Took so many lives. We are just about to receive a statement, a videotaped statement that the president made a short time ago. A few minutes ago from his Vacation Home in maralago where he had originally gathered to meet the leader of china. Lets listen. On tuesday, syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians using a deadly nerve agent. Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of god should ever suffer such horror. Tonight i ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in syria from where the chemical attack was launched. It is in this Vital National security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. There can be no dispute that syria used banned chemical weapons violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the u. N. Security council. Years of previous attempts at changing assads behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically. As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize threatening the United States and its allies. Tonight i call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end this slaughter and blood shed in syria and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types. We ask for gods wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world. We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed and we hope that as long as america stands for justice, then peace and harmony will in the end prevail. Good night and God Bless America and the entire world. Thank you. That was donald trump speaking from maralago. The president ordered the attack. Were told the impact time was 8 45 p. M. Eastern time u. S. Time. Targeting the air base which the president said was the launching pad for the attack which took place tuesday in syria last week which killed so many. The president has just said that theres no dispute that syria used banned chemical weapons. He also said that years of previous attempts at changing assads behavior have failed and he talked about this has continued to destabilize the country and led to the refugee crisis which has threatened the United States. We are joined by our complete military panel. General, if you would, youre at the board. If you could just kind of show us youre at the map of syria, explain a little bit of where this base is, where the attack took place and the significance from your vantage point. Absolutely. As you can see this is the air base as has been described already, but whats really significant is we know in the eastern med those ships launched the tomahawks. The tomahawks dont go from point a to point b in a straight line. They cant be shot down, but these tomahawks are at a low level after the deck. I would have to assess right now without getting any feedback from the pentagon in terms of the effects that were achieved, what we can assume is that each one of the tomahawks had a very good target that it went against. It was programmed appropriately and it struck the target. What needs to happen is what was the bomb damage, what does that runway look like. I think its fair to assume all of his fixed wing aircraft were probably already scrambled and in many cases we might be able to find those things in tehran right now. This is not like kentucky baseball one and done. This is the start of a series of operations. We will continue to maintain a very strong intelligence presence on top of this target. Well be able to roll more tomahawks and well be able to escalate and well be able to do additional operations in order to achieve the results were looking for which is number one politically weve done that and sent a strong message and to degrade and eliminate his weapons of mass destruction capability. We do not know if the Trump Administration does intend to have other strikes. For all we know its possible theyve decided this is sending a message they will say this has degraded enough and then wait and see what happens. Its possible there may be more, but at this point the administration is not saying. The administration is not saying a thing about these operations, but i can guarantee that this was not a plan that had a very finite amount of time. This is the start of what i would presume is a Larger Campaign that will have elements of power and other opportunities against other targets based on what we see next. Youre correct, nothing has been announced. Admiral, how much information does the u. S. Have about the location, the capabilities of syrias air force and weve seen obviously syrias air force drop barrel bombs which have killed large numbers of people and weve seen Chemical Attacks in years past, is there intelligence on the capabilities and the number of aircraft, the location of aircraft and how easy is it for syria to basically just move their aircraft to iran or to other places . Our intelligence on issues capabilities in syria isnt perfect as you might expect because we dont have a large presence there, but we do have significant overhead isr capabilities in terms of manned and Unmanned Aircraft and satellite imagery. Its not perfect, but it gives you a good sense and because we have been conducting operations against isis in syria, we have gained more knowledge and information context if you will about how the Syrian Air Force, Syrian Military supported by the russians are conducting their operations as well. I think we have a good idea. Obviously this attack never would have been launched and not conducted in the way it was if we didnt have good solid intelligence about what