WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: New details on the targets, the impact, and what happens next after the first direct U.S. assault on the Syrian regime.
Message to Assad. After a chemical attack on his own people and a long, bloody civil war, how will Syria's strongman respond to punishment by America's president? I will ask Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who recently met with Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
Russia's role. The Pentagon now investigating if the Kremlin was complicit in the Syrian chemical attack. Moscow is firing back, defending Vladimir Putin's ally Bashar al-Assad and accusing the U.S. of illegal aggression.
And on the outs? At one of the most crucial moments yet for the Trump presidency, we are learning that a major staff shakeup is becoming more likely. Tonight, who's on the short list for a possible shakeup?
BLITZER: We are following breaking news on the U.S. strikes in Syria.
Tonight, the White House says President Trump's first major military action is sending a clear message that Bashar al-Assad must stop using chemical weapons. The Pentagon says it struck the same air base Bashar al-Assad used to launch a deadly nerve gas attack. We are told nearly 60 U.S. missiles severely degraded or destroyed their intended targets overnight.
Over at the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley seemed to threaten additional military action, saying President Trump is prepared to do more if necessary. Russia's U.N. envoy responding by accusing the Trump administration of illegal aggression against's Moscow ally Syria.
Tonight, the Pentagon is investigating whether Russia was complicit, complicit in the Syrian chemical attack by possibly bombing a hospital in an attempt to destroy the evidence. The actions in Syria overshadowing President Trump's summit with the leader of China.
Tonight, the White House won't say if Mr. Trump now backs regime change in Syria. But his decision to order swift military retaliation clearly is a sharp policy reversal for the new commander in chief and a potential turning point for his presidency.
In the midst of all of this, a White House officials tells CNN the possibility of a major staff shakeup is becoming more likely, with speculation focused on chief strategist Steve Bannon. A source now says the situation is reaching "critical mass."
This hour, I will talk about the U.S. strike in Syria with Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who recently met with Bashar al-Assad.
And our correspondents, analysts and other guests, they are all standing by.
First, let's go to our chief security national correspondent, Jim Sciutto, with more on the strikes and U.S. Syria strategy -- Jim.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, today, the Pentagon doing its first bomb damage assessments to look at the effects of this strike.
This is the Al Shayrat base here in Central Syria. This is a look at that base before the strikes there. This is a look after, the number of targets hit.
The Pentagon says 59 cruise missiles striking 59 targets on base. There was a 60th missile that went down in the Mediterranean. They launched another to replace that, destroying, they estimate, 20 Syrian aircraft and a number of hardened aircraft shelters, as well as weapons depots, ammo depots, fuel depots, and radar installations here.
I should note, what they did not strike are the runways here, those still operational and still usable. The focus was Syrian forces, although this is a base that's also been used by the Russians. Of course, it is the Syrians that the U.S. blamed for this attack. But now we know the Pentagon is investigating whether Russia was complicit in the chemical weapons attack as well.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): Tonight, the U.S. military is investigating whether Russia was complicit in the Syrian regime's gruesome chemical weapons attack on civilians earlier this week, specifically whether a Russian warplane dropped a bomb on a hospital treating victims of the attack five hours later, perhaps to destroy evidence.
The probe comes after President Trump ordered a barrage of missiles on a Syrian air base in retaliation for the deadly attack. The first U.S. military strike against the Assad regime in the country's bloody six-year civil war.
Today, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley warned of possible further U.S. military action.
NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: The United States took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more. But we hope that will not be necessary.
SCIUTTO: The target of the strikes was Syria's Shayrat air base, launch point for the Syrian warplanes that carried out the chemical attack.
The Pentagon says 59 of 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles severely degraded or destroyed their targets, including aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, fuel and ammunition dumps and air defense systems.
The Pentagon estimates some 20 aircraft were destroyed, though video of the aftermath shows several shelters still standing and military aircraft undamaged. U.S. missiles left the runway intact and avoided chemical weapons storage to prevent civilian casualties.
And U.S. commanders warned the Russian military one hour in advance, to avoid accidentally striking Russian military personnel or assets. Still, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Assad's primary backer diplomatically and militarily, immediately declared the U.S. airstrikes -- quote -- "an act of aggression" that -- quote -- "dealt a serious blow to Russia-U.S. relations."
Syria, which says nine people were killed in the strikes, claimed the U.S. has undermined the fight against terrorism.
ALI MAYHOUB, SYRIAN MILITARY SPOKESMAN (through translator): This condemnable U.S. aggression confirms the continuation of the flawed U.S. strategy, and it undermines the process of combating terrorism. It makes the U.S. a partner of the Islamic State and al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations.
SCIUTTO: The march to military action took little more than 48 hours. The planning began Tuesday, the day the world saw the first images of victims, many of them children of the chemical weapons attack.
On Thursday, before President Trump sat down to dinner with the Chinese president, he met with his national security team to discuss military options, deciding then to order the strike that night.
At 8:40 p.m. Eastern time, the middle of the night in Syria, the attack began. Two U.S. warships in the Eastern Mediterranean, the USS Porter and the USS Ross, launched the 60 Tomahawk missiles towards the Syrian air base.
Trump sat through dinner alongside the Chinese president as the attack was under way. Then, just 35 minutes later, at approximately 9:15 p.m. Eastern time, the president's national security team briefed him on the mission's results.
SCIUTTO: This was, we should emphasize, Wolf, a very narrowly targeted attack.
One air base here to send a message in effect about the use in particular of chemical weapons. It did not affect really or significantly impact the Syrian military's capability to carry out war against its own people, keep in mind by conventional means.
And let's remember that's the primary means they have been using particularly with civilian casualties, including barrel bombs dropped from helicopters and et cetera. That, the Syrian military maintains -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jim Sciutto reporting for us, thanks for that report.
Also tonight, the Trump administration says it's preparing to announce new sanctions against Syria in addition to the military strike, the White House calling the action ordered by the president decisive, justified and proportional.
Lets go to our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. He's with the president down in Palm Beach, Florida.
Jim, has the president gave any indications of what his next move or moves might be or his overall stance towards Bashar al-Assad?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They're not telegraphing their next steps, Wolf.
And White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says that is by design. The president is expected to remain here all weekend here in Florida, Wolf, and he will continue to receive updates on the situation in Syria after last night's missile strikes.
I did talk to a senior administration earlier today who said these missile strikes in Syria should not interpreted as the beginning of a wider campaign to take out Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
I think that's why you have been hearing all day long administration officials using words like proportional and measured in talking about last night's strikes. We did hear from some of the president's Cabinet members late today, as you said.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters that the administration will be seeking new economic sanctions against Syria in the days ahead. And Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said they will be studying the Syrian's regime response to what happened last night to determine exactly what the administration should do next, Wolf.
BLITZER: All of this is happening, Jim, as there is now some serious talk of possible staff shakeup at the highest level of the Trump's inner circle. What are you finding out?
ACOSTA: Yes, it is pretty remarkable, considering what's happening this week, Wolf.
But publicly the White House is adamant no major shakeup is coming soon. But we have talked to multiple sources who tell us that much of the talk about a shakeup is centering on Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon, two of the original members of this administration first named by President Trump.
Now, we should point out that both Priebus and Bannon -- and let's put this up on screen -- they both appear in that photograph taken in the secured room where the president was keeping tabs on the military operation in Syria.
Also sitting down at the dinner table with the Chinese president last night. This would be an odd time for the president to force them out. But I am told that talk of a shakeup inside the West Wing is reaching "critical mass."
Our sources are even naming some potential replacements for Priebus as chief of staff. But, Wolf, a senior White House official who I was talking to on the phone earlier today was adamant, saying all of this talk is wrong, calling it palace intrigue.
But it is clear, Wolf, the president's team is not all on the same page. All week long, we heard about sparring between staffers loyal to Stephen Bannon and those loyal to the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
And one side of that friction, Wolf, that I think is very important, Steve Bannon, we're told, was not in favor of these strikes in Syria. So, clearly, the president's team not on the same page, a lot of infighting, it sounds. And it's unclear how the president will sort it all out by the end of this weekend, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Jim, thanks very much, Jim Acosta down in Palm Beach, Florida, for us.
Let's get some more on all of this. Joining us, Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. She's a member of the Armed Services Committee and Foreign Affairs Committees, served in the U.S. Army in Iraq.
She also met back in January in Damascus with President Bashar al- Assad.
REP. TULSI GABBARD (D), HAWAII: Aloha, Wolf. Good to talk to you.
BLITZER: Let's talk about this chemical attack. You tweeted about the attack and I will put it up on the screen. You tweeted this: "Whoever is found responsible, be it the Syrian government, al Qaeda or ISIS, all have access to chemical weapons, must be held accountable."
Who do you believe is responsible for that chemical attack that killed so many civilians, including so many children?
GABBARD: Here is the issue, Wolf, is what I believe, what you believe or others believe is irrelevant.
What matters here is the evidence and the facts. If President Assad is found to be responsible, after an independent investigation, for these horrific chemical weapons attacks, I will be the first one to denounce him, to call him a war criminal, and to call for his prosecution in the International Criminal Court, make sure that those consequences are there.
But the key is now with President Trump's reckless military strikes last night, it flew directly in the face of the action that the U.N. was working on at that time to launch an independent investigation to find out exactly what the facts are, who was involved and who was responsible, the appropriate consequences could be levied.
BLITZER: So, Congresswoman, when the Pentagon says it was the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad who was responsible and the secretary of state says that, the president says that, they all conclude that they have the evidence to back it up, they say Assad did it and his military did it, you don't believe them, necessarily?
GABBARD: Well, last time I checked, Wolf, Congress had the authority and the responsibility for declaring war, for authorizing the use of military force.
So, whether the president or the president or the secretary of state says that they have the evidence, the fact remains that they have not brought that evidence before Congress, they have not brought that evidence before the American people, and they have not sought authorization from Congress to launch this military attack on another country.
The fact is that the United States has been waging this war, this regime change war now, for years covertly through the CIA to overthrow the Syrian government. The result of this had been the suffering of the Syrian people, hundreds of thousands of people dead, millions of refugees, and the strengthening of terrorist groups in Syria like al Qaeda and ISIS, whose goals is to overthrow the Syrian government.
So, this escalation that President Trump took yesterday in launching this military attack continues this illegal, unconstitutional war.
BLITZER: So, Congresswoman, are you saying when General Mattis, the secretary of defense, or General McMaster, the president's national security adviser, come to the president and they say here is the evidence, we now know for sure that the Syrian regime did this, here are the various military options to respond, and he gives the OK, you say you have doubts about these generals providing that kind of truth to the president?
GABBARD: Well, Wolf, I remind you about what happened before we launched an invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Then, Colin Powell and many others within the administration came to Congress, and came to the U.N. claiming they had the evidence proving that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We launched a completely destructive, counterproductive war based on that intelligence, which has now years later proven to be wrong.
We had leaders in Congress then who questioned that evidence that was presented and voted against that war because they were not convinced by the administration then saying that they had the proof necessary to launch this war.
So, Yes, I'm skeptical, because we have to take at a premium the cost of these wars, not only on the Syrian people and the people in the Middle East, but the cost of these wars here in the United States.
At a time where we don't have money to build the roads that we need here in Hawaii or in other parts of the country, why should we just blindly follow this escalation of a counterproductive regime change war, sending American taxpayer dollars on these failed regime change wars that we have seen too often, in Iraq, in Libya and now continuing in Syria.
BLITZER: Because the Pentagon says they have radar tracks, tracking, that shows that Syrian regime planes were in the air at the time of this attack.
They also say they have heat signatures showing that those planes dropped those chemical bombs in those areas where the civilians were exposed to that kind of nerve agent.
But what I hear you saying is, you don't necessarily buy that.
GABBARD: Well, once again, Wolf, all I am saying is that we have an executive branch of government and a legislative branch of government.
And we need to see the evidence. Congress and the American people need to see and analyze this evidence and then make a decision based on that whether or not an authorization of U.S. military force is necessary.
And what I am telling you is, that has not happened. I have not seen that independent investigation occur and that proof presented showing exactly what happened. And there are a number of theories that are out there on exactly what occurred that day.
BLITZER: You met with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus this past January, just a little while ago.
Do you doubt, Congresswoman, that he is capable of launching a chemical attack on his own citizens? Because the Obama administration said he did it back several times in 2013 until the Russians came in and said they would try to destroy all of his chemical weapons stockpiles.
GABBARD: Again, this is not about what I believe or what I doubt.
What matters the most here are the facts. The American people deserve to see and know of the evidence and the facts before authorizing the continuation of this destructive, counterproductive, illegal regime change war.
Our interests, Wolf, must be on bringing about peace, that if we truly care and are compassionate for the Syrian people, these children and women and innocent people who are being most impacted by this war, we need to end this destructive regime change war, not escalate it, as the president has just have done through his illegal military strike launched last night.
BLITZER: Why did you meet, Congresswoman, with President Bashar al- Assad? You know you got a lot of criticism for going to Damascus and meeting with him. Why did you decide to meet with him?
GABBARD: You know, I went to Syria in the interest of furthering the cause of peace, to see and hear firsthand from the Syrian people how we can bring about an end to this counterproductive regime change war, something that I have been fighting for now as a member of Congress for years.
Whether we like it or not, President Assad remains the president of Syria. And in order to determine a negotiated outcome to end this regime change war that, again, has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of refugees, he has a part to play in bringing about that negotiated outcome.
We should not continue this counterproductive regime change war, overthrowing the -- to overthrow the Syrian government, first and foremost because it will be destructive to the Syrian people, just like we saw our wars in Iraq and Libya turned out to be worse off for the people of those countries.
And just like in those two countries, we are already seeing this war we have been waging for years has only proven to strengthen these terrorist groups like al Qaeda and like ISIS, who are trying to overthrow the government, so that they can walk in and fill that vacuum and take over all of Syria for their own nefarious means.
BLITZER: Who's responsible, Congresswoman, for the deaths of more than 400,000 Syrians, mostly civilians and a lot of children, elderly? Who do you blame for those deaths over the past six years?
GABBARD: There are a number of ways that you can point the finger, Wolf.
I am interested in finding the solution. And the solution is to end this counterproductive regime change war. The United States has been waging, along with allies, so-called allies like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, all seeking to overthrow the Syrian government.
Stop Arming Terrorists bill, that would put an end to this madness by prohibiting American taxpayer dollars from paying this support, for paying for this counterproductive regime change war.
BLITZER: But don't you believe Bashar al-Assad bears a lot of responsibility for the horrific deaths that have occurred in his own country, his regime, his military going out there and killing all these people?
Do you think, Congresswoman, he bears a lot of that responsibility?
GABBARD: There is responsibility that goes around, Wolf.
Again, my interest is in bringing about peace. Standing here and pointing fingers does not accomplish peace for the Syrian people. It will not bring about an end to this war. That's my sole focus and my interest, both for the United States and for the Syrian people.
And that's why it is so important, A, that we end this destructive, counterproductive regime change war, and that we work towards bringing about a peaceful negotiation, where the Syrian people can determine their own future for themselves.
BLITZER: You met with the president -- he was then the president- elect -- during the transition in New York. And then you went in January to meet with President Bashar al-Assad.
