Facility as well as another site. So three sites were struck tonight. We just heard from secretary mattis. Heres what he said. Tonight, france, the United Kingdom and the United States took decisive action. Clearly, the assad regime did not get the message last year. General dunford said that syrian surface to air missiles had been engaged at the beginning of the air strikes. They, however, have not reported that there were any u. S. Or allied losses as a result of those Sam Missiles Being fired. There was no sign that the russians engaged in any way. General dunford said that the Deconfliction Hot Line was employed but the u. S. Did not give russia any advance warning
welcome and thank you all for your time tonight. Were told that u. S. Navy warships were used, also b1 bombers. Given your experience in the military, tell us about the capabilities of those two working together theyre impressive Capabili Capabiliti capabilities. The navy assets, of course, are really good at what they do. This sent an impressive message tonight, not just that the u. S. Is going to stand by its word and the president means what he says, which will alleviate a lot of conflict in the future. When he says something, people wont try to test him. But it sends a strong message to russia and iran that we are serious about standing up for good order in this world and standing with our allies, even
if you bluster. Let me bring you in here because i had a lengthy conversation with a senior gop lawmaker, very much a hawk on the hill, saying they were worried. They dont think the president s speech was strong enough. They dont think the strikes were broad and impressive enough to send a longterm message. Well, hopefully im sorry, jason. Sorry, shannon. Hopefully, what they did is actually did deplete the ability to deliver the Chemical Weapons. If we knew there were Chemical Weapons in those places, why Didnt We Go Preemptively Take That out . I think bringing in france and the uk does send the right message. It begs the question, where are our other partners . Where are places like germany . Why werent they with us . Mightily at german hands for the use of Chemical Weapons. So i just thought that was an interesting historic reference. But then he also mentioned the gulf states and their role in the coalition and what hes expecting now in terms of their participation in the nationbuilding aspect and the reconstruction aspect after we completely destroy isis and drive the rest of the syrian conflict to hopefully some type of broker negotiation. That was under the guise and in the context of the president wanting to get u. S. Soldiers out, to not get bogged down and spend more money and that hes clearly looking at the saudis and the other gulf states to step in there. Mmhm. So, dave, now as somebody who has served our country on the front lines, what does it mean to our Men And Women In Uniform . Theres been a lot of talk on
the hill and elsewhere about having a longterm strategy, that we need to understand, we already have boots on the ground there, what the longterm plan is for them . Do you think this administration has articulated that well enough . Do they owe more to the men and women there is this certainly they owe more on the longterm plan. They havent articulated that. What were very good at is tactical strikes and executing things like this. Were excellent at that. What were not good is articulating whats the end game with this, where do we go with it. I agree with this strike and where it sits. We go beyond that, and now were getting into, hey, start telling the American People and the soldiers fighting what youre fighting for. Like i said, weve been getting a number of reactions from capitol hill. There are republicans and democrats on both sides of this. What have your republican colleagues says this. These defensive sites are unconstitutional and reckless. Speaker ryan has completely abdicated one of his most important responsibilities. Where do you come down in this debate . Hes never supported frankly votes against the Defense Budgets every time it comes up. Hes not a promilitary person whatsoever. I come down. Our job in congress is to use money to make differences that way. But the president is Commander In Chief. And you have a lot of members in congress and the senate that want to feel extremely important, so they say there should be 535 commanders in chief, anytime the president does anything, we have to have a
say. Standing against the use of Chemical Weapons, the president acted reasonably outside of having to get congressional approval. What do you make of the role of israel in this whole thing . Thats their neighborhood. Theyre there. Weve been hearing that russian president putin has been reaching out this week. Theyre not going to stand with anything that would allow iran to encroach any closer on their territory. Whats their role tonight . Theyve united saudi arabia and israel. Its unbelievable how close they are in terms of their positioning on this. And you look at the proximity on israel. I guarantee you our political leaders are understanding that. Jordan is just to the east of israel. They are dealing with hundreds
