Syria attack: John McCain says Trump's troops talk 'emboldened' Assad

That's exactly where I'm at on it. I mean, even if it doesn't pass the smell test, that doesn't mean that Assad didn't do it, it just means that if he did it was really really really really really stupid of him.

 

The chemical weapons deal with Russia is looking worse and worse. How could we have been so foolish?

All attacks from 2014 - post chemical weapons deal - were perpetrated by the Syrian government.

 

LOL

 

Of course they were warned. Bombing "Russian" stuff would be bad, even if it's on the same bases and airfields as the stuff we wanted to bomb in the first place. Naturally, I'm sure they didn't say anything in advance to their good friends in the Assad Regime, but still, we had to tell them.

 

So he's in effect warning the people he's going to bomb before he bombs them such as to limit the damage of bombing a sovereign nation without provocation. That'll teach them.

 

Pretty much. Still better than bombing the Russians, 'cause who knows what would happen after that.

 

I posted this a couple days ago.

 

Symbolism. Pretty useless and I’m cool with that.

 

Because as you said, no one care enough. The US and her allies aren’t about to go full Iraq again anytime soon.

 

Yeah, the alternatives are not so pretty:

 

Time to impeach The Orange Comb-Over. This action is unconstitutional plain and simple.

What a complete and utter fraud this entire bloodthirsty swamp of a sham government we have in here in this country. The system is completely, utterly un-hinged, broken, and out of control. And the cheerleading, despicable war-loving media machine (CNN, MSNBC, etc.) is in full propaganda mode. One minute The Donald is a demented buffoon, but drop some bombs and he's now Winston Churchill.

21 trillion in debt and here we are dropping more and more bombs. And for f-ing what? To make us safer, more prosperous? To try and start WWIII? Have we not learned our lesson with Iraq, Libya on how this ends up? Seriously? Oh, but we must stop the monsters they say - so tell me, how many bombs have we dropped on the House of Saud for their horrific, genocidal campaign in Yemen? 10,000 civilians murdered there. Are they not monsters because their missiles and bombs are somehow "civilized"?

It is unbelievable that anyone who has any memory of how the last 15 years have gone for us in the Middle East would find this anywhere remotely sane.

 

Because we have no leverage and no real understanding of the Syrian conflict. I wouldn't even call it a bad deal so much as a toothlesw one; although I agree that the Obama strategy towards Syria was ineffective and a bit naive about our ability to influence events on the ground.

Has anyone here read Destroying a Nation by Nikolas Van Dam? He does a good job of spelling out Western failures towards Syria.

 

You guys all know I'm not a Trump guy at all. Can't stand the guy. Wish he'd resign or move to Siberia.

But I have zero problems with letting guys like Assad know there are consequences when you use chemical weapons on civilians.

The MAGA guys won't care, because whatever he does is correct..but this is the kind of thing they wouldn't support otherwise.

 

I tend to agree with this, but bombing the airfields might not be the most effective and smart way of punishing Assad and Putin. It’s public grandstanding and putting on a reality tv version of a military strike. It’s all for show.

But yeah Assad and Putin need to pay a price for using chemical weapons and killing thousands of innocent people for sure. We certainly look back in history and think positive about fighting against genocide and tyranny.

It’s not easy but it’s just going to take months of meetings and dealing with NATO, UN, and diplomacy to be able to punish Putin and Assad through economics by being isolated from the rest of the world. We need actual policy. Putin’s power only exist as far as he can keep the US divided from the rest of the world with weak diplomatic efforts. The one good thing about the strikes are the joint efforts with the UK and France. I’m heartened that they still will support us even with a pathetic excuse for a president. As long as our allies stay united it will box in Putin.

And don’t announce to the Fing world that we are pulling troops out of Syria like an idiot. This chemical attack probably doesn’t happen without agent orange blabbing his mouth about pulling out.

 

I understand why we launched a strike, and I would expect HRC to have done the same. I fear the strike will do little to discourage Assad to stop dropping chemical weapons on his people.

Also, does anyone else feel this is all eerily like the run up to WWI? Elaborate alliances, assumptions of superiority and a powder keg ready to blow.

 

Why is assad using chemical weapons. I thought he was winning the war against the rebels?

 

It makes absolutely no sense, but maybe he's just a prick like that. I dunno.

 

What I heard today was someone saying they had been having trouble breaching into certain rebel-held neighborhoods and that the chemical weapons enabled them to progress into one of those neighborhoods. The guy was saying that they were very successfully used by Assad in terms of accomplishing his military goals and strategy.

Remember this whole civil war started because Assad wouldn't let civilians protest peacefully. He had his troops open fire on them and murder them at their demonstrations. That didn't make sense either, but it is Assad so who knows?

 

More credence for the dog wag story...