this is "gps," the global public square. welcome to the u.s. and around the world i'm fareed zakaria coming to you live from new york. we'll begin today's show with the tomahawks donald trump reigned down on syria. did the missile accomplish their mission? did they send enough of a message to assad? is next? i'll talk to david petraeus, the highly decorated four-star general. and the mulling over the syria's strike. we'll dig into iran's reaction to america's attack against its

staunch ally bashar al-assad. robin wright will join me to discuss. then -- >> beautiful babies were murdered in this attack. >> president trump says images of children horrifically murdered with chemical weapons changed his mind on syria but how about these images? could they change donald trump's mind on cutting foreign aid? and two of the most important nations met this week. when president xi went to mar-a-lago. what happened and are china and the u.s. destined for war? i have a guest who says yes. but first, here is my take. there is much to applaud in president trump's decision to attack the assad regime this week. it punished a regime that engaged in war crimes against

its own people and upheld a international norm against chemical weapons, it ended trump's strange flirtation with vladimir putin on the middle east and most significantly it seemed to reflect a belated recognition from donald trump that he cannot simply put america first. that the president of the united states must act on behalf of broader interests and ideals. trump as candidate and as president so far avoided the language of global norms and international order but explaining actions thursday night, he invoked both and ended remarks with a prayer that barack obama would never have dared to make. god bless america and the entire world. but as former defense secretary william cohen pointed out on friday. one strike does not make a strategy. u.s. policy on syria remains quite unclear. the trump administration had repeatedly announced that it has

shifted away from the obama administration's calls for regime change in syria. in fact, trump indicated he was happy to leave the country to assad as long as this would help defeat isis. on tuesday, the day of the chemical attack, white house press secretary sean spicer basically stuck to that script. the missile strike appears to have reversed that entire policy. if so, it is a major shift and raises important questions, is the united states engaged in the civil war? will it use military force to help oust assad. does this help isis and al qaeda which afterall are fighting against the assad regime? and what happens next in the overall war against the united states? many allies have expressed support but in an increasingly complex system, countries look to the united

states for a consistent strategy that can be relied upon over time. trump's foreign policy seems to change with every meeting, event or crisis. trump doesn't deny these changes of mind, in fact, he embraces them as a virtue. describing himself as flexible. i'm proud of this flexibility he said and likes to be unpredictable. but there is a difference between unpredictability and incoherence. this week's strike does leave one with the impression that foreign policy in the trump administration is not being made by carefully consistently evaluating the situations, assessing options and weighing constant benefits and chuszing a long-term path. instead, it is a collection of reflexes, responding instinctively to the crisis at hand. trump's military advisors provided him with a tactically brilliant option, a small air base whose destruction would produce fairly little physical or diplomatic fallout. but the strike will thus also have minimal impact on the

balance of power. assad will remain in place as will opposition. if anything, the strike might embolden opposition forces to fight on rather than surrenderer and the bloodshed will actually intensify. the long-term prospects for peace in syria remain very gloomy. no matter the complications, in the short term, the president struck a blow against evil for which i congratulate him and if he was moved to action because he say heart wrenching pictures of children, that's fine. i would only ask that he look again at the images, perhaps they would move him simply not to drop bombs but provide more aid and food to these war-torn people and perhaps they would move him to let some of these people escape their misery and find a home in america. for more, go to cnn.com/fareed and read my washington post column this week and let's get

started. ♪ ♪ for more on the syrian strike and after math, my guest is david petraeus, first in iraq successfully during the surge and then in afghanistan and later served as the director of the cia. dave, welcome. let me ask you -- >> good to be with you, fareed, thanks. >> when you were director of the cia repeatedly urged that the united states get more involved in a sense, pick a side in fact syrian civil war, you were in favor of, as i recall in 2013, some kind of strike at that time when it used chemical wills, so in a sense trump is implementing the david petraeus, hillary clinton, leon panetta strategy right now. are we as a result engaged in the syrian civil war? >> well, we're certainly engaged in syria. now whether or not you can say