of thousands of refugees. They too have a vested interest. They are great partners with the United States of america. And again, i think the president did a very Strategic Limited type of hit tonight. I think it was called for. I think it was right. But i do think it would be stronger long term if the president needs to have continuous action to get the support of congress and put people on the record. Make them vote on it. If theres a clear and president danger, the president should do whatever he needs to do. If theyre going to be sustained for a long period of time, show the world that the United States congress is behind the president. We hear fr from john mccain. He says to succeed in the long run, we need a comprehensive
strategy from syria and the region. Also the ongoing conflict in syria and malign russian influence in the region. But they alone will not achieve u. S. Objectives in the middle east. What does the president need to say to the American People or to congress to those points . Theres a few things there. If you look at how the targets were struck, its interesting that we went after not the air force. One, the syrians moving their air force assets to intermingle with the russians, to raise the bar there in terms of potential escalation. And then two, we are hearing the president wanted to make a much broader strike and stronger statement to stop the syrian capability once and for all, but
general mattis pushing back because he was concerned about russian escalation. To your point of where are we going with this more broadly, i think the administration has been clear that we need to, number one, defeat isis once and for all, but also set the conditions for the return of isis. The last thing we want to do is completely pull out and see isis 3. 0 go back. Were looking for others to take on that reconstruction role. But then the second part, to jasons point and to congressmans point, is what are we going to do more broadly about the syrian civil war. Were trying to drive that to a unbrokered resolution. I think we could see some type of potential power sharing arrangement. But the key there is assad must go. I cannot foresee some broad Power Sharing Agreement with assad still in place, given what he has done so brutally over the last five years. And i think everyones exactly right. We need to set that broader strategy, what are our goals, and drive towards it. I want to give you a chance to wrap up this panel before we check in in jerusalem. I think hes right when he talks about we need a broader strategy for the region. We dont know what that is, what our objectives are. And i dont think not hitting the russian pieces was intended just for russia. You dont want to weaken assad so the rebels become emboldened. So i think it was a cautious good strike. Well see what happens in the future. And we always know that when a leader is taken out, theres a vacuum situation, and that bears much caution. All right, thank you very much. Panel, if youll stay with us. Lets check in with mike. Hey, shannon. Right at the start of the strikes, a message came through the twitter account, saying, good souls will not be intimidated. The assessment of the damage is being done. Two of the targets struck were previously struck by the Israeli Air Force twice over the past couple of years, insinuating that they were struck with no effect. But the reporting is generally favorable to the assad regime. Syrian state tv is claiming that what was hit were Scientific Research centers. It was a total of three. And what weve heard from the pentagon is what theyre calling a Scientific Research center was
research and development for the Chemical Weapons. Weve got a claim from syrian state tv were the strikes were further north, what was hit was a Storage Facility. They claim that syrian air defenses did engage at the start of the strike. That was confirmed by the pentagon, who said there was activity. State tv claimed that 13 Tomahawk Missiles were shot out of the sky. That was not confirmed from the pentagon. In fact, we heard the surface to air defenses that engaged engaged to no effect of the there was no information that they were able to damage any of the u. S. Hardware. We have the first statement weve got out of israel. Its a reading, last year President Trump made clear that the use of Chemical Weapons crosses a red line. Tonight, we enforce that line. Syria continues to engage in and
provide a base for murderous actions, including those of iran that put its territory, forces, and leadership at risk. We also have a tweet from the Russian Ambassador to the u. S. , saying, such actions will not be left without consequences. Again, the sun is up. The assessment of the damage is beginning. And weve got information that loud speaker trucks are now driving around the neighborhoods in damascus blasting nationalist songs in the wake of the attack. As word of the strikes went public, we heard first from the president. He spoke live from the house. And then followed by mattis, dunford. So we want to give you a recap of what they all had to say tonight. My fellow americans, a short time ago, i ordered the United States armed forces to launch Precision Strikes on targets
associated with the Chemical Weapons capabilities of syrian dictator bashar alassad. A combined operation with the armed forces of france and the United Kingdom is now underway. The assad regime again deployed Chemical Weapons to slaughter innocent civilians, this time in the town of douma, near the syrian capital of damascus. These are not the actions of a man. They are crimes of a monster instead. Following the horrors of world war i a century ago, civilized nations joined together to ban chemical warfare. Chemical weapons are uniquely dangerous, not only because they infli inflict gruesome suffering, but because even small amounts are
