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jc: ron... exactly. trust would verify, the proverb made famous by ronald reagan. john mccain has invoked the word several times in the past 24 hours saying of russia/syria that we shoe not truuld not tru should verify. mccain's dose of distrust hardly isolated. we forget the history of russia/u.s. relation has been marked by ability to find common ground. as we await the president's historic address tonight on syria and russia's sudden, somewhat controversial seat at the table is it hard to think tough powers can find common ground when it comes to syria? an american historian and expert on the american presidency.
unknown amount of chemical weapons in unknown locations. so we would have to be taking the word of the syrian government. the rebels certainly are very discouraged by all of this. >> richard, i hear you that the rebels were looking forward to the strategic advantage they may leverage out of a u.s. military strike. a small strike. they may be able to turn the fight in their favor with the u.s. weighing in, in a small way. if that is not going to happen, sound like certainly the president is not going to announce anything like that tonight. is there anything else the rebels will be wanting to hear tonight? is it that or nothing? or is there something else they want to hear from president obama? >> they want to hear that the president is helping and committed to supporting them with weapons, with money. that if the united states isn't going to -- send cruise missiles or air strikes into syria against bashar al assad's regime, they're hoping at least there will be an announcement of
tonight on the eve of the anniversary of 9/11, the president will once again have to address war, war but also peace. the prospect of a peaceful resolution. a diplomatic resolution to something that not long ago seemed certain to entail cruise missiles fired from u.s. navy warships. here in new york city, ed schultz and reverend al sharpton, chris hayes, eugene robinson from "the washington post." want to start, chris with you. do you feel like you know where this is going tonight is? it clear to you what the case is that the president needs to make? >> i have no idea. i suspect most people don't know either. what was planned when the speech was announced was a speech to make the case to the american people it was in the vital interest of the united states to launch a military attack on syria and pressure congress to vote to grant him authority to do that. that, we'll see remnants of that speech tonight. i suspect. i think the white house believes the credible threat of military force is a huge part of what has gotten syria and russia to the
churchi churchill/russia. very helpful. thank you, chris. >> thank you. thank you. >> we will we be back. i want to bring in nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel covering the syrian civil war intensively who tonight is here the border in syria/turkey. heading into the speech tonight, the developments of the last day and a half have made it seem less lakely the u. ikely the u.s going to do anything in syria from where you stand in turkey and the region does it seem that way over there? how is that being received? >> we have spoke tine sen to sy rebels. they were drawing up war plans, 48 hours ago. setting up special units so they could take advantage of the momentum. we have spoken to them tonight. they're absolutely crushed. they think that the military action is not coming. that the united states held out false hope for them. and that -- in their opinion,
bashar al assad got away with using chemical weapons on a massive scale to kill more than 1,000 people. many of them children with not so much as a slap on the wrist. they don't believe that bashar al assad will ever give up all of his chemical weapons. they think it is an unverifiable process. right now, i have been on the ground in syria many times. i think it would be -- practically impossible for a team of international weapons inspectors to move around in that country. to use the roads. to use helicopters. to move from place to place. and we don't exactly know even how much -- how large the stockpile is in syria. it is believed to be about 1,000 tons of chemical weapons. vx, sarin, mustard gas. but we don't really know, and we don't know where exactly those weapons would be. so weapons inspection team would have to deal with the ongoing civil war, looking for an
meetings with the vice president over the weekend where he was making the case directly to you. in his case -- what did he say about how this use of chemical weapons changes our posture on this especially in terms of the possibility of those weapons spreading outside of syria and, and was that not in some way compelling to you? >> well, first of all. there is a history. there is a history of use of chemical weapons in the world over nearly a century. and there has been a sad history of inaction in the face of that. so what we decide to do, at this moment in some ways becomes precedent setting in my -- in my view. you know? saddam hussein used chemical weapons on the iranians. he also used it on his own kurdish citizens. the casualties were -- tens of thousands of people. there was no world reaction.
tonight marks the ninth time president obama made a formal address to the nation. of the nine addresses seven of them have centered on war and peace. including to night's. with public polling showing a deep, wide american resistance to the idea of u.s. military involvement in syria, a senior white house official told nbc news tonight the white house isn't expecting the president's speech tonight will shift that public opinion. if he is not going to shift public opinion though, not even trying to, what is the goal of this speech? and how should success be measured to night. back with me here in new york are chris hayes, and chris matthews in washington. i should say. al, ed, eugene. what is this about for president obama tonight. what do you think success sound like? >> i think one big success point is to lay out in clear terms as ed was saying.
negotiations, syria is on track to not only admit that they have chemical weapons but to sign on to the treaty that they require that they declare them, require they allow them to be inspected and require that they then allow them to be destroyed. nobody thinks that would be easy for that that would be simple. but tonight we expect to hear from president obama whether that plan is enough to revert what looked like it was about to become this president's next war. the use of the american military in syria. thank you for being here for msnbc's special coverage of the president's primetime address to the nation on this issue. i'm rachel maddow with reverend al sharpton, and eugene robinson and from washington lawrence o'donnell from "the last word" and chris matthews of msnbc's "hardball." chris, we hear from washington the speech has been reworked, reworked, reworked up until the last moment. no advanced excerpts of the
bashar al assad has made this pledge, that they think is unverifiable and will just move on with the rest of our lives and ignore the syrian war which has been going on for the last 2 1/2 years. >> at the cost of 100,000 lives already and counting. richard, thank you for staying up into the middle of the night to be part of the special coverage. appreciate it, man. thank you. we are told to expect president obama tonight at pretty much the top of the hour exactly. that obviously is still ahead. we are going to be hearing this hour from a democratic senator who as of earlier today was still undecided about whether or not she would support a u.s. military streike in syria. that and lots more ahead. stay with us, msnbc's special coverage on the president's primetime address on syria continues. already gone through menopause. these symptoms may be nothing... but they could be early warning signs of a gynecologic cancer, such as cervical, ovarian, or uterine cancer.
global community to respond to -- atrocities like this. >> when you issued your statement today -- it was pretty strong. you said that you oppose authorizing military involvement in syria's civil war, not for one day, not for 60 days, one of the versions of the resolution, not for a decade. is there any version of a resolution that you could find your way to supporting? >> well, again. i want to strengthen the -- the effectiveness of the global response to violations of treaties that matter. i mean, all treaties matter. of course we are talking here about the use of chemical weapons. we worry about proliferation of nuclear weapons. biological weapons. and we, we can't have a future where -- the only thing that ever happens is that the united states acts alone. we have got to -- have a buy in from the global community. now i understand the -- the dysfunction of the u.n.