the briefers did not say which military platforms were used. i suspect we ll learn they were stand off weapons, no american troops were on the ground and no american troops in the skies over the targets. no american troops in harm s way, they were fired from fast attack submarines, naval destroyers or maybe some air launch cruise missiles from b-52s and b-1s. there were probably other planes in the sky, but for the most part no american was in harm s way tonight, although we when we go to war, brian, we go not as democrats or republicans we go as americans and pray for the safety of everybody involved. as we say, we had americans in the sky, if not directly over target, then as jeremy puts it, using the pentagon term of art, stand off aircraft, aircraft
how much assurance can you give us that this is going to do what the strike last year didn t do, which was to keep president assad from using chemical weapons again? nothing is certain in these kind of matters. but we used a little over double the number of weapons this year than we used last year. it was done on targets that we believed were selective to hurt the chemical weapons program. we confined it to the chemical weapons type targets. we were not out to expand this. we were precise but at the same time it was a heavy strike. mr. secretary, prior to the attack, how important was it to get the support from the allies, not only from an intelligence point of view, but also from the countries themselves? it s always important that we act internationally in a unified
to ignore the norm showing callous disregard for law by using chemical weapons to kill women, children. we find this inexcusable. as the president and chief, the president has the authority to use military force overseas to defend united states national interest. the united states has vital interest in diverting a worseni worsening can a strophe in syria. last year in response to a chemical weapons attack and to signal the regime to cease chemical weapons use, we targeted the military base. earlier today, president trump directed the u.s. military to conduct operations in concert
that means chlorine you had information confirming chlorine but not necessarily sarin, if you can clarify that? i m not aware of any specific actions that the syrians took to move chemical weapons in the last couple days. we re very confident that chlorine was used. we are not ruling out sarin right now. general, i d like to follow up on melissa s question about targets you first examined and then came down to the three tonight. it sounds like you went after facilities and not the actual weapons to minimize risk to civilians. in the targets that remain, could you characterize perhaps the ability to pursue, ramp up again and again have chemical weapons? i think it s too early to make that assessment right now. last question. thank you. did any russian defenses
absolutely. i think arleigh burke, who served the longest of any chief of naval operations, would be extremely proud. we ought to remember, brian, the flexibility of these naval forces. they can move 1,000 miles a day. they are highly, highly lethal. and very importantly these weapons are extremely precise. we can avoid significant collateral damage by using them because we always want to make sure that we are doing everything we can as secretary mattis said to reduce the chances of collateral damage, not only against the syrian civilians, but frankly against russian forces because the last thing we want here is an escalation of conflict between the united states and russia. admiral james stavridis, thank you so much for being with us. we always appreciate it. thank you, admiral. thank you. we are joined tonight as well by democratic congressman eric swalwell of the state of california.