there are support for the sunni opposition translates into engagement in the civil war against bashar al-assad is actually still premature. the strike that we saw is potentially a strategy inflection point and certainly sends a message to friends and faux alike this president will take action when lines are crossed and that is, again, potentially very significant. but as you've just pointed out, echoing the sentiments of secretary of defense cohen, one strike is not what a strategy makes and this week we'll see that. he travels to meet the foreign counter parts and to moscow where among the topics will be the way forward in syria. i think that there could be out of this, some degree of

solidifying by the national security team, which i think has shown real stroke of professionalism and indeed strategy sense in this case. h.r.mcmaster guiding and rock solid folks and secretary mattias and joe dunford. secretary tillerson rapidly, again, mastering the issues. i think you could term him an engineer. he's looking at each piece quietly but very rapidly i think starting to take hold there and then our ambassador of the united nations nikki haley is hugely impressive. we have to see the follow on policy beyond the focus on the defeat of d.a.s.h. and islamic state and could we then say the focus is on stopping the bloodshed, stopping the eruption

of the geopolitical spewing violence and a tsunami of refugees not just into neighboring countries but the neighboring allies, as well. >> how does one -- when looking at the next step, how does one -- how does one find a way to attack isis while at the same time attacking its principle opponent? if i remember when obama had proposed a strike like this, ted cruz said you'd be acting as the air force for isis if you bombed assad because in a sense they are the two dominant military forces in syria. is there a way -- is it strategically too complicated or trying to be too clever by having to say you can attack assad, you can attack the principle opponent isis and find some third force that will stabilize syria? >> well, again, i think

premature to get that far along. i think the focus rightly will stay on first the liberation of raqqah that is solidifying gains around the dam and so on. going after the al qaeda affiliate in northern syria, as well but let's point out, also, that syria has not gone after isis. bashar al-assad, the majority of strikes and the majority of those by his russian air force helpers has been on the sunni opposition that we have largely been trying to help. so there are many complicated facets to this. at some point, i think we're going to have to see the lines just start to solidify and while bashar al-assad can't be part of the long-term future in syria, it would be premature to say he needs to go tomorrow if we don't know precisely what follows. so again, i think the big

objectives in addition to defeating d.a.s.h. and the al qaeda affiliate become this effort to stop the bloodshed, and i think ultimately, that is going to include notions like security zones, perhaps some no fly zones and perhaps some further strikes against bashar al-assad's air forces, if indeed, they continue to carry out horrific actions they have been known for over recent years, not just for chemical weapons in a repeated basis but barrel bombs striking deliberately on civilian facilities like hospitals. first bombing civilian targets and then the places where they are going for their medical assistance. >> let me ask you very quickly before the break, really 30 seconds. do you believe that the battle against isis will be won in the next three to six months that raqqah will fall? >> well, i think raqqah may well fall but this battle is a generational struggle and i think everyone in the white house and the pentagon, state department is keenly aware of that that therefore you have to have a strategy that's

sustainable measured in blood and treasure and i think there is a lot of consciousness of the need to have a strategy that is sustainable over the long-term. not just a decade or a few years but the generational struggle in which we're engaged. >> when we come back, i'll ask david petraeus what the syrian strike tells us about the other looming crisis, north korea. you're going to be hanging out in here. so if you need anything, text me. do you play? ♪ ♪ use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next.

