the country assessing the damage that was done by the aerial assault. the attack, clearly aimed at sending a message to the assad regime in direct response to their chemical attack on citizens in that country. now, syria's main international client sponsor, russia, rebuked at the u.n. their effort to condemn the strike was not successful. the question becomes, what else might vladimir putin do with this unfolding international situation? president trump, for his part, has been trying to bask in what he calls the success of this mission on twitter. he might have thought twice about a phrase that is ricocheting, basically around the world tonight, quote, mission accomplished. many comparing it to the last time a president use zed those words in the same region. our live coverage of the strike on syria continues now. here is what i want to tell you about what we know at this hour.

all three nations that led the strike, the u.s., uk and france are saying together, this was a success. they achieved what they set out to do. 100 missiles aimed at the chemical weapons storage facilities near damascus and homs. mike pence said the air strike is a major blow. >> we believe that we significantly degraded their program. we believe we significantly degraded their ability to produce chemical weapons, but this was also about reestablishing what we call a deterrent framework of working with our allies as president trump reached out to the united kingdom and france. >> a deterrent framework and a price to pay. the tough rhetoric aimed at the syrian president, bashar al assad continues. there was a meeting today where

the russian vote fald. nikki haley was clear about the message the u.s. wants to send. if assad uses chemical weapons again, the u.s. will act. >> i spoke to the president this morning and he said if the syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the united states is locked and loaded. when our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line. >> our live, special coverage continues with our team of reporters covering every angel. hans nichols live and jeff bennet from the white house. hans, this has been a period of sustained pressure on president trump this week. he turns here to the most solemn obligation any president has and according to u.s. authorities as i mentioned to some of what we are hearing around the world, this action went as planned. what else can you tell us? >> officials here are, i think they hit the sweet spot.

they didn't have ambitious military goals on this, they are fairly limited, they kept it to three strikes. yes, they did take out both research and development and storage and supply of chemical weapons. they think they have reestablished the notion there's a credible deterrence of assad or another country using chemical weapons. one challenge they have is they degraded assad's ability to degrade chemical weapons, but not completely destroyed it. listen to what general mckenzie said earlier. >> we attacked the heart of the weapons program. i'm not saying they are not able to reconstitute it. i'm not saying it is going to continue. this has dealt them a very serious blow. >> ari, they had other targets, they could have gone bigger and broader. they didn't because they wanted

to avoid collateral damage, civilian deaths or deaths of russian or iranian fighters. they didn't want to escalate on that front. everyone in the pentagon saysitis up to assad, if he uses chemical weapons, the u.s. will try to muster a coalition and respond in kind. >> hans, walk us through how the military planning works. how does the pentagon do, as you say, an operation that focuses on taking out weapons capability, not people? >> it starts with a whole lot of assets, really, up in the sky, taking a look. they are constantly monitoring. it bears repeating, there is a fight in the eastern part of the country the u.s. is involved in, that's isis. they are wrapping that up. there were 14 strikes in isis in syria and iraq. that gives you air assets to look at targets.

sent com in tampa is a planning organization. they are thinking a couple steps ahead of the policymakers. if the policymakers, in this case, the national security office asks for options, they will send them quickly. how much risk do you want to take? what are the military objectives. when this got to the policy stage, they had options for the leaders. >> jeff, you have been covering this at the white house. it's no secret that russia figures into many stories these days. mike pence went further than donald trump often does in directly confronting what is a russian stance that really runs counter to u.s. policy today. >> that's right, ari. there was a fresh round of criticism for russia in the role for backing the assad regime and mike pence attending the summit of americas.

and last tuesday, the president canceled his planned trip because the president didn't want to be overseas while this missile strike was unfolding and being planned here at the white house. take a look at what vice president mike pence had to say and we'll talk about it on the other side. >> our message to russia is you are on the wrong side of history. it is time for russia to get the message president trump delivered last night, that you are known by the company you keep. >> as you well know, in the run up to friday night's strikes, there were those who pointed out the latest atrocity in syria shows missile strikes in isolation do not work, are not effective. it has been interesting to watch today how the president, senior administration officials, military advisers have been characterizing the latest round of strikes as effective, backed by a sustained effort and being a necessary deterrent. that's one reason you heard

