well or not over snowe he s the president. i want to ask you another thing. the president says a lot of untrue things all the time. i m not going to say i know what is in his mind. yesterday he said finland is buying f-18s. they re not. that s a perfect example. it is tiring. fatiguing. it is bizarre to have a president who utters untrue things this much. i don t want you to be tired or fatigued. how do you deal with it? people often say things turn out not to be true. i remember president obama saying, if you like your doctor,
going to use the missile defense, if you will. the t.h.a.d. system on guam, ships at sea, missiles onboard to shoot down the korean missile, that s all in place. when the president says locked and loaded, the u.s. military points out it is ready to go when it comes to north korea. you have those 28,000 troops in south korea. 50,000 troops in japan. you have air forces across the pacific, and obviously they are the most mobile. you have b-1 bombers in guam. you can move in b-2s, b-52s. air force f-15s. f-16s. the navy has f-18s in the region onboard carriers. so you have a lot of fire power. several weeks ago the u.s. military as we reported it at cnn updated all the military options for the president. specifically aimed at giving him
accusations that its air strikes have killed hundreds of innocent civilians since the campaign began three years ago. one monitoring group says that number is well over 1,000. the u.s. military maintains that it takes quote, extraordinary measures to mitigate the loss of civilian life. an admiral in the u.s. navy s fifth fleet, he spoke to us while f-18s were taking off below. war is not a clean business and some of the times a motorcycle or a car can come into an area where the weapons fall. reporter: most air strikes are planned days, even weeks in advance, but right up until the last second a pilot can abort the mission if they see unusual activity on the ground. when something comes up and they see someone who they haven t identified on the ground, they know we re not going to drop that bomb and that bomb can wait maybe an hour, maybe another day, maybe another week. reporter: for the pilots on board it s a responsibility
thank you reporter: kenneth whitesell is a rear admiral in the u.s. navy s fifth fleet. he spoke to us while f-18s were taking off below. the war is very not a clean business. some of the times, you know, a motorcycle or a car can come into an area where the weapons fall. reporter: most air strikes are planned days, even weeks in advance. right up until the last second, a pilot can abort the mission if they see unusual activity on the ground. when something comes up and they see someone who they haven t identified on the ground, they know we re not going to drop that bomb. that bomb can wait maybe an hour, maybe another day, maybe another week. reporter: for the pilots on board, it s a responsibility weighing heavily on their shoulders. knowing their decisions can mean life and death. cnn, on board the uss george h.w. bush. you are watching cnn newsroom. still to come, a heartbreaking fight between doctors and parents for the right to decide a sick child s fate.
the u.s. military maintains that it takes, quote, extraordinary measures to mitigate the loss of civilian life. thank you. reporter: kenneth white is a rear admiral in the fleet. he spoke to us while f-18s were taking off below. war is not a clean business. and some of the times a motorcycle or a car can come into an area where the weapons fall. reporter: most air strikes are planned days, even weeks in advance. but right up until the last second, a pilot can abort the mission if they see unusual activity on the ground. when something comes up, and they see someone who they haven t identified on the ground that. know we re not going to drop that bomb. and that bomb can wait maybe an hour, maybe another day, maybe another week. reporter: for the pilots on board, it s a responsibility weighing heavily on their shoulders. knowing their decisions can mean life and death, muhammad lila, cnn, on board the uss george