guest: i think this is where jim mattis might have misunderstood the president. we were close to using force against iran. iran is not iraq. the population is three times larger. iran has ballistic missiles. it has a relatively capable military. iran wouldtion with be problematic. the united states has overwhelming military superiority but trump called it back. he is pulling back in afghanistan and syria. he has been known to ramp up tensions with north korea, let's see how he does in the coming weeks. overall, this is a president who has not been quick to use american military power. --also host: our guest is peter bergen. previously he taught at harvard, johns hopkins university and nyu . he is a former contributing editor. our phone lines are open. is our line for -- message or tweet. bloomfield, west virginia is first up. good morning. caller: thank you. about what our future will be. i think i need to begin by saying that most people recognized that trump was sort china shop,ll in a but they also recognized the china shop was a very corrupt and self-seeking

, and or jim mattis?>> jim mattis will do fine. [applause] >> thank you. >> i think we are done. [applause] >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] >> the new c-span online store has booktv products, check them out. the what is new for booktv and all the other c-span products. >> weeknights this week featuring booktv programs on c-span2. neil gorsuch reflects on his 30 year career and offer spots on the judiciary and u.s. constitution. justice ruth bader ginsburg recounts her time on the high court at the book festival. we will hear from the federalist's molly hemingway and judicial crisis network examining the confirmation of brett kavanaugh, watch tuesday night on c-span2 and enjoy booktv this week and every weekend on c-span2. the managing director of the international monetary fund speak at the annual ceo council meeting in washington dc.

>> well, certainly secretary of defense, jim mattis, i quote him directly in the book.e said, you know, we have to make sure that reason trump's impulse. i think he would say that fairly often. as a result of which when the white house asked for military options on iran, he simply didn't provide them. when the white house wanted a war game at camp david in the fall of 2017 to look at the options on north korea, mattis simply didn't send any war planners. and you can't have a war game without war planners, so it didn't happen. so certainly jim mattis was very concerned about this, but in president trump's defense, i think trump has proven less impulsive than certainly his rhetoric would allow us to believe. he's actually proven to be somewhat reluctant to use america military power, pulling down in afghanistan as we speak, going back and forth about having troops in syria, calling back a military operation against iran, and dialing back the rhetoric on north korea. now, the one thing that he's also been kind of lucky unlike every president since fdr, he hasn't had a majo

so certainly jim mattis was very concerned about this, but in president trump's defense, i think trumpas proven less impulsive than certainly his rhetoric would allow us to believe. i mean, he's actually proven to be somewhat reluctant to use american military power. pulling down in afghanistan as we speak. you know, going back and forth about having troops in syria. calling back military operation against iran. and dialing back the rhetoric on north korea. now, the one thing that he's also been kind of lucky, unlike every president since fdr, he hasn't had a major foreign policy crisis on his watch to react to. so the interesting question, brian, is how would he react in a major foreign policy crisis? we haven't had one. he hasn't had a 9/11 or a global financial crisis or a saddam invading kuwait or kinds of crises other modern presidents have had and he's either got another year left on the clock or potentially another five years. and by the law of averages, crises do happen. >> let's god forbid here, for good measure, we're going to talk about mattis and the generals after the brea

jim mattis would agree it is a troubling development. reason we are weak is because we are not unified at all. we should have a 100% vote of the united states senate to deter future russia interference in our elections. it is a crazy, very, very disturbing place when we can't get that. >> senator, good to see you. senator chris van hollen of maryland. we got details of president trump's new executive. a halt in the president's trade war with china. what it means for you and the economy next? you are watching "velshi & ruhle" on msnbc. xt you are watching "velshi & ruhle" on msnbc. outback is making your holidays even better! for a limited time, get a 4-course meal starting at $15.99. treat yourself to the perfect gift today, because the aussie 4-course won't last long! and try our everyday lunch combo starting at $7.99! so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cig