Did you convey any message to Bashar al-Assad from President Trump during your meeting in Damascus?
GABBARD: No. And any reports suggesting otherwise are complete bogus and fake news.
BLITZER: What was Bashar al-Assad's message to you, Congresswoman?
GABBARD: He talked about what was happening in his country, his interest in defeating ISIS, and talked about how to bring about an end to this war.
BLITZER: You have any regrets about going, because you have faced a lot of criticism, as I pointed out, since then?
GABBARD: No, Wolf, I have never made decisions based on fear of what might people think or what might be politically advantageous for me.
As a veteran, I have seen the cost of these wars, experienced them firsthand, seen the human cost in friends of mine who did not come home from the war in Iraq. I went to Congress promising my constituents, my fellow veterans and brothers and sisters in uniform that I would do all I could to prevent our country from making these kinds of disastrous and destructive mistakes again in the future.
I went to Syria with the focus and mission on peace, how we can bring about an end to this destructive regime change war. And I am continuing that fight today.
BLITZER: Congresswoman, we have got to take a quick break. But I want to continue our conversation.
Let's take the break. We will resume the discussion right after this.
BLITZER: We are told tonight that the Pentagon is adjusting its military operations in Syria to protect American forces on the ground, this in the aftermath of the U.S. strike designed to punish the Bashar al-Assad regime for a deadly chemical attack.
We are back with Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who met with Bashar al- Assad in Syria back in January.
So, let me just button this up, Congresswoman. I take it you were deeply disappointed by the president's decision last night; is that right?
GABBARD: It made me sad and it made me angry to see that President Trump took this reckless action without really considering, frankly, the dire consequences.
You talked about it your report Russia's presence in Syria. There is no question that, by launching a military attack which is illegal and unconstitutional against Russia -- against Syria, for that matter, Syria is very closely allied with Russia. Russia has their military on the ground there.
So, what we are talking about here really is the very high potential for a direct military conflict between the United States and Russia, the two world's nuclear powers, risking, therefore, whether intentional or unintentional, nuclear consequences.
BLITZER: If the Pentagon were to show you, Congresswoman, hard evidence convincing you that Bashar al-Assad's regime launched these chemical attacks against these civilians and these kids, would you change your mind and say, yes, what the U.S. did with these Tomahawk missiles was justified?
GABBARD: No, Wolf, because escalating a counterproductive, destructive regime change war is harmful for the Syrian people and is harmful for the United States and our national security interest.
We need to learn our lessons from the past. In Iraq and in Libya both, these arguments were made for humanitarian reasons to go in and overthrow these dictators, to go in and launch these wars.
We have seen in both of those examples how the Iraqi people and the Libyan people have suffered far more as a result of our wars. More people have died. The countries have been destroyed, become failed nations, and counterproductive to our interest directly, terrorist groups like ISIS and al Qaeda have only grown stronger and stronger, gaining footholds in these countries that they didn't have before.
So, for whether it is Senator McCain or President Trump or any of these other people who are advocating for an escalation of this counterproductive regime change war, they're not recognizing the obvious truth, which is that it will result in a worse-off situation for the Syrian people, more death, more destruction, more refugees, and will result in our enemy, terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS, growing stronger.
BLITZER: If President Trump didn't act and more chemical weapons strikes were launched against Syrian civilians from that same air base, how would you feel?
[18:30:02] GABBARD: Look, we have got to look at the facts and understand exactly what happened.
You can talk about a number of hypothetical situations. The United Nations yesterday was debating and drafting and going through different amendments or resolution that would have immediately launched an independent investigative team into Syria to determine exactly what happened in that attack. And then, to have the evidence necessary to take something to the International Criminal Court, to actually prosecute President Assad if he was found responsible. We've got to be deliberative, and recognize the facts on the ground before determining what potential course of actions are available to us.
BLITZER: Congressman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, thank you so much for joining us.
BLITZER: Just ahead, we'll get more reaction to the strike in Syria from a former National Security Advisor to President Obama, retiree General Jim Jones, is standing by live. And more on the possibility of a major shake-up of the White House's Senior Staff, who might be affected? Our correspondents and analyst are digging for new information, right now.
[18:35:49] BLITZER: We're back with the breaking news on the U.S. strike in Syria. Pentagon officials' dossier about 20 Syria planes were destroyed when American cruise missiles struck in airbase believed to have been used by the Bashar al-Assad regime to launch a deadly chemical attack. We're joined now by our retiree General Jim Jones, he's a formal National Security Adviser to President Obama, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. General, thanks very much for coming in.
JIM JONES, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you, Wolf.
clarity for the first time in several years of - I think the indecision in 2013, or the decision not to intervene in 2013 was a very big mistake, and it precipitated the decrease in the amount of influence and the respect of which we are held. And I think now, we're putting an end to leading from behind.
BLITZER: So, was that President Obama's mistake? He subsequently said, I went to Congress and asked for authorization; I didn't get that legislation.
JONES: Whatever the, whatever the cause was, our failure to enact - to act on the Presidential global decree, that a red line would not be tolerated that was made in 2012 and violated in 2013, and again in 2014, and again in 2015.
BLITZER: It sounds like the President of the Unite States, he could have acted without congressional laws.
BLITZER: So he decided from whatever reason he did want to do and he authorized U.S. air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria but never against any targets from the Syrian Military regime.
BLITZER: And you say that was a mistake.
JONES: I believe it was a mistake and I believe that Russia, in a period of nurture in vacuums of different previously exist because our historical position of leadership, that it caused many of our friends and allies in the region to question the commitment of the United States to their own security.
BLITZER: So President Trump has now for all practical purposes drawing his own red line of the Syrians used chemical weapons again. He's going to act again. Can he enforce that, is that realistic?
JONES: Well, I think where we are now, Wolf, is that -- I like the term measured response because I think it was. There are other things he could have done that will be far more damaging to Assad but I think the message has been sent. I think it - the collective of side of relief through it here around the gulf is that people - the leaders are particularly pleased with the fact that the President of the United States is far more deciding.
BLITZER: The U.S. friends in the region, whether the Emirates or the Saudi and the Jordan, they are all very pleased, these rallies. What about the Russians? They are not pleased at all. they've got a big stake in Syria right now. The Iranians do as well.
JONES: They are not pleased at all but I think that what's going to happen and the play out the next few days, is we are going to see where the Russians really are on this and it's going to take some - it's going to take some work but the Russians are signatories to the convention to CWC convention on using such weapons.
BLITZER: You know Pentagon now is investigating whether the Russians are actually complicit in launching those chemical airstrikes that killed many people.
BLITZER: If the Russians were involved in that, either complicit they knew about it they didn't stop it, what is the U.S. doing about that?
JONES: Well I think that's a game changer in terms of who's got the influence and they - in the Middle East. If they are in fact proven to be complicit, I think Mr. Putin is in for a very difficult time diplomatically around the world, because this is like horrific act. And if they were the first time, that might be one thing. But it's not. It's the fourth, it's the third or fourth time.
BLITZER: Did they think they can get away with it because of this earlier -- President Trump's earlier statements that the -- if the Russians were complicit together with the Syrian regime. Did they think that we are what? We can just get away with it?
JONES: I can't put myself in the Russian President's mind except that I do - I've listened to him talk in my days in the White House and I know that, you know, he very much uses the United States as a foil for his own ambition. But he's very opportunistic and he strikes and he moves where he perceives weakness. This demonstration has -- shows no weakness and a firm resolve and I believe that the steady decline of the steam and which the respect which the United States is held in the Middle East is now on the out swing.
[01:40:41]BLITZER: You were a retired four star General, you were Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and you were the NATO supreme ally Commander, National Security Adviser to President Obama. What are the options if you were asked that you would lay out for President Trump right now in Syria?
JONES: Well, again, this is my personal opinion but I think we have to see how Assad reacts and how Russian react and that's going to play out a little bit.
BLITZER: Brother, have a little water.
JONES: Thank you. But I do believe that there are - is a wider array of military options.
BLITZER: Take a sip and then we'll continue.
JONES: That the military option is not the only thing. I think that we should pursue a strategy that leads to abide by the ICC and labels Assad were criminals. I think we should obviously ramp up sanctions and if Russians proven to be complicit I would include them. And I also believe, that like in 2013, when some people suggests that a humanitarian safe zone, inside of Iraq with the coalition, international coalition force led by the United States, that probably and possibly could have mitigated the exodus of refugees into Europe. So I think Europeans have a stake in this because if this doesn't stop, the exodus is going to continue.
BLITZER: There is billions and millions of refugees. General Jones, thanks very much exactly for joining us.
BLITZER: General James Jones, the former Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, that's his promise. Just ahead, more on the breaking news of coverage of President Trump's military action in Syria, would Hillary Clinton have done the same thing if she were President? And what kind of influence does the President Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, have right now, at this critical moment for the Trump's White House. Is it a shakeup in the works?
[18:47:17] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, the White House says the president won't telegraph his next move on Syria after a swift and surprising decision to launch U.S. cruise missiles in a direct assault on the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Let's bring in our team of experts.
President Obama failed to enforce his own red line threat. He was widely criticized for that over the years. How much of that, do you believe, play into President Trump's decisions?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's kind of hard to figure it out, Wolf, because on the one hand, of course, I think that Donald Trump want to show there is a new sheriff in town. He was clearly moved by these pictures that he saw.
But back in 2013, he tweeted constantly that Obama should not go into Syria and he said and I am quoting him now, "We should stay the hell out, the rebels are just as bad as a current regime." And we know that there were horrific pictures back in 2013. So it's kind of hard to figure out how much Obama had to do with what Trump just did.
BLITZER: He was a private citizen and his supporters say then. Now, Peter Bergen, he's president of the United States, he has to make these decisions based on options, military options he's given by his secretary of defense, his national security adviser, among others.
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, you know, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was asked, you know, what's going to change the future of your government, he said, "Events, dear boy, events."
And, you know, this was the first big international event and it demanded a response and I think the president made the right response. The question is, what is the strategy now? Because a cruise missile strike is not a strategy and we haven't heard really from anybody -- and, by the way, lay out a strategy is not telegraphing your future plans. I mean, it's much more about what is our actual game plan here and we have not heard that yet. I hope we will.
BLITZER: What should the strategy be, Phil Mudd?
PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I think you got a tough question that the Americans won't want to face and the White House won't want to talk about it.
Let's look at the two pieces of this. Number one, if you want to destroy ISIS, you've got to end the civil war. Ending the civil war means you have to cooperate with the Russians that support Bashar al- Assad, who's a dictator. If you want to destroy Bashar al-Assad, you've got to have a civil war continue, that means a vacuum. A vacuum like what we've seen in Yemen, a vacuum like what we've seen in Libya. A vacuum means that ISIS will persist.
So, you make the choice. We support a dictator who slaughters people with chemical weapons but allows us to eliminate a vacuum and eliminate ISIS or we support the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad after the disasters of Libya, Yemen and the semi-disaster of Iraq and we determine the take out of Bashar al-Assad, whether or not the Russians wanted us to.
[18:50:02] Nobody in this country wants to have a reality check with the American people. But those are the only choices I see.
BLITZER: Gloria, just hours before the launching of these Tomahawk cruise missiles last night, Hillary Clinton spoke on this very topic at the Tina Brown Women in the World Summit. Listen to what she said.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really believe that we should have and still should take out his airfield and prevent him from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them.
BLITZER: She's going much further right now than the president did yesterday. He's not taking out the airfields. He's hitting some targets at one air base.
BORGER: Right. But she's also praised him. I mean, you know, honestly, I don't think that Donald Trump is looking for a lot of praise from Hillary Clinton and you just had John McCain.
John McCain is praising him. He hasn't exactly been close to this president, and, of course, John McCain, like Hillary Clinton would like to see more. John McCain would like safe zones, for example. He's always liked to arm the rebels, in addition.
But, you know, I agree with phil. I don't think we have sort of a next step here and I think you have to ask, what is the strategy? Because Donald Trump run on America first. Lots of conservatives are out there criticizing him saying this is not America first. This is not what we voted for. We should not have gotten involved here, and so, they want to know, as does the rest of the American public, what are the next steps, are there next steps or was this just a one-off?
BLITZER: President Trump had some words last night after the air strikes were unfolding. He did not say Bashar al Assad must go. Peter, does he need to say that?
BERGEN: You know, I've always thought that from a sort of tactical strategic point of view, saying Bashar al Assad must go is not that smart, because, you know, what options are you giving him? You know, there's a way to look at this a little bit different, which is to say Bashar al-Assad's regime is likely to stay and what we need to -- if we're going to come to any solution, Assad eventually must go, but the next step is for the regime to stay in some shape or form, Assad to be gracefully shown the exit.
But if you make that a demand right at the beginning, I mean, that's a non-negotiable demand. I mean, Assad is not going to say yes to that. So, I don't think there's any reason to say is that at the outset. It doesn't help the actual situation.
BLITZER: Because, as you know, so many people are saying, not only must he go, he must go before an international war crimes tribunal and charged with war crimes and executed. You've heard that, Phil?
MUDD: Yes. And I think Peter's right. I think people who say that are dead wrong. People will send hate mail, I don't care.
Here's the bottom line, if you want the civil war to continue, 400,000-plus people have died in Syria. The president of the United States rightly talked about the tragedy of children and infants dying. How many more do you want to die in a civil war?
If you want that to happen, that means you're going to support the ouster of Bashar al-Assad. We saw tht in Libya, as I mentioned, in Yemen, in Egypt. What happened? Not only did we see disasters in those countries, and at least one, that is Egypt, we saw the return of a dictator.
If you want security for people and if you want ISIS to return, you're going to have to deal with a dictator. And I think our insistence on ousting Assad means that we think the civil war should continue. I don't buy it.
BLITZER: All right. Stand by, everybody, because there's a lot more coming up. What's President Trump's next move in Syria? Reaction and some concern tonight in Congress.
[18:58:13] BLITZER: A big victory today for President Trump. The Senate confirmed his U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, mostly along party lines. The vote came after Republican this week changed Senate rules to break a Democratic filibuster.
the future to have U.S. Senate?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as one senior GOP aide put it best, probably it's a good thing that lawmakers are leaving for a two-week recess. They need some time to cool off after what was a turbulent and anger-filled week.
One of the big questions, though, is, how quickly they can come back together? The first week they come back from that recess, they have to agree and pass a spending bill just to keep the government open. The biggest question becomes, Wolf, when Republicans have a piece of legislation, an ideologically, they are very determined to pass and it gets blocked, will all of a sudden, the legislative filibuster be on the table?
Now, Senate Majority Leader has made clear that's not an option. But Senator Susan Collins gathered 60 signatures from her colleagues to make clear that isn't on the table. Senators are very worried, Wolf, about that slippery slope.
BLITZER: You're on the Hill right now. Is there any sense that there will be legislation authorizing the use of military force in Syria?
MATTINGLY: Well, there's no question there's a lot of talk. And there's kind of an acceptance that it is Congress's responsibility if there is an expansion in Syria. But, Wolf, you know quite well, President Obama tried to get an authorization of use of military force to move forward and it didn't go anywhere. Several senators have tried to do the same thing. Several members of the House have tried to do the same thing.
Politically, it's a very difficult debate. It's a very difficult vote, and as we've seen, it's one members of Congress have avoided in large part since 2001 or 2002. So there's a lot of question right now if it will happen. It will be very dependent on what President Trump decides to do next.
But there's no question, those conversations are ongoing and it's something that there will be a lot of pressure to start on if they need it sometime soon, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Phil, thank you.


