part of his predecessor who did nothing over 8 long, long years. thank you very much. join us tomorrow. . >> tonight i ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in syria from where the chemical attack was launched. lauren: breaking news this morning, president donald trump orders military strike against the syrian military base launching 60 cruise missiles last night. live report and reaction from around the world. good morning, i'm lauren simonetti. nicole: good morning, i'm nicole petallides. lots of questions how bashar al-assad will respond as well as russian president vladimir

putin, we will have complete analysis. lauren: the dow looking at the futures, dropped 113 points, now they came back. nasdaq futures down 7. nicole: in asia japanese stocks ending with a gain of one-third of 1% in china shanghai composite index also on the move. lauren: looking at europe stocks opened out of pressure. you can see across the board in europe stocks are down. nicole: commodities spiking on the news of strikes, oil up nearly 2% on concerns about middle east oil supplies. right now we are seeing oil at 52.35 the barrel one and a quarter percent to be precise. lauren: 5:01 a.m. in new york. friday april 7th, welcome to fbn:am, first look at morning markets, breaking news and what to expect for the day ahead. nicole: u.s. striking a syrian airfield with dozens of missiles.

the pentagon says 59 tomhawk missiled were launched from uss porter in the mediterranean sea at the direction of president trump. lauren: missiles targeted support infrastructure and equipment at the airfield. syria claims that at least six people were killed. the strike in response to the syrian government's chemical attack earlier this week killing and injuring hundreds of people and children. for pentagon says russian forces were notified in advance of the u.s. missile strike. nicole: president trump has ordered missile strike while hosting chinese president xi jinping in mar-a-lago. jeff flock right now live in palm beach. good morning. jeff: the president making the call from the winter white house as if he didn't have enough on

his plate already with the meeting of the most powerful men already. the administration had been criticized for not being well organized launched an attack that appeared to be well thought out and very well organized. the allies informed and on board, even the russians as you point out informed so there won't be any unintended consequences, even pictures as perhaps you see of the tomhawk missiles being launched from the sea. the president shortly thereafter the dinner with xi jinping last night informing the nation and reporters about what had happened. >> it is in this vital national security interest of the united states to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. there can be no dispute that syria used chemical weapons.

jeff: the president shortly thereafter, of course, the question now what would the response be from the allies has been positive from the russians as you might guess, not so much. president putin saying that the attack was a violation of international raw and attack on sovereign power and now the ap reporting that we have not yet confirmed that that agreement between the russians and the u.s. in terms of coordinating flights over syria so there would be no unintended consequences are coming together of aircraft, the russians have now suspended. lastly, we come to the reason that we came here and that is the meeting between president trump and the president of china xi jinping. they did meet last night and the president -- we thought this would be the headline that the president said after their initial meetings that he didn't get anything out of xi jinping. he obviously has had trade and

other issues, north korea among them on the plate and he says he didn't get anything but he thought that their friendship would blossom, it would have another opportunity to do so today. the president has a lot on his plate at the winter white house. nicole: no doubt, jeff flock, thank you. lauren: joining us now the reaction to what happened overnight andrew, former u.s. intelligence officer and adviser of nato commander in afghanistan, fox news correspondent lea gabriel, good to see both of you. >> nice to see you. lauren: targeted strike on syrian air base, the question for you, andrew, was this te response from the trump administration appropriate? >> i think absolutely. i think to do nothing would have been to send an awful signal to international community, allies in the region and frankly to the

assad government and russians. this was such a brutal attack and the video tape of this was a stark moral reminder of what the stakes are in syria that to do nothing would have damaged u.s. prestige in the region. nicole: lea, talk about the damage that was done, nine planes was destroyed. was this well thought out and done well as far as the strike was concerned? >> this was very well thought out and targeted. when you look at the way the u.s. handles this type of scenario, we can pick the types of fuse that is -- fuses that go on weapon and determine the outcome prior to strike based on the way we use weapon n. this particular case, they are going after airfield with the horrific attack was and it really speaks volumes when you hear that six people at this point we are hearing from syria that six people were killed in the strike.

