in syria, militarily, politically and economically, actually all the way back to the cold war. so they want to maintain their influence there. but what putin is really fighting for is for the right for assad to stay in power. the international community cannot force regime change in russia s estimation on assad. but the reality is this isn t going to be solved until we get rid of assad. if i could add to the conversation before i actually answer the question. yes. i think we have to get in in order to get out. i don t mean necessarily militarily. this strike was important because basically we were standing up to the principle that you do not use chemical weapons in warfare. that s illegal. and we want to strengthen the taboo so other countries don t follow russia. but the next thing we need to do, exactly as a congressman
president apparently is declaring mission accomplished following the strikes in syria over night. that is inviting immediate comparisons to george president bush s earlier and misplaced optimism about the invasion of iraq in 2003. here are the tweets. a perfectly executed strike last night thank you to france and united kingdom for their wisdom and power of their fine military. mission about accomplishing. there s the phrase. he follows that up so proud of our great military after the fully approved dollars, the finest that our country has ever had. there won t be anything or anyone even close. the words to when president bush declared the operations in iraq. the president as he talks about the very specific targeted strikes overnight apparently feels the use of the phrase is warranted. in part because he s getting backup from the pentagon. the pentagon had a press
u.s. officials contradicted russian claims that more than 70 coalition mills have been intercepted. these attacks on multiple axis were able to overwhelm the soviet system. and we have no indication that russian air defense systems were deployed. now, president trump tweeted this morning that it was a perfectly executed strike. he thanked france and the united kingdom adding it could not have had a better result. mission accomplished. the president of the united states tweeted, mission accomplished. tell that to the syrian opposition. tell that to the millions of syrians displaced from their homes. tell that to the millions of syrian refugees scattered around the world. we have nbc correspondents covering the story around the
the pentagon. so it wasn t a slow turnaround from the strike happening to the military, having a list of places they could potentially target. that step happened rapidly. what followed, and i believe the reason that we didn t have this strike until just now, which, of course, coincides with comey s book being released has more to do with differences in the pentagon and the national security council. remember, john bolton has recently started as the national security adviser. he appears to think about these matters related to syria quite differently than defense secretary mattis does. i don t see any evidence to indicate the timing of comey s book coming outside had anything to do with the strikes. the coincidence is certainly striking but i haven t seen evidence of a causal link there. there s condemnation from the left and right on these strikes. from the left, it s a strange condemnation that is there isn t strong enough evidence that the chemical attacks were perpetrated by the sy
not by consequenhemical weapons the government or by isis. we don t know what effect this strike has on them. there does not seem to be damage done to the syrian air force in large measure. and what happens next now that the president has tweeted mission accomplished. but set the table for us, what has happened? tactically, it was over a couple of missions. it was cruise missiles or jassms that were launched. three coalition partners. the syrian forces were engaged but they didn t start firing missiles until all of the effect. u.s. and ally-led missions took effect. the u.s. said that had no effect. but, ali, i want to talk a little symbolically what they think they achieved. they used air, sea, as well as a submarine from the east. and they made sure their allies