Yes. It's already November! 55 days until Christmas! In between now and then we still have Thanksgiving, decorating, baking, cooking, parties, traveling and shopping! I love shopping more than anyone, but I hate it at the holidays when there are so many crowds and I feel rushed to find something for everyone on my list. Ordering online helps some, but things stilll have to be wrapped, and there are those shipping costs! I have a solution........it's gift certificates! They are personal and show that you took the time to think about what she (or he) would enjoy. At Beautiful You we have gift certificates for every occasion, especially Christmas. You can buy them for any amount and we can even mail them for you. Beautiful You offers multiple services...Botox, Juvederm... The great thing is your wife, friend, sister, husband can choose what they want when they want. We offer free consults. With a gift certificate people can take advantage of sales and specials so your dollar winds up going farther. Come by our office or call us (501)228-6237. We take credit card payments by phone as well as in person.
For those who didn't get my eBlast...I am having a Botox party on Nov. 15th at my office. You can still reserve a spot. I have three left. The first 20 people to sign up get Botox at $9/unit that night. I will be happy to treat as many people as possible over 20 as I have time. Come join us for wine (or soft drinks) and hors d'ouevres at 6:00pm on November 15th.
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The holidays are always a time to remember our blessings and extend those to others. So between now and Christmas, a percentage of every Botox, or Juvederm treatment will go to the Arkansas Foodbank Network http://www.arkansasfoodbank.org/ which is available in 33 Arkansas counties. They serve about 23,000 hungry Arkansans a week. I'll let you know the total in my January newsletter.
Until next month, I wish you a more healthy and Beautiful You!
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Newer PostOverweight......Yuck!! You Don't have to Be!!


