my charitable trust is just holding. i don't think the stock does much. i don't want it to be like microsoft where it does absolutely nothing. it's too cheap to sell, i just wish much more out of the company like a day after president obama's national address on sir area and nothing seems to have changed. there still is not enough support in congress for a military strike, syria is not going to hand over its chemical weapons to anybody, and unfortunately vladimir putin is in the diplomatic driver's seat. nothing is affecting the dow. it's up 135 points and inching to another all thyme. late breaking news, karl icahn is making a move on apple. this is a day to take pause and

remember the attacks 12 years ago. a day of heroes and a day of victims. most of all we must never forget and remember this, the terror war is still around and it's intensifying all over the world. these stories and more coming up on the kudlow report, beginning right now. good evening i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report". first up tonight congressional members still scratching their heads after president obama's speech last night. the president asked lawmakers to hold offer on authorizing air strikes against syria. take a listen. >> too early to tell whether this offer will succeed. any agreement must verify the assad regime keeps its commitments. but this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force particularly because russia is one of assad's

strongest allies. i have, therefore, asked the leaders of congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path. >> well, look, it's still hard for me to one that after the president last night made such a strong case for a military strike on syria, he did. then how can he go and ask everyone to sit, wait and postpone and authorizing vote which by the way in my view puts vladimir putin in the diplomatic drer's seat. let's talk about thi whole kind of odd story. i'm joined by an old friend, former push white house chief of staff andy card. also former ambassador to iraq and turkey that being jim jeffrey and stanley kurts. andy, i want to begin with you. i did not understand what happened last night. he made a great speech in parts.

he certainly made a strong case, i think. if he can't get his military vote now why didn't he encourage people to make a new resolution, there's a bunch of senators trying to make a new resolution. where didn't he try to make a deal. right now he's not in charge it looks like putin is in charge and that's not where the american president should be. >> i agree with you. i thought he made a very good case that bashar al assad is a bad guy doing bad things. and that the world should be outraged. but then he said i'm so outraged i'll ask everybody to step back for a while and postpone the vote and see if we can do something over the next course of time. the timeline for negotiating, finding chemical weapons is going to be a very long timeline, and i just think he gave bashar al assad a pass. >> that's the thing. mr. jeffrey, it's almost like, you know, i think putin is the big winner in this diplomatic dance if that's what is it.

i think that putin helps obama in a sense because obama would have lost the authorizing vote, yeah. but he's helping his old pal assad. putin is helping assad. i don't want to help assad. as andy card said, there's no to end this. u.n. dance will go on forever. no time tables. there'no nothing out there. so we're all just going to forget about this at some point and go home and meanwhile assad and his chemical warfare continues. how can the president let that happen? >> i think the president made a big mistake by asking congress to authorize a military action of the sort the united states has done dozens of times over the past 40, 50 yea witho ngressional thorizion. havi donehat he was in a tit fix bause itooked like as you said, larry, he wasn't going to get such envotes. so, therefore, with this offer that had been discussed behind the scenes bubbling up on monday the president decided he would hold off to see if there was any

possibility of actually pulling the chemical weapons out. now he has several possibilities, several options right now that i hope he chooses. one is to allow this negotiation to go on for a bit but time pose a timeline and to state he'll go back and reconsider using military force. >> that's a key points to impose a timeline. go to stanley kurts on that. so far as i know and identify not talked to senator john mccain. senator mccain and chuck chumper and others are trying to make up a new authorizing resolution that will have a timetable and it will be bipartisan. that's what they are trying to do. i don't see the president encouraging that. without a timeline, these so-called negotiations with putin and syria will go on forever, stanley, and the winner of that game is assad with his chemical weapons. what can to be done about this? >> president obama is coming from a different place than senator mccain and just about

everybody else. president obama is strongly influenced by the thought of samantha power our united nations ambassador and long time adviser to barack obama. and power has always advocated very narrowly targeted interventions focused on humanitarian ends and the trouble with that is it's almost impossible to separate a humanitarian intervention from the larger national security situation, so either you end up doing too little, you leave all the bad actors like assad in place or you do more than you want to do and you end up getting into trouble for regime change and obama is stuck in the middle because he's following this new philosophy of humanitarian intervention. >> he put himself in the middle. look, i don't know if this issue of humanitarian change. all i know is chemical weapons are bad. chemical warfare is bad. weapons of mass destruction is bad. you can't just stand by the united states and let them slaughter people left and right