we were hitting and why we were hitting in this field and its direct link to the attack tells you a lot about the certainty level that they had. I think theres good enough intelligence and information to make a call like they made tonight and i agree with the colonel that this if youre trying to link it to the attack and as well degrade capabilities, this was a good target to go after. Colonel, to the generals point, if youre objective is more than just a message, but it is actually the elimination of syrias capabilities to launch a airal capabilities this is not enough. This is one air base. The Syrian Air Force has at ffi over the years because of lack of maintenance and parts. They did get some modernized aircraft from the russians, but not enough they would want to take on the United States. Theyre good at developing bo bombs. I would assume that the syrians have dispersed these aircraft. Dispersing aircraft to bare boned bases is easy and the syrians have a lot of strips that are not manned. Thats visible and you look at this target set, this air base, this is a fixed facility. We know whats that there. We cant move a lot of things there. They cant move buildings and large facilities and pol tanks. This is what the tomahawk was made for. It gets in there low level and hits these fixed facilities with no risk to an air crew. If this doesnt do it, if the syrians dont get the message, we ramp it up. Do we want to go down that road . Are we doing a military action or are we starting a war . General, this administration has the benefit of several years now of the u. S. Military having watched what is going on in syria and i assume a myriad of plans which maybe of some of them have been gathering dust, but have been gamed out for some amount of time in previous years about location of fighter jets, if option a is to eliminate the air capabilities, this is how theyre going to go about it. Ill tell you, there are no plans gathering dust in the p t pentagon. We maintain those plans and update them constantly. Thats always ongoing . Thats always ongoing. Different elements within the pentagon that have responsibility for different parts of the world will continue to update. Its on a schedule and thats the most ill tell you. As they get more information, especially as weve seen actions with special operators in that part of the world, we were somewhat blind when isis started operations in syria because we didnt have a lot of intelligence gathering capability, but thats improved over the last few years. Weve put a lot of satellites and manned aircraft to gather intelligence over syria in the last few years. We havent had a lot on the grouped, but weve gathered enough intelligence to put spotters on airfields. Its gotten better and that reinforces your planning capability. When somebody says whats our plan for something next week, they will get a bare based plan. It wont be refined. Thats Crisis Action planning, but theyll put a spin on it request quickly. Theres a lot of lights on determining whats going to happen next and what theyve accomplished tonight. I want to go back to barbara starr. Reporter we are getting more information. U. S. Defense officials are now saying they did inform the Russian Military before this strike took place. There is a standard mechanism between the u. S. Military and the Russian Military in the syria and iraq area of operations. They call it decon flix. They can call each other and try to stay out of each others way via communication lines. The u. S. Used that communication lines and contacted the russians according to a u. S. Defense official and told them what they were going to do and told them when they were going to do it. The logical question is did the russians move out of the way . Tonight the u. S. Will not speak about whether the russians took any action about that. They want moscow to discuss that in these early hours, but they did take care to inform the russians of what was going to happen. So it does appear that you could make the suspect owe sish there was Russian Military at that base. We are very shortly going to be show some images that the pentagon has showed to reporters and were going ready to make those available to our viewers. What they have is very interesting. They have a radar track on the day of the attack showing an aircraft radar track of the plane taking off, syrian planes taking off from this air base and they tracked them all the way to this area where they struck. We learned earlier today that the u. S. In fact had that kind of data, had the radar and had the heat signature of bombs dropping off those aircraft and they have early images of bomb Damage Assessment at the syrian airfield showing some cratering and damage. There is more to learn about what happened, but they do feel that they successfully struck the targets they were looking to strike at this location. All right. Well bring those images to you as quickly as possible. We have an update out of syria itself. Syrian state television is reporting u. S. Military aggression targets a military base in syria with multiple missiles. Well keep watching to see how they are reporting this as day breaks over there. Its about seven hours ahead. So its about 5 16 in the morning there. Senior edatoitor of the daily beast. We are learning little by little more details and we are expecting perhaps according to the reporting of jim acosta a briefing by administration personnel, possibly military personnel, about this operation. We