text:
The Bantamweight class in the 1st AIBA African Olympic Boxing Qualifying Tournament competition.

List of boxers

Medalists

Results

Preliminary round

Quarterfinal Round

Semifinal Round

3rd place Round

Final Round

Qualification to Olympic games

References
AIBA

AIBA African 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Source: 'High probability' Saudi attack launched from Iranian base near Iraq
Posted 9:58 AM, September 17, 2019, by CNN Wire
Attacks on major oil plants in Saudi Arabia have shaken up global oil markets and complicated the already strained relations between the kingdom and its regional arch-rival Iran. Get up to speed fast here:
WASHINGTON DC — Saudi and US investigators have determined "with very high probability" that the weekend attack on the Saudi oil industry was launched from an Iranian base in Iran close to the border with Iraq, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The attack involved cruise missiles — along with drones — flying at low altitude, the source said, and their trajectory was from the north of the Abqaiq oil plant, which was struck by more than a dozen projectiles in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The missiles, according to the investigators' current assessment, flew over southern Iraq and through Kuwaiti airspace before reaching their targets. Kuwait on Monday announced it had launched an investigation into reports of sightings of drones or missiles shortly before the Saudi targets were hit.
The Pentagon declined to comment and Iran has not responded yet to CNN's request.
CNN's source said the missiles would have avoided traveling over the Persian Gulf where US and Saudi radar systems are strongest. The kingdom's air defense systems are focused on the Gulf.
Trump: US 'locked and loaded depending on verification' of attack on Saudi oil field
On Monday, a US official told CNN that the US had assessed that the attack originated from inside Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. One regional diplomat told CNN on Monday that while the US has told its allies it has intelligence showing the launch "likely" came from staging grounds in Iran, it has not yet shared the information.
"It is one thing to tell us, it is another thing to show us," the diplomat said.
Shortly after the attack, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of carrying it out, tweeting Saturday that "Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply."
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi responded that "such blind accusations and inappropriate comments in a diplomatic context are incomprehensible and meaningless."
Neither Saudi Arabia nor the US has so far published evidence on the origin of the weekend attack. However, both governments have said publicly that the projectiles did not come from Yemeni territory, as the Houthi rebels claimed soon after the attacks occurred. The source reiterated there is "absolutely no indication that the missiles came from the south and especially not one as far as Yemen."
Drone strikes knock out half of Saudi oil capacity, 5 million barrels a day
The source told CNN that US weapons system investigators are in Saudi Arabia to assist in the investigation, and to establish how many missiles struck the two complexes — Abqaiq and the Khurais oilfield — as well as the design of the missiles. This would help determine the origin of the technology involved and which country possesses it.
That task may be made easier because some of the missiles failed to reach their targets, the source said, and wreckage was recovered from the desert.
"Some are in a good enough state to determine their origins," the source added.
Another source who has spoken with Saudi government officials has told CNN that based on images of the wreckage that fell in the desert, at least some of the missiles used are known as the Quds 1.
The Houthi rebels unveiled the Quds 1 at a weapons exhibition in July under the slogan "The Coming Period of Surprises." Some weapons experts believe a Quds 1 was used in the attack on the airport terminal at Abha in southern Saudi Arabia in June, in which 26 people were injured. In that instance, the Houthis said they had launched a "strategic guided cruise missile."
Experts say Quds 1 appears to be based on an Iranian design, and is similar to the Soumar — an Iranian cruise missile. Arms control experts say it's very unlikely the Houthis had the technical expertise to develop such a weapon themselves.
However, the Quds 1 does not appear to have the sort of range that would allow it to hit Abqaiq from Houthi-held parts of Yemen, some 1,300 kilometers away.
Fabian Hinz, research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, has researched the different varieties of missiles the Houthis have and says of the Quds 1, "both the missile's smaller size and its more fuel-hungry engine make it seem unlikely its range would be anywhere close to the Soumar's/Hoveyzeh's range of 1350 kilometers." The Soumar and Hoveyzeh are longer-range missiles that the Houthis have.
If the wreckage in the desert is indeed that of Quds 1 missiles, it strengthens the assertion that the missiles did not begin their journey in Yemen.
Topics: Iran, saudi arabia
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Tonight look for the Moon and Mars in the west. At 8pm the crescent Moon will be two hand-spans (at arm's length) above the horizon with orange-red Mars a fist-width above and to the left. The Moon's light takes 1.3 seconds to reach you while light from Mars tonight takes 13.9 minutes.
The Moon and Mars in the west on October 28 2014. Chart generated by TheSky6 © Software Bisque, Inc. www.bisque.com.


