Msnbc headquarters here at new york city. And we begin this evenings broadcast with major breaking international news. The u. S. Has carried out military strikes and syria today. Secretary of defense lloyd austin said President Biden ordered selfdefense drags onto facilities in Eastern Syria used by irans revolutionary guard. He added the strikes our response to attacks against u. S. Personnel in iraq and syri by iranianbacked militia grps. Joining me now on the phone to discuss, my colleague msnbc White House Correspondent peter alexander. Peter, what can you tell us about how biden order the strikes and why they were carried out today . Stephen, a first, i think we should put this in the context of what weve been watching happen in the middle east. And as we heard from lloyd austin night, the u. S. Military action, these defensive strikes, if as you describe them, they do come amid the rising tensions in that region with the rising tension between israel and hamas, but also called these attacks and his words separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between israel and hamas. They said they do not represent anything in the u. S. Approach of the conflict. The simplest terms in this effort, it was an effort to restore a deterrent in the region. Obviously, the u. S. Is trying to avoid the situation that is already so dangerous involved right now from escalating in any further than it already has right now. But as the president said in the rose garden yesterday, i was with him during a News Conference that took place there alongside the Prime Minister of australia, he delivered a clear warning to the ayatollah after these recent attacks largely by drone and by rockcut on a series of u. S. Bases in iraq and in syria. He said my warning to the ayatollah staff was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. Obviously, the challenge in all of this is to find the appropriate measure of retaliation at a response that doesnt escalated further. The white house, though, has tried to make it very clear that theyre not going to allow for this to happen. The Defense Secretary himself saying that these attacks must stop, staff. The Defense Department calls these strikes narrowly tailored. What does that mean . Are they trying to say this is just in this one specific instance, we are not trying to give the signal that this should or could be anything bigger are broader . Because thats what the sort of general audience have panicked about when i think about the region. I think youre exactly right, obviously, the desire here was to find the appropriate level of retaliation of a response was here without doing anything that may sort of ramp up the fears of whats already a dangerous situation in that region. But you go back to october 17th until just this week, and u. S. Coalition forces were attacked at least ten separate times in iraq, three times in syria by a mix, as we were saying, of these drone and rockets. Just today, actually, we learned, the pentagon confirmed that there was a separate strike that took place. I believe that one was a in iraq. That was an unsuccessful strike and the pentagon details it right now. Thats why they referred to these narrowly tailored strikes as being done in selfdefense, that they were intended solely to protect and defend u. S. Personnel in that region right now. Their desire, again, to be clear, is in the effort in deterrence. Its the same reason in many ways why the u. S. Has sent the uss Eisenhower Carrier Strike group to the eastern mediterranean. The second Carrier Strike group there, as well, obviously, as the u. S. Wants to make it very clear, again, these specific strikes who are not associated with the conflicts taking place between israel and hamas. But the u. S. Simultaneously is trying to make it quite clear to any other organizations backed by iran, like hamas is, hezbollah, and other proxies, not to engage, not to try to take advantage of the situation that exist right now in that region. Peter alexander, thank you so much for being here. Im gonna let you get some rest. Im sure you have a long day ahead of you tomorrow. I want to bring in retired four star u. S. Army general barry mccaffrey, a decorated combat veteran of vietnam, and a former battlefield commander of the persian golf. Former democratic new york and respond macros joins us, and editorial for political life. He spent more than 20 years in washingtons defense, National Security, and Foreign Affairs seen. General, i turn to you first. What do we need to know right now . Well, i think its been set up pretty well so far in the earlier shows. We have had a significant escalation of attacks orchestrated by iran, using proxy forces on u. S. Forces in both iraq and syria. 21 wounded, some of them with brain damage. The u. S. Is now deploying significant assets, to carrier Battle Strike groups, bombers into the 90 kingdom, f16 fighters going into greece. Theres a significant u. S. Airbase that in qatar, and theres a major deployment of u. S. Air defense assets, patriot missiles, batteries, and the avengers shortrange system. So i think the Biden Administration is being ve careful. Theyre saying this is got to stop, theyre trying to deter around. And its a proportional response. I dont think this is over, though. Iran is going to try and put a vice on u. S. Support to israel as the israelis inched toward the Ground Invasion of gaza. So we havent seen the end of this very perilous time. Max, this came as no surprise to. You know, because weve seen this escalation in attacks by iranian associated elements on our u. S. Troops both in syria and iraq. I think if theres any surprise, its the