this is a massive attack on an airfield and i think that's a small number and speaks to the u.s. conduct strikes, we look at how many civilians might be killed. we told the rush aints in advance or gave them the signal and we do it in a time when we want to or when we try to have the minimum number of civilians being killed. lauren: andrew, we heard from russia, they condemn the act of the u.s. regarding it as act of aggression. what do you expect to hear from the assad regime and what do you expect to happen in the assad regime in syria? >> i expect him the assad regime not to escalate him any further. first four years of the civil war, assad was in the brink of being overthrown, only after the russians intervene in the last 18 months that the tide of the war has been reverse. the last thing assad wants to see renewed commitment to overthrowing him. overthe russians, frankly i'm happy that the russians sound

disconbobilated. we are very unhappy. i expect given the amount of issues the u.s. needs and russia need each other on, the russians aren't going to escalate any further either. nicole: rex tillerson has been saying that he talked about allies in europe and turkish foreign minister calling for ousting of transition that has long been waited, your thoughts? >> that started with a popular uprising, people were suppressed fbi assad regime and people split and fighting back against the assad regime. there's no question at least from the international community that assad is not -- as long as assad is in power, this -- this civil war is going to continue in syria. now, assad's way of handling is to be brutal, that's why he used chemical weapons in the past. the issue, of course, is

vladimir putin and russia and the fact that he has been such an ally to assad and it goes back to military assets in syria. he has naval base in syria and a couple of airfield where is he has russian air forces, those are strategic locations for vladimir putin and he's not going want to see assad go. lauren: andrew, i want to ask you your response to turkey, do you think they'll require more military response, more help? >> i think turkey sees a way out of the very difficult strategic situation it finds itself in. back in 2012, turkey took obama seriously when the united states promised to overthrow bashar al-assad in some kind of political settlement. and then since then, the turks have essentially been carrying the bag by themselves. yes, absolutely, they're hoping for u.s. help in removing assad. lauren: big news, thank you for your happy. thank you so much.

nicole: stock markets had initially tumbled the -- on the news of missile strike. josh mahony market analyst joining us now talking about the european markets, how they're reacting to the u.s. military strike cha to expect from the day ahead, what are the traders talking about? >> yeah, morning. essentially we have seen markets not necessarily know what to do. the same kind of thing in asia actually, you saw some markets up and some markets down. same kind of thing in the uk. i guess the question mark here is there's, of course, the initial flight to safety that we saw people moving into gold and japanese yen. the question is this going to have aing impact. u.s.-russia relations within the

positive anyway. i don't think that's necessarily going to be the case. of course, many traders are going to be looking for that and having uncertainty that comes with that because we are going to have sizable volatility along side that, so for the time being, i think this is a lot of a political story than anything, of course, we have seen the flight to safety but in terms of the stock market, we do not necessarily seen any sort of big move in one way or another. nick income market analyst giving us the picture of the markets ahead. thanks. lauren: coming up. president trump responds to syria's use of chemical weapons launching missile strikes on a syrian military, we will go live to syria-israel border from the latest on the situation on the ground. we are also covering market reactions, we saw dow futures down 140 points overnight and now they have come back, now 25 points. nasdaq down 9.

the job report for march is and we have a lower week for the major averages. you're watching fbn:am, first look at morning markets and breaking news. >> assad choked out the life of helpless men, women and children. it was a slow and brutal death for so many. even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this barbaric attack.

