go to congress. that s one reason. the second reason is what happened in britain showed there s a lot of weariness about this intervention and if obama has congress onboard, this goes from being obama s intervention in syria to being the american intervention in syria. he gets stronger support because he has congress behind him if both houses pass this. there s a logical decision here. jack, to you. u.s. forces are primed for action in syria. the navy has five guided missile destroyers and missile launching submarine in the mediterranean. along with other assets in that region as well. the president is still calling for military action. let s listen to that. he has made the decision he believes we need to take a military strike but the military understands that whether that happens this week or next week is not going to make the difference with respect to sending the message. how do you think the president s decision to delay this is sitting with military
u.s. military look weak and intea ice issive. in term of the number of forces now in the eastern med, clearly, if this stretch out more than a week or so, they re going to have to start looking at rotating and relieving some of these ships already in there for some maintenance issues. so it is likely that we could see a temporary decrease in the number of five guided missile destroyers in the eastern med. now down to what had been a long term two destroyer patrol for some time there. in the vicinity of syria. and as far as general dempsey go, he was unaware of the president s decision until he showed up at the white house today. and as you mentioned, he is probably very relieved. because you know, he has all sorts of reservations about military action in syria. and now military official feel they have a little decision space to come up with a more thoughtful and thorough plan,
so it s likely that we could see a temporary decrease in the number of five guided missile destroyers in the eastern med now, down to what had been a long-term two destroyer patrol for some time there in the vicinity of syria. and as far as general dempsey goes, he was unaware of the president s decision until he showed up at the white house today. and as you mentioned, he is probably very relieved because, you know, he has all sorts of reservations about military action in syria. and now military officials feel they have a little decision space to come up with a more thoughtful and thorough plan, andrea. mik and colonel jack, i wanted to play a little bit of john kerry yesterday where he talks about the credibility of the u.s. being on the line. let s watch. it is directly related to our credibility and whether countries still believe the
could cause problems in syria. the next step will be for the white house to release a classified document detailing what they say is evidence that the syrian regime is responsible for a devastating chemical weapons attack in syria last week. that would lay the groundwork for what would likely be a wave of cruise miss ill strikes fired from missile destroyers on stand by off the coast of syria. the administration is making the case that would give the president cover if he bypasses congress. national security is strengthened we hold accountable those who violate international for norms that is the foundation of american security. at the same time the white house is clear this is not about regime changes, period.
aircraft, cruise missile strikes launched from navy destroyers, or submarines in the mediterranean. unmanned drone strikes are another option. another question before the president, deciding the best targets and best time to strike. we got that data from a great write-up you had on nbcnews.com overnight. what is the best option for the president right now, and what are the best targets? well, senior u.s. military officials are telling us out of all those options that are possible, the most likely and probably the only option that will be used is those four guided missile destroyers now in the eastern mediterranean. they ve got enough of those tomahawk missiles to take out the entire target list that is currently being circulated among u.s. military planners. we stress that the president has not yet made the decision, according to military and administration officials. but if and when, according to some officials, when he does, it