nikki haley, the ambassador to the united nations say locked and loaded. the u.s. is locked and loaded and will strike if assad forces the u.s.'s hand. >> thank you both. we turn to nbc military analyst and four star general, barry calferty and michael mcfaul. gentlemen, we have to flip a coin to figure out seniority. general, i think i will start with you on what mike pence laid out. in your view is this something russia didn't want and the trump administration deserves credit for an action and words standing up to russia this weekend? >> i'm not too sure we stood up to russia or iran. we had a competent allied military strike with a strong message we don't want to see chemical weapons relegitimized

as a cool of warfare, particularly against innocent civilians where they have a devastating impact. the impact of that strike, politically, may be significant in the assad regime, we are about to find out in the coming days and weeks. there could be an asymmetric response by the iranians or the russians or the syrians, for that matter. if you sort of back off the issue and say, look, syria is devastated, it's come apart. assad is about to win a half million dead, maybe 80 or more chemical attacks since the war started. by the way, other people used chemicals in the middle east. the iraqis, the iranians, the egyptians in yemen. i'm not too sure it changed the ground situation. u.s. military power is not going to fix syria. >> before i turn to the ambassador, when you look at this operation, does it, based

on what we know, of course we don't know what has not been released, but does it appear to you like something the military planning process created worked and the president effectively approved or is there any way to know whether he made any changes to it because there's been some analysis this is basically how the process should work. >> i think it was very well thought out operation. you know, fortunately, we had two crucial nato allies with us. what was missing is no regional arab partners, sunni, muslim, co-religionists, jordan, saudi arabia. ift was a well executed operation. the question remains, though, did it deter assad from further use of chemicals? did he con vinls the north koreans, iranians and others who have continuing chemical warfare capability that the next target

won't be israel? that may be a more dubious prop ti decision whether it impacted the north koreans and whether they could use the weapons against seoul. >> if i understand you right, you are saying you think it is operation nally tacktive based on the narrow goals it had, but you are adding skepticism to the nikki haley thing that this is clearly deterrent? >> exactly. i have the advantage of not being on the national security council. you have people like secretary mattis who are very thoughtful defense intellectuals. he's been shot at himself. there was a real reluctance to do the obvious military objectives, destroy the syrian air force and go after the command and control and kill a bunch of syrian army and air force colonels and generals. that is easily doable for the u.s. armed forces, u.s. naval

power and air power can carry out that operation. it may take two, four, six weeks, we could do it. the concurrent risk is, do we force the russians into retaliating? they didn't unleash their -- >> what is that? >> if they had it was a different fight. >> what are those? >> the russians have on the ground a very tech know logically advanced defense system. radars are terrific. i doubt they can operate against our f-35 stealth fighters. i don't think they can operate again against jassm missiles. if they had, the range is 400 miles. if they had, we would have been forced to engage russian air defense. we would have done so successfully and killed a bunch of them. again, i think the national security council said, whoa, we don't want to go that far and

wisely gave the russians a way out. they stayed out of the fight. >> that's a very interesting point. ambassador mcfaul, we have the general here and i could learn from him all segment. i appreciate your patience. i turn to you on the diplomacy, sir. take a listen to donald trump and mattis last nilgt. >> the purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons, establishing this deterrent is a vital, national security interest of the united states. we are prepared to sustain this response until the syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents. >> right now, this is a one-time shot and i believe that it sent a very strong message to dissuade him, to deter him from

doing this again. >> ambassador, how would you handicap those comments? anything you want to respond to what the general said and i'll toss in the opening question, whether they do deserve credit for taking on russia this way? >> well, what they said on the record last night and the goal that they said for the limited action they take, i agree with. i think it's the right action, remember international law was violated here in 2013 when i was still in the obama administration. we signed an agreement with the russians to get rid of all chemical weapons in syria, not just 95% of them. so, to try to deter that is the right message. what i am also struck by is how minimal this attack was. it's very low on the escalation game. if it's truly with zero casualties, that's extraordinary and they decided they want to start low and hopefully they