nicole: good morning, 5:15 here in new york. let's get you caught up on what's happening now. the u.s. military attacked the syrian air base this morning in retaliation for chemical assault in civilians. dozen tom-hawk missiles were launched. first american assault on the syrian government and trump's most dramatic military order since becoming president just over two months ago. neil gorsuch appears headed to confirmation to the supreme court. the seat was secured after nuclear option to end

filibuster. gorsuch now needs a simple majority vote to put him on the court. and the monthly job's report out in just a few hours. economists are forecasting a gain of 180,000 jobs in march and that would be a sharp drop from 245,000 created in february. unemployment rate expect today remain unchanged at 4.7%. a look at stock market futures. dow had been down 140 points. dow futures down 20, s&p futures down 2 as commodities move to the upside. that's what's happening now. lauren: for more on missile strike on syria, we go live to connor powell who is in israel on the syrian border, hi, connor. >> good morning, just a few hours ago the u.s. conducting 59 tomhawk cruise missile strikes on air base in province syria, this was according to pentagon

with the aircraft that carried out the chemical weapon strike on tuesdayle departed from and ultimately returned to. we are hearing a couple of different things of what has actually happened. syrian state media, russia media saying there's extensive damage to the airfield but before the u.s. conducted strikes, the u.s. notified russia and gave them multiple warnings to get troops out of harm's way. syrian media saying while there was damage to the airfield and hangers they were able to safely remove most of the planes an jets in that area. not exactly clear how much damage was done as a result of these strikes by the u.s. in the last 12 hours or so. what we also know that at least six people were killed, six we believe syrian soldiers who were at the base and seven other people were wounded. now russia has condemned them so has syria. syrian media quoting syrian leader and official saying that undermines syria's ability to

conduct counterterrorism operations. they're very much relying on the messaging that this was an act that will hurt them in terms of fighting a group like isis and other extremist groups in syria as oppose to the ability to carry out future chemical weapon's attacks on innocent civilians like we saw on tuesday. the bigger question, nicole, lauren, what happens next. next few hours and next few days could be a very difficult for this region. we saw israel's statement issue in support of this and turkey and saudi arabia. groups that have long opposed the assad regime. the question is how does syria or russia or hezbollah or even iran respond. there are u.s. troops in syria, there are u.s. troops in iran and turkey and israel is a favorite target as group of hezbollah and syria as well. a lot of potential target ifs the assad regime or any supporters decide to respond. that's what we are going to be looking for in the next few days

and hours. lauren: connor powell, thanks and be safe. nicole: missile strikes on a military base in syria in response to chemical weapons' attacks, we will have more on that. oil prices spiking 2% on this news. we are watching the oil market. we have fox contributor phil flynn standing by. here is a look at dow futures who paired the losses, now down 30. we have guests on national security, markets, terrorism, it is a packed show. keep it right here in fbn:am, we will be right back >> the syrian regime and president bashar al-assad are responsible for this attack and i think further it is very important that the russian government consider carefully their continued support of the assad regime

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boom baby! rated pg-13. [ screams ] >> we pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed and we hope that as long as america stands for justice, then peace and harmony will in the end prevail. lauren: breaking news this morning, u.s. military firing dozen of missiles into syria, 59 missiles were launched from two naval destroyers in the mediterranean sea last night at the direction of president trump. the missiles targeted syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at the airfield. syria claims at least six people were killed. all of this coming after the syrian government carried out a chemical attack killing and injuring hundreds of people

earlier this week. nicole: oil prices this morning soaring as much as 2% after the u.s. missile strike on syria, phil flynn senior market analyst joining us live with the latest, good morning, phil. nicole: now there's concerns about supply. >> well, there's definitely a knee-jerk reaction, there's been a change in the dynamic here. you know, if this would have happened a year ago, i think the upside reaction would have been less because the global with supply and because the market is on road to tightening this is going to matter a lot more. but even more the change in direction by the trump administration, take no prisoners approach to violation to international law like

chemical weapons' attacks is a strong sign and i do think it does increase the risk of disruption to oil supply in the future. lauren: syria doesn't produce much oil but the middle east certainly does and russia. >> it's funny that the vladimir putin said they were upset that we would invade a sovereign country, you know. i think they forgot that they just invaded a couple of countries over the last couple of years like the ukraine. so i think donald trump doesn't really care if this harms his relation because russia has been the world's biggest enabler of bashar al-assad. bashar al-assad, of course, used chemical weapons and that is beyond, you know, the pail. and in the international community that can't happen. nicole: oil had been up three sessions in row and today gaining once again, worries about supplies.