unleash widespread devastation. The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread, and use of Chemical Weapons, establishing this deterrent is a Vital National security interest of the United States. The combined american, british, and french response to these atrocities will integrate all instruments of our National Power, military, economic, and diplomatic. We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian Regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents. I also have a message tonight for the two governments most responsible for supporting, equipping, and financing the criminal assad regime. To iran and to russia, i ask,
what kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children . Syria and the people have suffered terribly under the prolonged brutality of the ashad regime. On april 7th, the regime decided to again defy the norm of civilized people by using Chemical Weapons to murder women, children, and other innocents. We and our allies find these atrocities inexcusable. As our Commander In Chief, our president , has the authority to use Military Force overseas to defend important United States national interests, the United States has Vital National interest and specifically deterring the use and proliferation of chemical
weapons. All right, lets bring back our Military Experts and panel of analysts here. Dave, ill start with you. We talked about russias influence in the region there. And there have been times when we talked about being united with them and fighting isis and terror elements there. But they do have different interests in that region when it comes to assad and whether he stays or goes. They have a foothold that we allowed them to get. Theyre not going to give that up very easily. Iran is the same way. Now theyre trying to connect this crescent that goes through iraq over the land to lebanon so that they can counter or attack isai israel. We also have turkey. Youve got a lot going on. Well, and congressman, ill
bring you in here to talk about turkey and the fact that thats an important part of this whole conversation. Yeah. Turkeys important. Everything thats going on there is important. What you have right now in syria is this Resting Place of i dont want to use the term empires, but great and super powers, including you us. This is not the old soviet un n union. As mike pompeo mentioned the other day, we killed 200 russian mercenaries. We pushed back lethal weapons to ukraine. And my guess is, it is beyond what putin expected and now i would guess he wishes he never entered syria in the first place, but it will be hard to
extract himself. People saying that the president wanted to be much more aggressive in moving forward. And yet the generals were cautioning him. They dont want to escalate things with russia beyond any necessary point. Theyve done precision targeted strikes and yet some worry about the broader message to russia. The president not only called them and iran out tonight, he said this. He referenced 2013 and he said putin promised to guarantee the eliminate nation of these weapons. And basically said, this would not have happen, what happened last week, if putin had kept his word. Multiple ways in which the president is trying to put pressure on the russian leader. We were assured by john kerry that they didnt have these capabilities during the obama administration. So it wasnt even within the realm of possibility. But what is also i think very
striking is the change in the approach from donald trump. Just about a week ago, the president was talking about pulling out of our troops. And others were expressing concern, hey, do we really do that and leave that power vacuum there. Again, a very difficult situation on how to find that right balance. But think of the contrast between a week ago what President Trump was trying to do, which is bring our troops home, which is where i think his heart is, but then you see the problem in doing so and leaving a vacuum where the iranians and russians want to fill that vacuum. There are a lot of people who say the president just signalled days ago he was going to get us out of this mess in syria, and then this Chemical Weapons attack happens, drawing the u. S. Back in, knowing we cant look away from this. Theres some things you just cannot not get involved in, when were talking about innocent women and children and men being
attacked by their own leader. Why Would Assad Act in this way . We have our leaders on the record saying theyre convinced it was him, that he acted. France and the uk are saying the same. And let me give President Trump credit where its due. On the one hand, hes constantly being beat up for being soft on russia. This doesnt look soft on russia to me. Syria and assad is absolutely 100 a client state, a surrogate of russia. They are armed by the russians. Theyve russian equipment. They are trained by the russians. If putin wanted to stop this today, he could do so. So the president is rightly calling the russians out for this atrocity. He also gets beat up in the media and other places for not being a humanitarian and not
