credibility is on the line, this is a horrific attack, the eighth such chemical weapons attack this year. so assad is operating with impunity. you have to respond to that but you also have to have a stronger comprehensive policy. you have to deal with the refugee crisis which is the greatest refugee crisis since 1945. 12 million of the 22.4 million syrians are homeless, either inside the country or out. we have been awall, joe, as you know, we haven t accepted any syrian refugees under president obama, he s determined to keep them out and there s an ethical responsibility we have and a strategic responsibility and we still haven t defeated the islamic state so we have to stay in syria and we want to be part of the calculation there when syria begins to be put back together again, we have effective control over eastern syria through the syrian kurds so you can see the pieces of a strategy. the president just hasn t put it together. it s interesting nick that nick confessore, that th
response, a strategic end game, a diplomatic plan that ultimately can possibly even partition syria and, joe, you re right, turkey is absolutely a key to this. and i conquer with you that ultimately turkey would line up with nato in an operation if they got safeguards for their border. and i think we could provide that. that s longer term. let s get through the initial steps here, but for god sake, let s have a long-term plan of where we re trying to go. hard to get clarity from the president, but bolton does start today, elise, and he has clear views on russia. well, i wonder how hawkish john bolton is going to push donald trump to be in this scenario. i m worried sitting around and all the options that are being bandied about, assume that donald trump wants to show american leadership. everything he s ever said about his foreign policy and how he envisions america s role in the world is retreat.
rwanda, for example, where we watched this train wreck almost in slow motion go on and on and on and on. let me tell you what s happening in the pentagon today. all night the j3, direct rat for operations has been building options for the president. the j5, the directory for plans and policies is working on the connectivity internationally. what we got to do is kind of get the interagency together, joe. so this is john bolton s big day, and his job as the national security adviser is to bring state and defense together along with the national security team to make decisions about are we going to move the carriers. our carriers are mispositioned, for example. we re going to have to look at are we going to give the president options for land-based strikes. are we going to use special forces? will cyber be incorporated? will israel be part of this? france has indicated the desire
other allies in. joe, i think that s about right. and i want to go back to the baba balkans 20 years. it included the use of military force, the hard power piece, but ultimately diplomacy and the soft power piece. the dayton accords, you ll remember those. ultimately we worked with russia, so that s the point i think steve ratner is on which is the right one what s the long-term strategic outcome we re looking for here? to go back to assad, ma loes vich, a butcher. initially he stayed. what finally happened to him? he died in a jail cell. eventually that will happen to assad as well. but we have to work our way from the inside out here. that means, i think, a military
just as well, the mets, just absolutely tearing it up. 7-1. richard haass new york yankees not doing quite so well, but at least you have stanton. how about the masters, joe. let s talk about golf. philip rucker, now, to the other news, how long will this continue? does donald trump feel like he has to keep general kelly on for the foreseeable future? is he keeping him on because general mattis wants him on? what s going on here. why hasn t he been fired already? well, joe, our reporting indicates that things are sort of a status quo lull for a little while. kelly has a very clear decline in his power and influence and credibility inside the white house, but there s no indication that he s actually going to resign and certainly no indication that trump is going to fire him. that could, of course, change