nature of the escalation because the attacks were against iranian forces, not just their affiliates. But with that being said, ive seen Secretary Austin and his team work up close and personal. Ive seen how this administration operates from the inside. And they do not make decisions recklessly. Oh what i am absolutely certain of is that this decision was made with a full understanding that its goal is to restrain a further escalation of conflict, not promote it. This is a tenuous moment in the region. And the goal, and i believe that they will be successful in this effort in the short term and the long term is to enable this to be isolated between israel and its effort to defend itself. Do you think Prime Minister netanyahu knew this was going to happen . Yeah, i do think he was given a heads up. And thats the proper thing to do considering the tenuous situation in the region. Kevin, Secretary Austin called it, i want to make sure i get the wording right precision selfdefense trucks. Do you think thats how iran is going to see this . Probably, but i think the other guests are right that in this matter, your guess should know that the u. S. Is still in combat across the middle east and has been continuously for years despite proclamations of previous president s and others, the ices war has not ended. Central command continues to put out lots of fact sheets and statements anytime that theres any kind of action of americans engaging with fighters there and that still lingering forever war, if you will, among i. S. I. S. Thats why their u. S. Troops in the region, and why the iranians are using that proxy to potshots at the americans back and forth. This is the second time a contractor has died in the region during the airstrikes or fear of airstrikes, and contractors are usually laundrie and kitchen contractors, these are fighters and enablers to that special ops fight. All of those attacks over the last couple weeks at American Forces have been extraordinary and they have been coordinated. They have come and ships at sea with Cruise Missiles. This is extraordinary stuff. Youve heard on the right, ive heard a growing chorus of voices saying, when is the United States going to strike back . Biden isnt doing enough, hes been weak. This is the response. And it is extremely limited in that language. The other part of the language that austins head that you guys mentioned it is that this is not related to the israelhamas war, right . This is completely between us and the iranians. That is easier said than done, or easier to say than to convince the region. This is all connected. Well, general, given how tense everything is across the region right now, how is todays action going to impact whats happening across israel . Well, i think, look, the bottom line is the iranians would be ill advised to take on the United States directly in a major combat situation. We could turn off their oil supplies, the massive u. S. Air power capability. The u. S. Navy could close down their port system. I dont think the iranians want to end up in a regional war. However, using these proxy forces, whether houthis or hezbollah or hamas or syrian army, they are clearly going to defuse the intention the United States can place on standing behind israel. This thing is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. The israelis in no way, in my judgment, will allow things to go back to where they were on six october. Having 1400 israeli civilian innocents slaughtered on the most brutal possible manner means theyve got to try to take down hamas. Its likely that hezbollah will try and interfere in that process also. I dont think with a major invasion by 100,000 hezbollah fighters, but clearly everyones on edge. The worst is yet to come. I want to bring Courtney Kube into our conversation, nbc correspondent, courtney, what can you tell us . So weve got a little bit more detail about the strikes tonight. First off, they were carrd out by f16s, so what we expected, manned jets according to syrias military officials, they dropped precision munitions, which is what we expected. The two locations were apparently a Weapons Storage Facility and an ammunitions storage facility. We dont know much more about that. The official would not say whether these were literally so directly linked to the attacks that weve seen in iraq and syria recently, that the actual munitions couldve been stored and prepared or whatever their. But both the senior u. S. Officials said that they were confident these strikes, taken out these facilities, would impact these groups abilities to continue to attack u. S. Forces. Now, one thing thats kind of notable is we were asking about casualties, and they said that, as of now, they cannot say whether there were any casualties at the site or not. Nor could they say there were any iranians that may have been present at the site, especially given the fact that this statement very clearly at the top said that these were iranianbacked groups that were associated with these facilities. And very specifically, Iranian Revolutionary guard corps linked facilities. We hope to learn more in the coming hours, or maybe days, about whether there were any casualties there on the site. In addition to that, we also learned, so weve been talking over the last week or so about this uptick in attacks against Bases Housing American Xerox and syria. Weve learned that number has ticked up again. There have now been 19 total attacks since october 7th, 17th, so thats 19 attacks in eight days. Thats a pretty dramatic escalation from where we have seen over the last several months in iraq and syria. The majority of those attacks have been