the president feels a need to x ex-mae explain a military situation? clearly he is sensitive of how this is being perceived by the public. yes, and what was interesting is the secretary of defense came out in a statement this afternoon and said the strike had eliminated 20% of the operational syrian air force. that was much more specific information. because it was in some ways an in-your-face move by the russians and the syrians the next day to fly off the very same air base and to show th ththat, to try to show, anyway, the u.s. air strike had meant virtually nothing in terms of operational capabilities. so we re now into a confrontation of kind of competition now on who s really having the most impact and is the u.s. able to in any way confine or restrict syria s capabilities? is it do you find it odd that he s that the secretary of state is going to meet with sergey lavrov, defense ministry, headed to russia, and not meet with putin?