>> certainly secretary of state defense jim mattis, i quote him directly in the book, he said, you know we have to make sure that -- reason trump's impulse. sadly mattis was concerned about this but in president trump's defense, i think trump has proven less effective. he's proven to be somewhat reluctant to use american military power, pulling out of afghanistan as we speak, going on about having troops in syria, calling back the troops in iran and dialing become the rhetoric on north korea. now the one thing that he's also being lucky, unlike every president since fdr, he hasn't had a major foreign policy incident to react to. how would he react in a foreign policy crisis? he hasn't had a nylon or a saddam invading kuwait or other problems modern presidents have had. he's got another year left or potentially another five years. by the law of averages, crisis do happen. >> about the general donald trump famously said this at his own inauguration event. >> my generals, generals are going to keep us so safe. they're going to have a lot of problems. they're going to look at -- they're goi

guest: i think this is where jim mattis might have misunderstood the president.e were close to using force against iran. iran is not iraq. the population is three times larger. iran has ballistic missiles. it has a relatively capable military. iran wouldtion with be problematic. the united states has overwhelming military superiority but trump called it back. he is pulling back in afghanistan and syria. he has been known to ramp up tensions with north korea, let's see how he does in the coming weeks. overall, this is a president who has not been quick to use american military power. --also host: our guest is peter bergen. previously he taught at harvard, johns hopkins university and nyu . he is a former contributing editor. our phone lines are open. is our line for -- message or tweet. bloomfield, west virginia is first up. good morning. caller: thank you. about what our future will be. i think i need to begin by saying that most people recognized that trump was sort china shop,ll in a but they also recognized the china shop was a very corrupt and self-seeking ol

it appeared to be the last straw for defense secretary jim mattis who resigned in protest. trump later backtracked agreeing to leave some 1,000 troops on the ground, but in october he decided he had had enough. he announced he was pulling those remaining troops. the effect was not just bipartisan backlash but also strong, strong rebukes from american troops on the ground who felt that we as a nation had betrayed our kurdish allies in that country. one soldier told "the times," quote, they trusted us and we broke that trust. it's a stain on the american conscience. while it was widely assumed president trump had the broad backing of his troops a new poll conducted by the military times shows that half of active duty military personnel now hold an unfavorable view of the president. while the president may not always see eye to eye with his military leaders or even members of the rank and file, a lot of times those disagreements were over huge policy issues, matters of war and peace. but the story of retired navy s.e.a.l. eddie gallagher is very different. this is case that th

even after they've left, jim mattis has been reluctant to say anything about him. >> yeah. >> what dothink of him? do they have respect for him do they think he's dangerous? >> well, that letter you read from mattis i think has a very interesting clause in there. he said i have four decades of immersion in these issue which is is a not so subtle dig to reference to the fact that this is the first president in american history who has never served in office or in the military. the generals that came in after mattis, and kelly, they felt a strong sense of duty, kelly has said if hillary clinton offered him the job he would have taken it. none of them knew trump -- jim kelly has said not only did he not know trump, he didn't know anybody who knew trump. this was a completely different ecosystem. nato is a good thing, allies are a good thing. vladimir putin is a bad thing. they have that kind of a view of the world. and over time, these policy differences really began to add up. you had h.r. mccaster being force forced out of office early. mattis was no longer on speaks terms with the pre

secretary jim mattis a pacific northwest nave it is serving for decades at the marine infantry officer following two years of secretary of defense he returned to the northwest and is now distinguished fellow at the hoover institution at stanford. callsign chaos is the account of his career through wide ranging leadership roles in three worst ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the middle east. along the way he recounts the foundational experiences as a leader exacting the lessons he has learned about the nature of war fighting and peacemaking and allies and the strategic dilemmas now facing our nation. he makes it clear why america must return to a strategic footing not just to continue to win battles but fight wars. mattis divides his book into three parts of direct leadership executive leadership and strategic leadership in the first part he recalls his early experiences leading marines into battle when he knew his troops as brothers in the second part he knows what it means to commit thousands of troops to ensure the intent is understood by the most junior tro

recently on book tv, former defense secretary jim mattis recounted his military career and offered hison leadership in a conversation with new york times columnist david brooks. his a portion of the program. >> the girl was preparing for battle, covered by their shields and they were so terrified they could hear each other's teeth chattering. have you felt that kind of fear in the course of your career either in the battlefield or someone else? >> absolutely. you're trying to overcome it. there's things you can do to overcome it. your body and mind will help you get through that. it will slow things down but the most important -- there's nothing strange about fear. it's going to be there. it's part of the fight. the first time i got shot at, i couldn't taste for three days, it scared the hell out of me. but i think you're well enough trained that what really drives you forward is because you're probably going to be very tired. i cannot even explain to me to you how tired he would get. some of you have been there and you know what i'm referring to. the fear will be the coupled with the