heard the remarks made by President Trump just a short time ago. They were about two to three minutes long. Well play them again. I want to go to, in terms of what you are going to be looking for in the next several hours, any action like this has reactions. With so many actors on the ground theres a lot to watch in the next 24 hours. Were beginning to some reaction coming from some of the activists and opposition groups saying finally, america has finally done something. They are going to be expecting more, but this has initially generated a certain level of hope that maybe this is the beginning of america taking the plight of the Syrian People serio seriously. There are so many players on the ground. You have isis who wont lament the fact that the regime has been targeted. Its interesting for President Trump who has joined the campaign, weve seen president s who Campaign Just as george w. Bush did campaigning on wanting to stay focused on domestic issues, but who because they are the president of the United States do get drawn into global affairs. This is the First Military action under this president. Im wondering if you are kim jongun sitting in north korea tonight what does one read into this military action . I think a great deal will depend on what follows next because this is one action. Its one relatively small military action. Its intelligence and effective. It does send a signal, but military force is not primarily an instrument for emotional o outbursting or signaling something. Its not clear what the political strategy is. Is our goal now, is our political strategy that we want to defeat and oust the government of assad . If thats the case its going to be a tall order and its going to take a lot more strikes. Its going to take many many thousands of troops on the ground. If that isnt the game, what are we trying to achieve. Its unlikely this strike itself will alter the military balance to effect a political settlement. Theres an argument it can be made it will drag on the civil war. To just throw bombs in the middle of that, it will get peoples attention as you point out. It will get the country to support President Trump at a moment like this, but what have we actually achieved . Weve entered the most complicated civil war in the middle east, the most complicated civil war ive ever seen in my life and i dont think we know what our goal is. We do not have a great track record of predicting events in this region. Correct. The strategy Going Forward as far as i can tell theyre looking to pull russia away from iran. They want to detain and deter iran and syria and iraq. Donald trump best friend Vladimir Putin could be negotiated with to do this. What i found most interesting is if russian personnel were at this base that was struck and they were at the base 48 hours ago did the Russian Military know the regime was loading up the gas rockets . If that was the case putin is not only in behind assad, but hes saying have it. You have license to use gas in the country. All bets are off. Forget about trying to cleve him away. This is somebody who really is looking to test the United States. Barbara starr is joining us again. Reporter theres a number of late night briefings going on right now for reporters here at the pentagon. Thats why we keep coming back with these additional pieces of information. What we know and the point that michael was making is very key to this and very crucial. What we do now know is yes there were russians at the base. We dont know what their jobs were or what they were doing or their awareness yet of the syrian actions, but there were russians at the base and the u. S. Indeed had multiple conversations with the russians throughout the day we are told by a u. S. Defense official about what was going to happen and the approximate time. One of the reasons and probably the key reason for this is the u. S. Wanted to ensure that it wasnt going to be striking and killing russians. It wanted to keep this limited to those they felt at least initially were responsible for that incident. I think the point very much that we dont know the answer to is if there were russians at the base, we warned them to get out of the way and we warned them what was going to happen, but what did those russians know about what was going on, that we dont have an answer yet. Did the russians tell the syrians the base is going to be hit tonight and you better get your aircraft out and move them elsewhere . Reporter i think you can assume that u. S. Surveillance and other aircraft were overhead watching this and that would have been something that the russians would have known that the u. S. Satellites aircraft, surveillance aircraft, drones would be overhead keeping an eye on this area and would have possibly i dont know this for sure, would have possibly taken action if they say the syrians begin to move things around. I think the calculation for the u. S. Military was that they wanted to ensure this was a very limited strike and it did not involve the russians again. An effort not to widen any conflict here. Thats a critical piece. Reporter we are in very early hours. We dont have a lot of answers. I want to go to jim acosta. Reporter right now actually secretary of state Rex Tillerson, the National Security advisor, mcmaster, theyre briefing reporters and secretary of state making some pretty pointed remarks not only about Bashar Al Assads responsibility for what occurred a couple of days ago and the responsibility of the