Page 4 - Offensive Capability News Today

Picked out as the most likely targets for us to use. so not a -- more likely to be not a one-shot deal like it was in april but a couple of -- not a sustained attack but a couple of days worth of attacks. >> colonel jack, one last question for you. and if you do not want to answer this question, you absolutely do not have to and you can just say good night. but im wondering when decisions like this are made, obviously this gas attack that these strikes are a response to happened last week. the p...

Thank you. were now going to go to moscow. nbc news foreign correspondent keir simmons is up in the middle of the night for us in moscow. keir, thank you very much for joining us tonight. these strikes have been announced by the president in conjunction with the uk and france. obviously assads greatest allies in syria are iran and russia and the russia factor here cuts a lot of different directions. what can you tell us about the response tonight in moscow. >> reporter: well, it was interesting ...

Including aircraft to safe locations and my guess one of the reasons weve waited is so that the russians would have an opportunity to move their stuff away. but probably air bases near damascus and helicopters in particular. >> when the president used the word "sustained" to talk about this response, did that say anything to you about the scope of this campaign or how long it might last? >> yeah, weve been talking about that for some time in discussions with other people whove been looking at it...

United states not being drawn further into this conflict that involves russia and iran on the ground. we have heard that the administration has wanted a larger response to the attack last weekend than we saw in april 2017. april 2017 that was really meant to send a signal, send a message. look at the targets. they popped up on one syrian military air field. they popped it up, they hit some of the aircraft. it had an impact on the military but it was really short-lived. it was pretty cheap and pr...

Likely effects in every way. joining us now from the pentagon is courtney kuby, nbc news national security and military reporter. courtney, thank you very much for being with us. what can you tell us about the presidents decision, the timing and what do we know about the scale of this effort? >> we know very little, as you mentioned, rachel. a couple of things that he mentioned were these are precision strikes on president bashar al assads chemical infrastructure. we dont know exactly what that ...

Further detail about the scale of whats underway tonight? >> i think precisely. one of the important issues will be did james mattis win the argument, arguing for a more limited approach, worried about a wider war or the john bolton win? we understand there was quite a debate over this. it also could have been communicated to the russians to try to avoid direct hits on russian bases and activity as we understood the syrian regime moving equipment and personnel into russian areas to use them as r...

Was we are coordinating very closely with those two nations, with those two allies. theres no expectation ever, angela merkel or germany would be involved in this, for example, and thats what we ultimately did see. but the cooperation with regional allies and specifically with may and macron was incredibly important, rachel. so listen, significant moment for donald trump tonight, particularly given that just a couple of weeks ago this was a president who was reluctant to even keep troops in syri...

With and injuring upwards of 500. the u.s. didnt want to do something that would just send another signal that bashar al assad could ignore. and theres also the possibility that if bashar al assad continues to attack his people and the u.s. continues to respond in the same way that sort of sets a line, he knows how far he can push and what the united states will do. so the u.s. was really painted into a corner here to have to respond in a bigger way. just the fact that this is an international r...

What does he mean? >> well, i think i know what he means. hes saying were trying to get ready. but i wish we were doing some more things than what we are doing to be frank. i firmly believe that if you want to prevent war, then make sure you are fully prepared for it. what am i talking about? we have the number 1 cyber offensive capability in the world. nobody is close to us. we should be attacking north koreas information systems, command and control, their finance systems and energy infrastruc...

This to weapon nice it into something that will fit on a missile. they are not as capable of doing that. but this maniac regime has gone too far. no wonder the un security council is so adamantly opposed. >> arthel: so what should the u.s. and its allies do about this? >> this is not new to south korea. it is more vigilant and what our allies need to do is stick behind the un security council about harder sanctions on north korea. we had to drive them to the negotiating table. the anthrax issue ...