so next what, what are you watching today and in particular now? >> well, you know, i think this was a trigger, we have seen for some time that this market has been tightening, rope around its neck because of high supply here in the united states. i think that's going to tighten. there's more upside risk to the market. nicole: phil flynn, thank you so much. >> thank you. lauren: coming up president donald trump responds to syria's use of weapons. >> even beautiful babies were killed in this very barbaric attack. no child of god should ever suffer such horror. lauren: how will russia respond? what is next for syria? we will have answers coming up. were also covering market reaction to the strongs. u. stock market futures are down across the board. the gain -- the declines are modest, dow futures down 36,

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will you? >> tonight i ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in syria from where the chemical attack was launched. nicole: breaking news this morning, president donald trump orderers military strikes against the syrian military base launching about 60 cruise missiles into syria last night. we will have live reports and reaction from around the globe. good morning, i'm nicole petallides. lauren: good friday morning, everybody. i'm lauren simonetti. lots of questions about how syrian president bashar al-assad will respond to the strikes as well as russian president

vladimir putin. we will have complete analysis. nicole: global stocks initially soldoff on the news but cut those losses. dow futures have lost 140 points, right now down about 40. s&p futures down almost 6. lauren: let's look at the reaction in asia. japanese stocks ending with a gain of a third of 1%. in china shanghai composite two tenths of 1%. nicole: investors move out of risky assets such as stocks and move to safe havens treasury bonds. lauren: check out oil, up about 2% on concern about middle east oil supplies being cut off, right now 52.52 a barrel. 12.66 a troy ounce. nicole: good morning, 5:31 a.m. in new york april 7th, friday, welcome to fbn:am, first look at morning markets, breaking news and what to expect for the day ahead. lauren: right, we begin with the breaking news.

the u.s. striking a syrian airfield with dozens of missiles, 59 tomhawk missiles were launched from uss porter and uss ross at about 8:40 p.m. eastern time at the direction of president trump. nicole: missiles targeted syrian aircraft, syria claims at least six people were killed, this comes after the syrian government carried out a horrific chemical attack killing and injuring hundreds of people earlier this week. the pentagon says russian forces were notified in advance of the u.s. missile strike. lauren: president ordered strikes while hosting president xi jinping. headlines have changed, jeff, this is a forceful and fast reaction from the president of the united states. jeff: and the president very well organized last night briefing from the secretary of

state as well as the president, i will get to that in a moment. first, fresh reaction since we last talked at the top of the hour from the russians and permit me to put my glasses on a take a look at that. it's the russian foreign minister that the air base attack is an act of aggression under what he called a far-fetched pretext and reminiscent of the situation in iraq in 2003, an act of aggression that was similar to when the u.s. and the uk invaded iraq. he says moscow hopes that the u.s. provocations and syria will not entail irreversible effects. russian president putin calling it a violation of international law. as we said, the president's response measured, all the allies on board and the president last night informing both the nation and reporters of what he did and why he did it. >> tonight i call in all

civilized nations to join news seeking to end this slaughter and bloodshed in syria and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types. jeff: this, of course, is the president who had previously said that in some sense syria was their problem and the u.s. would not get involved but clearly moved by events and willing to change as events on the ground change. as we said, secretary tillerson briefing reporters as well as after the president spoke and he said that the russians although they took pains to make sure that russians were informed about what happened so there wouldn't be unnecessary lose of life or conflicts there, that the russians had the responsibility to police, essentially the chemical weapons that were in syria and that they didn't do so, either complicit or incompetent in doing that.

lastly, i will leave you with what was to be the headline today, that is the meeting between the president and the chinese president, that will go on today a little later in the day and that will wrap up aerial in the afternoon and some folks will go home. that's the latest, nicole from palm beach. lauren: jeff flock, thank you. nicole: joining us now larry, senior fellow at the center for american progress, former assistant secretary of defense also with us. former navy fighter pilot and fox news coashtent lea gabriel both joining us this morning. lea, we begin with you, we see one strike so for on syria in retaliation for a chemical attack earlier this week. what's next and do you think this was a good move? >> the question from everybody is what is next, how will syria respond, how will bashar al-assad respond, how will putin respond to this? i think this was a very specific targeted strike.

