how big of a development is this in the coalition s war against isis? i think we need to be careful in talking to this in terms of es c es claer to measure. this was done in defense of syrian democratic forces that the coalition was supporting and has been supporting on the ground. that is a commitment that coalition made a long time ago when we agreed to help the syrian democratic forces on the ground. we made it very clear publicly not just to them, but publicly that if they came under fire, if they come under attack, we would come to their defense. so this was a long-standing understanding between the coalition and the regime. two, i think you can look at this as potentially a deterrent attack. in other words, they had to do this but maybe it will have a deterrent effect on the regime. i don t see this as escalatory. how far up the chain of command would that decision have gone? i don t know since i am not