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U.s. navy rear admiral john d kirby is joining us now. admiral, you and i spoke yesterday about this situation. we discussed this possible scenarios and outcome. we learned that this collision happened while most of the crew on board was asleep. what are your thoughts about this tragedy today? >> well, it is just absolutely heart rending. i want to start by offering my thoughts and prayers to everybody aboard "fitzgerald." all the crew and their families, of course in particular the families of these seven sailors that were lost. it is just heartbreaking outcome to a horrible tragedy. it doesn...

Is provinces where the coast guard is the principal law enforcement and national security agency to deal with what goes on there. at the moment, the coast guard, for example, is -- is intercepting at sea some 200 tons of drugs every year, 600 -- i'm sorry, 6,000 illegal my grants are collected at sea before they reach the borders. to take away the capability to make constructive progress in the very areas that you're looking to sustain makes little sense if you're cutting the agencies that are actually doing that. as it relates to national security itself, the coast guard is making significant...

Makeshift morgue. >> joining me now is state department spokesman, retired admiral john kirby serving in the navy on september 11th, 2001. we have seen, all of us, my colleague jim miklaszewski of course responding in shanksville today. your recollections of that day. >> i was on a ship down in norfolk, virginia. we were getting ready for an exercise. had the tv on, of course, in the public affairs office as we normally would. when that second plane hit the world trade center i think we all knew, every sailor on that ship, that the world had changed forever. and within hours we found ourselves...

They have contingencies in the eastern mediterranean right now. right? >> that's right, wolf. they have three u.s. navy destroyers in the mediterranean. now they have four. late last week they added a fourth. that was a decision by the six fleet commander to keep more assets in the region. and those ships have now moved farther east, closer to syria. that's interesting because they present the option, each arm, with up to 100 tomahawk missiles. these are long range missiles that are designed to hit targets on land from the sea. and probably most importantly, they would not involve putting amer...

Willing. carter ham is the joint force commander there with the fifth fleet commander. these are all u.s. forces. there is no brit or french or italian force that can command and control this size operation. then, once you take it over, are you going to have to put in this coalition willing ground forces? that becomes a difficult thing. we now have, as we all know, took us 21 days to get to baghdad. eight years later we're still there that. is the danger. >>. >> geraldo: that is the danger, let's ask ali suleman, he left in profitest, resigned but let me ask you mr. ambassador, we're all extre...