world. we re no locker the suckers, folks. and people aren t looking at us as suckers. deputy defense secretary patrick shanahan could be in the praise of acting for some time. the president clearly hinting at that. he s a boeing executive. not a lot of foreign policy experience. the president seems to like him and indeed praised him. hans nichols, thank you. let me bring in our guest. former security allied commander at nato. on set with me, our white house correspondent for the pbs news hour. and ginger gibson, reuters. thank you for being here. admiral, let me start with you. hans laid out some of the news the president made overseas. he is now back home. what do you make of his comments on syria? let s start with the macro