will be ready escalate, if indeed, assad calls their bluff. that, i think, is the true test of whether this is successful or not. remember, they did this a year ago and there were multiple uses of chemical weapons between that attack and this one. we need to be prepared to react, i think, more quickly if there's another chemical weapons attack. >> on that, let me play from a sort of diplomatic counter part of yours on the other side, the russian ambassador to the u.n. on all of this. >> russia condemns in the strongest terms the attack against syria, where russian military personnel are assisting the legitimate government in counterterrorism efforts. there its actions, the united states makes an already catastrophic situation worse and brings suffering to civilians. in fact, the u.s. panders to the terrorists tormenting the syrian people for seven years. >> one, what do they mean? what are they getting at when

they make this allegation that this operation is helping syria and two, what is your response? >> well, just to explain, for years now, the russian government's position has been that we are supporting terrorists. often times, they say we are supporting isis, so your listeners and viewers know, in this war in syria. that was most certainly the message for years during the obama administration. you have heard echo of that, again. two, in terms to my reaction to it, it's absurd, it's ridiculous. the russian government, vladimir putin, is assisting mr. assad in the killing of innocent civilians. that's been happening for years. talking international law, let's be clear about things, annexation is against the law. being a co-conspirator in the use of chemical weapons, which are illegal by international law

puts russia as the vice president said, i agree with him, on the wrong side of history in this matter. >> general, one more question, people often look at the situation. they see from the u.s. side appears to be a relatively positive assessment of what happened. if you think assad is a bad guy, gassing his own people and we could go in and take out chemical capacity to do that and not cost many or any lives according to the early assessments. as you know, general, one of the questions, why didn't we do this a long time ago? what is the answer for that? >> well, again, look, back off what's going on in syria. straight lines on the map. you bag together throughout the middle east people who despise each other. assad is a shia muslim, minority. 12% of the population, shia, 75% sunni muslim. they have been oppressed,

murdered, gassed. the country is destroyed. the only reason assad is still there is russian armed forces, iranian revolutionary guard and his militia. there's a fundamental injustice here. we didn't do anything to correct that injustice. remind ourselves, there were no arab allies involved in this action. so, i think the suffering of the syrian people is grieveious. there was a saying germans said to each other, 1945, the devastating ending of world war ii approaching, they said, enjoy the war, the peace is going to be worse. i think that's what's happening in syria. >> sobering, but relevant. as you mentioned, whatever foreign policy views one brings to this, think about the sheer devastation of the syrian

refugee crisis, the children, video images and pictures and stories we have been hearing for years. yet, as you were explaining to us, the complex internal religious dynamics and russia intervening and how combustible it is, it is tough to figure out how to address it. >> but, ari, i want to jump in quickly. i think you raise a really good question, why now? there's been many chemical attacks in syria between the last attack and now. i think we need to keep asking that question. if we are going to be taken seriously and have deterrents work, we have to be critical to respond, and second, if we are serious about caring about the children, why are we not letting more syrian refugees into this country. it is atrocious to say we care for an hour, then forget. i'm sorry to get emotional about it, but we have to talk about

both those things at the same time. if we don't, we are not credible as a country in the humanitarian venture we did yesterday. >> very important context you did, to add skepticism to why wen bombs are dropping, we are told things about humanitarianism. gentlemen, both of you know a lot. i appreciate you spending so much time with us on the story tonight. >> thanks, ari. >> thank you. we are going to fit in a break. we are more continuing live coverage on msnbc. president trump says, quote, mission accomplished after the strike. those words launched thousands of tweets pointing out another time that another president in another middle eastern context made that fateful claim. was confidence misplaced? we answer the question next. the wonderful thing about polident

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an early morning declaration from president trump over twitter. quote, a perfectly executed strike last night, thanks to uk and france for their power. and the faithful ending, quote, mission accomplished. does that put the cart before the horse? many presidents struggled with this. it's a question being asked by a very prominent new york times piece going viral. it leads to another question, perhaps the most important one, what is donald trump's mission in syria, anyway?