including little kids. i disagree with you. i think that was the best part of obama's speech last night and i think he did a very convincing job. what he didn't do is ask for some working together of democrats and republicans to put an authorization, a resolution together that would authorize him to have a timetable, for example, and then to embark on military action if we can't get th so-called syrn effort. i mean, anley, ihink that's what you're missing here. this is only because the president has put himself in this box. >> well i agree he's put himself in this spot. it's because he has this philosophy. i don't necessarily hold with the people looking for regime change but i agree if you go in maybe that's how you have to do it. obama, the interesting thing about obama is agree or disagree people need to understand that he has a philosophy that is truly different and that explains why he's gotten caught in this middle place, why as you say he's put himself in this

situation because he doesn't believe in regime change he believes in these narrowly targeted humanitarian goals. >> andy card, look george bush went to congress, went for iraq and afghanistan. and they were tough battles but he won. i know this is different than iraq and different from afghanistan. that doesn't trouble me. what does trouble me obama doesn't want to bring anybody together. he's going say i lose this vote. i lose this vote it will cost the rest of my presidency. i don't want a vote. andy card, i don't think that's any way to run that white house. >> i'll back up further. i think president obama has telegraphed weakness not only to the world, but specifically to bashar al assad. he's said even if we do something militarily it's going to be very small, very targeted, and all right that might be good but why are you telling the enemy what your response is

going to be. i would think president obama should be number one, respected by the world. number two, feared by america's enemies. and i don't think he came out of this speech with greater respect and i don't think that he introduced fear to bashar al assad. i think right now the situation in syria is one where the united states is a second tier player. the russians are the dominant player right now. that's never good for the united states of america. in fact, it hasn't happened really since the early days of world war ii. we're less significant in the diplomatic solution part of the equation over there and that's not good. >> that's what i keep saying. one of the spill over effects, one of the knock off effects is vladimir putin is in the diplomatic driver's seat and i don't mean just worldwide, the middle east too as well as the united nations. james jeffrey you served a lot

of time there in the middle east as an ambassador. what do you honestly think in your heart of hearts about this so-called deal that assad will turn over his chemical weapons, the u.n. or some international commission is going to take them and dismantle them and kill them. i want to add to this, putin is insisting there be no military action of any sort involved in this. either by the united states or by the u.n.. what do you think about that? >> well let's start with mr. putin doesn't decide when or whether the united states uses force ever anywhere, first of all. that has to be made very clear. secondly, i think that this deal under the circumstances, the president got himself into a deep hole. as andy card knows from when we served together in the bush administration, all presidents do this. he's trying to get out. is this best option right now but the president has to go on the offensive, maintain momentum, lay down new criteria such as if c.w., chemical weapons are used again he'll

strike immediately. or ask the congress to actually take action. he pointed to that. sure he's moved by humanitarian interests but twice on saturday and again last night he stressed american national security interests and that's what he should be focusing the american people on because that's what's at stake here. >> okay. i'll have to leave it. my final cap on this, the president doesn't work well with congress. here's another example where he can be putting an authorization, a new resolution together. you got very distinguished united states senators on both sides of the aisle trying do that. that would put a timetable in there. that would authorize him to take military force. that would give obama, i think, some toughness and some strength to go to the negotiating table but he's not doing it. i think that's a shame. that's why this whole thing is a farce. what do i know. andy card will rejoin us later to discuss the 9/11 remembrance.

right now, august housing numbers may show a very big decline. we'll have to take a closer look at that. later on there's a nice rally we're having. all three days this week we've seen triple-digit gains for the dow and the syrian news isn't the only reason why. we'll take a look at what's driving stocks up and free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. there's not enough of it in the middle east. hardly any of it. i'm kudlow. we'll be right back. building animatronics is all about getting things to work together. the timing, the actions, the reactions. everything has to synch up. my expenses are no different. receipt match from american express synchronizes your business expenses. just shoot your business card receipts