russian government on this. Tillerson said that assad has carried out Chemical Attacks on civilians including women and children and carried out attacks earlier this month talking about march 25th and 30th. We have a high level of confidence that the attacks were carried out by aircraft under the direction of Bashar Al Assads regime and high confidence that these attacks involved nerve gas. At least three attacks tillerson saying we have a high confidence of that. On russia, very interesting comments. Just a few moments ago from the secretary of state, this is a quote from the secretary of state to reporters just a few moments ago, clearly russia has failed in its responsibility to deliver on a commitment that was made back in 2013 that moscow agreed to to get rid of syrias chemical weapons. That agreement according to secretary of state was not held up by the russians saying that either russia has been complicit or russia has been incompetent in its ability to deliver. So the secretary of state making some very harsh pointed comments tonight not only at assad, but at the russians. That raises so many different topics of conversation. Weve been talking so long now about the Trump Administration during the campaign and the russians and whether folks were too cozy with one another, why has President Trump never criticized Vladimir Putin or been tough on russia throughout the last 1 1 2 years. As president you have the secretary of state really once again indicating a big reversal for this administration not only when it comes to dealing with syria and its use of chemical weapons, but tonight putting some of the responsibility on moscow on the kremlin for not honoring this agreement that was apparently reached back in 2013 for russia to be involved in getting rid of syrias chemical weapons. The secretary of state saying that russia has not held up its end of that bargain. A lot of big developments tonight. Thank you. Matt, what have you learned . Reporter its obviously the middle of the night here. Theres been no reaction as yet from anything in state media that weve seen. Theres been no reaction from the kremlin or defense ministry. Weve been in contacted with them. Its a huge message not just to the syrians that the Trump Administration has sent by carrying out these missile strikes, but also to the russians and thats something thats been laid out not just by the comments from Rex Tillerson there that jim was talking about, but by statements coming through to us from various u. S. Senators as well. Senators mccain and lindsay saying this is a clear message that the u. S. Will no longer stand by. This was clearly a message to say not just at syria, but at the russians as well. I think its probably the final nail in the coffin of any sense in which there is going to be a time of rebuilding relationships, a reset between the Trump Administration and putins russia. Theres a lot of speculation in the past this could be the final nail in the coffin of that idea. But well wait to see what the kremlin says in the hours ahead and well bring that to you straight away. We should point out secretary of state is supposed to go to moscow i think next week, right . Reporter its coming on the 12th of april. So the middle of the next week. He was already goi it was already going to be a difficult meeting because they have to discuss the situation in syria and ukraine and the situation regarding sanctions. This is going to make it all the more difficult. What kind of reception Rex Tillerson is going to get now, a man who was initially believed to be because of his situation in exxon, he was awarded the medal of friendship by Vladimir Putin a couple of years ago because of his services to the country, now hes coming to russia next week as a secretary of state for a country that is opposed to russia in its main foreign adventure overseas. Its campaign in syria that russia and the United States are at loggerheads. Thank you very much. Were going to continue to check in with you throughout this night. 50 to 60 tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired by the United States hitting around 8 45 p. M. Eastern time which would have been about 3 45 in the morning i believe in syria. Targeting one air base, the air base that the United States says is the base from which syrian aircraft left from and dropped what the u. S. Is now saying was a nerve gas. A short time ago the white house released a videotaped statement from President Trump. Listen. On tuesday syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians. Using a deadly nerve agent, assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of god should ever suffer such horror. Tonight i ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in syria from where the chemical attack was launched. It is in this Vital National security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. There can be no dispute that syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its object dpa ga obligations under the chemical weapons and ignored the urging of the u. N. Security council. Years of previous attempts at changing assads behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically. As a result the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize threatening the United States and its allies. Tonight i call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and blood shed in syria. And also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types. We ask for gods wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world. We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed. And we hope that as long as america stands for justice, then peace and harmony will in the end prevail. Good night and God Bless America and the entire world. Thank you. That was President Trump a short time ago from maralago. I want to bring in our chief political analyst. What kind of calculus went into this decision for the president. I think as jim and jeff were saying earlier, this seems to be a decision that the president made when he saw those pictures. And i think that it struck him in a way that he clearly hadnt been struck in 2013 when there was a larger chemical weapons attack and he said that the president should not go into syria. So i think that once his he got around his military advisors and his secretary of state it was clear at least from this initial attack that thats what is that they decided upon a more structured targeted action. I can tell you that the president is going to have to answer a lot of congress from those who support him and those who oppose this. On the supporting side you have john mccain and Lindsay Graham who put out a statement tonight applauding the president , attacking putin, which we heard from the secretary of state, but with we did not hear that from the president and theyre saying its time to take the next steps to expand this war against assad and support the Syrian Opposition and establish safe zones in syria, which is what they want. You are hearing from democrats theres a young congressman seth maltin who tweeted tonight potus cares enough about the Syrian People to launch 50 tomahawks, but not enough to let the refugees find safety here. Hes going to be challenged on his refugee policy and also youre going to hear from people like rand paul who said tonight while we all condemn the astrosties in syria, the United States was not attacked and the president needed congressional authorization from this. Youre going to hear that from a lot of conservatives who think he should have gone to congress and that is very often a tug of war that goes on between a president who says he has the authority that he received after this legislation was passed post 9 11 versus those who say no, in fact, you need to go to congress to get authorization and by the way as youve been talking about throughout this show, it was donald trump who said that president obama needed to go to congress and clearly donald trump decided not to do that. A lot of questions on the policy side that youre going to hear because people want to know whats next was this just a one off or is there something more coming. Is this a shift on syria. Is this a shift on russia or youre going to hear from people who just say you know what, you needed to consult congress and have a vote. I want to bring in david axlerod. You were in the Obama White House when a lot of these discussions were going on. We have seen in history so many times when the president of the United States sees picture and there is pressure to do something i think back to somali, this pressure to save peoples lives and the humanitarian operation that ended with black hawk down and u. S. Forces being dragged through the streets. It is difficult when you are president it is different when you are president and the responsibility for peoples lives rests with you than it is when youre campaigning or when youre a civilian watching this stuff and reading about it. I dont think its possible to describe the pressures that a president of the United States lives with moment to moment. Much of which we dont know about. The Intelligence Briefings that president s get, the things theyre exposed to and the constant understanding that they hold in their hands this mortal power over life and death. But ill tell you two things i found interesting about the president s remarks, he said years of previous attempts at changing assads behavior have failed and failed very dramatically as a result the refugee crisis continues to d p deepen and the region continues to destabilize threatening the United States and its allies. I was wondering as i was listening to him, was he making the case for larger action along the lines of what would be a 180 degree turn for him in terms of policy. We remember his inaugural address which he seemed to i said kate that america was going to look after americas business. At the end of his remarks he said and we hope that as long as america stands for justice that peace and harmony will in the end prevail. It suggests a larger role than the retaliation for the use of chemical weapons. You had what happens to assad is up to the Syrian People. What a difference a week makes. Thats right, as if they could hold elections to determine their leader. On monday the president s spokesman was instructed and said were not going to use this very chemical attack as an opportunity to try to call for the ouster of the assad regime because that would be silly. It would not reflect the realities on the ground. It seems based on whether its people he talked to, people in his family, or pictures he saw on television or in the newspapers. You were asking i think an important question which is that sense of pressure that president s have they have this feeling they have to do something. You talked to president obama about the red line. Absolutely. One of the things that president obama felt strongly was you cant give in the momentary emotion to do something if youre going to