have spoken out about these damaging cuts. in the face of continuing and emerging threats, these cuts have left us unable to realize the potential of our missile defense capabilities, they ve whittled down our conventional forces, laying an undue burden on foreign deployed personnel, and their families. and they ve shrunk our fleet to its lowest ship count in nearly three decades. we haven t asked our men and women in uniform to do less for our country, we ve just forced them to make due with less than they need. this agreement changes that. in addition, this bill will provide for our returning heroes. too often, underfunded, overcomplicated bureaucracies failed to deliver the care our veterans deserve. the trump administration and congress, thanks to the leadership of chairman isaacson,
about an incoming missile saturday some congressional leaders are calling for direct talks between the us and the north. john bolton says the us must find a way to denuclearize north korea. it is right to be concerned about a north korean threat whether they pushed the wrong button in hawaii or not. we had too big vacation from people appreciating rogue states with nuclear weapons can be a problem. and the missile defense capabilities, stopping north korea, stopping iran from getting nuclear weapons is so important. a peaceful solution, keeping a military option, today officials say they must find a way to tone down the rhetoric like my nuclear button is bigger than your nuclear button. they believe that could escalate
reporter: but u.s. defense secretary james mattis was quick to assert today that north korea s launch of a brand new ballistic missile this week does not bring the u.s. any closer to war. he insists the focus is still diplomacy, that s just a day after u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nick kentucky haley raised the spector of force. time is short, action is required. the world is on notice. one of our capabilities lies with our considerable military forces. there have to be severe things, we don t have very much time to figure this out. the north koreans within a year may be 18 months will be able to position a nuke on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile and hold the u.s. to ransom. reporter: and there have been concerned about missile defense capabilities. the new thad system in south korea is working, but as for defending u.s. soil from a long range missile, the system s in place failed three of the last four tests. but after a significant upgrade,
large scale casualties would likely follow. the big concern is how to neutralize the thousands of artillery units that north korea has hidden in the hills and in bunkers north of the border with south korea. this recent live fire exercise by pyongyang in april shows the potential destruction. this artillery is trained on the south korean capital where ten million people live 35 miles from the border. the u.s. has 28,500 troops based in south korea, there would be heavy casualties and it would take days. the u.s. and south korea conducted a joint ballistic missile drill just hours after the north korean launch on july 4th, to send a message, there are missile defense capabilities in place to protect seoul, shep. shepard: jennifer, thank you. let s turn to michael now, senior fellow in foreign policy at the brooklyns institution, a nonpartisan public policy organization. hi, michael.
house over the u.s. policy on syria in the aftermath of that deadly chemical attack. hello, everyone, and welcome. i m fredricka whitfield in new york. this is the cnn newsroom. we start with north korea where the u.s. is sending a navy strike group towards the korean peninsula in response to north korea s latest missile test. i want to bring in cnn pentagon reporter ryan brown. ryan, these ships were scheduled to head to australia before they were redirected. what more can you tell us about this? that s right, fred. these ships are being sent one u.s. administration officials says as a result of north korea s provocation, specifically those missile tests you mentioned. it is being led by the uss carl vinson, an aircraft carrier, but also two destroyers that have missile defense capabilities so they can shoot down any potentially threatening missiles from pyongyang, if need be. this move was called prudent by national security advisor lieutenant general h.r. mcmaster