unsuccessful, meaning they have not resulted in deaths or casualties. But there have been nearly two dozen minor injuries at two of the locations and some of those attacks, and of course there is one American Contractor who died at a cardiac event. So a little bit more detail also notably the we really pressed these officials about irans role in all of these attacks. The ones weve seen in iraq and syria. And while they declined to say specifically that iran has directed this increase, they repeatedly pointed that to iranian Senior Leaders and tehran as funding, our main, and equipping these groups. And theyve repeatedly called on iran to take specific action to call on these groups carrying out these attacks on iraq and syria to stand down and see. Courtney, thank you. Max. 19 attacks in eight days. What do you think that is . So about ten years ago i was in afghanistan and i served with a bunch of soldiers who had deployed to iraq as well. One of them nearly lost his leg due to an iranian aft and the general has seen countless of these stories as well, and the reason i pick this up is because iran has been probing the United States of america in the region for vulnerability and trying to kill our Service Members. For the entire century, virtually. That is nothing new, but what they are seeing right now, while were seeing a significant uptick is because they believe that our attention is focused elsewhere due to ukraine. As well as israel. And they see, amidst the chaos and turmoil, an opportunity to create even more of that and kill our young men and women who are putting themselves in harms way in support of our nation and our security. And thats why this response by the administration is so justified. But what i would say, saying in that point is that when we have our Service Members in iraq and syria and in different places, they are guaranteed to be vulnerable. And thats why, as were constantly picking this up from a strategic standpoint, long term, weve got to think about the fact that it impacts our National Security in both the positive sense, as well as a negative sense. And there is no such thing as deployments and a overseas action that does not and risk. And we have Hundreds And Thousands of Service Members, all across the nation right now, putting themselves in harms way and today of all days we should thank them for that service. We certainly should, and Risk Management has gotten a lot more difficult in the last few weeks. General, what do you think . I certainly appreciate the congressman viewpoint us in infantry platoon leader, understanding whats going on on the. Ground look, theres 25 somewhat odd u. S. Troops on the ground, probably around 900 and syria. It always makes me nervous as a cat to have these modest deployments way out there. Backing them up, thankfully is the u. S. Navy and u. S. Air force. Striking it. These f15s, for example, who knows what they came from. Probably out in the gutter. And so we are a Deterrent Force in the region by our presence. The congressman says, this sort of thing, proportional response means that you see to the other power, the iranians, the decision of when to upped the ante. And these things can turn really bad, really quickly. So, if youre using large eye munitions like Cruise Missiles that may have a multi hundred pound warhead on it, suddenly you can start losing significant numbers of americans. I dont think the iranians want this confrontation to go critical. And i think thats what President Biden and Secretary Austin, Secretary Blinken are trying to do to dam down the horizontal escalation of this for. Kevin, what are you watching for next . Im curious to know whether those when cody was speaking. And from her reporting, and some of the others, i know that were on that call im going to guess that depending on the saying but the general make could be qatar, could be as off russia. There from the ground. Theyre from a country in the regions that has to deal with the United States to allow this to happen. And its probably a country thats somehow embroiled in the israeli hamas conflict. Qatar, has, and has been a United States silent partner thats going to grow more and more visible. First revealing that the base existed. Then revealing their Critical Role in things like hostage negotiations, and being the real conduit for the linchpin and freeze on use between the iranians, and everybody else. It all goes to the, it goes to the cars. And the dirty speakers, is that we have thousands of u. S. Troops there. And with families nearby as. Well ive been. There and its a part of the United States military presence, in that region. And its doing continual combat operations, that we just dont talk about. That we dont hear about. And this administration has done its best to try to mute and to demilitarize as theyve tried to change the course of history in the region. And you, know history has come calling. And again, i think the Precision Strikes are what we would expect. Especially from this administration, when leaders like Secretary Austin and c. Q. Brown. Dont forget about him. Hes the new senior Military Adviser in place. Hes the former at that commander, he was the head of the air force in this region and he was also Deputy Commentator if im not missing. Its so these are men with extensive experience in the region, expensive relationships in the region. And so the United States can continue to do defenseless strides, bit, by bit, by bit but i dont know how that changes the big game with the run. Maybe its not designed to. Thats fine. We can, top will probably no more into, that and we could speculate into that. But as long as the iranian proxies synd