And its no the quite clear to me that those were weighed properly and that the next steps, what will happen next was taken into a count in an adequate way. So, you know, its hard to gauge where the administration stood on this or whether or not it was purely revenge or there were actually reports, intelligence material that indicated that there was going to be an attack from what were hearing, there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Eddie, revenge may not be a straty, but it is the barrel of the gun down which were looking at this point. You listen to the interviews that the ambassador of the u. N. Did yesterday, he talked about meeting what happened here with something in kind. There is going to be revenge now. And so we assume some sort of revenge. So we know that president s obama and bush had han opportunity to exact the same strategy i dont want to use this word assassinate or kill this general before. But they knew the consequences. Obviously, donald trump and his people believe the consequences were worth the act. It seems to me, im stumbling over my words because im really unnerved by this. Right. There is no reason for us to believe this administrations justification for this act because they lied to us for three years. Iran has the capability to respond across the region and the globe. It will jeopardize people we love. And so i think its important for us as we engage in the analysis to understand that the fundamental threat that this represents. Maria, jump in on that. I know youre thinking back to 2003. I mean this is recent history here bears a lot of recognition. Zbllt for me, this had is like sh deja vu all over again. Im struggling with my words. Im distraught. My daughter said, hey, whats going on . Is there going to be a war. And i said, there might. And she said well that means that President Trump will lose. I said no, actually, it probably means hes going to win. Its like why . Because the american electorate is completely confused in a war, sadly weve seen will bring voters out. But im like you, eddie, im thinking about what i was done at cnn at this time getting ready to cover the protests. I covered the young people who were signing up to go and enlist. Im not sure if that if were going to be seeing the same numbers of people running up to enlist at a time with a president who has said were going to get out of wars. And now were all waking up feeling incredibly insecure, certainly every new yorker is feeling incredibly insecure right now. Tom, help us understand the importance of this moment and shortly after this happened. The there were analysts that said this is unprecedented, a bridge too far. As you look at this 40year history, how pivotal a moment are we at . In the decade as well. The pivot is the learning curve weve been under in the last 48 hours. Very different from 2003. I there are parallels in 2003. I was Walking Around the tv studios at 3 00 a. M. This is old technology, opening a National Geographic atlas and actually looking at the map of iraq. Were all going to do that now on the geography of iran but to me the major thing is the learning curve this nation is under 48 hours into this. Im going to quote from a piece in Foreign Affairs. A great piece in Foreign Affairs out yesterday. He writes, the United States must at minimum expect to find itself in conflict with Shiite Militias that will target civilians and forces and the theater where the strike took place and the most likely place to respond. A Pivotal Moment in baghdad today. Parliament meeting. There is a very real chance, is there not, that those parliamentarians will say get the troops out of this country. And what does that mean, matt . You as somebody that covered the region and iraq for some time. Absolutely. I mean this has been a desire of the more hard line shia groups in the Iraqi Parliament for a very long time. Remember its not just a Pivotal Moment for the iraqi Shiite Militias. In an earlier incarnation of the groups, the u. S. Referred to them as the special groups back in the day. Back shortly after the United States invaded iraq. It was the special groups. Iranian backed Shiite Militias from the sunni backed al qaeda groups in other parts of baghdad and the west of the country. The shia militias were operating mostly out of the east of the country. Theyve have been anning tagoni for 20 years. This is not all that much of a switch. The only difference was when isis came up back in 2014 and moved swiftly into iraq. There was this uncomfortable bed fellows between the United States and shia militias that used to kill u. S. Troops. Then it was the u. S. Targeting isis from the air using their drone attacks and it was mostly these Shiite Militia groups backed by iran fighting isis on the ground. And that has now shifted. There is going to be retaliation and on iraqi soil. Hezbollah is only one of several. This are many of them. Many of them are backed by iran to varying agrees. The they enjoyed a lot of Material Support and support politically by iran. The corps that is actually in the government within iraq, they actually lead several ministries. Theyre very active on the ground. They also enjoy backing by iran. Theyre more like an actual indoors Political Group that functions within the Iraqi Parliament. There are also going to be urging for the u. S. To get out of iraq because they see the fight against Islamic State is over and that they always seen the United States as an antagonistic force and one they consider enemies. Were going to see the fruition of decades of antagonism between the iraqi shiite iranian backed militias on the ground in iraq who constantly been attacking the United States. Now theyre finally have the pretext to really push the u. S. Out and to put pressure on the Iraqi Government to kick them out. Whether or