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he tweeted 24 times in 2013 do not get involved in syria. and i'm wondering, you have advocated for a long time that once isis is defeated in syria, the only way they will stay defeated is if the united states helps create some kind of political order that is legitimate and solid. that would sound a lot like the kind of nation building that trump has denounced. you met with trump when he was effectively interviewing you for secretary of state. do you think he might reverse himself and the united states might get deeply engaged on the ground in syria? >> there is very likely to be further engagement, but i wouldn't actually advocate that kind of solution at this point in the game. this is been transformed since 2012, 2013 when various alternatives were being examined. you now have iran, hasballah and russia to name a few on the ground supporting bashar.

so i think that the focus will be on an interim resolution that can again stop the bloodshed, establish security zones, stop the flow of refugees, stop the killing and so forth. and then over time, there will be a discussion about what the central government, if one can be established will look like. again, i've said before i'm not sure that humpty dumpty can be put back together again in this case in syria. >> i suppose you're talking about partition. >> i don't think you do that as a formal long-term solution. i think what you do initially is an interim way forward, just so that you can stop all the tragedy that's happening and then try to figure out where can you go from here. >> so let me ask you, while all this was happening, ping and donald trump were meeting at mar-a-lago. there is often a belief that

american assertions of power in one area deter a group on other. the chinese would have looked at this or north koreans would have looked at the strike and taken heed but i just wonder, you were commander in iraq at a point where the united states had committed hundreds of thousands of troops to military interventions in iraq and afghanistan under the bush administration and yet, the north koreans kept testing nuclear missiles. can one really draw a connection and believe that these strikes will not detour kim jong un? >> i don't know they will detour kim jong un. they do send a message as i said earlier to friends and fauxes around the world. i think that is significant just as the red line sent a message and however the outcome of that situation at the time did

undermine u.s. credibility around the world. so i think this is an important message probably to china, not just north korea because this president faces a strategic reality that a bad man can have a nuclear device that can hit an american city within a few years. in other words, during this particular term in office. but when you look at the options, every military possibility is relatively unattractive. that's short-handed for ugly and then are very, very difficult. as well. in the interim period here, there is going to be more pressure through china on north korea, secondary sanctions, enforcement on chinese firms continuing to do business. more pressure on president xi about reducing the flow in the uncord, it doesn't want to see

the korean peninsula reunified under seoul. so there is a lot of complexity to this particular issue, but to come back to it, i think the strike does send a message, but only if there is continued thoughtful assertive leadership by the united states, which then leads us to believe that america first can still mean america leads the rules-based international order. >> final thought, dave, what does this tell you about donald trump as president? did you learn anything new in this week? >> yeah, i think this is the week in which donald trump became the commander in chief. you know, this is the welcome to the white house moment and i think that his team did very well in providing the options to him. i think he chose wisely. i think his statement after the

strikes was a very thoughtful and responsible statement, as well. so i think this has been an important moment, but again, we have to see what follows, and to see if this path can continue. >> david petraeus, always a pleasure. hope to have you on again soon. >> thanks, fareed. >> next on "gps" there was nearly universal approval on the strike against the air force but four objectors, russia, china, north korea and iran right on the ground. we'll talk about iran's reaction when we come back. what powers the digital world? communication. like centurylink's broadband network that gives 35,000 fans a cutting edge game experience. or the network that keeps a leading hotel chain's guests connected at work, and at play.

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on saturday in teheran, he did not hold back criticism of america's strike on syria. trump didn't ask the u.n. for permission ignoring all international principals and laws. he continued the attack was gone with aggression, blatantly and outrageously. let's bring in two experts to talk about how this plays out. robin wright is a contributing editor for the new yorker, she's reported extensively from iran and about iran. kareem is a senior fellow, his work focuses on iraq. robin, let me ask you and tweet about this strike.

not even two decades after 9/11, the u.s. military fighting on the same side as al qaeda and isis in yemen and syria. time to stop hype and coverups. does he have a point? is this in effect something that will help isis? >> i don't think it does really. technically this is a limited strike. it did not change the balance of power inside syria. the bigger picture for iran is really much like russia that syria is the most important ally it has. it's a strategic center. iran put an enormous investment and lost over 1,000 troops. i counted eight generals that died. his ally in lebanon has thousands and thousands of troops inside syria. its lost more than 2,000, 10,000 injured. the stakes really are not just president assad for iran as well as russia.