text:
Views of Yosemite Valley...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, Feb. 3, 1894 Full ftpg. shows a performance at the remodeled Metropolitan Opera House. Halfpg: 'View in the Yosemite' & fullpg: 'The New Bridge Across the Harlem River at 3rd Ave.' Halfpg: 'State Capitol at Albany'. Nice fullpg. Remington: 'A Gander-Pull' on horseback. An article on A. Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes.
Compl... See More
Second rate also available for:
Nice Harvard view... Frederick Remington illustrations...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, Nov. 24, 1894 Quaint, full ftpg: 'The Old Homestead Well'. Two fullpgs. of photos on: 'The War In Asia'. Over half of a dblpgctrfld. is taken up with: 'A Bird's-Eye View of Harvard University', being very displayable. Four photos on the re-building of Hinckley, Minnesota, previously destroyed by fire. Five photos on the 'Women at the P... See More
This "High Demand" Issue May Not Be Available - Please Read Note!
A.B. Frost: Ruffed Grouse shooting...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, Dec. 8, 1894 Nice illus. & bio of: 'Thomas Hardy'. Fullpg. of 6 photos of 'Descendants of the Mutineers of the 'Bounty' on Pitcairn Is.' Nice fullpg. on: 'The Bicycle Tournament at Madison Sq. Garden'. Great A.B. Frost hunting print: 'Ruffed Grouse Shooting'. Two fullpgs. with 20 photos of 'Military Maneuvers at Fort Ri... See More
Christmas... Santa Claus by Remington... wintry prints...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 15, 1894 The full front pg. is an illus. of: "The Holy Family." Inside has a full pg. illus: "How Santa Claus Comes in Canada." which is by the famed artist Frederic Remington. Also a full pg. illus. of "Two's Company." (ice skaters), and another fullpg: "In Old Virginia - 'De Christmas Dinner Am Safe Fo' ... See More
Santa Claus political cartoon on the front page...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 22, 1894 The full front page is an illus. captioned: "Christmas in Politics--A Few Things the People Wouldn't Have." which shows Santa Claus shaking various political figures out of his bag (see).
Inside are two full pgs. of illus. of "Damascus and the Syrian Pilgrimage" and "Glimpses of the Japanese Soldier."
Two 1/... See More
Hockey... Chicago Stock Exchange...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, Jan. 12, 1895 Full ftpg: 'On the Signal Bridge of a Man-Of-War'. Full pg. of text with 6 illus. of 'Hockey in Canada', being early hockey prints. One-third pg: 'View of Apia, Capital of Samoa'. Fullpg. with 3 photos of: 'Surface Mining for iron on the Missabe Range in Minnesota' & fullpg: 'The Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan&#... See More
The Christmas Season in the Shopping District... Moose hunting...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 14, 1895 Full front page illus. of "The Christmas Season in the Shopping District." Inside is a 1/4 pg. portrait of "Madame Calve as Anita in 'La Navarraise'." Full pg. illus. of "Buying Christmas Presents." 2/3 pg. illus. entitled "Maternity." Full pg. illus. of "Je Vous Salue, Marie (Hail Mar... See More
Very rare & desirable Maxfield Parrish Christmas cover...
HARPER'S WEEKLY--CHRISTMAS, Dec. 14, 1895
* Maxfield Parrish
* Christmas
Certainly the feature of this issue is the great Maxfield Parrish front cover which shows a waiter delivering a plate with Christmas pudding. Typically this desirable cover is lacking as they were extracted from volumes over the years. Rare to find an issue with this cover intact.
Although the prints w... See More
Journey through the West... Golf...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 21, 1895 Full front page portrait of "Hon. Allen Granbery Thurman." Inside are three small portraits of "Rufus W. Peckham," "Peter Conlin," and "Josiah Quincy." 1/2 pg. of illus. pertaining to "A Recent Journey Through the West." Full pg. of portraits pertaining to "Four Stars of the New York Seaso... See More
Christmas issue...
FARM, FIELD AND FIRESIDE, from Chicago, Illinois, dated December 21, 1895. The cover of this issue feature a mail and young lad with sheep and is entitled "Christmas Number". This is comprised of various topics from farming, veterinary, literature, farm economics, housekeeping, children stories, stories and advertisements.
This is complete in 48 pages measuring 8.5 x 12.5 inches
New Congressional Library...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, Dec. 28, 1895 Full ftpg: 'The Battle of The Big Hole' halfpg: 'The Rebellion in Cuba'.
Doublepage centerfold : 'The New Congressional Library' fullpg. of 7 photos: 'Siam & Its Capital'
Complete issue.... See More
United States Naval Torpedo Station, New Port, Harbor, Rhode Island...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, January 4, 1896 Front 1/2 pg. illus. pertaining to the story "The Gray Man." Inside is a 1/2 pg. illus. of "The new Armory for Squadron A, N.G.N.Y." Small portrait of "Mr. John Hare." Full pg. illus. of "The United States Naval Torpedo Station, Newport Harbor, Rhode Island." Full pg. illus. of "The Crowning Feature o... See More
Horse show at Madison Square Garden...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, Nov. 14, 1896 Full ftpg: 'Congratulating a Winner at the Horse Show, Madison Sq. Garden'. Fullpg: 'Election Night in N.Y. City--The Crowd Watching the Returns at Madison Sq.'. Nice A.B. Frost dblpgctrfld: 'A Chance Shot While Setting Out Decoys'. Some college football photos.
Cowboy in the Indian Teritory...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, Dec. 5, 1896 The entire ftpg. is a very nice ftpg. of a cowboy on horseback about ready to lasso a turkey(!) captioned: 'Running the Wild Turkey in the Indian Territory'. Fullpg. on: 'American University, Washington, D.C.' Several photos of Harvard & Penn football games.
Too much Christmas...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 19, 1896 Full front page illus. of "Bringing in the Boar's Head." Inside is a full pg. illus. of "Captain Malyoe Shot Captain Brand Through the Head." Full pg. illus. of "She Would Site Quite Still, Permitting Barnaby to Gaze."
Doublepage centerfold of "A Tall, Slender, Graceful form in Riding-Dress was outlined ... See More
A plantation Christmas...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 26, 1896 Full front page illus. of "Father Knickerbocker's Christmas." Inside is a 1/2 pg. portrait of "Emma Eames as Elsa in 'Lohengrin'." Full pg. illus. of "The New Building for Columbia University in the City of New York."
Full pg. illus. of "Scenes at the Commercial Travellers' Fair, Madison Squa... See More
Uncle Sam political cartoon...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, January 2, 1897 The front page has a full page political cartoon which includes Uncle Sam by W. A. Rogers titled: "Getting Monotonous". Two full pages with many photos of: 'The Revolt in the Philippine Is., Scenes in Manila'. One-third pg: 'Bird's-Eye View of the Tenn. Centennial Expo.' plus a nice fullpg. of the Centennial Expo at... See More
The Klondike gold fields...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, November 20, 1897 Full front page illus. of "Captured the Blue Ribbon." Inside is a full pg. illus. of "The Chicago Horse Show." Full pg. illus. of "The Conqueror of the Hour." Full pg. illus. of "The Thirteenth Horse How of the National Association." 1/2 pg. map of "The Farthest North."
Full pg. of illus. of &... See More
The Klondike Gold Rush...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 4, 1897 Nice full ftpg: 'On the Way to the Klondike--The Packtrain between Dyea & Sheep Camp'. Inside has a halfpg. illus. of a proposed 'Aerial Railway' to overcome the difficulties of the Chilkoot Trail. Nice text with 6 photos on the cliff dwellers of New Mexico.
Other news and advertisements of the day are included. This issue ... See More
Santa Claus on the cover... F. S. Church Christmas centerfold...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 18, 1897 The full front page is a nice print: "Santa Claus's Return Home." by the famed artist W. A. Rogers, showing a full-figure Santa Claus with various elves.
Inside is a full pg. illus. of "A Christmas Hymn."; a full pg:"Christmas Carnival on the Ice, Amsterdam."; a full page color print: "I've Kept My E... See More
Pleasure grounds in Boston...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 25, 1897 Full front page illus. of "A Caprice of Time: 1827-1897 - Two Christmases." Two full pgs. of illus. of "Negus Menelek of Abyssinia at Home." Full pg. illus. of "Thesmophoria."
Doublepage centerfold of "Neighborhood Pleasure Grounds in Boston." Full pg. of illus. of "News from the Klondike."
O... See More
Celebration among the Pueblo Indians...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 10, 1898 Full front page illus. of "The Perils of the Deep." Inside are two full pages of illus. of "The Great Storm on November 26 and 27." Full pg. illus. of "The Electric-Cab Service in New York City."
Doublepage centerfold of "A Strange Mixture of Barbarism and Christianity - The Celebration of San Geronimo's... See More
Christmas Issue... Colored Ivory Snow Ad...
LESLIE'S WEEKLY, from New York, dated December 15, 1898. This is the Christmas issue and features a color cover wrapper as well as the typical main front cover. Also included is this issue is a pastel colored Ivory Snow advertisement which is loose from the main issue and would be very displayable. There are numerous Christmas-themed illustration in the issue. See photos.
Complete in 32... See More
Nice Christmas-themed prints... the Klondike... Remington, Rogers, and more...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 17, 1898 Front full pg. illus. of "A Christmas Box From Home." Inside is a 1/2 pg. illlus. of "December Scenes at the Navy Yard - Preparing the Torpedo Boats for Winter Quarters." Full pg. illus. of "The Hero of the Occasion." 1/2 pg. with two illus. of "Two Bronze Statuettes by Frederic Remington." Full pg. illu... See More
Danish language newspaper from Minnesota...
UGEBLADET, "A Scandinavian Weekly", Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota, Dec. 22, 1898 A quite unusual newspaper in the Danish language (translates to "Magazine") obviously for those of Scandinavian descent in Minnesota. The ftpg. has a nice print of Santa Claus.
Eight pages, loose at the spine, various margin tears mostly at the bottom.
San Juan Creek...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 24, 1898 Full front page illus. of "Cast Loose and Provide." Inside is a 1/4 pg. portrait of "William Black." Full pg. of illus. of "From the Loan Exhibition of Portraits at the National Academy of Design." Two full pg. illus. of "The Fifty-Fifth Congress - Scenes in Washington at the Opening of the Session."
Do... See More
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 31, 1898
Front full pg. illus. of "On His Hands." Inside are two full pgs. of illus. pertaining to "President McKinley's Southern Trip" including "- Scenes During His Visits to Tuskegee and Atlanta" and "The Celebration at Atlanta." Full pg. illus. of "The Common Council of Chicago - The Storm Centre of the... See More
Ice yachting... Yale University...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, January 7, 1899 Full front page illus. of "Ice-Yachting - Hard-a-lee!" Inside is a full pg. of portraits of "The Evacuation of Cuba by Spain." 2/3 pg. illus. of "Two Notable Examples of the Work of F. A. Bridgman." Full pg. of illus. of "Sir Edward Burne-Jones's Mosaics in the American Episcopal Church at Rome."
Doub... See More
Color Ivory Snow advertisement...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, July 22, 1899 Full front page illus. of "Hoisting the Mainsail on the Cup Defender 'Columbia'." Inside is a 1/2 pg: "Christmas Dinner in Midsummer on the 'Belgica'."; full page: "The 'Belgica' Expedition to the Antarctic Regions."; half page: "The Anglo-Venezuelan Arbitration Commission at Paris.";... See More
YOUTH'S COMPANION from Boston dated December 7, 1899. The cover of this issue feature a young lady doing needle work and is entitled "Getting Ready for Christmas". Mostly literary-related content, but also topical articles, plus other youth-related content and ads.
This is complete in 16 pages measuring 11.25 x 16.5 inches and is in nice condition.
The Philippine insurrection...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 9, 1899 Full front page illus. of "The British Naval Brigade Passing Through Ladysmith." Inside are four small portraits of "Some Probable Leaders in the Coming Congressional Debate." 1/2 pg. illus. of "U.S.S. 'Kentucky' Crossing the Line at the Finish of Her Trial Run." Full pg. illus. of "The Arrival of Gene... See More
Mark Twain's haunts... Mormons & Brigham Young...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 16, 1899 Full front page illus. of "Santa Claus: These New-Fangled Chimneys are Very Trying to an Old Fogy Like Me.", by W.A. Rogers. "A Glance Ahead - Being a Christmas Tale of A.D. 3568" by John Kendrick Bangs takes 3 pages and includes several color prints.
Inside are two full pgs. of illus. of "The War in Sout... See More
Featured Item!
The Boer War...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 23, 1899 Front full pg. illus. of "The Last Message." Inside are two 1/4 pg. portraits of "Major-General John R. Brooke, U.S.A" and "Major-General Leonard Wood, U.S.V." 2/3 pg. illus. of "The British Military Observation Balloon at Ladysmith." 1/3 pg. illus. "The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Drill... See More
Christmas Eve in New Orleans...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 30, 1899 Full front page illus. of "Major-General Henry W. Lawton, U.S.V." Inside are two 1/4 pg. portraits of "Lord Roberts of Kandahar" and "Major-General Lord Kitchener." Full pg. of illus. of "The New Court House, Baltimore, Maryland." Full pg. of illus. of "Pretoria - Pictures of Recent Events in the Bo... See More
Uncle Sam...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, January 6, 1900 Front page features Uncle Sam in an illustration entitled "Away Down East". Fullpage: "The War In South Africa - Communicating With Kimberley By Search-Light" and the political cartoon "The Lay of the Kaffirgram". This also contains numerous news articles of the day. See photos for full details.
By A.B. Frost: "Selecting The Turkey"...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 1, 1900 Front page Uncle Sam cartoon; The Cuban Constitution at Havana; The Central-American Revolution; doublepage centerfold "Selecting the Turkey" by Frost; and other news of the day. See photos for full details.
Great Christmas prints, many in color, with a displayable cover...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 8, 1900 The color cover has a very displayable print showing the Wise Men on camels and noting this is the: "Christmas Number 1900".
Inside has some Christmas-themed prints including: "The Santa Claus of the Sea" "The Christmas Possum" which is by A.B. Frost; "Making Toys for the Christmas Trade" whic... See More
Inside has some Christmas-themed prints including: "The Santa Claus of the Sea" "The Christmas Possum" which is by A.B. Frost; "Making Toys for the Christmas Trade" which is ... See More
Mark Twain...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 15, 1900 Color front page of Mark Twain; The Surprise Party to Mark Twain; Scenes on the Island of Guam; The Opening of Congress; fullpage "The National Capitols of the United States"; doublepage centerfold "A Surprise Party to Mark Twain by His Characters"; Oscar Wilde; and other news of the day. See photos for full details.
Christmas Eve In The Shopping District...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, December 22, 1900 The doublepage centerfold has the frameable, "Christmas Eve In The Shopping District" by Everett Shinn; The cover has a color illustration, "The Toy Shop"; front page "Lassoing Bears In Arizona" by Deming; fullpage "Sawdust and other Christmas stuff..."; Across the Great Divide in Midwinter; The Im... See More
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, November 23, 1901 Front page illustration: "Juding a Tandem" by Klepper; two pages of photos The Annual New York Horse Show; The National Horse Show; full page illustration Pictures at the Pittsburgh Exhibition; National Beagle Trials; doublepage centerfold photos: "Horse-Show Week in New York; several pages of Christmas Book Hints; and other new... See More
Christmas prints...
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text:
\section{Introduction}