not the United States agrees with that, they probably are going to have to. Iraq is an independent country. They are they are independent. Theyre a sovereign state. The United States is there at the wish at the invitation of the Iraqi Government. Help us with that learning curve. I want to ask you about the relationship russia and iran. You studied this. You written a book about it. The relationship between russia and uniforms. They come into play and what theyre goals have been. Theyre quite complicated. Many had hoped that we would be able to and that President Trump cultivated with moscow. I dont think thats going to happen. They navigate all the different relationships and interests that they have in the region. They kaes late tensions with the United States. The they have a decent relationship with israel. The chief rivals in the region. So the russians will continue to try to and work with all of the different actors, balance all of them against each other. And the russians will continue to play a really Important Role, perhaps the most Important Role of any country. Iranians will ramp up some of the activities and response to what happened. And to also make sure that they send a strong signal to the United States and others. That you can get rid of soleimani but you cant get rid of soleimanis work. You know, his lifes work was essentially to help the assad regime survive. Along with building the network of proxies. Iran will try to send a strong signal that you may be able to get rid of one man but youre not going to get rid of the legacy that hes left behind. Thank you very much. Thanks to nbc newss matt bradley in tel aviv this morning as well. Coming up, left in the dark, Chuck Schumer, one of the Many Democrats slamming the president after he gave advance notice to some republicans of the strikes that killed soleimani and told democrats nothing about it. The first deep dive into who general soleimani was and the significance of his death to the iranian regime. The iranian gireme lets be honest, quitting smoking is freaking hard. Like quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So, try making it smaller. And youll be surprised at how easily starting small. Can lead to something big. Start stopping with nicorette do that are degrading . Ideo tapes, film reels, or photos, legacybox professionally converts them to dvds, thumb drive, or the cloud. Legacybox is simple and safe, with over half a million satisfied customers. Visit legacybox. Com today, and get 40 off. Thats ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. Its a situp, banana bend at the waist im tryin keep it up. Youll get there. Whoahoahoa 30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. Ensure max protein. This is up. Not sure what happened there. Iran warned of imminent harsh retaliate. Soleimanis was the second most powerful person in iran and behind every Iranian Military operation in the past two decades. Former zpu ti assistant secretary of defense writes this about soleimani for the atlantic from a military perspective, he was david pe trayiesous and stan mckrst crystal rolled into one. Wilkerson was the chief of staff to colin powell and now on the faculty at the college of william mary. Let me ask you first of all, colonel, if i could, just what you make of the reaction so far. Were talking about the risks that might happen down the line here in days, weeks, or months. Youve seen the airborne deployed to the region. Your response to how the pentagon has responded to what happened on friday. Let me first frame it for you a little bit, david. I was in the roosevelt room outside of the oval office with president obama and secretary of state kerry in the last year of obamas eight years. The president blew me away. His first remarks there is a bias in this town towards war. My first reaction was, what i often get from my 18yearold granddaughter. You think, mr. President . You think . This is a man who had been through se through syria, yemen, afghanistan, so forth. Mr. Trump came to washington to drain the swamp. Last night the night before, the day before, an alligator from that swamp lept out and got mr. Trump by the throat. This was an act that escalated the situation in the middle east to the extent that now we are on a fairly sure course for war. Thats what the bias in washington is for. Thats what the bias wants. Thats what were headed for. Thats how serious this was aside from any psycho analysis of trump or soleimani or any other character playing in this. Thats what happened here. The war machine is on the mark. Colonel, theres been a conversation here at the table this hour, last hour as well about what happened back in 2003. I no that he is something you spent a lot of time thinking about as well. Given who your former boss was, the Lessons Learned from all of that. Does anything indicate to that you this is going to be somehow different, that the experience of what happened in 2003 leading up to the war in iraq is going to shape somehow, reshape the prism through which we look at what happened in baghdad . I think we started that in 2003. We destabilized the entire region. What were seeing today is a direct result and what weve seen over the last few years of that catastrophic strategic decision to take out hussein and to stay around and occupy iraq. What is happening now though is taking that and order of dimension or two further. Weve got an 80 Million People with great strategic depth, all capabilities to respond to us. All over the globe. This is as serious a situation as that decision in 2003 times ten. And what weve done is destroyed the one diplomatic achievement that might have put a cap on the most dangerous aspect of this, Irans Nuclear weapons program. Im afraid that iran will make a decision much p like north korea made to abandon