caring about humanity. And by all reports, multiple reports, he was incredibly emotionally moved by what was going on with this Chemical Attacks and the brutal suffering that people undergo, women and children. And yet the previous administration, obama did nothing. And then the third criticism you hear is that he doesnt listen to anyone. In this case, he wanted to take a much stronger stand and have a much broader strike, but his General Officer stepped in and urged caution, given the Escalation Potential with russia, and he listened to him. And we now have a very measured strike. Assad is a brutal thug that is using any weapon at his disposal. We have a genocide here that i think history will look back on second only to the holocaust. And i dont mean to be Hyp Hyperbolic by saying this. And just watching what happened over the scale of seven or eight years now, those numbers continue to grow. And in case youre just now joining us, were continuing in our Breaking News tonight. U. S. Military attacks on syria have been carried out, along with our allies in the uk and france. President trump spelled out the purpose in a prime Time White House address. He says these Precision Missile Strikes are meant to do one thing establish a global deterrent against the use of Chemical Weapons. They are convinced there is proof that assad has used them against his own people multiple times, including last week. Lets go back to jennifer griffin. Hi, shannon. Well, defense secretary mattis
joined britain and france in saying that he is certain that assad used Chemical Weapons on his own people. He said that he received the evidence of that yesterday. Defense secretary mattis was joined by chairman of the joint chiefs joe dunford. They spoke about one hour after the strikes began at 9 00 pm eastern. The strikes are over for now and involved three targets. A Scientific Research center in damascus. There was a chemical Storage Facility thats about a twohour drive north of damascus. It is also syrias Third Largest city. And the third site was a chemical Storage Facility. The goal, he said, was to stop Chemical Weapons use and the r d
and infrastructure was destroyed as a result. They lost expensive Chemical Weapons precursors and equipment. This was a onetime shot unless assad does not get the message. Clearly, the assad regime did not get the message last year. This time our allies and we have struck harder. Together, we have sent a clear message to assad and his murderous lieutenants, that they should not perpetrate another Chemical Weapons attack, for which they will be held accountable. British tornado war planes took off for cyprus. The u. S. Donald cook, a Navy Destroyer which had about 75 tomahawks on board, was also involved. About twice the munitions as last year were used to send the message. Heres what he said moments ago. The president has the authority to use Military Force overseas to defend important United States national interests. The United States has Vital National interest in diverting a Worsening Catastrophe in syria. General dunford said there were no reports of any allied losses. He also said that there was some initial surface to air Missile Activity from the Syrian Regime, none from the russian regime however. No russian air defenses seem to have been involved. There was no prenotification of the targets that were going to be struck to the russians, but general dunford did say that they did use the Deconfliction Hot Line. Theyve done so in the past. He said this wave of air strikes
is over. Mattis said, i am confident the Syrian Regime used Chemical Weapons. He said they were confident that chlorine had been used and possible sarin gas. Fox news was the first to report that b1 bombers were used in the strike as well. Chemical weapons facilities were the only targets. They wanted to minimize the civilian casualties. Thank you very much. And by the way, youre looking at live pictures there in syria as it is dawn there. The sun is coming up and folks are looking to see, and they will soon have more of an opportunity to see what happened overnight, what damage as been sustained. And well learn more, as we understand that it is dawning there in syria and well soon get a look at the results of the attacks coordinating in response to that Chemical Attack last weekend. Meanwhile, the president announcing the move tonight. Also, a couple of other shakeups on the National Security team this week. Well, shannon, great to see you. Remember, this president campaigned as someone who would not be an interventionist if elected. About a year ago, did in fact intervene in syria before all this because of another Chemical Weapons attack. At that time, the president saying the images he had seen on television and elsewhere led him to believe that that the assad regime needed to get a message tonight. Theyre getting a much stronger message. In fact, as we see damascus getting smacked. This president also talked a lot in the campaign and the early days of this administration about the fact that he felt president obama, his predecessor, made a big mistake by laying out that red line in
syria back in 2012, saying that if assad used Chemical Weapons, that would be a red line and the u. S. Would have to respond with action. When president obama did not follow through on that after assad used Chemical Weapons, donald trump as an outsider attacked him, has since brought that up in recent days again. Tonight, he tried to lay out his own rationale for why hes accusation acting now. Establishing this deterrent is a Vital National security interest of the United States. The combined american, british, and french response to these atrocities will integrate all instruments of our National Power military, economic, and diplomatic. You mentioned that new