create a danger Going Forward. If you do something to show youre strong and you drag the United States into a quagmire like iraq, that was his great fear. He was very calculating, very cool and aware that this is one step and then what happens after. Have i really change in had the balance of power on the ground. With President Trump you get the sense a very different person and somebody who is more likely to just try something and say well, well see what it does. Theres more of a gamble mentality. Obama is low risk and trump seems more willing to gamble. The danger of course is in these situations if the things you try initially, this first bombing strike maybe another one, if they dont work, now you have committed the prestige of the most powerful country in the world. Can you back down or are you then forced to throw good money after bad and good soldiers after dead ones. The u. S. Famously backed down in 2013. This was the big criticism. American squandered so much credibility by not enforcing the red line. They had jets in the air and they were told to turn around. Do i think this is going to regime change or deterrent, no. I think its a symbolic gesture and putting assad on notice if do you this again how stupid could he be . In 2013 he nearly lost these facilities and had his bacon saved. A month ago he was sitting pretty. He had this guy in the white house who said we should work with russia. How stupid can you be to launch a nerve agent you were meant to have given up. This is an embarrassment for the russians and iranians, its also an embarrassment for the United States. We certified he could not do what he did. Weve gotten this from secretary of state speaking from maralago. The u. S. Is confident the geneva process will result in change. Through the process we will start a political process to resolve syrias future in terms of its governing structure the u. S. Hopes to work with International Partners to stabilize areas of syria. Thats the end of his statement. The idea of stabilizing parts of syria im not sure if thats a reference to safe zones that some have discussed. I think now what tillerson is describing a return to obamas policy. The obama policy has been regime change in syria through a political process in geneva. It hasnt worked so far, but it seems the Trump Administration which had seemed as though they had moved away from that and they said assad can stay and now they say assad must go. The question of how you get him to go is complicated. The area of stabilization, is that a reference to safe zones or a partition of syria. Some people think the solution is a partition. You would have to create in a sense areas that sunnis controlled and the minority that assad represents and their allies control and allow them to live in that. The idea that youre going to get a total victory on either side seems unlikely. Ben joins us now. What do you think the reaction will be because youve been reporting for years now that the Syrian People have all but given up any hope of american action. Reporter it depends who you talk to. Here in turkey i think the turkish leadership will be pleased with this strike because they were impatient with the leadership of barack obama who they felt was simply indecisive and didnt move when it should have to topple or change the regime in syria. At least in turkey there will be applause for this strike. Within syria itself lets keep in mind that any strike of this nature that might weaken the Syrian Regime is inevitably going to strengthen isis which still controls large areas in the northwest and northeast in particular, but until recently just to the east of concern. Obviously for the syrians who early tuesday suffered this chemical air strike, those people are probably going to be pleased that some action was taken against the regime they believe was behind this chemical attack, but its a very complicated situation on the ground where any dramatic move that might weaken one party may strengthen the other. And of course the other question is if Bashar Al Assad is forced out of office who replaces him, what form of government replaces him. Theres a lot of power that would be. A briefing has wrapped up. Jeff is there. What have you learned . Reporter i am coming from the briefing with secretary of state and the National Security advisor and they walked through a time line of how this strike happened and they really started with the moment that the white house learned of that chemical attack a couple of days ago and said the president as we know was deeply effected by that. He ordered up options immediately. He had three options and he narrowed it down and when he landed on the ground in florida this afternoon he met with his National Security advisors to sort of give the go here, but to clarify something that has been a little bit of an open question this evening about russia, secretary of state we saw no approval from moscow or any level of the russia infrastructure, they did however talk to Russian Ground forces simply they explained like this because obviously Russian Forces are operating in nearby proximity to u. S. Forces on similar bases. They went through the normal channels and what they were trying to do was reduce and hopefully eliminate avoid russian casualties. They said they did have conversations late shortly before the strike with Russian Forces on the ground, but no conversations directly at least with moscow, but then the secretary of state, this is one of the rare times