make. yes, i m troubled by the kind of leadership we rexd seeing in washington, d.c. rightxd now, but içó want president obama to be strong and i want america s leadership to be respected around the world. gretchen: of course. today is september 11. hard to believe it s been 12 years since you told president bush in that classroom what had happened. would we be any safer with regard to syria now if we strike or don t strike with regard to this being september 11? i have to admit i don t think the situation in syria represents a present threat to the united states national security interest or to the american people. so i think it s a little different than the situations that president bushñi addressed. but i do feel that when president obama said that there was a red line and that syria had crossed the red line or bash sure assad crossed the red line and there was a consequence, you couldn t be hollow in the consequence and had to follow through. i think diplomatic challenges sho