DeepMind's AlphaZero algorithm is a general learning algorithm for training agents to master \textit{two-player, deterministic, zero-sum games of perfect information} \cite{deepmind}. Learning is done \textit{tabula rasa} - training examples are generated exclusively through self-play without the use of expert trajectories. Unlike its predecessor AlphaGo Zero, AlphaZero is designed to work across problem domains \cite{alphagozero}. DeepMind has demonstrated AlphaZero's generality by training state-of-the-art AlphaZero agents for Go, Shogi, and Chess. This result suggests that AlphaZero is applicable to other games and real-world challenges. In this paper, we explore AlphaZero's generality further by evaluating its performance on simple \textit{multiplayer} games.

Our approach is to extend the original two-player AlphaZero algorithm to support multiple players through novel modifications to its tree search and neural network architecture. Since the AlphaZero source code is not released, we implemented a single-threaded version of AlphaZero from scratch using Python 3 and PyTorch based on DeepMind's papers \cite{deepmind, alphagozero}. There are several notable reimplementations of DeepMind's AlphaGo Zero algorithm by the research community such as LeelaZero and ELF \cite{leela, elf}. However, these implementations are designed and optimized for reproducing DeepMind's results on Go, not for general experimentation with the algorithm.

Our contribution is threefold. First, we produce an independent reimplementation\textsuperscript{2} of DeepMind's AlphaZero algorithm. Second, we extend the original algorithm to support multiplayer games. And third, we present the empirical performance of this extended algorithm on two multiplayer games using some novel evaluation metrics. We conclude that the AlphaZero approach can succeed in multiplayer problems.

This paper will first introduce the original AlphaZero algorithm, then discuss our novel multiplayer extensions, and lastly discuss our experiments and results.

\section{Background}

The original, two-player AlphaZero can be understood as an algorithm that learns a board-quality heuristic to guide search over the game tree. This can be interpreted as acquiring an ``instinct'' for which board states and moves are likely to end in victory or defeat, and then leveraging that knowledge while computing the next move to make. The resulting \textit{informed search} can pick a high quality move in a fraction of the time and steps as an \textit{uninformed search}.

