fallout shelter time? is syria this centuries boer and spanish civil war, the precursor to the big one?
I guess thatâs the end of the pretend Trump Putin alliance. Had to be done, assuming Assad was responsible his air force shouldnât be allowed in the skies.
Strong, decisive leadership from President Trump.
Reports say trump informed Putin before the attack as Russia was also using parts of the airbase. These strikes are a big deal.
Great Leadership
Some Democrats making right fuckwits of themselves crying that there should have been congressional approval for such a strike. Apart from the fact that congressional approval wasnât necessary, the strike will more than likely have universal approval in America so they just look like the whinging losers they are.
If the strike has knocked out a significant portion of Assadâs air capability, then itâs a good thing in the short run. But the problem here are the other actors involved.
There are potentially Russian troops / personnel along with Hezbollah and Iraqi forces on that base and if any of them have been killed, then that opens a whole new can of worms.
China too has been very active in Syria, with huge business opportunities for rebuilding. There are Chinese companies with employees on the ground working in Syria now.
The US has a few hundred Marines and âadvisorsâ training rebels in advance of the surge on Raqqa, so the danger theyâre in has increased. Thereâs also Iran to be taken into consideration.
The biggest thing here is the Ruskie reaction. This could take many forms, an escalation of the war, âaccidentalâ incursions across borders or âaccidentalâ bombings of US or other troops.
But most likely, whatever dirt Putin has on Trump will probably start to be leaked soon.
Whatâs the endgame here though? You canât get rid of the Assad regime unless the Ruskies give that their blessing and evacuate their troops from Syria, which is highly unlikely. Even if there was regime change (which is a pipe dream) who fills the vacuum? Because thatâs gone so well in the rest of the middle east.
Weâll continue to see dead babies and the rest of the world essentially powerless, talking big, but doing fuck all and in reality, unable to do anything worthwhile. Unless the people of Syria and by that I mean Assad supporters, finally rise up, but then what? Itâs fubar the whole thing, an Alawite minority, supported by Sunniâs who take up the rank and file of the army, supported by the Shiâte regime in Iran.
Bannon was dumped off the NSC the day before this happened. Was he
A the voice of reason or
B a Russian spy?
It wasnât unforeseeable that an attack such as the one that occurred in Syria the other day would happen. Yet when it does, everything Trump has said for the last four years is immediately thrown out the window on a whim. It proves how much heâd thought through his previous position - ie. not at all. But we all knew that already.
The Pentagon is saying the Russians, and presumably by extension the Syrians, were warned that the attack was imminent. Yet Tillerson, who is only the US Foreign Minister, is saying the Russians werenât warned. This shows the chaos as regards decision making and co-ordination of knowledge at the heart of the Trump administration.
The US attack doesnât amount to very much in terms of damaging Assad. It may persuade him not to launch another chemical weapons attack, but it isnât going to stop conventional slaughter.
Attacking Syria serves as a handy diversion away from Trumpâs domestic problems, which is more than likely the main reason heâs suddenly become so enthusiastic about it. It particularly helps his optics over his connections with Russia, and is clearly a strtegic decision on his part in this regard.
And then thereâs the whole Billy Big Balls act, which is very important to him, and which led to the failed Yemen raid within a few days of him taking office.
The danger is that once you dip your toe in the water so publicly as regards Syria, itâs difficult not to then put your foot in it. The US has already been putting more troops into Syria over the last month.
Thereâs definitely a power struggle within the Trump administration and the neo-conservatives appear to be turning the screw.
The business of America is war, you have to get involved in a few skirmishes to justify the spending and paint yourself as a warrior for justice in order to keep public opinion behind ever increasing military spending. The war mongers might have been leery of a complete unknown quantity like trump getting in over a solid hawk like Hillary, but they are breathing easy now as he toeing the line, as all he wants is to get rich, he has no other ideology, Iâm sure he is getting handsomely so on the qt. Fox are now in a total love in with him the past few weeks. Trumps domestic problems, twitter outbursts and utterances are just a smoke screen, he can implement whatever schemes he wants while the left media obsesses over another of his gaffes.
Russia has played a master defensive game it must be said, outright western aggression in the ukraine and a massive build up of armies in Baltic states are a direct threat to it, with huge historical echoes. What does putin do? help, even in as minor a way as through media or wikileaks to destabilize europe with brexit and destabilize the states into a completely divided country with the election.
It wasnât unforeseeable as it had already happened under Obama, who did the grand total of sweet fuck all about it.
Everyone was up in arms about the chemical attack, and rightly so, Trump has taken action yet you want to condemn him anyway.
Look heâs a simpleton and a lunatic but he isnât in the wrong here. If it deters Assad from gassing his citizens again isnât that a job well done?
Has it been established that Assad fired the gas?
Nope. But who else would have war planes i suppose
They are fairly confident alright. He has the planes & the gas.
I didnât express an opinion about whether I thought the attack was right or wrong and nor did I condemn him for launching it, but sure continue on with your own made up narrative.
How much do you think heâs thought this attack through?
If heâs willing to do a complete about turn on policy due to an entirely foreseeable event, what makes you think he wonât get involved more deeply in Syria on further whims?
Russian troops on the ground were warned using the established protocols. Putin and /or the Kremlin werenât informed .
Russiaâs increasing bellicosity over the last four years is mainly to distract from the fact that their economy is going tits up because its a kleptocracy.
The tactics Russia has been using in the West recently are the same ones it has been using on its own people for years.
War is a tried and tested means of making people forget economic hardship.
There was a chap on the radio this morning and he stated 400k-500k people have died in this conflict, only 1,000 were as a result of chemical weapons. He questioned how the air base attack helped as it would have minimal impact on Assad and probably made things worse as p!ssing off the Russians was going to result in more death.
In fairness you wouldnât know who or what to believe as regards Syria.
The Russians have never lied to us yet.