So @POTUS cares enough about the Syrian people to launch 50 Tomahawks but not enough to let the victims of Assad find refuge & freedom here.
— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) April 7, 2017
Q: Should Assad leave power?
Trump: “…he's there and I guess he's running things, so something should happen.” pic.twitter.com/Bh4pLlUXo6
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) April 6, 2017
Trump on whether Syrian children can seek refuge in US, 2/16: "I can look at their face & say you can’t come here." https://t.co/gYpYcs8UNC
— Adam Jentleson (@AJentleson) April 7, 2017
If Repubs support AUMF for Trump in Syria they will have admitted that they let hundreds of thousands die to score political points.
— Kevin Phelan (@KPhed) April 6, 2017
well, also racism https://t.co/0WsOkECKax
— Father Guido SarDShK (@ZeddRebel) April 6, 2017
@KPhed @2Liberal4u AKA “The Tom Cotton Two-Step.”
— Elian Gonzalez (@eliangonzal) April 7, 2017
7. Pentagon won this round but no reason to think they'll always win. Depends on who has Kushner's ear, Trump's ear & Trump's mood.
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) April 7, 2017
9. Bottom line: Trump's unfitness for office has created a vacuum, filled by competing factions leading to chaos.
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) April 7, 2017
We reached the "my domestic agenda will never make me popular so I guess I'll go to war" point of the Trump presidency in record time.
— Zach Heltzel (@zachheltzel) April 7, 2017
Before you think "this war is a distraction from [whatever]," maybe consider that this is just an incompetent guy bad at two things at once.
— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) April 7, 2017
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
opiejeanne
Personally, I think Ivanka saw the very graphic videos of children choking to death and said something to her dad.
I was surprised that Nikki Haley stood up in the UN and yelled about this atrocity; I figure she’ll be leaving soon to spend more time with her family.
(Jeet Heer has Kushner in Iran when it should be Iraq.)
opiejeanne
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Yeah, he was just waiting for the provocation to involve us in a shooting war. I thought it would be Iran that would get his special attention, though.
raven
From Pat Lang
MattF
My guess is that Trump bombed the Syrian government forces to make the Russians back off. The Russians have probably been trying to get Trump to support Assad, and have ‘offered’ some ‘reasons’ that Trump finds threatening. This is a ‘No, and btw, threatening me is a bad idea.’ The basic concept comes from North Korea, IMO. It’s also a win for the Pentagon, which likes to fire missiles at stuff.
I know, it sounds too complicated for Trump, but otherwise it’s entirely out of character, so wtf?
Aimai
@MattF: no.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Count me in the “he’s bad at everything and everything he touches turns into shit” camp.
gene108
@MattF:
Not Trump, but higher ups in the Pentagon might’ve wanted to send a message, if your theory about Russia pressuring the US to support Assad is correct.
***********
Also, I know liberals are freaking out because Hillary wants(ed) air strikes, but she would have a coherent plan for doing this, such as degrading Assad’s ability to bomb civilians.
She is not the same as Trump, who has given no reason as to what he hopes to accomplish by bombing the airfield.
opiejeanne
@raven: I don’t know who Pat Lang is.
raven
@opiejeanne:
opiejeanne
@raven: This is pretty close to what Russia is claiming, that the rebels set off the poisonous gas themselves.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Trump’s numbers have been tumbling since day one with no end in sight. It’s been one disaster after another and the IC on his tail for colluding with the KGB.
He’s tried desperately to change the subject and throw people off the trail. With his back against the wall, he turned to killing brown people with rocket’s red glare.
Sad!
opiejeanne
@raven: Thanks. I went and found it for myself after I posted.
I totally misread his statement and thought the stuff was blown up 50 miles away, near Homs. It’s late and I can’t sleep because I’m too wound up tonight, but I also can’t read.
opiejeanne
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I saw some idiot on a Facebook page state that “we did it before and we’ll do it again!” in response to this being the 100th anniversary of our entry into WWI. I wasn’t sure if his statement was snark or pride so I asked him exactly what “we” did.
geg6
@raven:
Also saw a news report showing doctors gathering clothing from victims and preserving them as evidence to be tested. We will know if it was sarin or chlorine soon. If it wasn’t sarin, this is a total clusterfuck.
My suspicion is it’s the Iran war hawks trying to gin up a reason for Iran to start something with us. Just a feeling and I may be way off base.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@opiejeanne: With regards to Syria and the first war, pretty sure TE Lawrence and the Howeitat weren’t yanks
hellslittlestangel
Putin told Trump to make a show of independence. For added emphasis, while Trump announced the airstrikes, Putin drank a glass of water.
raven
@geg6: Whether or not it is sarin if Syria didn’t use it it’s a different ball game.
amk
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Yup, it’s all projection and lobbing a shiny object for the msm minions to take away the focus from his blatant treason. Yet another yemen fail.
opiejeanne
@geg6: Why would it matter which poison gas was used?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
I know this will come as a SHOCK, but finger-waging scold Wilmer has been completely silent on the entire subject.
Nobody can find him for comment. They may have to put him on a milk cartoon.
James E Powell
@opiejeanne:
Not sure,but I think Iran has greater capacity to respond. US targets since Vietnam have all been more or less unable to inflict serious harm on US.
James E Powell
@gene108:
It’s pretty clear what he wants from it. He wants to please his base – they love blowing shit up and killing brown people- and he wants his opponents to criticize the action so he can call them terrorist loving traitors. It might save that seat in Georgia.
Steeplejack (phone)
@opiejeanne:
If it’s not sarin, it may not belong to the Syrian government. It may have been released accidentally when the Syrians bombed a target with conventional weapons.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: He’s planning for his shit on the Democrats tour.
leeleeFL
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Well said.
Uncle Cosmo
@Steeplejack (phone): Pat Lang is quite correct that you would not send first responders into a situation where nerve agent has been released without full body protection including gloves & respirator (what the US armed forces used to call MOPP 4). According to the Wiki article, which cites a CDC publication from 2004,
There are lots of other chemicals that while toxic, aren’t in the same league as a chemical warfare agent, & don’t pose the same percutaneous hazard. And some of these come from unsuspected sources. When I was working on chem/bio defense under contract to the Army, I recall hearing that the largest known release of hydrogen cyanide into the atmosphere occurred at a carpet factory in Georgia, when the facility caught fire & the carpet material burned. Cyanide is a known hazard in common fires because so many common materials generate it when they burn–deaths from “smoke inhalation” may be due to HCN rather than CO.