weve seen him exhibit he was leading this briefing, was giving the whole sort of statement of this administrations policy and he said this one strike should not necessarily change how the u. S. Views syria. This was in direct and targeted retaliation for that chemical attack earlier in the week. And interestingly he also said as weve been reporting that the white house reached out to members of congress, senators, representatives, democrats, republicans as well as they reached out to an International Coalition to advice people, but he said this was a 100 u. S. Military operation tonight in syria. Jeff, hold on because i want to pursue something with you. The photos youre seeing are from earlier this week the results of the attack by syrian forces. So many children killed in that attack. Images like these as jeff was reporting according to what the secretary of state are saying are some of what deeply effected President Trump and suggesting and motivating him to look at options for some sort of retailatory strike. That was an important point. It sounds like hes saying this is not the first of multiple strikes, that this is essentially this was to make a statement, but it doesnt change the policy significantly toward syria, is that correct . Reporter thats what he said. Of course he didnt rule out any future strikes. This president has been very clear about not announcing or forecasting his plans, but the secretary of state said that the strikes do not demonstrate a change in u. S. Policy towards syria and ill quote here. He said you should not in in he way extrapolate that the u. S. Military strike in evening changed our policy or posture towards syria in any way. He goes on to say theres been no change in that status. It does demonstrate that President Trump is willing to act when government and actors cross the line and cross the line in the most heinous of ways. They are trying to explain this as something that is a direct response to the chemical attack earlier this week. Of course the president as weve been talking about throughout the evening was suggesting a few years ago when he was a private citizen that congress should be involved in this. Yes, they did not seek congressional approval for this, but they did reach out to key republicans and democrats, senators and representatives earlier this evening. They briefed them. The Vice President was also involved in that. Hes been working on this from the situation room in washington. This was a situation where the president was notifying if not seeking approval. Well see how that plays out. Some senators may be critical of that, but were already seeing some early signs of bipartisan support for the action tonight. Jeff, i appreciate that. Weve gotten an update on the time of the strike. It was 8 40 eastern time. I want to go back to our military experts. We got some video. This is the first time were seeing it. Lets show that. As we watch this, those are obviously tomahawk missiles being launched by u. S. Vessels. Admiral kirby, are you there . Im here. Sorry, i couldnt hear you. Those were obviously some of the have had video tomahawk missiles being launched. Yes. You can see the destroyer. Its typical for us to shoot this kind of video. This does speak to the power of having a naval maritime capability. We have four strips that are Ballistic Missile capable that are permanently based in the med. They can be where they need to be on very, very short notice and can launch this size of a set of strikes very, very quickly. And as general hurtling has made clear a couple of times tonight, this was a very quick planning process and thats one of the great process that navy power can bring to bear. How precise can it be in terms of targeting . The tomahawks are extraordinarily precise. You can coordinate them for small fas elts ofcets of a buila set of windows. It will be interesting to see when the sun comes up and the pentagon gets more information what their battle assessment is but im pretty certain theyll be able to assess they hit exactly what they were aiming at. We talked about the the fact that at least at a tactical level there was deconfliction. It will be interesting to learn if there were russian aircraft at this base and if they were hit. Well learn more probably in coming hours but i think that would be interesting to see. Colonel francona, just in terms of the Syrian Air Force itself, how large is it . You were pointing out there are basically about two squadrons, in normal times would have been two squadrons are relatively old aircraft, as you said earlier, at this base that was hit. Given that this was the base that the gas attack took place from, its very likely those jets may have been scrambled to elsewhere because this would have been an obvious target in the days since that attack. Do you know how large the Syrian Air Force is if there was if the u. S. And Coalition Partners really wanted to eliminate the air capabilities of Bashar Al Assad . It went from a Large Air Force to a relatively small air force just over time, atrophy and lack of new equipment. Theyve got on paper maybe 300 aircraft. Thats not the number up neyou to look at. Its the number of effective and modern aircraft. Is the question would they be a match for the u. S. Air force, u. S. Navy airaircraft, no. Theyre not in that league. They have two squadrons of mig 29th that are fourth generation fighters. We did a number on the iraqi mig29s in desert storm. I dont assess the Syrian Air Force as a