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all right. we're going to get a reality check now on real estate. big banks are warning of a housing slow down, wells fargo, jpmorgan, bank of america have cut significant number of jobs and are predicting a sharp decline in their home loan businesses. so are mortgage lenders and home buyers feeling the ripple effects of rising interest rates. here's the chairman of connect bank one and mark fleming. mark fleming, let me begin with you. very disturbing story in the "wall street journal" today. new home sales not so august. that means the august numbers

aren't very good. what they reported is certain surveys and you may be more familiar with this are showing that the traffic for looking at both new and existing homes, you know, the potential home buyer traffic has really slowed down. i'll get to refis and applications later. sheer traffic looks like a down town in august. is that true? how important is it >> i guess it depends. typically you have a downturn in august because people focus on going back to school and things that happen in september in society. house is a very cyclical process. you expect a slow down to happen in terms of people looking to buy homes at this time of year. rates, maybe are having an impact certainly on the new home side more so than the existing but it was a seasonally adjusted number or not to dig into it. >> frank, just on this article, i don't know what you're seeing, john burns real estate consulting firm in irvine, california.

they say respondents sales of new homes declined by 4% in august from a month earlier and in past years august typically has yielded a 2% gain. that this is one of the reasons why we're seeing this collapse in refis and mortgage application. >> larry, i don't think one month makes a trend. the year of 2013 has been very good for house. housing will don't good. we're seeing an uptick at our bank in construction lending. the economy is healing. people are feeling better. this talk about rising interest rates, issue get it, i under it, interest rates are up 100 basis points sore. when i got married my first morning was at 13.75%. we're sitting here with a 30 year mortgage at 4.5 won't derail the housing industry. >> it may not. mortgages have gone up 120 basis points, 4.08%. but we have a chart, i want to

show the refinancing chart. all right. there's your fixed mortgage rate that's jumped up in the last couple of months. there. mortgage refi applications have collapsed. they are down about 70% from this spring. 70%. mark fleming what does that mean, the refis are directly tied to the jump in interest rates? >> that's right. i mean, i agree with frank. it's much more a story about the mortgage industry and mortgage rates as it is the housing market. that's where you're seeing big decline. rates have gone up and fewer people are in the money, would make sense for them to refi their existing loans. we didn't expect that to happen so quickly. we knew it was coming. it came faster than we expected and we just needed the demand and purchase market to grow. >> wouldn't you agree at some point everybody refinanced -- how many times will we refinance the same mortgage. at some point the string runs out. you can't keep refinancing

everyone. there are people that have refinanced their mortgages two and three times and the interesting thing about the refinance mortgage it's a zero sum game. it has no economic benefit because even the people who benefit from the lower interest rates, there's an offset. >> what about the other side, gentlemen? mark, let me just ask you this, home purchase mortgage, okay, that's the other side. they are off slightly. we have a chart of this too. they are off not the way refis are but they are dipping down in the spring and summer. now, is that a problem? this is where the rubber meets the road. this is the actual purchase avenue home. is this going to be a problem? is that line going to don't fall? >> no. there's some response, obviously in the market on the purchase side to a moderate rate increase. frank said it best, rates have been higher in the past and will be a lot higher in the future. so there's a modest -- people are adjusting.

they adjust their behavior. you bring a slightly larger down payment, you buy less house instead of buying the bigger house. it's not that people participate they participate less so. >> you don't think the housing rally is over? in other words -- >> no. >> major increase in housing which has helped gdp recently in recent quarters you don't think that's over? >> no. struck starts which is the big component of the housing market that drives gdp while it's still historically so that's got to increase, demographic trends, everything points to the housing market growing in the future. maybe not as fast as it has but it will continue to grow. >> i agree. i also don't believe that the rise in interest rates that occurred 60 days ago already impacted the number from the spring, right? so it takes 60, 90, 120 days to get a mortgage to fruition to close. so those numbers you see -- >> these banks, wells fargo,