it was a measured approach according to the trump administration and it was a in retaliation for this chemical weapon's attack on the people of syria, innocent people, so many killed. there's talk from -- from u.s. officials that there was another target looked at, a chemical weapon's facility and they decided to go after this air base instead. they used tom-hawks from u.s. navy ships. now, i think that that speaks volume, first of all because of the capabilities that we have with that missile to make these very targeted specific attacks but also because of the fact that we decided to do it that way, it displays our naval power and displays our military power, our ability to strike deep into a country without ever having to fly aircraft over head. this is a statement from president trump and this administration and the, again, the question is how will putin and syria and all the countries

respond. lauren: larry, let me ask you this, wasn't russia under a deal with president obama back in 2013, weren't they supposed to be actively ensuring that syria removed their chemical weapons? what happened? >> yeah, well, they sure were and the question is did they know that they were still there, did they know that assad was going to use them? i think the russians are pretty upset because the last thing they wanted was to give the united states an excuse to get involved in the civil war because, remember, last weekend president trump had all of his top advisers said, we don't care if assad stays in power. so i think the interesting thing is how are the russians going to react, are they going to tell assad don't do this again because we now know if you do, they are going to take action and it could be more consequential the next time. nicole: that's the point. president obama really gave a lot of threats, if this type of

thing happens again you really see reaction. didn't act upon that, rex tillerson is saying we have allies in europe, germany, france talking about transitional government without assad. >> what does assad do, is this one off and he goes on and he and the russians and iranians continue prosecuting the people who rose up as part of the arab spring or does he escalate and take a next step and dare us to do something and then do we become more involved in the syrian civil war, something neither president obama nor president trump wants to do. lauren: how many troops do we have in the area? >> the u.s. military has been careful about saying how many troops, where they are and what they're actually doing there. i know that back in march the u.s. announced it was setting 400 additional troops to syria

that included marine artillery, army rangers, that puts the number somewhere under a thousand. lauren: for syria? >> for u.s. troops in syria. they were ramping up the furms because of the planned attack on raqqah to try to take raqqah back from the islamic state. we do have u.s. sources in syria. i'm sure that was a huge factor for the u.s. in considering this and for the trump administration and making this decision. one thing i want to point out, a couple of things, a lot of people are talk about president obama's decision not to -- not to retaliate against assad after that horrific attack back in 2013 with the chemical weapons. part of the reason was not having the support from the congressional side and also not having the support from our allies like britain. that's why it was decided we are going to have russia try to broker this. that he destroyed about 1300 tons of chemical weapons reportedly but there were always questions about whether or not they had actually destroyed everything and now we know --

nicole: thank you both for joining us. >> thank you. lauren: stocks had been down, 143 points, have paired most of those losses. let's bring in mike engram at bbc partners with a look at how the european markets are reacting, not falling off a cliff, mike, your reaction. >> yeah, exactly. it's a broad but not deep risk off move, you're seeing most european indices off by between a quarter or maybe half percent. it looks as though energy stocks, oil, holding better than the rest of the market. it's a pretty broad move.

overall we have seen a move into safe havens such as uk, german deal at one-month low and you saw yen move and as you mentioned that 1% bump in the gold price. actually up to 5-month high. these are not big moves and also the volumes are very, very low perhaps signaling caution among traders, they don't want to commit themselves, as you pose the question, what comes next. nicole: let's talk about the fact that we have a job's report due as well, quickly. >> the market is looking for 180 on the adp we saw on wednesday, probably close to 200. probably not enough to derail in any event. lauren: we got it. mike engram, of course, the feds meet in june. nicole: reacting to the military attack with support. although some lawmakers say they want congress to get

congressional approval before conducting any more strikes. we will have a live report on capitol hill. we are watching the market. we have reports from around the globe, dow futures down 36, had been down over 140. s&p futures down 5. you are watching fbn:am, your first look at morning markets and breaking news. >> i think it's important to remember there are hundreds of americans stationed near the region and this guy is using gas and could ultimately be used to our own troops so it is in our national security interest