threat. I assess the Russian Air Defense system in syria to be a major threat to american aircraft. One thing to bring up, that Russian Air Defense system was also designed to shoot down tomahawk missiles. So the fact id like to see if they were engaged, did the russians since they knew they were coming just decide not to try and oppose the strikes . Theres a lot of questions that come up with the russian u. S. Talking to each other before this went on. General hertling, as someone who served in iraq for so long at such a high level, when you heard the secretary of state, he sound to you this is sort of a oneoff, that this is not a campaign well be seeing more of in the days to come. I took some notes when we were talking about what the secretary said. Ill go back to reinforce what we all know. This was a very bold, tactical retaliatory strike. It hit the target, it did very well. We said that all night long. The navy can do great things from the mediterranean. But again, im going to go back to and you mentioned this at the beginning of the show when you mentioned Colin Powells comment of if you break it, you bought it. Theres another comment of where does all this end . Is there an Operational Plan . It appears from what secretary tillerson just said that there is not a strategic plan, that this is not going into a deeper strategy or at least a change strategy with syria. Im not sure what that means. What is expected next other than changing the behavior of assad . There was a comment that the potential of bringing mr. Assad to and i understood to mean to criminal court, the Hague Convention based on violation of war crimes. Hes certainly guilty of many. So that might be a very interesting way for an International Tribunal to bring him to justice because over the last several years there have been multiple violations of po reinforce the Syrian Rebels more . I dont know if thats part of the equation. One of the word i have not heard all night long is isis. How does this relate to the fight against that terrorist organization, which is in Northern Syria . What are our relations with russia and i keep coming back to that, the relationship with russia and iran is going to be damaged. I know there are going to be other countries in the region, specifically egypt, jordan, kingdom of saudi arabia and israel that are going to be very happy for this bold, tactical strike, but what does it mean in the long term . How is it going to affect our european allies and whats going to happen in the gulf specifically in syria and what are our actions going to be in that as we continue to execute combat operations in iraq and afghanistan . I want to also get to fareed zakaria. Is that your reading of it as well . According to jeff, the u. S. Policy is not changing. Im assuming he means from the obama administration, which means the stated policy is still for Bashar Al Assad to leave, not that it hasnt changed from last week when tillerson said what happens to assad is up to the Syrian People. Its very confusing but you isolated the key issue, which is till er tillerson seems to be signaling this is a oneoff. He seems to be signaling we are now knare not embarked on a military attack to hes saying you variety latiolated t 2013, you guys progrmised to ren in syria on the chemical issue. You were incompetent and were going to punish you on it. It makes you wonder two weeks from faux anow are we back in te situation . The assad regime will continue to hold the territory it has, it will press forward. Isis has maybe been strengthened a little by this but not much. So nothing much has changed other than this military expression of outrage. If thats the case, one does have to wonder what are we doing . Have we talked through why we did it . Can we really take the position that having now launched these military strikes against the assad regime, our policy goes back to exactly what it was before we did that . When you look at the map again, earlier you talked about if this was an ongoing operation, there would be other effects. It does seem at this hour of the evening and these early hours that this may be it in terms of u. S. Military action, at least for now. At least for now and you have to define how much time does that really mean. Is this are we going to see a rolling set of operations that will occur within hours after this . I think not. The and al says very accurately lays that out. The amount of human suffering taking place in syria is immense and outrageous. But i dont think you build a strategy, cluesive exclusively that. Nor have we done that in the past. This administration doo sided thats enoug decided thats enough. And they executed in very proportional way. I think proportionality gets thrown out the window but it doesnt take place immediately on the heels of this operation. I can guarantee were going to stare at this, look at this with an unblinking eye and there will be other operations down the road. Nobody can determine what that looks like. As Mark Hertling played out, the military plans for these things in exhaustive detail all the time and based on this bomb Damage Assessment, well make alterations to our next steps. Well leave it there. Our coverage continues with don lemon and also with wolf blitzer in washington. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. This is our breaking news, the first video of u. S. Military strikes on syria tonight. Youre watching cnn tonight. Im don lemon. The United States watching the launching