General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFFS, Tomahawk Missiles Hitting A Single Airfield Is NOT A WAR. It's Proportial Response
and Adam Schiff just said on Rachel Maddow said this airfield that was hit is where the chemical weapons originated.
Edit- Richard Engel on Maddow said this was the MINIMAL reaction to the use of chemical weapons. A slap on the wrist.
Russians warned prior to this.
SCantiGOP
(13,856 posts)Also proportional?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)But there can be no tolerance for the use of chemical weapons.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,705 posts)But I am not going to have a knee jerk reaction to this move. I will evaluate the information and render a sober judgment. At this moment I don't know how I feel.
Docreed2003
(16,817 posts)grantcart
(53,061 posts)exboyfil
(17,857 posts)The crap would hit the fan.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)exboyfil
(17,857 posts)Then what is the point of shooting $100M of missiles.
NutmegYankee
(16,177 posts)atreides1
(16,046 posts)But equipment and personnel can be moved to another base! Maybe even a base that has a Russian presence, this time!
NutmegYankee
(16,177 posts)And tomorrow a crew will go out with a bulldozer and fill them in and then put down new asphalt.
SCantiGOP
(13,856 posts)Will have successfully diverted attention from the Russian election scandal.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)womanofthehills
(8,580 posts)and a lot of asphalt was bombed. The point of shooting the missiles is getting Trump's rating to go up.
paul mcleary?Verified account @paulmcleary
Defense official: there were Russians stationed at the base the US struck in Syria tonight, but US informed them beforehand @ForeignPolicy
Malcolm Nance?Verified account @MalcolmNance
Malcolm Nance Retweeted Max Boot
I believe Trump's Syria 180 comes fm Mattis/McMaster. Bannon needs an attack to shore up polls. Prepare for a B2 strike on Syria in 3..2..1
kacekwl
(6,994 posts)NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)Gen McCafferty said this.
Either way, a bombing isn't a great thing to start
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)NutmegYankee
(16,177 posts)Scrambling jets for aerial combat is part of any nations air defenses. In the USA, it's our main defense as we don't have a lot of AA batteries given that our long-range radar and oceans give us time to get forces into the air.
caraher
(6,276 posts)Air forces like Syria's have fared quite badly against the likes of the US and Israel. More importantly, they do have a lot more advanced surface-to-air missiles and rely upon them accordingly.
I think the military rationale for striking an airfield would be to deny Assad the capability to use aircraft to bomb (including chemical weapons) his foes. If this was a prelude to taking out air defenses, the targets would have been more varied, both geographically and in terms of target types (radars, missile batteries, control centers)
womanofthehills
(8,580 posts)Doesn't Syria have 6 or more air fields? Plenty of time to move the planes - plenty of time to evacuate.
bigtree
(85,917 posts)...where's the threat to our national security?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)I'm sure, as someone else noted, that the Russians were moved safely away first.
And probably the Syrians, and the chemical weapons.
atreides1
(16,046 posts)From what I can see there was no threat to US national security! And if anyone believes that Trump did this because he was "shocked" by a chemical attack on the very same people that he's been trying to prevent from entering the US, then those people are almost as dumb as he is!!!
the only threat to our security is don the con.
Jonny Appleseed
(960 posts)On moving all ruskie assets away from the targets.
Mark my words.
exboyfil
(17,857 posts)HoneyBadger
(2,297 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)HoneyBadger
(2,297 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)Sgent
(5,857 posts)he has access to and is deemed need to know of all of american intelligence operations. One of 9 people to have that level of clearance.
HoneyBadger
(2,297 posts)Does he appear to be in the loop?
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)...weeks later
Idoru
(167 posts)Considering.
It will probably just be a symbolic one off. But who knows? We are not dealing with anything close to a normal administration, here.
As always, stay tuned.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)bdamomma
(63,655 posts)just leave it alone.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)DURHAM D
(32,595 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)Boomerproud
(7,889 posts)Every politico and every mediacritter is parroting the same line in the last 1/2 hour="Trump was so moved by the photos of suffering children that he HAD to do something." Marco Rubio was particularly vomit-inducing.
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)So, yeah.
He has other motives.
TXCritter
(344 posts)Tell that to the dead and wounded civilians.
Tell that to the veterans who will lose arms, legs and sanity in this "non-war".
Your argument is a legal technicality that means nothing to the dead, injured and suffering.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)TXCritter
(344 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)The Russians informed Assad. Aircraft were gone too. The purpose was to render the airfield unusable.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)BeyondGeography
(39,283 posts)womanofthehills
(8,580 posts)Louise Mensch?Verified account @LouiseMensch 1h1 hour ago
The FSB agent (I believe) told me Russia's plan was to sacrifice Assad for a gullible US public but keep the regime and its warm water port.
Adin of Crimea? @RealCrimea
Replying to @LouiseMensch
Russian port and airbase are all that Putin is concerned with. Handing over regime to Assad sibling or relative changes nothing.
atreides1
(16,046 posts)To what attack on the US or any of its allies, was this a proportional response to?
Do you believe that Trump actually did this for anything more then just to stop the reports on his collusion with the Russians?
His EPA director just back tracked on pesticides that cause brain damage to children, and is considering lowering the regulations on lead based paint!
Maybe they should fire 100 cruise missiles at the EPA building, because the decisions coming from Pruitt is going to make children suffer and die!!!
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)and UN resolutions using chemical weapons.
My OP didn't say I agreed with tonight's action.
I am simply stating facts in the face of hyperbole.
sakabatou
(42,083 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)greytdemocrat
(3,299 posts)Attacking you is stupid. You presented the
facts clearly like I would do.
tammywammy
(26,582 posts)Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)I think O would have done the same thing.
Sometimes crimes are so repugnant that they demand a response.
bluedigger
(17,077 posts)It's pretty much in Syria's court whether or not they want to call it a cassus belli or not, but generally when one country's military attacks another's, that would qualify. Provocation is just justification for taking action, not absolvance for an act of aggression. Winners decide who provoked who, and write the history accordingly.
WoonTars
(694 posts)First I'm hearing of it...
Daemonaquila
(1,712 posts)If the US bombed sovereign nations for the atrocities they committed against their own people, not the U.S., a small list of nations with massive craters from US missiles would include:
Israel
Rwanda
Bosnia
Ethiopia
Sudan
.
.
.
and the list goes on to include Russia and China and all SORTS of others.
No, it is NOT "proportional" to say, "Your use of weapons offends our sensibilities, so we are going to bomb you even though we are not in actual conflict with each other." This is particularly the case when we are actually on the ground in that country and COOPERATING with the national leader we just bombed. It is double the case when we are on the ground, with some tension, with another superpower that is wholly backing the guy we just bombed. It is triply the case when the leader of that other superpower has an itchy trigger finger and has been known to annex other nations and strut into wars like it's a Thursday.
The atrocity in Syria is unforgiveable. So is the U.S.'s atrocity against the Syrian people - refusing their refugees help and agitating for others to refuse them. The U.S. has absolutely no fiber of moral ground in bombing Syria.
The real reason was simple. SCROTUS is upset over an internal fight between Bannon and Kushner, and the long knives in his office, and he's crazed by the ethics investigation into his favorite stoogie-woogie who had to step down from his pre-ordained set of hearings and conclusions. He had Xi at dinner, and he had to wave his dick around in front of the leader of China. That. Is. All.
"Proportional response" my left butt cheek.