the really bigger picture is do you have some influence on this important strategic property so one friend isn't becoming and that russia loses and iran losing access to other nearby countries. there is a lot at stake for iran and so it's going to be making a lot of noise about the u.s. military strike. >> so does this now place the united states in active opposition to russia, to iran? how will the iranians react? i mean, there are american troops in syria. there are american troops in iraq and iran has a lot of militia on the ground there. >> i would say, fareed, iran, if it responds too softly, it risks losing faith. it if responds too aggressively,

it risks losing heads and inviting potentially more u.s. military involvement in syria, which they obviously don't want as robin said earlier, iran is consistently doubled down on bashar assad over the last six years and invested tens of billions of dollars in syria and in contrast to the united states, which really has air power in syria, iran has not only their own ground forces but they assembled tens of thousands of militia of lebanese, shiite and afghan and pakistan. iran is firmly committed to the continued rule of bashar al-assad and i think that's unlikely to waiver. >> what is the state of play, robin, in iran? last we heard, where we left off, the iran deal happened and suppose moderates were emboldened but nothing much seems to have changed in the foreign policy, right?

>> that's right. iran faces a presidential election next month. this is a pivotal for president rouhani. he faced increasing challenges from hard liners that played off at home and the arrest of foreigners who including many americans who were held inside iran. so the pressure is on and in terms and by the outcome and ro rohani to win. make him much like former president, a man who won reelection but so challenged and never effective in reaching out to the rest of the world and that great hope that was represented by someone trying to normalize a revolutionary environment failed miserably. a lot will be determined by this i election but the kind of

internal power struggle that is playing out. some of it affected by what happens in places like syria, and in other neighboring countries. >> kareem, wouldn't you say that this -- these strikes, one thing is there was awhile where people would be left to their own devices by the trump administration for better or worse, there was a sense the trump administration's view seemed to be let them all kill each other and this -- that no long seems to be the case. the trump administration is engaged in the middle east and i assume from iran's point of view that isn't a good thing. >> that's right. iran obviously for the last four decades tried to fight what they call u.s., germany u.s. influence in the middle east and one of the regions of the world which is very happy with the trump administration are the gulf arab countries, particularly saudi arabia which saw president obama as tilting towards iran.

you know, but the reality is that the united states and certainly american citizens are, have tremendous fatigue with the middle east after a decade in iraq and afghanistan. they don't want to send the american sons and daughters to fight on the ground in syria. whereas iran is firmly committed to the fights and iran really thrives in countries which have power vacuums, whether that's syria, yemen, iraq, lebanon. the question is whether the balance of power in the region is really going to change as a result. a sign of a renewed u.s. involvement in the region or is this merely a one off symbolic strike. >> thank you. very good point. iran will be there for a long time. we will be there and gone in some sense. thank you both, fascinating. next on "gps." children killed by sarin gas were enough to convince donald trump to attack an air base.

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and now for what in the world segment. since the chemical attack we have talked about the power of pictures. these picturesweresopowerful that president trump says they forced his hand. they forced his hand. and made him fire 59 tomahawk

missiles at the syrian air base responsible for the chemical attack. well, we have other powerful pictures that perhaps the president ought to look at. this is the face of what u.n. officials are calling the worst humanitarian disaster since 1945 and it's happening now. >> without collective and coordinated global efforts, people will simply starve to death. >> that's the u.n.'s top relief official steve o'bryan and an alarming new report from the world food program backs him up in 48 countries around the world, 108 million people face crisis level food and security. what is going on? why do so many face starvation now? much of this is brought on by a deadly mix of drought, lack of aid and governance but four

countries in particular face especially big dangers. south sudan, nigeria and yemen. each is in the midst of devastating conflict. each has a dire humanitarian crisis which is largely manmade. in all more than 20 million people in the four countries alone face a threat of immediate starvation. and # #.4 million children there are severely, acutely malnourished. how can this rapidly approaches catastrophe be avoided? they applied for $21.5 billion for aid. there is widespread donor. the u.s. so far has given $640 million in 2017 in stark of the 3.6 billion it gave in 2016.

