What's the virtue of the proportional response?
I'm sorry?
What is the virtue of a proportional response? Why's it good? They hit an airplane, so we hit a transmitter, right? That's a proportional response.
Sir, in the case of Pericles 1 --
[talking over him] They hit a barracks, so we hit two transmitters.
That's roughly it, yes, sir.
This is what we do. I mean, this is what we do.
Yes, sir, it's what we do. It's what we've always done.
Well, if it's what we do, if it's what we've always done, don't they know we're going to do it?
Sir, if you'd turn your attention to Pericles 1 --
I have turned my attention to Pericles 1. It's two ammo dumps, an abandoned railroad bridge and a Syrian intelligence agency.
Those are four highly-rated targets, sir.
But they know we're gonna do that. They know we're gonna do that! Those areas have been abandoned for three days now. We know that from the satellite, right? We have the intelligence. [over Leo's attempt to speak up] They did that, so we did this. It's the cost of doing business. It's been factored in, right?
Mr. President --
Am I right, or am I missing something here?
No, sir. You're right, sir.
Then I ask again, what is the virtue of a proportional response?
It isn't virtuous, Mr. President. It's all there is, sir.
It is not all there is.
Sir, Admiral Fitzwallace --
Excuse me, Leo...pardon me, Mr. President, just what else is there?
The disproportional response. Let the word ring forth, from this time and this place, gentlemen, you kill an American, any American, we don't come back with a proportional response. We come back with total disaster! [He bangs the table]
Are you suggesting that we carpet-bomb Damascus?
I am suggesting, General, that you, and Admiral Fitzwallace, and Secretary Hutchinson, and the rest of the National Security Team take the next sixty minutes and put together an American response scenario that doesn't make me think we're just docking somebody's damn allowance!
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