i can show you the chairman of the arms committee, john mccain is one of the voices saying last night's air strike worked, although he adds, it falls short. it is still something the administration had not developed. for more on the president's role in this situation, we turn to republican colorado congressman, mike kaufman, a member of the armed services committee. thanks for joining me on our special coverage this saturday evening. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start with your view of the facts. how do you grade this operation and does it fit into a larger mission? >> i think the operation was very well executed and done in a coalition with two allies, france and great britain. limited proportional strike to deter the further use of chemical weapons. from that standpoint, it was great. the fundamental problem and my

problem in syria, i can't tell you what the administration's policy is to how to contain this violence from spreading from iran. >> you can't tell me because you don't think the trump administration clarified it? >> you know what? i just don't know what it is. the president, certainly in a campaign style rally recently said we are getting out of syria soon. i think that might be some of his national security advisers and new to myself as as member of the armed services committee. so, i just can't tell you but this administration desperately needs to come up with a coherent policy in terms of how we are going to move forward with israel to try to contain this violence from spreading and to destabilize this region. >> does the trump administration support regime change in syria? >> i don't believe they support

regime change. at least the president has not articulated that. i believe nikki haley arctic la arcticlated that. the question is, what is the policy going forward? are we going to support some of our moderate allies in the country? are we -- what are we going to do about iran getting a greater foothold in syria, a threat to israel? so, i think there are lots of questions. >> let me read to you something else that the president wrote. he says never said an attack on syria would take place, could be very soon or not so soon at all. in any event the u.s. has done a great job of ridding the region of isis. where is our thank you america? do you think that's the right emphasis for the president on a day like today while people are still in uniform going in and

out of the region to ask where the thank you is? >> first of all, i think part of that tweet was to cover, sort of cover up an earlier tweet where he was saying, you know, we are definitely going to attack. that's not something you do from an operational security standpoint. so, i think the first part of that tweet is trying to cover the previous tweet. the second part of the tweet, there's no question, i think we have done well in terms of eliminating isis. isis no longer holds much of the territory. they will dissolve now into a terrorist network. i think the broader question is, what is the u.s. role going forward in syria. >> congressman, you have raised a twitter question, if you are correct, if the second tweet was to cover the first tweet and you are explaining it on live television, did that cover up work? i want to ask you to respond to that, it raises the question

about how much the president tweets and whether it works. one more topic i want to get you on while i have you. there's been an extraordinary concern about whether the president will respond to the rating of his long-time raiding of his lawyer, michael cohen, by doing something inappropriate, obstructing justice. do you view that as inappropriate if the president were to do that or consider that as an option. he is, as you know, reportedly this weekend concerned about the feds having the materials from michael cohen's office. >> i certainly supported the special counsel, the apouptment of the special counsel. clearly, it is to get to the bottom of whether or not there is collusion in russia. the firing of anybody in the justice department would be

disrubtive to that end. >> congressman mike kaufman, giving us insights on your view of a moe meantous region. >> thank you. when we come back, the russian reaction. how does the strike in syria affect the relation that's been under the microscope of donald trump's presidency and could putin retaliate? that's next. [ doorbell rings ] janice, mom told me you bought a house. okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. quiet. i'm blasting my quads. janice, look. i'm in a meeting. -janice, look. -[ chuckles ] -look, look. -i'm looking. it's easy. you just answer some simple questions online,

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welcome back to a special msnbc live coverage on the strikes in syria. in the wake of the air strike, the security council rejecting an attempt from russia to condemn the aerial assault. the motion from russia came as there were other harsh words from kremlin officials, including president vladimir putin. he described it as an act of ea gre aggression on a sovereign state. >> reporter: here in russia, there's no more talk of war with the west tonight, but plenty of jes verbal salvos flying.

president putin, accusing the united states offing rev aggrave syrian people. standing by president bashar al assad saying the gas attack was fake and didn't happen. while they had support condemning the strikes, in a sense this is still a win for russia. the u.s. steered clear of russian assets in the region, no russian faces, personnel, aircraft were affected. the syrian air force, as well, kept intact. instead of confronting the west militarily in syria, russia could refocus on what counts most for the country, propping up the assad regime, finishing up the war and building their power base in the middle east.

>> thank you. to dig deeper into the fallout between the u.s. and russia, i want to turn to the former adviser to georgia molly. how are you? >> good. thanks for having me. >> this came up speaking to ambassador mcfaul. it has gotten a lot of attention, putin and trump. what does this weekend tell you, if anything? >> it was an interesting series of events. in particular, the design of the strike is worth looking at more closely. first you have the execution where you have assets coming by sea from three sides, the deployment of new weapons from two countries, you have the u.s. there with sort of the core components of the nato alliance, a continental nation, the uk, the u.s. reshowing this unity in the alliance and the targeting, which is quite precise and showed russia we have greater