and what jim mattis is saying. this is a war fighter. he is trained to kill terrorists. he was in charge in afghanistan and key roles in iraq. and he is the person now saying our greatest danger is ourselves? >> by the way, i -- >> i can't argue. >> it is impossible to argue with. >> you know, lincoln said it, too. >> yeah. yes, he did. >> so did pogo. >> yes, he did. look. i have worried we are -- we are repeating a period of american history between jackson and lincoln. and it took a civil war to get us out of it. i -- i hope we're not repeating that period. anyway, andrea mitchell, peggy, you guys helped do what i wanted to do, which was let's elevate this moment and at least try to realize what the heck's happening. >> i can't think of better people to be with tonight. >> thank you, chuck. >> all right. and of course, hans nichols and leanne caldwell on capitol hill and at the white house. got much more ahead on what this impeachment will mean going forward and beyond. >>> plus, the return of rudy. president trump's lawyer is back from investigating the bidens in ukr

>> jim mattis was constantly slow-rolling any kind of military option.rth korea, and it was a source of great frustration at the white house. it turns out, i think, that jim mattis kind of misunderstood trump a little bit, because it turns out trump is actually quite reluctant to use military force. he called back the military operation on iran, he pulled troops out of afghanistan, out of syria. he has tamped down tensions with north korea after amping them up. but certainly these generals saw their role as to kind of sort of fence him in a little bit, and also they disagreed with him. >> did they think it was dangerous, unpredictable? why did they need to fence him in? >> we know he's measurcurial an that was their view. >> if you look at the joint chiefs and the entire members of the joint chiefs, they report to the charommander in chief. if the commander in chief donald trump told them he wanted them to dress up as big bird, they would do it. given the sources in this book and the revelations in this book, you have something like eddie gallagher, the

i could never have lasted, because guys like general kelley, jim mattis, were honest but they're gone have to resign or tell people you're not running for reelection because you want to save your party. he's not willing to do that. he wants to bring the whole system down. >> thank you. good to see you. >>> rudy giuliani isn't the only one pushing a counternarrative. how the president's favorite television network is in overdrive trying to create an alternative fact universe. that's next. ted snow for the holidays. so we built a snow globe. i'll get that later. dylan! but the one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with homeowners insurance. what? switching and saving was really easy! i love you! what? sweetie! hands off the glass. ugh!! call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. i love her! billions of problems. sore gums? bleeding gums? painful flossing? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath healthy gums oral rinse fights gingivitis and plaque and prevents gum disease for 24 hours. so you can... breathe easy, there's therabrea

reporter: we'll be hearing from former defense secretary jim mattis and leon panetta shortly. they have been asked what should be done about north korea, especially if it launches an intercontinental ballistic missile. he said u.s. should not respond to everything north korea does. jon: we'll have plenty more with mark esper. chris wallace takes his program to the ray gawn national forum on sunday. questions are growing about a high-speed chase near miami that ended in tragedy. a group of' suspects the hijacked a ups truck. it ended with the police firing into the truck, killing the suspect and 2009 sent drivers. reporter: we are at the early stage of this investigation with multiple crime scenes. the family of the ups driver says the authorities were trigger happy. the two suspects, lamar alexander and robby jerome hill are accused of injuring a jewelry store employee as they tried to rob the store in coral gables. police say they ran off and hijacked a ups truck with the driver still inside. according to the "miami herald," 18 officers from four different agencies exchanged

and i think of people who have served this president and served in open wars like general jim mattis who served in afghanistan and iraq. and using the language of war for political battles. i said what do you think about the president using the word enemies. he said this is something on the battle field, people trying to kill you because they're against our values and what we stand for. i said is it ever appropriate to use the language of war for your political enemies? he said it's never appropriate, right? doug has the scope of history he's looking at as the lens. every american has a degree of peace and if you're honest with yourself, there's nothing in this letter that reflects decency, the standards and values we uphold as americans and a government a representative democracy by and for the people. this is not our best self. >> thank you. thank you, douglas as well. >>> house speaker nancy pelosi dismissing the president's letter as ridiculous. also pro impeachment rallies were held in towns and cities across the country. this is bauszen. did you really need the caps lock? mucin

