let's ask dan henninger and foreign affairs columnist brett stevens. no official announcement about this. but lots of leaks behind the scenes and newspaper stories. why would he do it? >> well, i would argue that this administration always had a bias in favor of assad. you have to remember -- >> despite the public comments. >> the administration was very keen to treat aassad as a reformer, potential partner. they were late in calling for him to go when the uprising began. we never took the steps we said we would when it came to his use of chemical weapons. we never armed the moderate syrian rebels in any efficient way. and now here we are and have essentially a de facto pro-assad policy. >> why? >> why? >> what's the administration's logic for doing this. to defeat. saying, look, i guess the unofficial argument would be we need them to defeat islamic state. without them, we can't do that. >> well, two points a, the one you mentioned but b, it's part of the administration's broader effort at a with iran. it is he forms part of that condominium. the admi

. >> joining the panel this week, wall street columnist and deputy editor, dan henninger. and global view columnist bret stephens. let's start with netanyahu. why would the administration want to elevate this speech? i know they oppose his appearing, but why make it such a personal and highly political criticism like they have the last week? >> well i think there's a couple of reasons, paul. obviously, a public relations offensive to marginalize and diminish the israeli prime minister in advance of this speech. >> but they're elevating its prominence. this is going to be the speech of the year. >> i completely agree. i mean, i don't see how this works for the administration. prime minister netanyahu is going to stand before congress. more people than imaginable are going to watch this speech. you can bet it is going to be the most substantive, detailed eloquent case against this deal that anyone has made. it's going to be a great speech and after it's done, the administration is going to have to defend itself against the details in prime minister netanyahu's speech. >> i t

we're back with dan henninger. no link?this is about the public health intervention, there hasn't been anything studied on a large scale with such rigorous scientific methods. the sort of vaccine and autism link that's missed it was originated in a 1998 article in a journal called "the lancet." that study -- >> which is a serious journal. >> it was a serious journal and it was later repudiated and the author was disbarred. >> stripped of -- >> excuse me, stripped of his license to practice and turned out to be on the payroll of the plaintiff's bar. so this is really a pernicious superstition. >> what about the argument, dorothy, coming from rand paul and chris christie that hey parents do have a choice here. they should be given a choice. they shouldn't be coerced or mandated. >> well, it goes right down to if you say parents should have a choice, you're saying essentially it's okay to be a little pregnant, you know? no. you get a vaccine or you don't. you cannot have -- there's no vaccine against this infection of ignoranc

we're back with dan henninger and bret stephens and marianna o'grady joins us.an, is this anything but a total victory for vladimir putin? >> you know, i think i have to agree with you on this paul. this is no longer a work in progress. this is a victory that putin has consolidated. we had footage in the past week of what was going on in the battle of debaltseve. and the russians by now have moved in heavy artillery tanks and missile installations. >> right. >> the ukrainians are completely overmatched, and even sending them defensive weapons i think at this point would be inadequate. i recall an interview we had recently with lieutenant general ben hodges head of the army command in europe. and general hodges said in that interview, what the russians are doing is not a foray into ukraine. those are the sort of equipment you would send in for a permanent installation. so, i think he's rolling up ukraine, and after he's done this, he's going to move in another direction. >> he was willing -- he was able to take territory in ukraine, even as a cease-fire was going

. >> joining the panel, wall street columnist dan henninger, brett stephens and dorothy rabinowit rabinowitz. chuck hagel said that the world is exploding all over. now we get the president and susan rice telling us, well, calm down really we're pretty safe, don't worry about it. whose message are we supposed to believe here? >> well, we do have to come up with an answer, don't we? if you listen to -- >> we ask the questions. >> anyone who has been watching this is going, what is this all about? we will come up with what i think is an explanation. obama is in the last two years of a presidency. he does have an agenda. it's domestic. a little history. go back to the presidency of lyndon johnson. there was a very famous phrase during the johnson presidency. it was guns versus butter. spending on the vietnam war versus spending on the great society. and it was a dilemma because it was hard to do both. i'm convinced that obama has concluded he's not going to allow the last two years of his presidency to be dragged into what he calls a long-term overseas expensive military commitment. he simply w

. >> joining the panel this week, "wall street journal" columnist and deputy editor dan henninger. foreign affairs columnist, bret stephens and editorial board member dorothy rabinowitz. so dan, not too long ago, eric holder said that the threat of terrorism kept him up at night and chuck hagel the defense secretary soon to depart said that the world is exploding all over. now, we get the president and susan rice telling us, well, calm down. really, we're pretty safe. don't worry about it. whose message are we supposed to believe here? >> well, we have to come up with an answer, don't we, paul, because if you -- >> because we ask the question. >> anybody who's been watching this, what is this all about? so we'll come up with what i think is an explanation. barack obama is in the last two years of a presidency. he does have an agenda. by and large a domestic agenda. a little history, go back to the presidency of lyndon johnson. there was a famous phrase during the johnson presidency, he was guns versus butter. spending on the vietnam war versus spending on the great society. it was a

wall street journal's dan henninger is here.the journal is titled obama's brutal foreign policy. call little strong, brutal foreign policy? explain yourself? >> it is brutal in the sense there is so much chaos and brutality occurring in the world and this white house clearly is not going to lift a finger. you have these ukrainian army surrounded can't they have been beating the fort year-and-a-half to get defensive arms from the united states, they didn't get it. they did not supply them with anything. and they are surrounded. and in the past 24 hours they start a long march out of the city with vladimir putin whatcom at them saying get over it, life goes on, you win some, you lose some. stuart: what about isis? >> we know what isis has been doing. i think the president is acutely consciously aware of all the things we are talking about for but he is bloodlessly deciding he is not going to commit u.s. resources in the middle east or in eastern europe and i am calling this left-wing politics, a conscious decision not to get invol

dan henninger, deputy "wall street journal" editorial director. what a panel for friday or any day. what do you think of the folks in silicon valley dan, not going to the cybersecurity speech? >> sound like they are marking down barack obama's capital out there, as something to do with the fcc and net neutrality but the cyber speech, i think, on paper, if one might say that in digital age, make as certain amount of sense. but he is going to go out there and say that the federal bureaucracies will collect more of this data about hacking and share it but almost a contradiction in terms. the bureaucracies are going to be able to get on top of hackers sitting in china, iran, and north korea. i mean, i like the idea but i think implementation is going to be extremely difficult. melissa: do you guys think it's a political statement they're not coming to the speech? do you think his term is almost over? that they are sick sick of him or what is the reason they're not coming out? >> it is the left coast listen, mark zuckerberg gushes over this guy -- melissa: he did. i don't know if he does

dan henninger eric, forceful critic of the administration.the republicans fcc commissioners, he tweeted up picture of the 332 pages of new regulations which we have not seen. bernard: join us tomorrow at 11:00 eastern on this program. to the markets check the big board. i'm calling this pretty flat. we are down 20 points above 18,200. mcdonald's, this is interesting one of the biggest winners of the dow 30 stocks. is getting close to $100 each. works day under a lot of pressure because millennials didn't go there any longer? no longer fast food? i thought they were criticized but stocks back up near 100. as for the russell 2,000 very broad based in decatur, record high earlier today. i think it is a record high right now. the price of oil covered every day, $49.36 down 33%, national average for a gallon of regular still going up $2 in thirty-fourth since, up a penny overnight. we have a 31 day streak for rising gas prices. we broke this story in the last hour. 4 in navy seal chris kyle historian spired the movie americans sniper will be consi