on board, may take a few more days. so i am not convinced that this could happen within the next few hours. you are convinced there will be an attack? i m convinced there will be an attack i m just not prepared to say it will be right now. you talk about the buzz created by this. ambassador, i wonder if there s so if what marc is saying is correct that maybe this takes a few days, maybe even a few weeks before there s an attack. so much of what we ve heard is about the united states needs to follow through on this sho to s its word means something. every day there s a delay that story only seems to build. that s true but i think the president has almost certainly taken a decision. he ll probably await the preliminary report from the u.n. inspectors. that s only prudent. the only thing i think that could stop it would be some dramatic dramatically strategic effort on the syrians. it s never wise to assume a future course of action is absolutely etched in stone because we ve se
thank you for joining us. i ll start by an open question and feel free to speak up here if you think this, but is there anything right now, does anybody on this panel think anything could happen in the next few hours in the next day or two that would stop the united states from launching a military attack? does anybody think anything could change that at this point? yes. i mean, i could say there are several things. could very well be the president feels that for all of the reasoreason s at this particular second he does not want to launch this attack and yet he s reserving the right to. the element of surprise, whatever that may mean in the end has been lost here in so far as the syrians are concerned. there s nothing in my judgment that s going to change the equation between him now doing it today, tomorrow or two weeks from now. other than the fact that the media and the white house, frankly, has created this buzz that this attack is inevitable. the fact that the president is goin
control. so miriam, ed just mentioned russia. and that s a huge factor. we talk about how russia is blocking stands as this obstacle to the security council taking action. we just laid out the scenario. this attack does not force assad to rethink anything and there are more chemical attacks. is there a point where russia reconsiders its posture on syria? where it drops its support for assad you mean? sort of acknowledges the same chemical evidence the administration is now sort of promoting. i find that very unlikely. russia s position in the world in general is just to kind of be this force to stand up to the united states. i don t think that they are willing to go far enough to be part any of response to a u.s. attack on syria. however, it s in their interest to just kind of have america involved in this mess in the middle east for as long as it can and wants to see the u.s. bogged down. but it doesn t have the strength or the desire to really respond to the united states.
one of the senior commanders of the opposition said his groups were going to try and attempt and exploit or capitalize on the momentum. that may be created from a u.s. strike on syrian military facilities. but in terms of the syrian government coming out, they have remained defiant saying they will defend their territory but no indication of anything official in terms of movements, steve. ayman moyheldin in beirut. now for the latest on what president obama may be thinking, we kurn to kristen welker at the white house. what can you tell us from washington. reporter: good morning to you. i can tell you that administration officials will be briefing congressional republicans today as they continue to build their case. president obama has said that he hasn t made a final decision yet about how to proceed. but, look, the military has a plan in place. they have five navy destroyers in the mediterranean. submarines there ready to move in and attack, if that is what president obama, in fa
mere virtue of the domestic considerations inside syria. the fact the u.s. has laid this precedent, every time there s a significant chemical weapons attack, the u.s. now feels compelled to respond. that means the u.s. is drawn into yet another middle eastern war, arab war and muslim war in which we don t have support from the arab league or support from the u.n. or european allies which forces the u.s. again to be isolated and to be sucked into a middle eastern war. and the worst situation is that in the kwaquagmire that we crea we see jihadis become more powerful in the middle east. so the risks of attacking are extremely high and we re not paying enough attention, i think, the retaliation that we ll see from russia, hezbollah, iran, syria. we re just thinking by just attacking we re doing a job. we can retreat and say, oh, the president has kept his word. it s not only about keeping the president s word. the president will be forced to amplify and ramp up this war and create a mess