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lauren: good morning, 5:45 on friday in new york. the u.s. military overnight attacking a syrian air base in retaliation for this week's chemical assault on civilians in syria. dozens of tom-hawk cruise missiles launched from u.s. destroyers in the mediterranean targeting the air base where the chemical attacks were carried out. it was the first direct american assault on the sir -- syrian government. another news this morning, neil gorsuch appears headed to the confirmation to the supreme court today. gorsuch needs a simple majority vote to put him on the high court. and the monthly job's report out

in a few hours. economists expecting a gain of 18,000 jobs in march, down from 235,000 created in february. you have to remember, february was unseasonably warm and march had snow, how does that effect things? dow futures down modestly this morning about 42 points to the downside, s&p futures are down 5. that's a check at what's happening now. nicole: the u.s. attack on syria sparks swift reaction on capitol hill, fox news peter doocy is there live with the latest, good morning, peter. peter: good morning, and some of the first lawmakers that we heard from as the dust settled in syria where some of president's trumps biggest critics who had a kind words for him, unlike the previous administration president trump confronted a pivotal moment in syria and took action. for that, he deserves the

support of the american people. not every republican senator is on board, though, the libertarian rand paul said this in part, quote, while we all condemn atrocities in syria, the united states was not attacked. the president needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the co him to come to congress for a proper debate. across the aisle the senate majority -- minority leader chuck schumer had mild praise for president trump. he does also ask the president to come to congress if there's ever another need to go back into syria but he also says this, making sure assad knows when he commits such despicable atrocities is the right thing to do. there's another democrat who met with assad this winter during a trip to syria but later said this week that she thought he

should be executed and responsible for the gas attacks. the escalation is short sided and will lead to more dead civilians, more refugees, the strengthening of al-qaeda and other terrorists in direct confrontation between united states and russia which could lead to nuclear war but the statement that president trump gave was less than three minutes long and seems to lay out a path forward at least vaguely so far. lauren: peter i would imagine this is an opportunity for bipartisan support. do we know that president spoke to congressional leaders before the attack? peter: we know that congressional and members of relevant committees, the intel committee, armed services committees were briefed on options. but based on many -- their initial reaction, it sounds that most were informed of the air strikes while they were in progress. again, something that we've

heard from defense circle, they really wanted to have the element of surprise and it's not necessarily that lawmakers here were surprised because they knew that something could happen they just didn't know exactly what was planned. nicole: peter let's bring in lea gabrielle. this was supposed to have element of surprise. >> the answer is probably no. people are waiting to hear what the justification legally for president trump to go ahead with the strikes. that being said, i think from what i know of watching president trump and the way he likes to conduct business is that he wanted to send a very strong message. had he gone to congress and asked for permission to do this, this would be tied up in debate, this would become very public. nicole: your point about obama he could not get the support? >> right, no element of surprise. lauren: he had the legal authority -- >> and republicans in congress,

some of them argued against that he didn't so that was criticized. in this particular case president trump decided this is -- that this chemical weapon's attack was in some ways a test of his presidency and his resolve and what kind of action he would take and i think he decided to take it. lauren: four years ahead. lea gabrielle, peter doocy, thank you so much. nicole: how bashar al-assad will react against military? he has worked with the syrian rebels, we have much more coming up on all of this breaking news and let's check in on the market which has been down 140 points now down 35. s&p futures down 5. fbn:am, keep it right here. >> against humanity that were committed against bashar al-assad, i'm sure that the russians are also complicit in this as well. i know the president was

