rocket fire on american forces in the region. the pentagon putting out a statement including this, saying, quote, the operation sends an unambiguous message. president biden will act to protect american coalition personnel. joining me to discuss phil mattingly and james clapper, former director of national intelligence. gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us. phil, i m going to start with you on the reporting. what do we know about the air strikes. we know from the pentagon these were retaliatory strikes. it was as you noted meant to send a message not just about the retaliation for the strikes but also about future protection for u.s. forces and coalition forces in the region. pentagon press secretary john kirby putting out a statement saying president biden s direction u.s. military forces conducted air strikes against infrastructure utilized by iranian backed military groups in syria. including consultation with coalition partners. we are being told by u.s. offici
militia that conducted the strikes. we allowed and encouraged the iraqis to investigate and develop intelligence and that was very helpful to us in refining the target. pentagon spokesman john kirby says this strike was done in conjunction and coordination with allies in the region. oren, what does this tell you about president biden s larger military strategy when it comes to the middle east? we know the big question for the biden administration is u.s. allies in the region is iran and how to handle iran. it s not just diplomatically with iran s nuclear program. it goes beyond that iran s ballistic missiles, actions in the region. the key focus is iran. certainly there are other questions when it comes to the middle east. what the biden administration will do when it comes to yemen, syria. but the overarching umbrella is iran, and that s where the focus will be. that s why this is so sensitive. it wasn t a large-scale massive strike. it looks like a small calculated