jpmorgan, that's a leading indicator. >> applications have dropped off. >> if the applications have dropped off, mostly for refis, buying a house, that's a foreboegd of a much slowing housing market. >> i don't think we're asking the right question. you ask those bankers, including jpmorgan and wells fargo they would tell you there's stability or increasing applications on the purchasing side. however, they have built enormous businesses to take advantage. >> that's why they are cutting back. >> right. >> all right, gentlemen. >> you can take a different argument and say we need a slow down in demand. that will cool off the price gains. >> you know, mark, that's a very sensible poichbt view. my whole problem is i don't like to see slow downs. i want growth, growth, growth. i want the economy to grow at four, five, six, seven percent including housing. >> you won't have 3.5% and 4%

interest rates. >> i don't have to worry about the rates with enough income. thank you. i appreciate it. oh, by the way, i thit repohatet this, anthony weiner and elliot spitz certificate got whooped in the primary. will they do us a favor and get out of politics now? and development. some new members of the team will be introduced. the chairman emeritus will distribute his usual wisdom. and you? well, you're the chief life officer. you just need the right professional to help you take charge. ♪

>> republican leaders in the house delay a vote on a key budget bill. >> reporter: the votes on the continuing resolution to keep the government funded won't happen until next week at the earliest. it didn't have full support from the republicans because some believe it's not tough enough. it would for the senate to defund obama care which would get voted down because democrats have a 55 seat majority. moving on to amtrak. damage to its overhead power system caused a big shutdown on the east coast today. initially service between washington and philadelphia was suspended but it has now been restored. still amtrak said expect delays. how the overhead wire system got damaged is not known. they called it 2 million bike towers d.c. and though it didn't quite get 2 million the streets of d.c. were full with motorcycles this afternoon. ride became controversial when it was denied a permit for a

police escort. but a muslim group claiming unfair treatment since 9/11 was given permission to rally on the mall today. last week the voters of new york city were not ready to forgive and forget elliott spitzer losing the democratic primary for new york city comptroller but he got 48% of the vote. anthony weiner only got 5% in the race for mayor. larry? >> sexual bad boys that's the way he'll leave it and say this, new yorkers are very intelligent people democrats included. thank you very much. now, of course, we remember the terrible atrocities of september 11th. andrew card will rejoin us and talk about his experience. we'll talk to the man who ran new york's fbi office at the time of the fateful attacks. that's up next on the kudlow report. [ male announcer ] let's say you pay your guy around 2% to manage your money.

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welcome back to "the kudlow report". i'm larry kudlow. in this half hour make it three days in a row, triple-digit gains for the dow and after the "closing bell" today, karl icahn

made some big news on apple. we'll have the latest on that in a little while. later, we'll also look at the impossibility of syria handing over its chemical weapons in a verifiable way. but first up, this is a somber day of remembrance across the country. 12 years after a tragic terrorist attack on our nation, we'll never forget the near 3,000 victims of september 11th. i just want to ask, to we understand that the war against terror is not only still raging, but with syria and all the middle east strife going on, that war is intensifying as a threat to the united states. now, let's bring in don clark who was the former fbi special agent in charge of the new york and houston divisions and we're back with former white house chief of staff for president george w. bush, andy card. andy, begin with you. there's a very, very famous picture when you and the

president are in florida at the school and you were whispering in president bush's ear. i don't honestly know the answer to that kpp you share to us what were you whispering to him. >> when i walked into the president he already knew a small twin engine prop plane crashed into one of the trade centers. that was the information he was given. obviously that was not accurate. the person who came up to me and said it wasn't a small twin plane it was a commercial jetliner and that person came back and said oh, my gosh a second plane hit the other tower. and i had to make a decision to give the information to the president. i passed on two facts one editorial comment and i said a second plane hit the second tower, america is under attack. the most significant thing is that president bush reacted the right way. he didn't do anything to introduce fear to the very young second graders that were in the classroom. he didn't do anything to demonstrate fear to the media. the immediate where a would have shown i want all around the

world and the terrorist wos have been thrilled. instead the president sat there and i think he focused on his responsibilities as president of the united states to preserve, protect and defend and, yes, the war on terror was declared that day by the terrorists, and i think the war on terror is still going on, unfortunately, i'm not sure people in america are acknowledging that we are still in a war. >> i want to get to that in a minute and bring don clark in. one more quick followup. you mentioned you gave the president a facts and made an editorial comment. at what point did you realize that these were terrorist attacks not accidents but actual terrorist attacks? what point was it? >> as soon as i heard about the second plane crashing in to the world trade center i knew it wasn't coincidence. i knew it was a terrorist attack and my mind went to three

