don t necessarily need it? well, i think the difference is enormous. here is why. the department of justice told president obama, you need i think we need congressional approval. but do you know what happened? he never did it because by the time that we re ready to go, the russians intervened and claimed they convince bashir al assad to give up his chemical weapons. but it never went forward. this time it went forward and i think it s a real serious question. i agree that under war powers act of 1973 federal law, ultimately you have to go to congress. but, you know what? you ve got a 60-day window that the president essentially can do what he wants to do. whether or not he does it again remains to be seen. and so now you ve got different messaging coming from the u.s. ambassador to the u.n., who says, you know, there is more where that came from. right. the president and secretary were a bit more tep id, saying
this just might be one time. so then, richard, if there is another instinct by this president to do something, would that be the condition in which he would have to go to congress? we might have rost lost richard s signal. let me answer that question. again you have a 60-day window under that 1973 federal law. the president, theoretically, should go to congress now. because to declare war is a congressional function, not presidential. however the president saying, look, i m commander in chief. this is short of declaring war and, therefore, i m allowed to do it. the 1973 law, fredricka, says ultimately you have to go to question. that s the question. are we going to have more
struck by those cruise missiles. the russian view is that, yes, this increases tension, but not because of russia, not because of moscow or decisions being made here. as a result of an unjustified, illegal military operation, russia now takes the view that it must withdraw this pretty important area of cooperation between russian and american forces. it s a difficult argument made, at least from the u.s. perspective, as they have tracked those very syrian planes. phil black in moscow, thank you very much. fred, lot of big questions there and our viewers should remember that. u.s. and russian forces in very close proximity to each other over and on the ground in syria. yeah. people want a lot of answers and people want to hear what the strategy is. what is the plan. straight ahead. thanks so much, jim. still ahead, the u.s. bo bombarded a syrian airbase to send a message. the question is, was it received, and what was the
agreement that the united states and russia were party to, for removal of chemical weapons, furtherance of a treaty that they signed, in international law that says you cannot use chemical weapons. there is no legal justification of this. from a moral standpoint, absolutely, i agree with senator rubio, it was the right thing to do. president trump s doing this, finally waking up to the atrocities in syria is a good thing but he should not have done this without coming to congress. let s talk more about this. avery freeman, law professor in cleveland and richard herman, clinical professor joining us from vegas. you will not see him but hear him. avry, you first. president trump s decision to launch missiles against the assad regime without congressional approval legal or not? well, it wasn t legal. but here is the question. here is the analysis. the legal analysis not political. you look at article i.
in your view, russia is saying these u.s. airstrikes helped isis. do you agree with that? well, i mean, i think the american strike is a very limited strike, very targeted strike. it won t make a dent in the complex dynamics in syria. the question is not whether the trump administration has launched an attack against assad. so much blood on assad s hands. the question that trump has not told us is that does he have a strategy, a political roll back is he willing to engage in a sustainable matter in syria to find a solution to the blood bath that has exacted terrible, terrible costs on the syrian people, 400,000 people killed? with all due respect, mr. trump s attack does not change the dynamics in syria. we need a strategy. and so far we have no clarity at