mr. mullen: i would want them to be strong. and to leave little room for doubt about the commitment to security in that part of the world. taken abacka little by the exercises resumed, there wasn't much that happened with that. if i were, in my previous job, at least i would have some insight into the preparations and recommendations would be set -- would be tied to how much we should do or not do based on what was actually going on. the big concerns i had a, victor and i were talking earlier, and i said, how long does it take to get ready for a summit? he said, with an ally, typically it is three months. think about this. the thing about this one, you typically, to the degree you can control it, you want to know the outcome before you have a summit, and then you sort of plan to that. and how much of that kind of work has gone on to this point, i'm not really sure. the stakes are high. on the one hand, one of the things we talked about in the report was you have to move china -- china has got to move. china has moved. whoever y

mr. mullen: i thought that was brilliant. host: that was the way to end. [laughter] host: we have run out of time. i want to thank them for their participation. all of the members of the council for your participation. and our wonderful speakers. [applause] during the white house briefing this afternoon, press secretary sarah sanders reiterated president trump's warning about the chemical attack in syria as well as the president's attention -- attention to announce a new strategy to syria in the coming days. intention to announce a new strategy to syria in the coming days.