National Security team. The small group of reporters say that john bolton along with sarah sanders, but that john bolton was reading along with the president , line by line to the side as he delivered those remarks. Contrast that with mattis, the defense secretary, who has been urging more caution. Well check back in shortly. Thank you very much. Theres been this ongoing debate about whether the president needs congressional authorization to do what hes done tonight in syria. Hes tracking all the response from both sides of the aisle. Paul ryan praised the United States military for taking decisive active in syria. We are resolved. His regimes unconscionable brutally cannot be tolerated. Pinpointed limited action to punish and deter assad from doing this again is appropriate. The lawmakers need more information to determine the scope and effectiveness on this action. The Commander In Chief must outline the mission. In syria today, we cannot answer those basic fundamental questions. So to have a Commander In Chief
who refuses to give that kind of guidance is a disservice to our country, our constitution, and to our troops on the ground. Now, House Speaker paul ryan has said he thinks the president has the authority under preexisting military authorizations. He says hes worried about tying the militaries hands when theyre facing threats around the globe, including groups like isis. Mattis made it clear yesterday that the administration doesnt feel they need the authority. I disagree. I think that the misreading of the constitution. I also think weve strained the 9 11 aumf to its breaking point. Ive got an idea, keep us here over the weekend. Congress is not expecting to be here over the weekend. Well see whether theres appetite to debate and ultimately vote or whether lawmakers prefer to look the other way and allow the Commander In Chief to do what he feels is necessary. Live for us on capitol hill tonight. Thank you, mike. Were getting reaction at this hour there now russia and syria. Theyve been called out. Iran as well, by this president. What are we hearing tonight . Yeah, absolutely. We were watching with reaction from the russian government. They claim these strikes are an attack against them. Syria right now is the Battle Ground for a number of different conflicts and a few proxy wars that are ongoing there. It will Russian Ambassador to the United States has just provided a statement. Again, we are being threatened. We warned that such actions will not be left without
consequences. Insulting the president of russia is unacceptable. Now, over the past several days, the uk, the u. S. , france, and others have fought with russia at the United Nations Security Council over there. Russia has denied it and blamed the British Government for staging it. The u. S. Says that russians enabled the Syrian Government to carry out these attacks. It also says it normalized Chemical Weapons use, which is the reason they push back in these manner. But just yesterday in his Senate Confirmation hearing, the secretary of state mike pompeo
knowledging publicly that the u. S. Military has already killed russians. Those russians were mercenaries fighting with forces there. Now, russian, iran, and turkey met last week to discuss the future of syrian. The iranian government has yet to react from this. But we are getting a tweet from the Syrian Government. This is a translation from the Associated Press saying, good souls will not be humiliated. While pompeo waits for his Confirmation Vote in the u. S. Senate, sullivan is down in peru at an international summit. Tonight at the state department. Thank you very much. Were going to take you back to our military and Government Experts so we can check in with
them. Thank you all for sticking around with us. There was a caution tonight from secretary of defense mattis. He said, we know that as The Sun Comes Up there and things are assessed, there will be a disinformation campaign. What do you expect to see . You expect to see the russians continuing to question whether the assad regime was responsible. I think youre going to see perhaps claims of civilian casualties. Youre going to also maybe even see claims of russians being harmed or killed. And then i would not be surprised if you also saw claims of american planes, british or french planes being shot down in this kind of boisterous display of russian and syrian prowess. Another point that i want to
make thats also watching this very closely as The Sun Comes Up, is north korea and kim parts and supplies moving from north korea into syria. Its Worth Remembering that the israelis bombed a Nuclear Reactor in syria. Well, and that brings me to his comments. In part, he says this. President trump opted to sustain the attacks if assad doesnt learn his lesson. They might want to learn the
easy way. So how much do you think, as michael talked about, this was a message beyond just syria . Well, i believe in the message of peace through strength. I think a strong United States of america, when you have a strong president who will actually do what he says, it makes a difference and makes the world more peaceful. Look at what happened with barack obama. He drew a red line, they went over it, and he did nothing and the world became less and less safe. You cant trust the russians. They went went into georgia. So you cant trust the russians. You have iranians who have nefarious intentions. We gave them over 100 billion in a ridiculous deal with iran. And now youve got President Trump, who is going to be viewed by the world, that he will
