army colonel jack jacobs. he's one of our military analysts and for good reason. a decorated combat veteran of the vietnam war. he is one of 72 living recipients of the medal of honor. jack, we thought of you because we would like to have you emphasize for our audience, provided you see them as a continued value, the val of what the president calls war games. they go under the official title joint military exercises. >> well, joint and combined military exercises are readiness e to practics, our techniques, our strategy, our interoperability everywhere, all the time. these go on around the globe. gratuitous decisions like this have a tendency to rattle allies and convince both them and our versaries that we're not really serious about defending our interests in that region. there's more than a little consternation in south korea, in tokyo, in taiwan, the philippines, and even vietnam, to say nothing of the e that it's probably caused in t pentagon. i'm trying to think of how many antacids secretary mattis has been taking. there's something else too. it's gratuitous

army colonel jack jacobs. he's one of our military analysts and for good reason. decorated combat veteran of the vietnam war. he is one of 72 living recipients of the medal of honor. jack, we thought of you because we would like to have you emphasize for our audience, provided you see them as a continued value, the value of what the president calls war games. they go under the official title joint military exercises. >> well, joint and combined military exercises are readiness exercises. we have to practice our tactics, our techniques, our strategy, our interoperability everywhere, all the time. these go on around the globe. gratuitous decisions like this have a tendency to rattle allies and convince both them and our adversaries that we're not really serious about defending our interests in that region. there's more than a little consternation in south korea, in tokyo, in taiwan, the philippines, and even vietnam, to say nothing of the trouble that is probably caused in the pentagon. i'm trying to think of how many antacids secretary mattis has been taking. there'

army colonel jack jacobs, a decorated veteran of combat in vietnam, one of 72 living recipients of the medal of honor, also our msnbc military analyst. welcome to you both. carol, how did we get here vis-a-vis the president and his defense secretary? >> well, i think there's a number of ways in which we got to this point. you know, when secretary mattis came in, he was part of this group of generals that was, you know, supposed to kind of -- in terms of if you talked to people on capitol hill or others who felt like they were a stabilizing force on the president and that they were going to keep him from doing and taking steps that could plunge the country into some sort of chaos or might take u.s. foreign policy in a direction they felt like it shouldn't go. so it was secretary mattis. it was then former secretary of state rex tillerson. and then john kelly, who is now the chief of staff of. so the three of them kind of worked in tandem together and would push the president to go in directions that they wanted his policies to go, particularly on iran, for instance, on the nuclear deal.

army colonel jack jacobs from combat in vietnam and one of 72 living recipients of the medal of honor and for good reason our msnbc military analyst. welcome. how did we get here with the president and his defense secretary? >> there are a number of ways in which we get to this point. when secretary mattis came in, he was part this group of generals that was supposed to in terms of if you talk to people on capitol hill or others who were a stabilizing force on the president. that they were going to keep him from doing and taking steps that could plunge the country into some sort of chaos or might take foreign policy in a direction that they felt like they shouldn't go. it was secretary mattis and former secretary of state rex tillerson and the chief of staff. the three of them worked in tandem together and would push the president to go in directions that they wanted his policies to go, particularly on iran and the nuclear deal. the president overtime got frustrated with that and we saw rex tillerson be fired and john kelly lose clout and power and the president meanwhile towards the

army colonel jack jacobs. he's one of our military analysts and for good reason. nam war. he is one of 72 living recipients of the medal of honor. jack, we thought of you because we would like to have you emphasize for our audience, provided you see them as a continued value, the value of what the president calls war games. they go under the official title joint military exercises. >> well, joint and combined military exercises are readiness exercises. we have to practice our tactics, our techniques, our strategy, our interoperability everywhere, all the time. these go on around the globe. gratuitous decisions like this have a tendency to rattle allies and convince both them and our adversaries that we're not really serious about defending our interests in that region. there's more than a little consternation in south korea, in tokyo, in taiwan, the philippines, and even vietnam, to say nothing of the trouble that it's probably caused in the pentagon. i'm trying to think of how many antacids secretary mattis has been taking. there's something else too. it's gratuit