other and a changes in a whole raft of area make it harder to think of america as a unified force, jim mattisericas don't seem to have affection for each other the way we used to and just trying understand that. and again, trump for all of the obsession we have with talking about trump today, trump is a symptom of larger issues, and larger dislocations and large fer way in the talk to each other, and the understand a, what used to be a common reality. and there are down sides for the world of that type of divide within the american nation. as you look around the globe today, we see all sorts of different things happening. we see what is happening in hong kong, we see what is the happening in iran and see what is happening in the degradation of the state of mexico and see north korea, these are all areas where i think we should be focused on them. we are incredibly important and yet the focus inas wtohing and i think it is degraded the conversation that we ought to be having about these very important human rights issues n 1964 robert kennedy went to convention floor and gave a speech about am

i just finished reading general jim mattis's book, he writes a lot about how the united states gas been receiving -- recedin from its leadership roles in international institution, he writes about the obama administration and the united states taking a step back when we did not act on the redline in syria. but he also outlines what seems to be going on in the current administration, where the united states has been very critical and not supportive of some of our most important institutions like nato. i'm curious on what votevets, or where mayor pete stands on our involvement on the global stages. as a member of the military i'm concerned about us taking a leadership role and working with allies. guest: absolutely. thank you for your question. important football game happening in philadelphia that army is going to win. host: what's the score going to be? somethingy form the -- fortysomething, navy zero. but this is an important question john. the experiment works the other way with president trump, who does not understand the importance of alliances, standing up for our friends, and how

like general jim mattis. in afghanistan. and iraq. and using the language of war.itical -- i asked him about that. what do you think about the president using the word enemy? what are enemies. this is something on the battlefield. people trying to kill you because they are against values. is it appropriate to use the language of war for political enemies? and he said it's never appropriate. this is -- doug is right. he has the scope of history. as lens for this. every american has a degree of decency. if you're honest with yourself there's nothing in the letter that reflects decency. the standard and values that we have uphold as americans. the american presidency. and government. a representative of democracy by and forthe people. this is not the best self-. >> yeah. i agree. thank you. house speaker nancy pelosi dismissing the letter today as ridiculous. we'll look at the power she wheels, next. also, proimpeachment rallies were held in towns and cities across the country. take a look at boston. >> impeach, remove! i'll get that later. dylan! but the one thing we

. >> exactly and the problem is that navy secretary was brought in by former defense secretary jim mattisd on the position of principled disagreement over policy with the president. one of the many things they disagreed about was the withdrawal of troops from sensitive areas where we still have fighting ongoing such as syria and afghanistan. it's no secret that mattis and navy secretary spencer were closed, were friends and were thinking in the same way but i think the secretary in his extraordinary op-ed in the "washington post" was far more harsh than secretary mattis had been when he resigned. i think the issue is one and you are talking about a former marine, or at least i guess you are always agreeing but he felt what the president had done was so untoward ends so out of line with naval procedures and tradition that it couldn't be accepted. he also acknowledged that he had made a mistake in going around the secretary of defense. he had not told the secretary of defense mr. esper that he was negotiating with the white house to try and do a separate deal for eddie gallagher, the navy s

jim mattis was forced out of office several months early by obama. h.r. mcmaster didn't like a number of things obama had done in terms of not responding to the use of chemical weapons in syria and putting a withdrawal date on afghanistan. so there was a combination of factors why they said yes. >> and you make the point when it comes to foreign policy, president trump has more in common with president obama, what do you mean? >> the rhetoric, both of them come outside of the traditional app rat russ. er not machine candidates and they saw themselves getting elected to get out of the endless wars and obama did that in the end of 2011 and in afghanistan here we have president trump thinking about it. he's gone back and forth. but at the end of the day, they're not sending big conventional armies into the middle east as president bush did in 2003 and they're using drones and cyber warfare and careful with the use of force. >> and this is a pivotal moment that we'll be watching with you, peter burgen, as we watch what is happens in afghanistan. that is the b