actually do what he says hes going to do. And that makes the world a safer place. No one wants to see the military action, but blame that on assad and those supporting him. And they need to know that donald trump will actually take action. Weve heard a lot of talk tonight about the fact that he campaigned about a lot of people voted for him on the fact that he would extricate from a lot of places overseas. Tonight he said this. He said, america does not seek an indefinite presence in syria under no circumstances. As other nations step up their contributions, we look forward to the day when we can bring our warriors home, and great warriors they are. You continue to be one of them. How important do you think that part of the message was tonight . I think its a good part of the message. We do want to get out of these places. We want the Afghan Government to stand up on its own and govern
itself and our men and women come home. We want to say in iraq and syria. Its interesting though, getting behind the desk of the oval office is a very sobering position. And sitting down and realizing that there are massive strategic objectives out there, that the United States plays a vital role in, is very sobering. And seeing in syria people choking to death on gas. That has a different impact on you when youre the president. Knowing that the iranians are on the doorstep of israel has a very sobering effect to you. And i think the president has responded very well to this burden of leadership. And america as a unique role to play. He said its a very troubled place in middle east. But america can go around and purge the whole world of evil. But the fate of the region lies in the hands of its own people. Absolutely. I love that quote, too. The fate of the region lies in the hands of its own people. They need to take some responsibility, or all of it, for their region. There seems to be a recurring theme here of our intervention, whether its the west europe or United States, is putting a different dynamic in place thats causing a lot of the chaos or at least contributing to it. So we need to try and extricate ourselves from it. The embassy here in the u. S. Saying we have warned that such actions will not will left without consequences. All responsibility for them rests with washington, london, and paris. But we know that they did all of the normal back channeling that you do when you have to deconflict and area. They said they didnt coordinate with the russians. But it sounds like we were very careful to make it clear to them, get your people out of there, get away from certain targets. We dont want to escalate this beyond what we have to. When you hear this from the russians, is it just talk to look tough with their own people . Do you think there is some understanding between these two powers . Were trying to keep this from turning into anything more than it has to be. They have a domestic audience as well. And putin is a master at and hes been playing maybe a pair of nines at best the last decade. The economys in shambles. Their military, except for a very small elite force, is antiquated and still in a
conscript, all draft force. This is a lot of bluff. But there are some very real considerations. And those were some of secretary mattiss concerns. We do have about 2,000 soldiers on the ground that we had to consider. We also had a number of ships out in the mediterranean, the russians in both their naval and their air bases now have put their most sophisticated Missile Systems that can project antidenial Territory Type of strategy where they can essentially push our ships and also our aircraft off with these Missile Systems. There was a lot to consider here. And thats where i thought you were getting some caution and secretary mattis putting his foot on the brakes a little bit. Please stick with us. I want to check in with kristen fisher. She is here now with more on how britain and france have gotten involved, what theyre saying tonight. President trump made it clear that the u. S. Is not going it alone in syria, that this is a coordinated effort with our allies. And the president has spoken repeatedly this week with may and macron and over the last 24 hours and 48 hours, theyve been mulling over their options. And all three are defending their decision to take military action. Macron said, the red line has been cross. So i ordered the French Armed Forces to intervene tonight as part of an International Operation and coalition with the United States of the network and the United Kingdom and directed at the clandestine chemical
arsenal of the Syrian Regime. She said it was not a decision that she took lightly. Shes received a lot of opposition to it. But she really didnt feel like she had a choice, that syria had crossed the line. And she put out a statement that said, there is no practical alternative to the use of force by the Syrian Regime. This is not about intervening in a civil car. It is about a limited and targeted strike. So from may to macron to secretary mattis at the pentagon, we are hearing that this is a limited targeted strike aimed at the assad regime and not at russia or iran. Back to our Military Experts now. Its interesting that were getting reaction from both sides of the aisle. Its kind of a mixed bag. Some who think that the
