jonathan lemire is still with us. joining us now, former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst, steve rattner. president of the counsel on foreign relations, richard haass. the author of the book war of necessity, war of choice. you got a shoutout yesterday from the president yesterday about this war on necessity, war of choice nonsense. not nonsense. world war ii, the war of necessity. what putin is contemplating would be a war of choice. the president was sending messages to the russian people. willie geist, i think the conclusion of all of us around this table is that jon meacham couldn t have helped with the speech yesterday because soul of america was not in the speech. stop. but war of necessity, war of choice was. huh, richard. joe, how do we get our books plugged by the president of the united states? seems everybody else on morning joe gets their books in the presidential speeches.
richard, we can see over your solder your book there war of necessity, war of choice. i recommend people read it. it is extremely timely right now. thanks for being with us today. thanks to all of you for getting up way too early all week long. morning joe starts right now. good morning and welcome to morning joe. it is friday, march 4th. another day of blood shed across ukraine as russian forces lay siege to major cities, targeting civilian areas including residential buildings. i m going to talk for a second. that s the explosion after russian military strikes hit an apartment complex and two schools in the northern part of the country. local officials say at least 33 people were killed and 18 injured in the strikes while
injured is a sign of how tense things here are and that it s not just a question of militia fighters on the outskirts of baghdad but it s people, terrorists organized groups already in the capital and able to carry out actions. anderson cooper in baghdad, thank you. stay safe. we ve just heard the latest out of iraq now to break do you know how the u.s. should proceed is ambassador richard haass, president of the council on foreign relations and author of the book war of necessity, war of choice, a memoir of two iraq wars. richard, great to see you as always. start way report issued today by the progressive think tank. they re saying the u.s. should prepare for possible air strikes. this group center for american progress have a very close relationship with the white house. almost a revolving door of people there and working with the white house. do you think this is an indication of where the president is heading? look, at some point we re likely to do air strikes.
indeed. richard haass, author of war of necessity, war of choice, a memoir of two wars. thank you so much as always. coming up, a direct hit. two massive tornadoes ripping through one town. we are on the ground in nebraska where one resident tells us she hid in a bank vault as the building crumbled around her. plus, we re getting closer to the start of cnn s exclusive town hall with hillary clinton. nothing is off-limits. that s coming right up. thank ythank you for defendiyour sacrifice. and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance can be one of them. if you re a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life.
because we chose not to stop it. the list goes on and on of the threats that we have, that we have made to the iranians and so far no action. george schultz once said, his marine drill instructor told him never point a gun at somebody unless you re ready to pull a trigger. we keep pointing the gun. haven t pulled a single trigger yet. it s about time we did. what does that mean? here to talk about it with us, council on foreign relations, richard haass, also author of war of necessity, a war of choice. good to have you on the set with us this morning. along with mort zuckerman. john mccain, strong words. i would think his democrats might think his words are too severe. is it time to pull trigger on iran? show dancers know if you mean pull trigger, literally use force, we ve got time. they are experiencing difficulty on their centrifuge perhaps.