This ``instinct heuristic'' is the output of a deep convolutional neural network, which ingests the current board state as input and outputs two values \cite{alexnet}. The first output is the \textit{value head} ($v$), the scalar utility of this board from the perspective of the current player. The second output is the \textit{policy head} ($\vec{p}^{\,}$), a probability distribution over legal actions from the current board state, where higher probability actions should lead the current player to victory. Both $v$ and $\vec{p}^{\,}$ inform a Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) to guide search over the game tree.

\subsection{Informed MCTS}

MCTS is a search algorithm that traverses the game tree in an exploration/exploitation fashion \cite{mcts}. At each state, it prioritizes making moves with high estimated utility, or that have not been well explored. The upper confidence bound for trees (UCT) heuristic is often used to balance exploration and exploitation during search \cite{uct}. Each iteration of MCTS from a board state is called a ``rollout.'' AlphaZero uses most of the standard MCTS algorithm, but with a few key changes.
\begin{enumerate}

    \item Replaces UCT with the following $(state, action)$-pair heuristic in MCTS to decide which move to search next.
    $$
    Q(s,a) + c_{puct}\frac{P(s,a)}{1+N(s,a)}
    $$
    Where $Q$ is the average reward experienced for this move, $N$ is the number of times this move has been taken, $P$ is the policy head value, and $c_{puct}$ is an exploration constant. The design of this heuristic trades off exploration of under-visited moves with exploitation of the value and policy heads from the network.
    \item Random rollouts are removed. Instead of rolling out to a terminal state, the value head $v$ is treated as the approximate value of a rollout. Because of this, during the backpropagation step of MCTS, $v$ gets incorporated into $Q$.

\end{enumerate}

The result is an ``informed MCTS'' which incorporates the outputs of the neural network to guide search.

\subsection{Policy iteration}

To train, AlphaZero operates in a cycle of policy evaluation and policy improvement. AlphaZero requires full access to a simulator of the environment.

\paragraph*{Policy evaluation}
Training proceeds as follows. Our game starts at initial board state ($s_1$). From here, several rollouts of MCTS are run to discover a probability distribution ($\vec{\pi_1}^{\,}$) across valid actions. Uniform dirichlet noise is added to $\vec{\pi_1}^{\,}$ to encourage exploration (this is only done for the first move of the game). We then take our turn by sampling from $\vec{\pi_1}^{\,}$ to get to $s_2$, and repeat the process until a terminal state is encountered. This terminal state outcome $z$ will be 1 for win, -1 for loss, or 0 for tie from the perspective of the current player.

\paragraph*{Policy improvement}
 After a game ends, we generate training samples for each turn of the game $(s_i, \vec{\pi_i}^{\,}, z)$ and add them to an experience replay buffer. After several games, we sample batches from the buffer to update our network parameters by minimizing the following loss function, which is just a sum of cross-entropy loss and mean squared error.

 $$
 L=(z-v)^2 -  \vec{\pi}^{\,\top} \log{\vec{p}^{\,}}
 $$

Through this cycle, AlphaZero refines its heuristic after each iteration and snowballs into a strong player.

\section{Multiplayer extensions}
Several changes are made to MCTS and the neural network for AlphaZero to support multiplayer games.
\begin{enumerate}

\item MCTS now rotates over the full list of players during play instead of alternating between two players.

\item
Instead of completed games returning an outcome $z$, they now return a \textit{score vector} ($\vec{z}^{\,}$), indicating the scores of each player. For example, in a 3-player game of Tic-Tac-Toe, a tie might return $\begin{bmatrix} 0 & 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix}$ and a first player win might return $\begin{bmatrix} 1 & -1 & -1 \end{bmatrix}$. Note from the latter example that we are incidentally relaxing the zero-sum constraint on games. In fact, this opens the door for games that do not have binary win/lose outcomes, but this is not the focus of our work.

\item In two-player AlphaZero, the value of a state from the perspective of one player is the negation of the value for the other player. With a score vector, each player can have its own score. So when backpropagating value, MCTS uses the corresponding score in $\vec{v}^{\,}$ for each player instead of flipping the sign of a scalar $v$.

\item
Instead of the value head of the neural network predicting a scalar value, it now predicts a \textit{value vector} ($\vec{v}^{\,}$), which contains the expected utility of a state for each player. The size of the vector equals the number of players in the game. The loss function is updated to account for this change.

 $$
 L=\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n(z_i-v_i)^2 -  \vec{\pi}^{\,\top} \log{\vec{p}^{\,}}
 $$

 The neural network is now trained on $(s_i, \vec{\pi_i}^{\,}, \vec{z}^{\,})$ tuples since value is a vector. An illustration of this change from the standard two-player case to the novel multiplayer case is shown in figure \ref{fig:crownjewel} for a 3-player variant of Tic-Tac-Toe.

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=120mm]{crownjewel.png}
\caption{The change in neural network structure with novel multiplayer approach.}
\label{fig:crownjewel}
\end{figure}

\end{enumerate}

The aforementioned changes to make MCTS multiplayer have been described in previous literature as MCTS-max\textsuperscript{n} \cite{multimcts}.

\section{Experiments \& Results}
We define several metrics of success in training effective agents:
\begin{itemize}
    \item \textbf{Does the neural network successfully converge?} A stable, decreasing loss function indicates training is proceeding as anticipated. Divergence likely indicates the network is low capacity or over-regularized, as it cannot explain the growing variance of experience data.
    \item \textbf{Does the agent outperform a MCTS given the same number of rollouts?} Since the AlphaZero agent starts off as a standard MCTS agent and improves from there, it should outperform a MCTS agent given the same number of rollouts per turn. This experiment tests if the experimental agent (AlphaZero) outperforms the control agent (MCTS).
    \item \textbf{Does the agent outperform a MCTS given more rollouts (up to a point)?} Since AlphaZero's heuristic enables it to efficiently search the game tree, it should perform as well as or better than some MCTS agents that are given additional rollouts. Since AlphaZero only plays against itself during training, this experiment tests the generality of the learned strategy.
    \item \textbf{Does the agent outperform a human?} There are no human experts for the games we have created, but victory against a competent human opponent confirms that a reasonably strong and general strategy was learned.
\end{itemize}

Using these criteria to evaluate multiplayer agents, we train AlphaZero to play multiplayer versions of Tic-Tac-Toe and Connect 4.

\paragraph{Testbed.}
We have implemented multiplayer AlphaZero entirely in Python 3 using PyTorch. Unlike DeepMind's AlphaZero, we do not parallelize computation or optimize the efficiency of our code beyond vectorizing with numpy. All experiments were run on a desktop machine containing an i9-9900k processor and an RTX 2080 Ti GPU. Our biggest limitation was compute - DeepMind trained AlphaZero to master Go in 13 days with 5000 first generation TPUs and 16 second-generation TPUs, but with our hardware, that result would take years to replicate \cite{deepmind}. For this reason, we experiment on multiplayer games with small state and action spaces to make this project feasible. Even on these simpler games, training takes over 15 hours. Future research with access to more compute can expand on our results by evaluating performance on more complex multiplayer games.

\paragraph{Hyperparameters.}
The same hyperparameters are used across all games and experiments. For the neural network, we use a squeeze-and-excitation model, which has been shown to outperform existing DCNN architectures by modeling channel interdependencies with only a slight increase to model complexity \cite{squeeze}. The specific SENet architecture used in this project consists of 8 SE-PRE blocks and two heads (value and policy).

\begin{table}[h]
  \caption{Hyperparameters}
  \label{hyperparams}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{lll}
    \toprule
    \cmidrule(r){1-2}
    Hyperparameter     & Ours     & DeepMind \\
    \midrule
    Network & SENet & ResNet  \\
    L2 regularization & 1e-4 & 1e-4\\
    Batch size & 64 & 2048\\
    Optimizer & ADAM & SGD + Momentum\\
    Learning rate & 1e-3 & 1e-2 $\longrightarrow$ 1e-4 \\
    Replay buffer size & $\infty$ & ?\\
    $c_{puct}$ & 3.0 & ? \\
    Dirichlet $\alpha$ & 1.0 &  Depends on game \\
    MCTS rollouts per turn (``computation'') & 50 & 800\\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\subsection{Multiplayer Tic-Tac-Toe}
Our multiplayer Tic-Tac-Toe game, dubbed ``Tic-Tac-Mo,'' adds an additional player to Tic-Tac-Toe but keeps the 3-in-a-row win condition. To make games more complicated, the size of the board is expanded to be 3x5 instead of 3x3. Games can therefore last up to 15 turns. Players receive a score of 1 for a win, 0 for a tie, and -1 for a loss. The state representation of the board fed into the neural network is depicted in figure \ref{fig:ttm_state}. We trained the AlphaZero algorithm by having it play Tic-Tac-Mo against itself for about 18 hours.