initials, ubl. that's what we called osama bin laden at the time. and i knew about the attack on the world trade center in 1992. that was orchestrated by osama bin laden. so, yes, i knew that the al qaeda network was going to be the terrorist agent that would be challenging the united states as terrorists and there's no one to negotiate with. there's notation state that oversees the al qaeda network. >> all right. thank you for all that. don clark welcome back. don, i want to read a brief quote from the police chief ray kelly our top cop in new york who set up such a fantastic counter terror operation. this was a speech he made two days ago. the threat of terrorism is greater today, is as great if not great are today than it was before the world trade center was destroyed. all right. if not greater today, it may be. i want to ask you if you agree with him and i want to ask you if you think most americans would agree with ray kelly?

>> well, i certainly agree with that statement that ray kelly made and having worked with him for a lot of years in a know how he feels about this type of activity because we've all been it before and so, no, it's by no means the americans or any other country actually can sit back and say it's over, that's happened and it's not going to happen again. we have to continue. i mean if we just look at the activities that we hear about and see some of them that's happening continuously, we know that it's going on and i think what people really need to think about too is that just that's we were caught so offguard back 12 years ago, rest assured we don't ever want to be caught offguard like that again so we as citizens and certainly law enforcement and fbis and all the

other investigative agencies that's going secure this country has to continue to keep going to make sure it doesn't happen. >> absolutely. but i think it's funny, there are very few visible public people like police commissioner kelly who make the points that he made and that you're making right now. very few. andy card, i don't want to name names it's not a night for that. but there are some people in washington in recent years that said there's no terror war or the terror war is over and one of the things i want to get to is another statement that ray kelly made. he said particularly in view of what's going on in syria as well as elsewhere in the middle east, why these people are going to come back if they get out to the united states. they will come to new york city and other cities. and it's going to be nothing but trouble and that is -- after the boston marathon bombing and so

forth, that's the kind of thing, andy card, that trouble me that people may be complacent. >> well, although i would say -- i don't see the situation in syria right now as representing an imthminent danger to the unid states of america. there's some challenge to our international interests and our national security interests, and quite frankly i think president obama has exacerbated that problem because he's allowed towers take leadership roles. but i don't see the imminent threat in bashar al assad's activities to the united states of america that i saw, for example, from saddam hussein or certainly that we saw from the al qaeda network. >> look. what ray kelly was saying is there is an al qaeda network of some kind or other jihadists in syria and i think that's fair. i think some of the rebels, a big faction of the rebels are either al qaeda or related to al qaeda. what kelly is saying, we better

watch out. they may be coming our way. that's what he's saying. we've already had lots of issues here. that's the key point. >> what i do believe is that the iranians are playing mischief in syria. they have been for a long time but they have been energized and one of the big mistakes that was made by the united states is not having a status of force agreement with the iraqis so we had a base in iraq that would prevent the iranians shipping stuff across iraq into syria in supporting bashar al assad. i also don't like the fact in reality that some of the rebel groups are clearly tied to extremist muslim groups including al qaeda. and we don't want them to have access to any chemical weapons. they would love to get those chemical weapons. but we also don't want them to be in charge of syria. so, i do think there are national security interest there's. right now the civil war taking place in syria doesn't represent an imminent danger to the united states of america. >> don clark, let me just come

back. you were a special fbi agent ran the new york office, ran the houston office. i want to ask you frankly, honestly, the department of homeland security which was created after 9/11, is it working? in your judgment is the fbi, for example, working with the police and, you know, state and local authorities the way they should be? is the counter terrorist operation up to speed? that's what i'm really asking you, don clark as a former senior fbi agent. >> you know, larry, that's a good question and i'll tell you and i'll tell you this not because i was a part of that organization for a thousand quarters so to speak, but nonetheless is that yes i do think that it's working. and what really makes me feel good about the government, all of the government entities not just the fbi, the fbi clearly has been the lead in these types of things because it has the resources and a lot of other aspects to go along but there are a lot of good police departments that who understand

and realize that the terrorist attack that happened 12 years ago could happen again, and if we look at just listen at the news and look at the activities, listen to the activities that's going on around the world today, if we think for a moment that we can say that that's over with, we don't ever have to worry about it again, then shame on us because that's not the case. >> that's one of many reasons why we must never forget. i appreciate it very much. andrew card great to see you. appreciate it. don clark thank you again for sharing. today, we mark the 9/11 remembrance where we honor bravery and heroism but also mourn the tragic loss of the victims. "the kudlow report" will be right back. ♪

