do senior officials in the obama administration agree with that? certainly none have voiced such a view publicly to the contrary. many see the geo political stakes involved here clearly defined by the looming presence of the greater regional power, syria s chief muslim ally, the islamic regime in iran. across the two plus years of civil war, they have supplied asad with cash, weapons and intelligence and over the last six months an influx of foreign fighters which has helped the regime gain the upper hand militarily over the syrian rebel forces. appearing on special report last night, retired army general cited the tehran factor. the strategic interest of the u.s. is a stable regime in syria, friendly to the united states as a buffer against the iranians. strategic objective here should
predicted. meanwhile, the white house has been reaching out systematically to lawmakers on capitol hill as is the norm before any sort of military strike. those leaders say they feel that they have been consulted but at this point, we re waiting a presentation of the intelligence that the administration has gathered as they make their case for a possible military strike against syria. jamie: serious stuff. thanks so much, jennifer. jon: so as the president weighs the options for military action in syria, some advice coming in on what the u.s. should do and president asad emerges as target number one. a foreign affairs columnist explains rationale for asassinating the president. the civilized world cannot tolerate it. it must demonstrate that the penalty for it will be acutely
dictator. you have the russians and the chinese who would give him support. there s no question that syria is a piece in a larger chess board and the king that we have to capture is iran. but they are the iranians are playing for high stakes and they ve sensed american weakness all along which is why they presented asad to the hit. the question is whether they re going to show the iranians that we have the will and the wherewithal to confront them in syria and potentially in time to confront them in their nuclear program. jon: very perilous times in the middle east. thanks for sharing your expertise. jamie: it s a very special day. all children, christ-men, gentiles and protestants and catholics will be able to join
inspectors heading back to the scene of the deadly poison gas attack as the united nations gets ready for its own showdown with syria with five permanent members of the security council now reviewing the british resolution condemning the asad government for the attack and pushing for authorization of military action. jamie: secretary general is pleading for more time for diplomacy. meantime, in syria, folks, they re now bracing for bombings. there s a division in the region about a possible strike with jordan making it clear it won t be launching for any attack and iran is warning of dire consequences as well saying an attack on syria would be catastrophic for the middle east and there s word that israel is calling up reservists in anticipation of a possible attack. turkey putting its armed forces on alert. here at home lawmakers are warning about the dangers of telegraphing our plans. you know, in all of these leaks, when the strikes are going to take place, where,
what s going to be used, if i were asad, i would declare tomorrow a snow day and keep everybody from work. this is crazy. these leaks are just crazy. jamie: national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon. you ve been working the story all night and this morning. the pentagon is in watch and wait mode. its warships and air force are standing by. they re ready but the timing of any strike now rests with the diplomats and the white house. u.s. envoy to syria indicated he would expect the u.s. to work through the u.n. i think i must say that i do know that this president obama and the u.s. information are not known to be trigger happy. when they decide, i don t know. the security council has to be