mcmaster, jim mattis, john kelly.tent people like mark esper the defense secretary, but they're not really going to stand up to trump and he's sort of unplugged and we've seen the results. >> what did these generals think of the president overall? because you write about moments that seem like out of body experiences. one has to do with south korea and its capital seoul and meetings the president had repeatedly about the north korea, south korea conflict. trump remarked why is seoul so close to the north korean border. trump was regularly briefed that north korea possessed -- trump saud they have to move, the officials in the oval office weren't sure if trump was joking. trump repeated they have to move. >> i think they just tuned this stuff out. trump makes a lot of these kinds of comments. is he joking? is he serious? it's hard to tell. but over time i think these things began to accumulate, and also, it wasn't just a matter of trump's kind of way of approaching things that the military wasn't happy about, they disa

he's not jim mattis and does not have the same stature.extraordinary read. thank you. >>> coming up, michael bennett is talking about his bid for the white house. stay with us right here on msnbc. e. stay with us right here on msnbc. ♪ ♪ i've always loved and i'm still going for my best, even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'll go for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. what's next? sharing my roots. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs o

president of the united states and that is for losing so much really good talent, i'm thinking jim mattise syria withdrawal mistakes, the president later took back, john bolton who left as national security advisor just before the ukraine misadventure and can coats, the national -- dan coats, the national intelligence director, he left. the president tweeted he wasn't happy with him. i think the president, he misses those advisers that could save him from mistakes if he were willing to keep some of those men and women on. all right. we have to take one more break. when we come back, our panel's picks for the hits of the year. introducing new vicks vapopatch easy to wear, with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. new vicks vapopatch. breathe easy. time now for our hits of the year. kim starts off. >> you know a year when pre-much nothing at all good came from washington, there is one exception, semi- hit goes to the washington national. and not just her becoming the first team and 95 years to win the pennant, it was a must watch tv. they almost died in the wildcard

i could never have lasted, because guys like general kelley, jim mattis, were honest but they're gonehave to resign or tell people you're not running for reelection because you want to save your party. he's not willing to do that. richard nixon did that. he's not willing to do that. he wants to bring the whole system down. >> thank you. good to see you. >>> rudy giuliani isn't the only one pushing a counternarrative. how the president's favorite television network is in overdrive trying to create an alternative fact universe. that's next. we're reporters from the new york times. this melting pot of impacted species. everywhere is going to get touched by climate change. i'm a verizon engineer, and i'm part of the team building the most powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband-- --for massive capacity-- --and ultra-fast speeds. almost 2 gigs here in minneapolis. that's 25 times faster than today's network in new york city. so people from midtown manhattan-- --to downtown denver-- --can experience what our 5g can deliver. (woman) and if verizon 5g can deliver performanc

president of the united states and that is for losing so much really good talent, i'm thinking jim mattisthe syria withdrawal mistakes, the president later took back, john bolton who left as national security advisor just before the ukraine misadventure and can coats, the national -- dan coats, the national intelligence director, he left. the president tweeted he wasn't happy with him. i think the president, he misses those advisers that could save him from mistakes if he were willing to keep some of those men and women on. all right. we have to take one more break. when we come back, our panel's picks for the hits of the year. (chime) (shaq) magenta? i hate cartridges! not magenta! not magenta. i'm not going back to the store. magenta! cartridges are so... (buzzer) (vo) the epson ecotank. no more cartridges. it comes with an incredible amount of ink that can save you a lot of frustration. ♪ the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. available at... you may have gingivitis. when you brush, and the clock could be ticking towards bad breath, receding gums, and possibly... tooth loss. help turn

president of the united states and that is for losing so much really good talent, i'm thinking jim mattisdrawal mistakes, the president later took back, john bolton who left as national security advisor just before the ukraine misadventure and can coats, the national -- dan coats, the national intelligence director, he left. the president tweeted he wasn't happy with him. i think the president, he misses those advisers that could save him from mistakes if he were willing to keep some of those men and women on. all right. we have to take one more break. when we come back, our panel's picks for the hits of the year. it took over 100 years to perfect this masterpiece of italian design and performance... ...and about 15 minutes for us to do this. blends right into the italian architecture! ♪ no no no no no! ♪ ♪ ♪ everything your trip needs, for everyone you love. expedia. and now for their servicee. to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need.