the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty and throw out the inspectors and go full bore 24 7 probably to develop a nuclear weapon. Thats incredibly destabilizing for the region because israel, saudi arabia and others will not like that at all. You set the table here for us and i wish we had the cram on you when your shoulders slumped saying this is 2003 times sten. Yeah this is scary. You know, theres a quote from william has let that comes to mind, right. From the moment we marked the destruction of our enemy as an indispensable condition for our own safety, our destruction from that moment becomes necessary for his. So its almost as if we set the table, that the u. S. In this imperial way moves as if it has no consequence for its actions. And what we do know is this iran has the capability. It has the will to respond in kind. And its not going to be trumps child. It wont be the children of the top 10 . It will be those folks in appalachian and the folks in the dealt yashgs t delta in the rural and poor countries that have to bear the burden of this decision. I think as ted cruz and Mitch Mcconnell and all of these folks line up and beat the drums of war, we need to understand what this means for every day ordinary americans. We should be shuttering in our seats right now and preparing to get up and really resist the drum beats of war. This goes to who you cover and report on so much, latinos in this country as well. These are folks that are going to go fight a war should there be one. Absolutely. St also there are protests happening across the country. I think at 11 00 here in new york city there will be protests. So people are rising up. Weve seen massive protests. But at the same time, it doesnt seem to be changing much at least in this runup to the war. The colonels words actually, eddie and i are im about to start hugging on eddie. Its like terrifying the colonels words. And sadly, you know, the leadup to the war in iraq was set by george w. Bush and colin powell who so many people loved but ended up hating and ended up lying to all of us. Heres whats really weird. My son, a lot of family references, but he was showing me dave shah pel from 2004. Doing a skit as if george w. Bush is black. Why did george w. Bush who was black go into iraq . Its like its nothing what were telling you. It was that he tried to kill my daddy. And thats why george w. Bush now being played by dave shapel as a black man went into iraq. We dont know. Im sure that everybody watching this show is like learning curve. We didnt know about general soleimani until yesterday. And now we have to be afraid of him . Thats really true. So everybody across the country, theyre like everything that was just spoken about on this show which is such a brilliant show and were so sad that youre not going to be here because there are so much intelligence. But everybody is saying, wait, i dont know about this. I dont know exactly about the shiites and hezbollah and what are they going to do. And if theyre going to attack iraq which is what i started to get worried about, its not just going to be american kids, latino kids, its going to be innocent iraqis yet again. David, what is so posh here, i heard from colonel will kinson yesterday is everyone in the military who knows who ends up fighting conflicts, who fights wars, where is the political diplomatic strategy of the United States of america . Im hearing from every single experienced military official, we need a strategy. And its no the that theyre part of it because of exhaustion. You know, its been since 2003 if not longer. Colonel, taking your metaphor of the alligator biting trump by the throat, there were people around him for a time who knew more about the swamp than he and you look now who is advising him and that secretary of state mike pompeo, a proud hawk, ambassador bolton cheerleading what happened in the wing saying this could lead to a regime change. How does that compound or exacerbate your concern, the fact there are no reasonable minds in the room . There are no folks around president trum thap sp that are what youre saying. There is a machine that runs in perpetuity here and could be dangerous if not stopped. You didnt mention Lindsey Graham and tom cotton and a host of others. The leadership in the Congress Just unconscienceable. Look at what they did recently profounding an insab amount of money for the Defense Department but eliminating and the democrats participate in this, eliminating amendments that would have gotten the United States out of the disastrous brutal war in yemen, eliminating amendment thats would have caused the congress to exert its war power and tell the president if youre going to use force against iraq, you got to come here first. They eliminated all that. So you got a bunch of cowards in the congress and worse, you got people who are complicit with this warfare state with, this state that has to live for making war on other countries. Wi we forget as unconscienceable as he was, is, was, the man used instruments at his behest in order to fight the empire. Of the empire killed 400,000 to 600,000 in the last 18 years. Oenlt weap the weaponly weapon they have i what soleimani was advocating and leading and doing. Im not blessing what he was doing. Im just saying you have to put your mind in in the enemys mind. You have to think like he thinks. You have to consider what he might do. St now weve unleashed all of this capability against tourists, against businessmen and women, against our diplomats and certainly against our military all over the globe. But particularly in southwest arab yach asia. We have taken this situation which was tense as it could be already and we escalated it mainlior majorly with no plan for the next step. Colonel at the william mary. Thank you very much for the time on this sa