visibility into territory they control in syria. all of this is actually very much a successful demonstration of what we can do in that theater, despite what russia would like. in that sense, it is successful. that said, as everyone else noted, there is no strategy on syria. >> before we get to that, because we are covering that as well, separately. given your expertise, do you give donald trump any credit for doing this in the context of the scrutiny with the relationship with vladimir putin? >> absolutely. this was done well. credit to the military planners for designing something that is as effective and sent more of a message to russia than anyone else. as noted by your correspondent in the earlier clip, russia wants to go on and on about violating state sovereignty, let's talk about russia's creepy

annexation with georgia and what they are doing with ukraine. talk about state sovereignty, talk about those things. absent the framework discussion on russia, one framework against a damaging use of chemical weapons in syria is not much of a response to vladimir putin who has encouraged this strategy in syria. >> you raise an interesting point. if you subscribe to realist or great power politics, going to the u.n. to complain is a weak move. that is an oversimplification. if you look at the u.n. security counsel rejects russian resolution and the air strikes is action with harsh words, no fire. reading from "the washington post" piece, is there something going on here, i'm putting it on the screen here. harsh words, no fire. is there something going on that this operation, however it was planned by the military and signed off positioned russia

without a clear path to make a military move that was worthwhile and puts them, to some degree, under the political, international framework as the one complaining, without doing anything? >> it's an interesting point. i think, certainly, the fact that russia didn't engage the air defense, the fact the syrian controlled or russian provided air defense totally failed. they are bad for russia as well. the u.n. gesture is nothing more than populating their own propaganda with their own talking points which has been we, russia, despite spearheading the strategy of slaughtering civilians in syria are in syria invited us and you, the united states, are illegally acting in syria, despite doing things like kilter riss and get them out of syria and bring a better situation for civilians. that's the illegal action. a lot is creating the narrative they want to talk about. but, i think that --

>> right. to extend your analysis, that's the kind of argument that, in isolation, there might be merit to it. there is a question of sovereignty. there are members in the congress that are concerned about the creeping nation of us bombing countries out of the blue without a framework. yet, if we are dealing with alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity that hugh tin is supporting, it makes his legal claims very hollow. >> absolutely. as noted earlier, there will be a russian response. this is how russia fights wars. they don't do it directly, they have contract sources. they have cyber assets and economic assets and other things they will leverage. i would keep an eye on ukraine. there's been a bunch of movement in the east in the last couple days. keep an eye on other responses.

they are not going to get into a head-to-head military conflict with us because we are still the vastly more powerful adversary. they will try to attack us with asymmetric means. >> that is familiar to viewers thinki thinking of the cyber attacks in 2016. it looks tough a lot through intermediaries, cut outs, online through trolls. often, as you note, when the u.s. military is engaged in a place they claim to be. very interesting analysis you share with us, thank you. >> thanks for having me. coming up, we take a turn to the rod rosenstein firing watch. the deputy attorney general telling confidents he expects donald trump to fire him. there are new remarks from a very senior obama official who broke with donald trump and herself was relieved for it. i'm going to show you that right after the break.

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welcome back. this evening, the former acting attorney general, sally yates who briefly served in the trump administration is weighing in in a dramatic way over the reports of a firing of bob mueller's boss, rod rosenstein. make no mistake what's at stake. firing rosenstein is the same

assault on the rule of law as firing mueller. she adds, you can't fire a prosecutor because you are unhappy he approved a search warrant that relates to your own conduct. no one is above the law. i'm joined by a former federal prosecutor and msnbc analyst. what do you think the is significance of miss yates, not a common tweeter, unlike the president, posting this tonight? >> you know, i follow sally yates online and she does post sparingly. i retweeted it saying what sally says. this is a significant moment. it seems we are, maybe at the threshold of firing rod rosenstein, which has the feel of a saturday night massacre. the only thing that's changed is his approval of a search warrant for trump's attorney. if you can fire somebody for that, it suggests we are no longer a nation that respects the law and the rule of law. so, i would submit that would be

further evidence of obstruction of justice. it would be a terrible thing for our country. i echo what she has to say. >> what does it tell you that "the new york times" and others report that donald trump is more worried about michael cohen's prosecution, confirmed on a criminal investigation after a doj filing this week, more concerned about that than the mueller probe? >> it's interesting. that is going to be more protected because it's being handled by the southern district of new york, not a part of robert mueller's probe. the focus relates to business transactions, perhaps with russia, as opposed to election matters and obstruction of justice. that may be where the heat it. as is reported widely, president trump did business with russians, received money from russians. >> but that's not illegal. >> there's not but there could be evidence of leverage that