and i need everyone to understand the difference between leadership, jim mattis was here a while back. i'm sure he talked about leadership. i'm not here to talk about leadership. i'm here to talk about character. leadership is what we do to influence others. it is a big door, and it swings out there, influencing millions of people as it did for me when i was a nato commander, but that big door of leadership swings on a very small hinge, and that hinge is human character. you cannot swing that door of leadership unless your character allows it to swing. so i set out to write a book about character. we are awash in books of leadership. there are a lot of them. i wanted to write a book about that inner voyage, how we lead ourselves. that's character. and write about what you know about. i decided to write using a framework of ten admirals. so we're going to zip back in history, 2500 years, and we're going to pull it right up to the present and talk about ten very dynamic admirals. i'm greek american. so there has to be a greek american -- not american, but a greek in this thing. and this

former secretary of defense jim mattis talks about his military career and offers his thoughts on leadershiptch monday night beginning at 8:30 eastern on c-span2 and enjoy book tv this weekend every week and every weekend on c-span2. >> campaign 20 is traveling across the country asking voters , what issues should presidential candidates address? a my top issue is i want candidate who will advocate for everybody regardless of how old they are, what kind of background they come from, what race or religion they are, what their sexual orientation jim -- or gender might be. that hasn't happened in the past few years and we need to get back to a president that will advocate for everybody. are socialssues justice, what you plan to do to resolve the issues across the nation. wealth andssue is how it affects american politics and how money influences it. >> it has been a long day. >> my top issue is not a ethicstive issue but an issue. political transparency i think is our biggest issue in washington and government in general. i think it is something they need to focus on. the american public needs

president of the united states and that is for losing so much really good talent, i'm thinking jim mattisdent later took back, john bolton who left as national security advisor just before the ukraine misadventure and can coats, the national -- dan coats, the national intelligence director, he left. the president tweeted he wasn't happy with him. i think the president, he misses those advisers that could save him from mistakes if he were willing to keep some of those men and women on. all right. we have to take one more break. when we come back, our panel's picks for the hits of the year. you don't use this old thing, do you? no! or how 'bout this dinosaur right here? nope! then why are you still using a laser printer? it's got expensive toner cartridges. but this... is the epson ecotank color printer. no more expensive cartridges! big ink tanks. lots of ink. if you don't think this printer's right for you, just pick up your phone... (chuckling) ...and give me a call. the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. available at... ♪ (vo) thewith every attempt, strto free itself,pider's web. it on

. >> to watch the rest of this discussion, visit our website, booktv.org and search for jim mattis for the title of his bo book, chaos using the box at the top of the page. >> thank you, everyone. it's a pleasure to be here. i enjoy this opportunity to talk to you about the most particular book i've ever written. ... you need to create a digital object which is trivial to transact but difficult or impossible to forge and duplicate. it must be easy to verify, to prove that it is what it claims to be under all kinds of conditions and constraints for all kinds of people. it must be able to carry the information about what it is and what it's worth without generating any information about how it's used or by whom. it has to do this on platforms, networks and machines that generate effectively perfect copies and transaction logs and records in their very functioning. in other words, figuring out the how of how to mix things like cash digital is a very tall order indeed. which raises the question of why you would need to build such a thing. answering that question will take us from fighting

it a luxury or necessity, i think it's more the latter because it gives the lori robinson's and jim mattis's and tom burke's the ability to learn about, where is china headed? 10 years down the road, in a position of command at the crisis, and i want to figure out is this a crisis where we need to ratchet up or ratchet down or find a diplomatic way out, and the military advice is going to be crucial as the future president decides what to do. it's the ability to think back andistory and on philosophy governmental dynamics and how decisions are made in a bureaucracy, and all the sophistication, in addition to the technical military expertise. that makes our leadership. so exceptional. as i've gotten knowing theseof americans over the years, to see what they have done is something we have to sustain in the armed forces. it's not just we're lucky when they come to brookings, but in general across the armed forces as people want to higher rank and joint surface. -- service. here in the front row and then over there to the thorough. -- the third row. >> if you were to look -- michael: identify yo

