Russian DuckDuckGo vs. US Google. Same search entry.
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And it’s on…
John Bolton. What did that take, two weeks?
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He’s ahead of schedule. We’re only on day 5.
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“No matter whom you vote for, you always wind up getting John McCain.”-Tom Woods
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So far appears to be limited strikes to Research facilities and Chem weapons depos.
Not sure if someone already answered this, but I heard somebody say that Assad felt emboldened once Trump stated that U.S. troops would be leaving Syria. I guess he figured that if the U.S. was going to pull out, he could do what he wanted to do. A whole big mess now though
Do love me some Tom Woods
I’m just glad the only country to use nuclear weapons against people is here to make sure other countries don’t use chemical weapons. A glass house is the best place from which to throw rocks, you know.
Just another example of how “disconnected” and uninformed Trump seems to be.
After the Airstrikes…he thanks the Coalition…then boldly states:
_“…Mission Accomplished!..”
Is there any doubt in anybody’s mind that Mattis and the Joint Chiefs cringed?
(I sure did…)
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Let’s hope he means it and pulls all U.S. forces out of Syria(and the entire Middle East).
What’s mystifying to me is that nobody in the US Administration has a grand strategic objective in mind.
Ok, so after another round of intense Saudi lobbying from PR-savvy MBS and massive arms purchases the official stance is that a Shiite-controlled Fertile Crescent is somehow bad (these attacks nothing to do with chemical weapons, this is the fight for the Fertile Crescent).
So Shiites are out, Christians, Alawites and Druze are collateral damage that will be pushed into the sea - literally, the way Turks corralled Asia Minor Greeks into the sea to drown in 1923 and as Arabs wanted to push the Jews in 1948 - the obvious question is who from the Sunnites will run the show afterwards?
Up north Turks are best buddies with AQ and down south you’ve got JaI/JaT who had a revolving door policy with ISIS.
There’s nobody else to pick from the Sunni side. Nobody. So you’re giving Syria to white Toyota driving headchoppers?
What’s surprising for me is that Netanyahu’s government is ok with that. They consciously chose as a preferable scenario the one where AQ/ISIS control Syria instead of Shiites.
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That’s not as surprising as the fact that the United States won’t get the hell out of that shit hole over there. Just let the people that have been fighting forever continue fighting on their own. Why does the U.S. get involved? I guess an empire has to overextend before collapsing, so there’s that.
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Does this really surprise you? There are no positive grand objectives that can be pursued so what strategy could be made up?
These strikes actually seemed to be only about chemical weapons, note that contrary to Syrian/Iranian and Russian fears these strikes didn’t degrade regime forces in any significant manner. They’re already celebrating it as a “victory”
This surprises you…? AQ/ISIS may be the ones targeting the West but it’s Iran/Hezbollah/Hamas that has been targeting Israel.
I’ve been perusing video and photos of the air strike. The thing is, when I see bombed out buildings in the middle east I can never tell if that just happened or if they just walked up to a random bombed out building and said “See!”.
I’d rather see missile or drone footage.
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The Russians aren’t going anywhere and either are their allies. I would not expect Trump to target the Russian forces. Unless we do and drive them out, the situation is not going to change. And there’s 0 chance of that happening. It’s all a show. It’s Trump vs Putin, each fighting for respect on the world stage.
US grand objectives - no. It seems that Saudi objectives are being carried out.
It should be the other way around - local proxies fighting to fulfill grand designs of superpowers, not a world’s premier superpower fighting on behalf of an early medieval theocracy.
Incidentally, I have a lot of Saudis on Facebook (consequence of having worked there) and they’re all giddy how this is a revenge for Sabra/Chatila and Mount Lebanon - they’re positioning this as a strike against Arab Christians first and foremost and then takfir Shiites.
Some are bragging how their “white slaves” will destroy Shiite takfirs, regurgitating an old Saudi phrase from the First Gulf War used by then King Fahd to describe US armed forces.
Well, what else are they’re going to do? I don’t understand the nominal rationale for these strikes - barrel bombs are a-ok on civilians, but chlorine is a big no-no? They could have thought of something that made more sense…
In my opinion this will be remembered as the greatest foreign policy blunder of Israel in its history.
Shortsightedly allying oneself to a country with ISIS-compliant “kill the Jews” school textbooks.
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Again, these strikes did not target Assads conventional forces, just chemical weapons. Your Saudi “friends” are mistaken (like most on social media right now…) if they think this means the West is taking out the Assad regime. More to your point the unofficial US policy seems to be to let Assad stay until a better option presents itself.
There are strong compelling reasons to prohibit WMD use, it’s not just a humanitarian concern. The repercussions of unfettered chemical weapons use quickly spirals into regional propagation and use of chemical, biological, and ultimately nuclear weapons.
Given the choice of siding with one nation whos head of state calls for your people to be driven into the sea, and another who’s head of state recently went on record saying Israelis have a right to Israel who would you choose? For a comparison I don’t think any historians view the Wests alliance with Stalin’s Russia against Germany as a near sighted mistake.
Because that will keep the region uneducated, controlled by religious mumbo jumbo, in need of “strong” leadership (i.e., they will keep buying arms to be able to control their own people), and backwards. In other words, it will make sure that the region will never have democratic governments and any semblance of liberalism. This doesn’t just benefit the Saudis but the West as well.
If the US and Europe actually had the integrity to uphold their principles, they would have allowed the Kurds to have their own state. But no, we let a people who look like hippies when compared to the Sunnis be at the mercy of extremist assholes.