worldwide to date, $3.7 billion or 17% of the total money has been committed. that leaves a short fall of $18 billion. the prognosis for more aid money isn't looking good. president trump has proposed shrinking the state department budget from 52.8 billion to 37.6 billion, a 29% reduction. that leaves only a few scraps for famine relief or humanitarian aid. trump's budget increases by $54 billion bringing the total defense budget to $603 billion. ironically, they don't realize how little money goes to foreign aid. according to a recent survey, americans guessed on average that 26% of the federal budget is used to assist other countries. the truth is only 1% of the federal budget is used on

foreign aid. so what is the argument in favor of continuing to spend even the small amount of money to help other countries? there is a strong case to be made that it is in america's national security interest. it makes the united states more safe. fragile populations will cause weak states to crumble with safe havens for organizations. we see this happen in afghanistan in the late 1990s with consequences still being felt today. helping people on the brink of starvation isn't expensive. according to the world food program, it costs about 20 cents, less than a pose stage stamp to help feed a malnourished child for a day. perhaps the best reason to invest is because item bodies what is best about the united states. by helping those millions of people who are now suffering, america will affirm its leadership in the world while at the same time upholding values as a nation and saving human lives. next on "gps," the u.s. summit

but are these two nations destined for war? that's what one of my next guests will tell you a very distinguished scholar. don't miss it. text me. do you play? ♪ ♪ use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. you got next? chase. helping you master what's now and what's next. briathe customer app willw if be live monday. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?!

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for dinner at mar-a-lago they were offered a choice of new york steak or more. we don't know what donald trump ordered to eat. before dinner he ordered the strike against syria. without the strike, the summit between the leaders of the two largest economies in the world would have been the top headline, instead. it got buried so what did he miss? does the future hold for relations between the united states and china? joining me now are elizabeth economy, director for asia studies. and gram alison is director of the bellford center at harvard's school of government.

he's the author of a forthcoming book, destined for war. can america and china escape the trap? graham, you have to begin by explaining what the trap is and why those are better or even chance that the united states or china could go to war. >> it's a deadly dynamic that occurs when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power. think about what is happening in europe this week which germany's rise created an interaction with britain that ended in a war. think about the relationship between china and the u.s. today. consider these ancient greece but historically when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power, alarm bells should

sound, extreme danger ahead. >> and you point out that historically you counted 18 cases and in -- >> in the last 500 years, i have been able to identify 16 cases and in 12 of the cases, like britain and germany, the outcome was war. in four cases, the outcome was not war. so when war was inevitable, that was hyperbole but destiny deals in the hands, the players have to play the cards, recognizing that the severe structural stress that would therefore lead business as usual to produce history as usual but it's not inevitable. >> so not inevitable because of people, who are these two people and did they get on from what you can tell? >> expectations were certainly modest for the summit and much more modest but actually i think that the expectations were largely met. it was a positive first step in

the u.s. china relationship. i think president xi and trump began to establish a relationship and to some extent i think they're kindred spirits and are counterintuitive. >> what sense? >> i think both of them were children of privilege. i think they both tend to identify political politics in terms of friends and enemies and relatively aggressively go after those enemieenemies. and both sought a political base by going around elite and stoking nationalism and identifying issues important to the broader masses. so i think there is probably a deal of -- good deal of healthy understanding, respect that perhaps the two sort of got from this meeting. >> i assume, the one thing that trump was not able to get from xi was some kind of an okay that a strike would be okay against north korea.

