choreography that goes into a surprise visit like this. they pulled it off. thank you, catlin collins. we talk about the president today north of kabul, it s important to recognize the backdrop to the trip. it s the first time that president trump addressed members of the military since her is convened in the case of eddie gallagher and the first time since the firing of richard spencer, who just wrote this scorching op-ed in the washington post. let s have a bigger conversation with me now cnn pentagon correspondent barbara star and john kirby, who served as press secretary for the navy and pentagon. welcome to you. happy thanksgiving. and, barbara, we know that the president made a surprise trip to iraq last christmas. let me start with each view beginning with you, barbara, on the significance of today s trip well, look the troops always
says the north korean missile launched on tuesday most likely broke up on reentry into the earth s atmosphere. cnn s pentagon correspondent barbara star is following the story. this would seem to be a good sign pyongyang is still facing problems with the weapons problems. reporter: yeah. exactly right. what this tells us is that the north koreans still have a ways to go on their missile program. is it a threat? is it a concern? you bet. absolutely. the missile that they fired would have the theoretical capability if it worked. that is a very big deal. but a u.s. official is now telling us that the initial technical analysis is the missile test, the missile broke up on reentry. that means it was too hot. it couldn t with stand the pressure of coming back into the earth s atmosphere, which is so
command. senator mccann is saying they re not being up front. asked by reporters if congress should investigate the attack. they said he wants information it deserves and needs. he said you decide whether an investigation is needed or not. they re raising new questions about what happened. for more let s turn to pentagon correspondent barbara star. reporter: we are learning for the first time a contractor flew an aircraft after the fights died down to help evacuate american and nigerian dead and wounded. they are usually not armed and only go in when the fighting is over. it is not known what kind of communication that plane had with the french and also the americans, did they actually know how many people they were looking for to evacuate. because, of course, the big
isis. they will have 30 days, but we re at the six month mark, and that has yet to happen. let s bring in pentagon correspondent barbara star. president trump always said he doesn t like to reveal his plans. have we gotten any glimpse in his administration s new strategy to fight isis? well, there s been bits and pieces like arming rebels and working with opposition groups, but an overall comprehensive strategy, not at this point. and the president was here at the pentagon today in the tank with top officials for two hours discussing all of this. described to us as a chin-scratching session, walk around the world to look at all of the threats. the pentagon press secretary came out to brief us, offcamera, no surprise there, and what she told us that when it came to discussing pakistan, afghanistan, and the korean threat, the discussion was not needy, her words. little bit odd to know why the president was here for two
kim jong-un pressing president trump s buttons again by launching another missile test. the secretary warns a full scale war with north korea would be catastrophic. let s bring in our pentagon correspondent barbara star. update our viewers on the latest. tonight u.s. officials are telling me it may be time to stop calling these missile tests and call them what they are. north korea firing off missiles in hopes of some day soon being able to attack the united states. north korea fired its third ballistic missile in a little over two weeks. this time it travelled about 250 miles, splashing down off the coast of japan near where ships are stationed and operate.