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>> tonight i call on all civilized nations to join us to seek end to slaughter and bloodshed in syria and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types. nicole: breaking news this morning, the u.s. military firing dozens of missiles into syria. the pentagon says 59 missiles were launched from two naval destroyers in the mediterranean sea last night at the direction of president donald trump. the missiles targeted syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at

the air filed, destroyed planes thr. syria claims at least six people were killed. this comes after the syrian government carried out a chemical attack killing and injuring hundreds of people earlier this week. lauren: joining us right now his reaction to missile strikes in syria national security ryan mora. >> nice to see you. lauren: what else is that air base used for? >> do we get involve in civil wars and use the military for humanitarian missions in they sponsored al-qaeda in the past but this specific site has been used by iranian revolutionary guards corp and hezbollah which we consider to be a terrorist group. this was a terror target that was hit. nicole: talk about chemical weapons, no tolerance for this and there may have been another attack on another area on chemical weapons, your thoughts on the big picture? >> the big fear isn't so much the small use of weapons, if you

look at what assad does, he massacres people on a daily basis in numbers much greater than what we saw in relatively small chemical weapon attack as far as equipment cap weapons go. if he wants to start launching them, he could carry out massacres of tens of thousands of people. what he was doing was testing things. he wanted to do an attack small enough to be able to see where president trump stood specially in light of secretary of state tillerson saying, well, overthrowing assad is not part of the agenda right now. and so the test is not working out so well. lauren: no, they are seeing the response. what message does this send to north korea and even china? >> the leaders of iran and north korea probably need diapers right now because they put so much effort and trust the idea that united states regardless of leader was paralyzed that we can't do anything quickly and decisively because there's too

much fighting going on. we have the capability under president trump, the willingness to respond immediately and decisively and it wasn't even a response to massive provocation, assad purposely wanted this to be a bit small, if assad actually ordered. nicole: president trump issuing the order and to clarify lea gabrielle said they consider possibly doing this to another area that had chemical weapons. this air base but did it with so much precision from naval carriers in the mediterranean sea. what is the end game and ousting the assad regime? >> well, there's really two end games right now that are sliding with each other, number one is if an opportunity comes to us that saying, okay, there's a bunch of cease fires on the ground, most people would say, yes, but the more likely

solution and tough to get to is that assad leaves, not regime change. no, he's not. seeking departure of leader and close aides doesn't mean you're taking the regime and military leaders and throwing them out of the country and dealing with chaos. lauren: what do you make of rex tillerson's response of what happens to assad. there's no role for him to govern the syrian people. >> he's basically saying what everyone in the region was saying which is what -- lauren: that's a strong response. >> it's strong but stronger toward russia what he said. he was spitting in putin's face, this happened because of russia, russia failed in responsibility to disarm of assad of chemical weapons, you did this. nicole: talk about our u.s. troops that are over there, how many, our concerns?

>> a thousand in syria acting as personal operators right now to engage the rebels, we have 5,000 in iraq and the nearly 10,000 in afghanistan. all of them are vulnerable. russia could bomb them, i don't think they will, but russia could bomb u.s.-backed rebels in afghanistan, iran and russia backing the taliban now against us and in iraq there's a whole slew who on their own could target troops. lauren: this gets complicated and dangerous. what's the likelihood of having a diplomatic response and diplomatic solution to all of this? >> the only diplomatic solution is after a lot of military force. i don't know if it's a diplomatic solution. the best thing you can hope for is this is going to escalate no matter what, assad gets pushed to a point where he leaves and a few people around him, russia is happy because they saw the puppet state in there not led by assad and new beginning and

everybody jumps on the jihadist that remain. a lot of moving parts that make that happen and even if that ideal scenario, there's going to be a lot of fighting. nicole: quickly, who will help us, will other allies help us? >> depends on what the objective is. there are a lot of people who are islamist that want to combine state that we don't consider terrorists but do we really want to back them and a lot of the moderate rebels haven't expressed a willingness to go that far. lauren: thank you so much. knacksal security expert and thank you for watching fbn:am on a very busy morning. nicole: we will toz it right over the mornings with maria, maria bartiromo right there to take you for the next few hours. maria: thanks for joining us. i'm maria bartiromo, a busy news morning obviously, it is friday april 7th, top stories right now, 6:00 a.m. on the east coast. the united states strikes syria, president trump authorizing the first direct military auction against syrian