Page 363 - Imperative News Today

Security imperative for us. iran wants a land bridge to destroy israel. moscow wants as much influence in the region as possible. they want to reassert. putin wants to restore the ussr if he could. this is what were up against. this president showing that red lines matter is an important part of american leadership. even if we dont know what the end date is. abby: the president campaigned on there is only so much we can do in the middle east. we can be a friend and 58 lie ultimately its up to yo...

There are multiple actors. this isnt just about assad. these weapons could fall into the hands of all the different actors that are there. groups such as isis. such as al qaeda. then we have a much larger threat. those weapons could be used against us on our soil. they could be used against our friends, whether its jordan, whether its israel. so there is a very concrete imperative for why we acted. what is the long-term future of syria? thats another question that has nothing to do with yesterda...

Porous border to the south, you know, thin it becomes something different. as you point out, abby, the president absolutely has the right to defend the country in sort of an emergency like that. if it gets protracted beyond that it becomes a completely different matter. pete: charlie, we had a previous guest use an analogy. syria is a bar fight. its happening. lots of actors. its a brawl. america is on the outside looking in. we can go in and choose to jump n this bar fight or grab one or two pe...

He slaughtered tens and thousands of people. hes incarcerated, in one prison alone, amnesty international said 13,000 men were tortured to death. hes killed children. so, the kind of -- we come awake when we hear chemical weapons. >> yes. >> and theres a kind of moral imperative to impose -- >> which is not wrong. >> which is not wrong and should be done but i think we should not forget that shouldnt be a red line drawn. you cant use poison gas but you can do everything else. you can commit ever...

But theyre not the same people. and theyre fighting it out, they have been fighting it out forever. have we learned nothing from a rack? we dont know. we just dont know. tread very lightly. thats exactly right. thank god for james mattis and i understand the moral imperative, seeing those kids suffering and dying or whatever, people see that its almost like until you see the video, whats the difference between him killing them with chemical weapons or conventional weapons if you still killing th...

Thing to do or good thing to do or promoting democracy is not us butting in to other peoples business or invading sovereignty, it is more than just a moral imperative, promoting democracy is in the context of that competition as we just discussed, it is in the vital national interests of the united states. >> yes, our effectiveness at doing that is an important tool of american foreign policy. >> there is the ridiculous argument out there, when people talk about russian interference and efforts ...

Some very sharp questions about, you know, his personal views regarding things like gay rights and how that might influence how he manages his department or represents american values around the world. by the same token, i think he had -- he showed a strong institutional imperative in sharp contrast to rex tillerson. he understands the importance of resources. as we just talked about, he understands the importance of having a full team on the playing field. >> general, it was also interesting to...

Promoting democracy isnt just nice or good and not us invading their sovereignty. its more than just a moral imperative promoting democracy is in the context of that competition, as we discussed, its in the vital national interest of the united states? >> yes, indeed, senator, and our effectiveness at doing that is an important tool of american foreign policy. >> and theres the ridiculous argument out there when people talk about russian interference and the efforts, that thats no different than...

Whats your reaction? >> find puzzling given what the president has said in the past about telegraphing your military actions. i was pleased to see from secretary mattis that were still evaluating the intelligence and it appears that no final decision has been made yet. this will be a very, very difficult decision for the president to have to make. >> the department of defense when you were counsel over the department of defense, you had to authorize military action and say it was legal, right? >...

Person that goes into these areas, is either disappeared or ends up in a cage or tortured or will have his head cut off. its really quite impossible to explore the origin of these crimes. its true that there are a number of possible culprits. but, before we go starting any wars, we should investigate properly and we cant do that now because we cannot access the scene of the crime. >> tucker: thank you for reminding us how complex this all is and you of course have firsthand experience with it th...