he lost his last defense secretary, jim mattis, in part because of his disenchantment with internationaliances. so i think the nato trip is again going to draw into sharp relief just how different the president from his own national security apparatus might be. >> and in that apparatus, the sources that you're talking to, are they concerned about the way the president might handle this week? >> there's always concern. if you remember, this is not a summit, supposedly. they're calling it a leaders meeting because the brits didn't want to call too much attention to a lot of what is going on, in part because the last summit was a borderline disaster. last summer they had a nato summit in brussels, which was followed by trump's meeting with putin in helsinki when he disa vowed his own intelligence agencies. but also at the last nato summit, president trump's own officials did what they could to sort of carve off the gains and sort of the announcement they were going to make away from the president and make sure that he didn't pay too much attention to it so he couldn't blowup the meeting and

it's something jim mattis when he was running centcom was add v add hoe indica advocating for. its support to tehran and a lot of its support domestically to these iranian groups, at least shia groups, close to these militias. we'll see whether or not there are any domestic consequences, fallout in iraq and the u.s. forces are there at the invitation of the iraqi government. >> yes, 5,000 troops, as hans nichols mentioned. hans, thank you very much with the update right there. the united states military has conducted some air strikes, five of them in iraq and in syria on iranian-backed groups. we'll bring you the very latest on this as we get it. this took place just within the last couple of hours. very unusual situation in iraq. >>> back home and the other big breaking news story, a shooting at a north texas church. two people have been killed in a shooting in texas. one is believed to be the shooter, another person is in critical condition at the hospital. no more information at this point. it happened at the west freeway church of christ in white settlement, texas, near ft.

the former defense secretary jim mattis speaking out during a "washington post" forum about our currentng up for two big battles, one with congress and one with the nation's highest court. the supreme court yesterday agreed to hear the hoer court order that roir require the banks and accountants to hand over financial records to local prosecutors in new york. comes after rouge bader ginsburg put a hold on a lower court's ruling to turn over the documents. . also follows the cases to be heard in march with the decision by the end of june. just as the general election season starts more in the limelight. it may not matter much. next week the full house is set to vote on two articles of impeachment levied against donald trump, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. after they pass, the senate will hold a trial. however, majority leader mitch mcconnell says there is not only no chance that he'll be removed from office, it doesn't weigh on his re-election campaign either. [ inaudible question ] >> well, it seems it may not play much of a role in the president's reelection campaign. cons

i just finished reading general jim mattis's book, he writes a lot about how the united states gas beeneceiving -- recedin from its leadership roles in international institution, he writes about the obama administration and the united states taking a step back when we did not act on the redline in syria. but he also outlines what seems to be going on in the current administration, where the united states has been very critical and not supportive of some of our most important institutions like nato. i'm curious on what votevets, or where mayor pete stands on our involvement on the global stages. as a member of the military i'm concerned about us taking a leadership role and working with allies. guest: absolutely. thank you for your question. important football game happening in philadelphia that army is going to win. host: what's the score going to be? somethingy form the -- fortysomething, navy zero. but this is an important question john. the experiment works the other way with president trump, who does not understand the importance of alliances, standing up for our friends, and how to

jim, thank you. arkansas from iran across the border to iraq where the parliament there is calling an emergency session to approve the resignation of prime minister abdul mattyks of protests, eric, happening in baghdad and the southern parts of the country have left at least 400 people killed. trey yingst joins us now from our middle east bureau with the latest. >> reporter: arthel, good afternoon. that's right. over the weekend iraqi prime minister submitted his resignation to parliament as bloody protests do continue across the country. now, according to the iraqi constitution, the current president will have an opportunity to run the government for the next 15 days until a new prime minister is appointed and a new cabinet is formed. other the past month, more than 400 have been killed and thousands injured as anti-government demonstrations continue. this weekend at least two people were killed as clashes erupted. now security forces used live ammunition and tear gas. the bodies were then carried through the streets from the mosque to the grave as protesters chanted in arabic, quote, there is no god but allah. the events drew reaction from pope francis whe