syrian flag. who is, left, who is, who is pro assad? who are those people? what population are they drawn from? well, look these are people who have survived the seven year war in damascus and they re left with one option. that option is, support al assad. the joke in syria is that these events are sponsored by the anyone street of spontaneous events because they re so planned. syrian army shooting into crowds of funeral processions. and then the celebrations on behalf of the syrian president all while the syrian president had gone underground. likely he did so again tonight. but what you are seeing here, again, is this window now that is opened. where president assad, with the backing of the russians can spend the day now, using syrian state controlled tv, to declare victory when he didn t fight a battle overnight.
harvard educated lawyer, msnbc, national security analyst. jeremy, what is the light in which you are viewing the size and scope of tonight s strike, what it was, what it wasn t? brian, great that we worked with our al lies. great that it was, proportionate. but i am just struck by how narrow the target set was. we selected three targets. it was a one time shot. to use secretary mattis lingo from the podium. it was a one day operation. we could have used this opportunity in the parlance of the pentagon to, to not waste the crisis. and really degrade assad s military ability to wage war on his own people. instead what you saw was general dunford, chairman, secretary mmattsis showing restraint. wondering what was motivating that. what i am thinking about is
lot and still have people who will maintain what isis the credence of isis. so i think there is but that ideology takes root absolutely. where there is a government a vacuum of authority. and there will be a vacuum of authority. when it when and the american troops do pull out, we re going to leave it basically an open space for russia and iran who have vested interests there, both of whom support al assad to take root there. we re going to have it will be more space for more jihadist groups to grow and to develop. and also i think it just it is sending a signal that the u.s. is not go willing to be involved in the middle east and leaving it to saudi and israel to clean up this mess. and you re right to say, had assad not fired on his own people and later chemically gassed his own people, this wouldn t have happened or had we sent an early warning sign to him very early on and said, you will not get away with this.
allied commander, he says russia s involved in syria, equipment is deplying, anti-aircraft equipment, nothing to do with isis. what does it have something to do with? i think russia s feeling the power vacuum. we ve had a failure in foreign policy in the region. we have not dealt effectively with assad or isis, and i think mr. putin sees an opportunity to move back into the middle east since the first time really since the afghan war. and now we have the russian, iran, syrian geopolitical alliance. i think mr. putin has called checkmate now on the united states in this power move into the region. it s not surprising they ve worked out this intelligence cooperation with syria, support al assad s regime, or iran, for that matter what happen is surprising is that the iraqi government is part of this russian intelligence cooperation right now, despite all of the u.s. support, military
a lot of those in this country reflecting similar sectarian lines that exist inside syria. some support al assad and others against him. the concern is that if there s a military strike the violence in this country can explode as a result. this country has seen lebanon has seen car bombs, assassinations, many of them link and blamed on the conflict just across the border. and that s why you re seeing these types of spontaneous protests. many of them against either u.s. embassies like we saw on friday our today s out side the u.s. embassy borders inside beirut. thanks for the update. how will the air strikes on syria send a message to iran and hield iran respond? that s still ahead. i found ou. we ve made a decision. great, let s go get you set up. you need brushes. you should check out our workshops. push your color boundaries while staying well within your budget walls. i want to paint something else.