\paragraph{Does the neural network successfully converge?}
The loss curve for the underlying heuristic network is shown in figure \ref{fig:ttm_loss}. The loss decreases and stabilizes as AlphaZero goes through more iterations.

\begin{figure}[h]
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
  \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{ttm_state.png}
    \caption{The state representation of a Tic-Tac-Mo board passed into the neural network. Size is 3x5x6. Each player owns one "piece location" plane and "turn indicator" plane.}
    \label{fig:ttm_state}
  \end{subfigure}\hfill
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
  \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{ttm_loss.png}
    \caption{The loss of our SENet steadily converges.}
    \label{fig:ttm_loss}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption{State representation and loss curve for Tic-Tac-Mo.}
\end{figure}

\paragraph{Does the agent outperform a MCTS given more rollouts (up to a point)?} We compare the scores between AlphaZero and MCTS opponents of increasing strength. Here, ``increasing strength'' means that after each match, MCTS gets more rollouts to search the game tree, while AlphaZero's computation remains fixed at 50 rollouts. Each game pits 2 MCTS agents of equal strength against our AlphaZero agent. For each match, a total of 6 games is played between the same opponents - one game for each permutation of players to break any advantages from going first, second, or third. Figure \ref{fig:ttm_strength} plots the scores of AlphaZero against the scores of MCTS for each match. We find AlphaZero convincingly defeats MCTS agents that have few rollouts, but score starts to converge as MCTS strength increases.

\paragraph{Does the agent outperform a MCTS given the same number of rollouts?} A control MCTS agent \textit{given the same number of rollouts as AlphaZero} (50 rollouts) is \textit{also} played against MCTS opponents of increasing strength. The difference in points between the control and its opponents is plotted alongside the difference in points between AlphaZero and its opponents (figure \ref{fig:ttm_control}). We find AlphaZero always performs better than the control MCTS when playing against the same opponents.

\begin{figure}[h]
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
  \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{ttm_strength.png}
    \caption{AlphaZero and opponent scores accumulated over six games as opponent rollouts increase. AlphaZero's rollouts remain fixed at 50, while its MCTS opponents use an increasing number of rollouts. The two MCTS agents have identical performance across each match.}
    \label{fig:ttm_strength}
  \end{subfigure}\hfill
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
  \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{ttm_control.png}
    \caption{Score difference as opponent rollouts increase for AlphaZero and a control MCTS using the same number of rollouts. Score difference is the difference between our score and the opponent's score. Score differences less than 0 indicate more games lost than won, score differences greater than 0 indicate more games won than lost, and score differences of 0 indicate equal wins and losses.}
    \label{fig:ttm_control}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption{Tic-Tac-Mo experiments againsts MCTS opponents of increasing strength.}
\end{figure}

\paragraph{Does the agent outperform a human?} We had several graduate students play Tic-Tac-Mo against two AlphaZero agents (table \ref{ttm-humans}). We described the game to this small group of students and gave them a chance to practice before having each student play 6 games against AlphaZero opponents (order of players was permuted each round). For these AlphaZero agents, we increased their rollouts to 500 - if the learned heuristic function is general enough, it should scale given more search time and develop extremely strong strategies. In total, AlphaZero tied 42\% of the games and won 58\% of the games as shown in table \ref{ttm-humans}. \\

\begin{table}[h]
  \caption{Summary of human performance against AlphaZero, Tic-Tac-Mo.}
  \label{ttm-humans}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{llll}
    \toprule
    \cmidrule(r){1-3}
    Human & Wins & Ties & Losses \\
    \midrule
     Human 1   & 0 & 1 & 5\\
     Human 2   & 0 & 4 & 2\\
     Human 3   & 0 & 3 & 3\\
     Human 4   & 0 & 2 & 4\\
     \midrule
     Totals & 0 & 10 & 14 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\paragraph{Results.}
Multiplayer AlphaZero for Tic-Tac-Mo suffered no defeats against computer or human opponents. The decreasing network loss function is an indication that the network trained successfully, continually improving its estimates of policy and value while incorporating new experience. With just 50 rollouts, AlphaZero has equivalent performance to at least a 3000-rollout MCTS - and can pick a move in a fraction of the time. Our control experiment indicates that the learned heuristic is necessary and useful, leading us to believe our multiplayer AlphaZero algorithm successfully encoded knowledge of the game into its heuristic, creating a powerful Tic-Tac-Mo agent.

\subsection{Multiplayer Connect 4}
Our multiplayer Connect 4 game dubbed ``Connect 3x3'' adds an additional player to the game and changes the win condition to 3-in-a-row instead of 4-in-a-row. The size of the board remains 6x7. We believe Connect 3x3 to be a harder game to learn than Tic-Tac-Mo, as games can last up to 42 turns as opposed to 15, so the game tree is much deeper. Players receive a score of 1 for a win, 0 for a tie, and -1 for a loss. The state representation of the board fed into the neural network is depicted in figure \ref{fig:c3_state}. We trained the algorithm by having it play Connect 3x3 against itself for about 18 hours.

\paragraph{Does the neural network successfully converge?}
The loss curve for the network is shown in figure \ref{fig:c3_loss}. Error does not steadily decrease over time but remains relatively stable.

\begin{figure}[h]
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
  \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{c3_state.png}
    \caption{The state representation of a Connect 3x3 board passed into the neural network. Size is 6x7x6. Each player owns one "piece location" plane and "turn indicator" plane.}
    \label{fig:c3_state}
  \end{subfigure}\hfill
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
  \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{c3_loss.png}
    \caption{The loss of our SENet is stable.}
    \label{fig:c3_loss}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption{State representation and loss curve for Connect 3x3.}
\end{figure}

\paragraph{Does the agent outperform a MCTS given more rollouts (up to a point)?}
We run the same experiment as described in Tic-Tac-Mo, but now for Connect 3x3 (figure \ref{fig:c3_strength}). Like with Tic-Tac-Mo, AlphaZero ties or outperforms each MCTS opponent. Unlike Tic-Tac-Mo, we do not see a converging score gap between MCTS and AlphaZero - instead score appears to oscillate as MCTS increases in strength.

\paragraph{Does the agent outperform a MCTS given the same number of rollouts?} We again run a control MCTS agent and compare it to our AlphaZero agent (figure \ref{fig:c3_control}). From these results, we see that the control is mostly losing to stronger MCTS agents while AlphaZero maintains a non-negative score difference. In general, AlphaZero outperforms the control, however there is one blip where the control outperforms AlphaZero.

\begin{figure}[h]
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
  \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{c3_strength.png}
    \caption{AlphaZero and opponent scores over six games as opponent rollouts increase.}
    \label{fig:c3_strength}
  \end{subfigure}\hfill
  \begin{subfigure}[t]{.45\textwidth}
  \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{c3_control.png}
    \caption{Score difference as opponent rollouts increase for AlphaZero and a control.}
    \label{fig:c3_control}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption{Connect 3x3 experiments againsts MCTS opponents of increasing strength.}
\end{figure}

\paragraph{Does the agent outperform a human?} Finally, we had the same group of graduate students now play against two Connect 3x3 AlphaZero agents (table \ref{c3-humans}). In total, AlphaZero won 79\% of the games and lost 21\% of the games.  \\

\begin{table}[h!]
  \caption{Summary of human performance against AlphaZero, Connect 3x3.}
  \label{c3-humans}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{llll}
    \toprule
    \cmidrule(r){1-3}
    Human & Wins & Ties & Losses \\
    \midrule
     Human 1   & 0 & 0 & 6\\
     Human 2   & 0 & 0 & 6\\
     Human 3   & 3 & 0 & 3\\
     Human 4   & 2 & 0 & 4\\
     \midrule
     Totals & 5 & 0 & 19 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\paragraph{Results.}

Multiplayer AlphaZero trains a strong agent to play Connect 3x3 which wins or ties most games. However, unlike with Tic-Tac-Mo, we do have humans who are able to defeat AlphaZero, and a case where the control MCTS agents outperforms AlphaZero. Both of these measurements indicate that AlphaZero did \textit{not} perfect its neural network board-quality heuristic and master Connect 3x3.

But the learned heuristic, though fallible, still successfully encodes knowledge of the game into search. With just 50 rollouts, AlphaZero meets or beats its MCTS opponents, and typically outperforms a control MCTS agent given the same number of rollouts. And though the loss function is not decreasing, it does not diverge either. Since training data is continually added to the replay buffer, this indicates knowledge is being incorporated and generalized into the network.

Our results from Connect 3x3 indicate that the overall multiplayer AlphaZero strategy works, but more hyperparameter tuning is needed to truly master complex games.

\section{Conclusion}

In this paper we propose a novel modification to the AlphaZero algorithm that enables it to train multiplayer agents through self-play. Our experiments show that AlphaZero can be successfully applied to multiplayer games, but more careful hyperparameter tuning is necessary to achieve stronger agents. We define measures of success that can be applied in future AlphaZero research, and create an independent AlphaZero reimplementation with multiplayer modification. Given more computation, future work should include experiments on games with more players, more board states, and more actions. Other research directions might investigate the effectiveness of AlphaZero when other constraints such as \textit{zero-sum game}, \textit{deterministic game}, or \textit{perfect information game} are lifted.

\bibliographystyle{plainnat}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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