china's ally. >> certainly, the timing of the bombing of syria under lined the threat that trump has made that he's prepared to strike north hyperb to cause north korea to stop acquiring the ability to deliver a nuclear warhead against the u.s. but xi is terrified by that idea as are most of the neighbors or even analysts like us. if we were to strike north korea, is kim jong-un just going to sit there? no. he's most likely going to strike south korea perhaps triggering a second korean yawar. you and i remember the first korean washington didn't turnout for either party. >> agree to disagree on north korea, on trade, which trump was going to have tough

negotiations. what do you think happened? >> i think what's important is that the u.s. did set the agenda so the main issues that were discussed were the two that were most important to the white house mainly north korea where we didn't get a major agreement and i at least hope for some assessment that we would move forward on contingency planning or something more than we seemed to get which was basically nothing. i think on the trade front the two sides agreed we would establish this 100 day study that each side would undertake for how we might be able to begin to improve the trade relationship. frankly leading up to the summit, the one area that analysts were discussing as the one where they could see some chinese movement was on the trade front, so i think there's some optimism that we're going to get to some progress on this issue. >> this is television, but we have 30 seconds. what grade would you give the summit? how did it go? >> well, you'd have to give it an incomplete since we don't know all the elements, but i would give it a b plus. i think the two sort of alpha

males are beginning to assess each other. nothing bad happened. trump showed he can imagine a show, which of course he can with dignity and actually i think gave xi the thing that he wanted most which were vivid images of respect for china and respect for himself as a great leader. >> that's right. ivanka trump gets an a for getting her daughter to sing that song. >> absolutely. in mandarin. >> that's going to be viral? china for sure. next, two european members both members of nato. is this europe in the brieaks o bre brexit? fiber-enabled broadband to more than 65,000 fans. and why a leading car brand counts on us to keep their dealer network streamlined and nimble.

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si'm happy for the distraction. i'll be right there. and the butchery begins. what am i gonna wear? this party is super fancy. are you my uber? [ horn honks ] hold on. [ upbeat music playing ] the biggest week in tv is back. [ doorbell rings ] who's that? show me watchathon. xfinity watchathon week now until april 9. get unlimited access to all of netflix and more, free with xfinity on demand.

a week from today citizens of one country will head to the polls for a referendum. a amending the constitution and replacing the system of parliament government with an executive presidency. it gets to my question of the week. which country will vote on abolishing its prime minister in a referendum next sunday? romania, indonesia, turkey, or kyrgyzstan. the book of the week, from financial times always intelligent foreign affairs columnist comes global affairs that describes the eastern shift of war, power and politics. the book is a much needed reminder that the world has already become multi poll lar with countries exerting power and influence over their

neighbors. two nato members are in a spat over a 2.6 square mile piece of rock. i'm talking abogibraltar. in the early 18th century britain took it from spain during the war of spanish succession. in 2002 the people voted nearly unanimously to stay expluclusiv under british sovereignty. yet the brexit they voted overwhelming toly stay in the european union. suggested they can only be part of future trade deals with spain's permission. the rhetoric heating up fast, for the uninitiated, that is the name of the misbehaving monkeys that inhabit the peninsula.

suggested prime minister theresa may ought to show resolve to go to war with this spanish speaking nation just as marg -- ma margaret thatcher did. angry debate spersists. >> all i can say is thank goodness we're leaving. >> gidian summed it up bet. gibraltay shows why we have the eu in the first place tochlt get countries to drop nationalist grievances. without eu, it all pops back up. the correct answer to the gps kral en challenge question. turkey will head -- power changes will include abolishing the prime minister and giving the president the power to

extend his term in office until 2029. reuters points out the receipt poll results have been mixed, but if we've learned anything from elections of late, we need to wait until the votes are counted. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. hello, everyone. thank you so much for joining me on this palm sunday. i'm fredricka whitfield. isis claiming responsibility for two explosions in egypt on one of the holiest days of the christian calendar. the first ripping through a church north of cairo killing more than two dozen people as worshippers marked palm sunday. hours later a second blast in