damascus. most likely the building wouldn t be as staffed as it would be at noon. but like i said, we re still waiting to hear exactly what it is that they struck and the kind of targets and also the assets that they used. we really don t know much from president trump. but i mean the one thing that i thought was also very interesting from his speech just now, from his statement was he specifically called out the fact that the regime has been using chemicals here. we have seen this regime target its people, target civilians for years. they use barrel bombs. they drop any coinkind of ordna. mortars. rockets, munitions on their people. but this was the line that president trump, he called here, he called it particularly gruesome when they attack their people with chemicals. and so you know, as i ve said, we ve seen yet another time that the u.s. military has responded. of course another thing that s very different from this attack, or from the response from last april of 2017 is this is
but against one air field, i think if you re in the white house you have to say, you make it bigger, for example, you get out of an air field and go after a regime target. make assad sit up. second big question, the russians know this is coming. what do they do, respond in kind in a way they are not anticipating? i think a red line is drawn. if they use chemical weapons the president has to hit the go button. go ahead. here s the question i have, and maybe you can answer. why do this publicly? this is a president who says he doesn t like to telegraph what he s thinking to anybody. would you ordinarily be letting the russians know in a different way that you re onto them, or is this something that s completely acceptable to do it in a public way? i think there s a couple reasons to do it publicly. number one, there is a potential, i suppose, the syrians say, we re not going to do this. number two, you limit casualties at the location, russian casualties, by saying if you guys are
term impact on changing the situation. it s more of a warning or kind of an attempt to do something as opposed to look like you re sitting around doing nothing. it s unclear whether if there is a strike tonight whether that would be it. it would be a one off thing and they move or if this is a sustained action. i think that s a difficult thing to rely on. again, we would be in striking a regime target or targets. we would be now entering into the civil war in a way we haven t done before. that changes the calculus not only for us and what we re trying to do in isis and syria, but it s going to change the calculus for players on the ground in syria, not to mention including the opposition group. the opposition groups who now may have certain expectations about u.s. military involvement that they haven t before. they ve been very frustrated in the past that we haven t been more coming in on their side through more lethal arms to
them. now we re going to be striking a regime target. that sends a different message to the opposition groups. are we going to be able to back that up and do more. if precision strikes are tempting and they can be very tactically effective. can they be strategically effective and what is your strategy going forward. you re going to have to adjust one way or the other. if the strike is conducted, it will change the calculus of what s going on in syria. the civil war as well as our strategy there. colonel, i think back to jordan launching air strikes against isis in the wake of what many in jordan considered their 9/11 which was multiple bombings at several hotels killing people at a wedding party and horrif horrifically one of the pilots went down and was captured by isis and burned to death in a
caught on tape. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. the politics of unemployment swirling today as president obama and the republicans try to spin the latest jobless numbers to their political advantage. while the president is highlighting new signs of economic strength, the republicans are spotlighting the unemployment level that remains unchanged despite solid job growth. cnn white house correspondent dan lothian has more in prince georges county in virginia. dan? reporter: wolf, the president came here today because he says rolls royce jet engines are helping to boost the economy. 140 new jobs expected here, another hundred at a plant in indiana. but it was also a chance for him to cheer the latest job numbers which he says proves the u.s. economy is on the right track. even though not everyone agrees. the u.s. employment picture is far from sunny. but the better than expected february job numbers seems to have pushed a few more dark clouds out of the way.