so you could confirm there is no leak into the air of course not. we ll do our best. general dunn ford when the service to air engaged did they become a target or other assets take out the targets? i m not aware of any response. we ll gather overnight. as you could imagine, we try to leave the united states central command alone because they are quite busy. we ll through the night gather the operational detail and be back tomorrow morning to provide that to you. last year you changed the force protection levels for the syrian troops and u.s. troops that were in syria. there are 2000 u.s. troops in syria. have you changed course protection levels based on potential responses from russia. as you could imagine, the commander always takes prudent measures in an environment they are in tonight. so they did make adjustments. and just to be clear on c
including urban infrastructure, a subject mr. president, of course, a lifetime of experience in. and the leadership you re showing on infrastructure in the united states is being admired around the world and australian companies and australian experience is there to help as you know and is already operating here, a number of our infrastructure players are very active in the u.s. we re obviously working to intensify our cooperation on digital trade. wilbur ross, steve trover, my frayed minister who s here today have made terrific progress in that regard. now, we turn to security. yesterday lindsey and i were with general dunn ford at the arlington national cemetery and we honored america s war dead, an australian airman who had died in combat in new guinea in
what happened to these four soldiers in niger. between his detailed remarks and the questions by the press corp., general dunnford did advance our understanding of what happened. at the time even the the senior senators didn t know we had troops in niger. general dunn ford confirmed there are troops in niger and more than anywhere else in africa. if lindsay graham and chuck schumer didn t know we had troop there is, you can guess the american public had no idea of that either. but general dunford made that
loyal you could be to the president s his reality. so i wouldn t be surprised if we continue to see more scandals, more explosion, more implosions in the coming weeks because it is the trump show and what trump says goes. so when we think, chris, about kelly and the credibility, that he uses in coming out, because it was just the week before that we ve seen kelly in there talking about not being fired and not quitting, and now we have him coming back out to talk about this issue, and going very personal. with that story of the loss of his own son in service to our nation, how he was informed by general dunn ford and it seems in telling that story to president trump and in that military way, the president tried to absorb that to use and cold call a stranger about the loss of a loved one and it just doesn t work the same way. well you know it was a real blunder by kelly and it suggests
the appropriate response from a military and a strategy perspective should be from the united states, what do you think? yeah. well, i think right now the trump team needs to be demonstrating some pretty nipple bell multi-lateral diplomacy. it s good that general dunn ford is making phone calls. rex tillerson needs to be doing the same with his counterparts. and of course the president of the united states needs to be heavily engaged as well. my concern is that, you know, in a time of crisis like this you have to have some agility. and with the west wing somewhat in turmoil right now, you know, you can t have a west wing in disarray at the same time you have a world in difficulties array t. so it s really important that the team now start looking at the full range of options that they have and how they could potentially sequence diplomacy, sanctions, pressure and military options in a way that s going to produce a result. so far this is a sophisticated issue, right? this has got