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After president trump said we were packing our bags? >> i have no idea. it boggles the minds too why he felt he needed to do that. he had the area surrounded. pounding it daley with syrian air and russian air force and a lot of artillery. there was no need to use chemicals there. the fighters were on the verge of surrendering to the russians. that happened the next day. it wasn't the chemicals that did it. just the constant bombardment. the chemical weapons were superfluous, unnecessary and look what it's led us to. this superpower confrontation that we don't need. >> last night the question w...

Lasted 70 minutes, targeted just a small number of facilities. aimed to send a message. that message was probably received. whether the regime is smart enough to not use chemical weapons and avoid the international hullabaloo. we'll have to wait and see but russia and iran haven't lost enough face at this point that they necessarily have to respond militarily at this point, i should say. often retaliation in this part of the world comes in the weeks ahead rather than the hours after an event. >> you anticipated my next question. was there any discernible military response from the russians or ...

General, and a question for you, dana. general, can you just -- to press you on the chemical weapons program. can you give us an idea of -- was this -- should the american public understand that this is a minority of the existing chemical weapons programs? is this more than half? is there any way you can give us a better sense of the scale of what these three sites represented? also for you, general, how long did the strike last? how many minutes? hours? and, dana, can you just comment on, to put this in the context of the broader civil war. the u.s. policy is not to get engaged in a civil war...

>> to your first point, last night operations were very successful. we met our objectives. we hit the sites. the heart of the chem weapons program. so it was mission accomplished. give me your second part. >> the authorities question. if there are future strikes, does the same process have to go? what is the process now? >> as the secretary said last night, the president has the authority under article 2 to defend u.s. interests. and national interests. and so i am not going to speculate on anything that happens in the future, but he was full -- this was a fully legitimate operation. ryan? >> ...

Bombers. just as the french and british aircraft were accompanied by their own fighters as part of an integrative package that provides defense for the shooters. additionally, we positioned defensive counterair around the theater. and that's still operational right now. as we observe syrian response. >> were the escorts raptors? >> i don't know the answer to that question. >> david, go ahead. >> there were reports these facilities had been evacuated in the days prior to yesterday's strike. do you have any indication that that's the case? and wouldn't that, to some degree, degrade your assessme...