uab strikes against saudi oil for silts is still it is in september 2019, persistent interference with commercial shipping in the straits of removes. militia attacks on the iraqi basic kills an american contractor and stoking popular unrest against the u.s. and iraqaq that encourage the assault on the u.s. embassy in baghdad last week. i have given you these examples for a reason. as you can see the reason. there has been an escalation that began with the u.s. decision to destroy a diplomatic deal. and it has been one nation acting and the other responding and the other acting and the other responding. and now we are on the brink of war. the escalation has been so significant between the u.s. on iran, now each country has dbeen responsible for actively inflicting injuries and deaths on the other. and we are at the brink of war. thous of american service members enjoyingin holidays with their families were surprised by notices in the last few days that they must now deployed to the middle east yet again. and the current state of hostilities is causing other serious consequences. the u.s

i was in the white house wind that uab was struck down by iran and solve the president saying, backing, showing restraint, "i won't attack drones because i won't start a " i think with soleimani and our bull's-eye, we had to take him out. >> sandra: that's the point general keane continues to make. congressman, going back to the imminent nature of the attack, mark esper went on the record yesterday when asked about that, saying he believes it was days away from an attack. i want to ask you, though, about the advanced nature. the warning the united states received of the attack last night. per our own reporting from the pentagon, pentagon officials say that there was advance warning of the missile attack. that is the reason why mark esper then held that hasty news conference at 2:00 yesterday afternoon. he wanted to offer iran and off-ramp, talks without preconditions. what more can you add to that? >> i think the iranians are playing it both ways. they want to sort of appease their base in the country, to show that they took action, while at the same time not fire with great casualties