resulted in election pressure or gives blackmail possibilities. >> this is the line, right? the idea that michael cohen did a bunch of business, the technical legal term, shady business in other parts of the world doesn't amount to much, i don't see, for the president. if, however, he did things that created relationships or debt that affected the 2016 campaign, through michael cohen, we are talking potential evidence of collusion, the biggest thing of all. >> it could be. certainly, if the southern district of new york prosecutors and agents there found evidence of that, there's nut thag would prevent them sharing that with robert mueller. it happens all the time. it's all one department of justice. aside from that, there could be evidence of money laundering. there were reports money came in from russian mobsters. that standing alone could create

white collar crimes that could be apart from collusions with russia in the election. >> fascinating. appreciate your expertise, thanks for much. i want to show a programming note. there is a special about the man of the moment, fbi director, james comey. he's got the book out. you can find out how he became central to all this. it airs sunday night, 9:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. next, we turn to breaking coverage of the u.s.-led air strikes in the middle east region. will it do what donald trump says and how does iran weigh in? that's ahead. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. that's it? everybody two seconds! "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to

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some syrian allies have been condemning the overnight strike against the regime of assad saying it violates international law. we showed vladimir putin, today, the u.s.-led attack was aggression, the kremlin calling for an emergency meeting there in new york, trying to get other countries to condemn the u.s. they failed. meanwhile, syria's main supporter in the region, iran, criticizing the attacks. the leader said this was, quote, a military crime.

what i want to do now is turn to andrew, a fellow at the washington institute for middle eastern policy and studies syria and these issues. thanks for joining me, andrew. >> my pleasure. >> when you look at what is happening in the region, obviously, we begin with what did the u.s. do and what happened in syria proper, that's where the strikes were. when you look at iran, what do you take from it? >> iran's reaction is going to be interesting. assad hasn't been winning the war on his own steam. he did so through a military int intervention with russia and iran. so, iran has militia, thousands of ma liilitiamen. they are backing assad. these strikes focused on chemical weapons sites.

future strikes, efforts to enforce the red line could risk striking iranian personnel inside syria and that could lead to an iranian reaction to syria or elsewhere in the region. >> does iran have a view to the approach in the middle east? >> i think they don't like it. they don't like the general approach in the sense that the trump administration has been talking about withdrawaling or possibly withdrawaling from the jcpoa. the thing that bothers them the moat is the trump administration, unlike the obama administration talks about iran's activity in the region. they are in foreign countries, pushing their influence and in the case of syria, are doing so with a pay off, that is trying to project force against a u.s. ally, key u.s. ally, israel. that's a big problem, not just in syria context, but regional

security as a whole. >> when you look at the wider activities in syria, you look at what's happening this weekend. does bashar al assad have a reason he continues to resort to chemical weapons if there is at least a risk of this kind of retaliation each time he does it? why do it? >> yeah, good question. there are two reasons historically in the syrian war. one is lack of manpower. assad's army, like i said, didn't win the war on its own effort, it did so through other interventions. it needs these weapons to hold position. that's one. two, they have more military capacity than they had in the past. now, they are using it to spread sheer terror among the opposition to get them to submit. these two trends haven't stopped in the syrian war. the question is, will u.s. strikes deter us from using it.

i think they probably will, however the intervengtioned hav a shelf life. >> you are making a distinction, this kind of weapon, while horrific and disfavored on the international law is itself, comes from a position of weakness. >> that's right. it's interesting. you don't use it out of a position of strength, it's because the assad regime was so decimated during the war, so that makes the situation more difficult and that the way the syrian war is winding down is unacceptable for example regional allies for turkey, for various reasons. also the way the war is being fought, the way it's ending indicates it actually could spread refugees and other kinds of mayhem elsewhere in the region. >> andrew, thank you for spending time with us. thank you at home for watching our extended live coverage. you can stay with msnbc for the latest on the strike in syria,

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welcome back to our continuing coverage on the strike in syria, 8:00 p.m. on the east coast. we'll bring you all the latest in our extended coverage. the country there reeling after the u.s. strikes in response to