these chemical weapons, they can be weapons of mass destruction. they kill millions. they are not aimed at opposition military forces. civilized society cannot use them. once they are used this massively, as assad has, you cannot tolerate this to go unchecked. what they have promised the russians, by the way, is u.s. intelligence officials will be briefing them probably in new york when they come to u.n. meetings to try to persuade them that the u.s. intelligence is solid. >> andrea mitchell, thank you very much for phoning in with this develop. thank you. on the heels of andrea, ed o'keefe approximate. and elise. good morning to both of you. ed, give me your opinion on what this means, this setback that andrea mitchell is reporting, france is backing off saying