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into negative territory. then we got some good news for the american economy. the latest survey, small business survey shows 16% of small business owners plan to add jobs in the next 12 months. so on that note we welcome successful small businessman paul trevell. and our pal larry mcdonald newedge senior vice president. before we get to the clothing which is really much more interesting to me, larry mcdonald i want to ask you, karl icahn going into apple in a big way. what do you make of that. why is he doing that. will he stay in or make a quick buck? >> he sees value here. apple has been through a lot. the stock has made a brilliant rally into a product launch and the last couple of times actually slightly rolled over after the product launch. the trend in the last year is the stock has rallied brilliantly into a launch and

then karl was in there today supporting the stock. >> up think he's in there for the buy back, does he think there's going buy back. >> if you remember, i was on the show back in april when apple announced that big bond deal. the reason was the stosks attractive to buy is because there's a bond floor forming in. two things. apple pay as dividend which i think will be increased and the company will buy back a lot of stock so those two, those two factors are massive positives that actually form a little bit of a bond like floor into the equity. >> that's good. paul, if you have a stock market opinion feel free. when did you start your clothing company? >> we started about 3 1/2 years ago. >> it's not been the greatest time start. >> a risky time to start a luxury shirt maker. somebody said we should make about your lap shirts since we were starting at the bottom of the market. we've created a business that focused on quality and value. >> who do you compete with?

>> we compete with handful of different brands. early on we brought a lot of people from canalli. now we're seeing a surge from the berkshire brothers. i'll spend $30 or $40 on something that fits better and lasts longer. >> you know, we've been growing at 2% and there's a lot of complaining out there. and employment has been, you know, very soft and anemic and so forth. my question to you is as an entrepreneur who started this thing what was it like? how did you do it? did you get discouraged sometimes? you read the newspaper you can kill yourself if you're in business today. >> it was a tough time to go into business but it created a lot of opportunity for us. you get things at almost half price when nobody sells in the market. from a customer standpoint we came in, we're mostly an online

business. we're selling shares in a convenient way. people looked around and said i'm used to buying nice things. why am i paying $400 for this dress shirt. tried it and loved us. we've seeing growth at 150% year-on-year. we're up to 15,000 plus customers. that's because people are coming back and liking the product. >> that's the spirit of entrepreneurship. larry mcdonald, can i talk one second about china. china numbers coming in better than people thought. we had a whole string of them. you tell me if you agree or not. i posit that's helping emerging markets, helping europe and helping the american stock market as well. in fact may be helping the price of oil and other commodities. what's your take? >> i completely agree, but you have to remember this is a great commodity super cycle unwind. >> still. >> in other words, china has had a number of head fake rallies.

there was one back last fall where you have these brilliant rally, rise in commodity prices only to suffer a decline later on. one thing that we see, i credit this index in my 17 lehman brothers risk indicators and i know we have the fifth anniversary coming up but the systemic risk around the world, the epicenter of risk was the united states in 2012. now going forward i see clear signs of systemic risk in asia coming from china so this is a short-lived rally. i would be shorting the emerging market. >> you would be getting out stocks. syria is off the table now. and fed, all that -- if they do anything 10 or 15 billion slower bond purchases that's in the market. >> yeah. >> so that's all in the market. you're worried, let's just get this story right. you're a bear, because you're worried that big risk out of

china is going to undermine this rally. >> yes. i think over the next month or so that will play out. we don't know how long this rami will last. it's been a wonderful rally. we're up from 1631 or so on the s&p, close to 1690, near the hives 1710. over the next couple of months, the china weakness -- china weakness will come back to the forefront. >> paul, your going to expand? >> we are. >> what's your game plan. >> we've been expanding in shirts, also coordination with blazers and ties but with people. we brought on eight people in the last six no, sir prepare for what's coming up in the fourth quarter. >> do you sell more in the richmond store or online or -- >> we are 98% online. we really are an online business because that's the most convenient way men like to shop. we're testing pop up stores now where we go in and test empty

