Syria Attack

[KeithE]

At first glance this appears to be proportional and wise. And I hope that not hitting the runways at the Tomahawked air base was deliberate so that humanitarian aid can be flown in. That would show class on the part of Trump and the US.

I note that it was apparently unilateral (w/o consultation with other countries) and w/o Congressional authorization. And I hope and pray, reprisals do not start snowballing. This is complicated. My gut says Assad may have started WWIII.

[Haruo]

I sincerely hope not.

I'm hearing the runways were spared because they're so easy to repair.

[Dave Roberts]

My concern and prayer in and for this is that there will not be too many unintended consequences. It seems our Mideast policy, regardless of who is in the WH, always seems caught up in unintended consequences.

[Sandy]

This kind of attack is more for the benefit of our collective conscience as a nation, and for those who have the decision-making authority, including the President. Perhaps there's a little bit of political pressure there, too. Does it leave an impression, send a message, or make a difference to Assad? Probably not.

I wouldn't dismiss the political motivation. With Republicans on congressional intelligence committees openly discussing how bad things are looking for the buffoon administration in the investigation into Russian hacking, a nice, nighttime tomahawk attack, with missile trails heading into the sky over the eastern Mediterranean does have a distracting effect. I remember when the Republicans howled and hollered about Clinton doing exactly the same thing to targets in Afghanistan during the Lewinski investigation, even labelling them "Monica Missiles." And it's just a bit inconsistent to weep over the dead children and suffering Syrians in the videos but be doing everything in your power to prevent them from seeking safety and refuge in your own country.

President Obama was perhaps the first President in US history to exhibit any kind of understanding or grasp of the fact that US involvement in the Middle East always produces unintended, unanticipated consequences that don't turn out as intended. And even he didn't always act as if he completely understood. Bush's own advisors, and the senior officials from his Dad's administration warned him about going into Iraq, essentially without justification on a false pretext, and taking out Saddam Hussein. The direct, end result of the creation of that vacuum of power was the rise of ISIS. The complications in Syria are magnified by the long term presence and interference of Russia. Taking out Assad would create a whole host of unpredictable consequences, and it would confirm the impression that the US is an aggressor bent on regime change to control the world. That isn't who we are, or at least, not who we say we are. And it's pretty frightening that while this is happening, we are stuck with a completely incompetent, inept, stupid, and insane President with an advisory staff of nuts, kooks and crooks.

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

[Jim]

Notwithstanding the humanitarian aspect, the bombing of Syria was a mistake, an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation, an act of war. It is not to be compared to U.S. bombing of ISIS forces in Syria, since ISIS is virtually recognized as a state, though not officially, and does represent a well-declared threat by al Baghdadi to the Great Satan. The correct comparison is the unprovoked attack by the U.S. on Libya in 2011, a flagrant violation of both the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Act. Congress was never consulted as required by the Constitution and there was no emergency. The most immediate result of the Syria-bombing is a renewed effort currently by Syria/Russia to bomb even more innocent Syrians in their habitats, if any. Trump has insisted that the U.S. is not the world-policeman and should stay out of civil wars anywhere. He actually replaced Assad/Putin as the determiner of which Syrians should live or die, since no missile or bomb is guaranteed not to hit civilians. In fact, civilian deaths are a given when these long-range weapons are used. The lowest estimate of civilian deaths in Libya is 30,000, blood on U.S. hands for no reason at all. Russia is guaranteeing no regime-change in Syria and Trump would be a fool to dispute that. Obama (red-line foolishness) handed the Syrian matter over to Putin on the simple and quite unbelievable promise that Assad would surrender his WMD, as Qaddafi actually did, making George Bush the new caretaker of them after he saw what happened in Iraq. Beginning WWIII is too horrible to consider but the atmosphere is loaded with tension among nations equipped to wipe out millions in a day.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

It doesn't seem that the attack did much, other than blow some holes in the desert, and spend $25 million in tax dollars. This was an intentional diversion of news coverage. Trump has taken a hard, inhumane, and completely uninformed, line against any kind of intervention in Syria, including inventing straw man arguments during the campaign. How does one video change his entire position and policy? There are hundreds of others, worse than this one, that didn't move him. If he really was interested, and moved, then why not appropriate some relief for those already pushed out, and open the door to those who have already been vetted, and waiting, to get into the US?

[Sandy]

https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... en/385410/

A little history. A lot would be different if the King-Crane commission had worked, instead of Britain and France getting control for the sake of their declining empires.

[KeithE]