S1E3 · A Proportional Response

Complete story — includes the ending

President Bartlet seeks vengeance after Syrian operatives shot down a transport aircraft carrying his personal physician and 57 other US military health care workers. The Joint Chiefs of Staff propose a proportional response to the attack, which involves air strikes against three low-level targets in Syria as well as one against the Syrian intelligence agency headquarters. However, President Bartlet wants a stronger response, so the Joint Chiefs draft a plan to attack a much more prominent target: the international airport in Damascus. The subtext of the story involves the President's unease around the Joint Chiefs and his worries about their respecting him having never served in the armed forces. Leo talks with Admiral Percy Fitzwallace, USN, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who says that the President is doing fine. Fitzwallace later tells the President that his desired response is disproportionate, saying that he will have "doled out five thousand dollars worth of punishment for a fifty buck crime". Leo confronts President Bartlet about the disproportionate response and says that he will stand up against him if he continues to insist on it. The President confesses that he has personalized the attack because his physician, a good man with a newborn daughter, was among the victims. He then authorizes the proportional response and gives a televised speech, in which he explains the situation to the American people. Meanwhile, C.J. talks reporter Danny Concannon out of writing a story about Sam's relationship with the prostitute, and Charlie Young applies for a messenger job at the White House but impresses Josh so much that he insists on hiring Charlie as the President's personal aide and body man.