retail spaces. people get to touch and feel the shirts. that's great. we're doing a lot of different ways to touch the customer. >> all right. one thing, 20 seconds. if you can wave a magic wand how can the federal government possibly help you? anything? >> you know, for us, like most entrepreneurs we put our head down and fiscal and monetary policy very little to the decision-making process to what we do day in and day out. take care of the problems. hand tell challenges you have to do in small business and that's what we expect from the federal government. >> thank you very much. good luck on your story. now, we're going to take a look at the virtual impossibility of bashar al assad actually handing over his chemical weapons in a timely fashion. we have general barry maccaffery who will explain it all to us coming up on kudlow. [ male announcer ] what?! investors could lose

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in his speech last night president obama said it's too early to know if a plan to have syria turn over its chemical weapons will actually succeed but is it too early to know whether a plan can succeed? we believe that bashar al assad is willing to simply hand over his chemical weapons and even if he, is the plan to secure and destroy those weapons even feasible. here now is nbc news military analyst general barry maccaffery who represented the joint chiefs of staff in paris when the chemical weapons convention was

signed. let's start with that question, like a technical question. is this feasible, this plan? >> well i think it probably could be. administration made a good case that they want to confront assad on chemical weapons. deter him from their use. they have no support. united nations, nato, arab league, they've been -- the military strike has been denounced by the egyptians, the jordanians, u.n. secretary-general, the pope. president went to congress. it looked like he was going to lose the vote. but i think syria initiative off-ramped us on a pending military strike that would have been, i think, probably first step of an escalation. so now we're looking at a mess. the president has no leverage for military force. the russians will block a chapter 7 military resolution in the u.n.. and, you know, it could happen.

here's this giant country at war. they are not a cignaer to, the cwc. they have to join the convention, get inspectors in. this is a fight to the death. there won't be a negotiated end to this war. the christian, the jew, the kurds they will get slaughtered. >> let me stick to this putin plan. first of all, do we know where these chemical weapons are in syria because they have been moving around and second of all, to go back to putin and assad, these are two people we've never trusted. why should we trust them now? maybe assad tells us, for example, us, the u.n. or whoever, we're 20% where the chemical weapons are but that doesn't help us with the other 0e%. see what i'm signing. there's so many loopholes and openings here. how can we know. like an operational question. >> you know, we absolutely can't.

it's 100% guaranteed if we got in there with u.n. inspectors led by the russians we would go the fourth army division and interview assad's younger brother whose units fired these chemical rockets. obviously they are not going to do that. in an unclassified session we're saying there's either six major concentration points for these chemicals or there's 42. it's all over the map. the giant country, in the middle of a giant war, i'm sure some of those weapons have already fallen in the hands of the rebels. so the question is with ongoing fighting how could you locate, verify this situation. it's not going to happen. it did get us out of the strike. >> at least for the moment. but inspect jobs need security. i mean, they are not going to be allowed in or if they are allowed in the rebels may go after them or the regular army can go after them. i don't know. verification. we're not talking days here.

we're not talking weeks. we're probably talking months before any of this shows any result. is that your view? >> i would think it would be a year to get it set up if it ever happened and russians will block military threats as coercion. then you have to have people volunteer, thousands of inspectors get in, get on the ground, the right equipment, be protected from attack by either side. i think what we actually gave assad is maybe a year of credible ongoing diplomatic -- >> is that a good thing? i mean president obama -- you're the first person i've heard say that and i trust you because your judgment is always great. do we want to give obama, do we want to give assad, rather, a year? i don't think anybody has that number in mind. >> well, i think you're going to kill the syrian people for another year while we focus on chemical weapons. he primarily killed these people with tanks, door-to-door

assassinations, artillery rounds, aircraft bomb attacks. so there's a strangeness to this and an embarrassment that's surprising. >> got to get out. i want to talk more. we'll have you on again and finish this conversation. thank you. we appreciate it. tough stuff. one full year. that's it for tonight's show. we thank you for watching. we'll be back tomorrow evening. vo: two years of grad school.

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