administration needs to be talking to congress for any further authorization. Chuck schumer is praising limited action to punish and deter him from doing this again. But he says hes cautioning the administration into getting us further into syria. And we know that the president has said thats something he doesnt want. Theres some conflict in some of the message. I can almost look at these as two separate events, our involvement in syria thats been ongoing with isis, and then a limited strike response to a Chemical Weapons usage. And i think if we separate those, lets get a handle on it and make this very measured, narrow, and welldefined this is about the Chemical Weapons. Its about syrias use. Everything else is a different problem set. They bleed over, but lets try and separate these for now. We need to have the larger
objectives. What are we trying to do . And there is a lot of dissonance on that. Theres been a lot of disagreement. There even was to the level of what this strike would be. Im sure youve heard much more of the inside chatter than i have. But it sounds like it was coming to a head with the president wanting to do something aggressive and his generals saying lets be precise about this. He has Great Respect for the military. Hes made that clear. But when it came down to it, it seems like this is potentially a compromise between the two. In the words of george w. Bush, ultimately the president is the decider. Its the president s decision. And i think that needs to be very clear here, too. I do want to talk about something quickly very broadly, which is the whole idea of syria. Theres a lot of talk about lets stay out of syria and not do anything. The reason isis exists right now is because of bashar alassads brutality. So i think this was a very important move by the president tonight, but long term, these are strategy talks that were going to have to have as americans. But theres no doubt that tonight it sucks to be russian because they got embarrassed and i think we made a very strong statement. Something else we heard from the pentagon tonight, mattis, who has been pressed this week to step up and say that this was assad using Chemical Weapons on his own people. He said that they are fairly confident that there was chlorine gas used, yes. Theyre not ruling out sarin. But for now he said this is a onetime strike. Well see if assad tries again with Chemical Weapons. And this was completely tied to the issue of Chemical Weapons and not any broader issues with
isis or anything else with ashad assads regime. Yeah, i do think we pour a lot of money in this country. The American People fund a lot of intelligence. This is where you have to have the very best intelligence. Youve got your satellites that are engaged. And then the Human Intelligence to make sure youre making the proper decision, that you know where those targets are. Sometimes its hard to see in the future when you spend literally billions of dollars to do that. If we knew about these three facilities before this Chemical Attack happened, why didnt we take it out before it was used . Assad has supposedly over the last year, there are 30 different accounts, some verified, some a little iffy,
where there were potentially Chemical Weapons used. Maybe what we ought to be doing is something a little bit more proactive. They dont even have that capable. Secretary john kerry told us they didnt have this capability, but obviously they did. Now we have a whole other situation. Michael, to you, russia and iran have put down some serious roots there. It has moved and it has metastasized. What is to be left of syria . How does this eventually come to any kind of resolution, political, military, or otherwise . Weve talked a lot tonight about russias involvement with syria. And i mentioned a while ago that the syrians are armed and particularly their military is largely aligned with russia both tactically, and from an equipment standpoint. But make no mistake. Iran is equally to blame here. And spiritually, particularly with the there is a close alignment, very close alignment with iran. There are weekly flights to damascus, some say even daily flights. Iran has its irgc and army on the ground, along with other militias that theyre shipping in from afghanistan and other parts of the middle east. I am absolutely thrilled to see the president explicitly call iran and russia out for this behavior and they are 100 responsible. How does all of this end and where does it go . I think we have to at some point, iran and russia have to be responsible actors theory and move this country and move this
conflict towards some type of peaceful resolution. But, dave, does that serve their interests . I think russia can be pragmatic. So russia can sit sl sit there and say, what am i going to gain and lose from this . Iran has established themselves on an their goal is to destroy israel. Thats not russias goal. Its to expand its influence in the region. So theyre looking at this as strategically positioning of their forces and expanding their influence. Iran, no. You can influence via stick only. And that could be economic, too. And, shannon, this is also key as were heading into key
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