these countries going to be at the side of the u.s. militarily. it doesn t look as though that is the case. it s also very difficult for many of them to take military action at the side of the u.s., but certainly, publicly, the statements that we re getting from the saudis, from the turks, that wholeheartedly support u.s. action and want it to be a lot stronger than what the president said it s going to be, but at the same time, assad is being held alive by key allies that he has. the russians are very key to that. the iranian are very key where we ve heard there s been meetings from bill, with the iranian military advisers there on the ground. they ve seen the assad regime today, so that s very, very key. as far as weapons delivery, then you have hezbollah that s provided thousands of fighters on the ground that have really in many places in syria, if you look at homs, have turned the