It was all a setup

[pimpbot]

Putin and Trump are playing everyone for fools. Too much heat with the Russia investigations, nuclear option in the senate, etc. Putin orders up a chemical strike to enrage the world. Trump has an easy win. Heck we warned the Russian where we were going to strike!

Why would Assad use chemical weapons? He has no problem dropping bombs all day on people. The world hasn't really noticed.

An International Wag the Dog, and with our media and sheeple, it will work.

[HoneyBadger]

1. Are you calling it a false flag operation?

[pimpbot]

4. Maybe not the US response

Depends on who knows what. No doubt our military had strike plans drawn up for some time. They are just eager to engage. Heck maybe even Trump doesn't know and is just following the path Putin would expect. Putin created this situation to draw attention away from things that really matter, things that could get his puppet thrown out.

Who is going to talk about Russia/trump or McConnell/Nuclear tomorrow? Next week?

[FakeNoose]

27. I think you're right - Putin ordered this

Ivanka went to visit Putin's girlfriend a couple weeks ago, so that's when she got the orders.
It happened just before Ivanka moved into the White House, remember?

Pootie told Trump where to hit and what to do. He probably even wrote Trump's speech for him.
It all makes sense now.

[uppityperson]

35. Do you not understand the difference between false flag and wag the dog? Here...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag

The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that activities appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them.
(clip)

Proponents of political or religious ideologies will sometimes use false flag tactics. This can be done to discredit or implicate rival groups, create the appearance of enemies when none exist, or create the illusion of organized and directed persecution. This can be used to gain attention and sympathy from outsiders, in particular the media, or to convince others within the group that their beliefs are under attack and in need of protection.

https://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/wag+the+dog.html

To 'wag the dog' means to purposely divert attention from what would otherwise be of greater importance, to something else of lesser significance. By doing so, the lesser-significant event is catapulted into the limelight, drowning proper attention to what was originally the more important issue.
The expression comes from the saying that 'a dog is smarter than its tail', but if the tail were smarter, then the tail would 'wag the dog'. The expression 'wag the dog' was elaborately used as theme of the movie. 'Wag the Dog', a 1997 film starring Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman, produced and direc

There is a difference, in this case wag the dog fits as it seems a distraction from Russia woes, vs the false flag narrative of pretending someone else did it.

[HoneyBadger]

55. I do

See here

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028630786

The difference is Assad being responsible, but it being a small incident that was made into more than it was. That would be a wag the dog.

False flag is Assad not being responsible. Involved yes, responsible no, while the puppetmaster was Trump/Putin/Ivanka/anyone but Assad.

[HoneyBadger]

57. To summarize, calling it a setup, means false flag

[uppityperson]

81. I thought you meant the USA bombing, apologies

[triron]

2. exactly!

[metroins]

3. I honestly think

Trump was moved by the news of the gassed children.

I don't like Trump but I do not believe he'd false flag gassing of children.

I honestly believe he values life, even if I believe nothing else about him.

[uponit7771]

7. nope, as RM said he could give a shit about Syrians seeing he had them banned. Benedict Donald

... doesn't get the benefit of the doubt in regards to humanity ... he's an asshole

[Corgigal]

8. What?

Trump believes in Trump and money. That's all. Please...

[metroins]

12. It's just my opinion

[Corgigal]

20. Then read up on Trumps past

It's all there, he hasn't changed and I've been hearing about this jerk since the late 70s. New Yorkers, normally hate him for a reason. Trust us, and don't take a check from Trump. Yeah, he cares about beautiful Syrian children. Interesting that his ICE assholes are picking up a lot of people of that color in this country and drop kicking them anywhere.

He's playing you, and he was having his dinner while being photographed while he was having people blown up. That's some hitler shit right there. Obama would have never done that.

[KingCharlemagne]

71. +Infinity! - nt

[Leghorn21]

36. metroins, a teeny bit of me seemed to detect a genuine response in him yesterday

to the horror in the footage of the gassed children. Deep inside, I said, "hunnh? whaaa?"...so I hear what you're saying.

But I also know who we're dealing with here...and was just now reminded of this (Feb. 2016 -Syrian refugee children):

"He asked Mr Trump if he could "look children aged five, eight, ten, in the face and tell them they can't go to school here".

Mr Trump did not hesitate and said he could, which brought applause from the crowd.
 
He said: "I can look in their faces and say 'You can't come'. I'll look them in the face."

(via UK Telegram)

So...no. I believe it was a fine performance, signifying nothing

[tblue37]

51. He was mad at his nephew, so he stopped paying for the medical bills of

the nephew's baby, who had cerebral palsy. Trump had gotten his late brother Freddy's family cut out of Trump's father's will, but he promised to pay the medical bills for the baby with cerebral palsy.

But when Freddy's son sued to get a share of the Trump patriarch's estate, that angered Trump, so he stopped paying the baby's medical bills.

Money and vengeance matter way more to Trump than babies--even if the baby is the grandchild of the older brother Trump supposedly adored!


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3382756/Donald-Trump-cut-medical-treatment-nephew-s-sick-baby.html

[pimpbot]

9. He didn't seem to care about the other children

The ones washing up on beaches, the ones getting crushed under collapsed buildings demolished by conventional bombs.

Trump might not even be in the know on this, but Putin is a master manipulator.

Wonder what Kushner was doing in Iraq last week. Was it cover so he could meet with some Russian operatives?

[BlueStater]

10. I don't think that deluded asshole cares about anyone or anything but himself.

So I completely disagree with your statement. How many of those Syrian children are dead now because Fuckface banned them from coming into our country?

[Skittles]

13. LOLOLOLOL

TRUMP DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT AMERICAN CHILDREN, LET ALONE *SYRIAN CHILDREN*

PULL YOUR HEAD OUT PLEASE

[metroins]

15. I think he does

I think he is naive but he saw real pictures this time.

I'm not defending the guy, I just don't think he'd collude to gassing children.

I'm putting him like 1 level above Satan, I don't think that's unreasonable.

[Skittles]

18. I never said he colluded to kill children

but someone who cares about children doesn't go out of his way to kick 24 million people off their insurance plans

this man cares only about HIMSELF and MONEY

[metroins]

19. He's obviously wrong on healthcare

But we're talking about Syria.

[Skittles]

21. he does not care about the Syrian people

everything Trump does is about TRUMP

[sharedvalues]

29. President only cares about the TV COVERAGE of children. He doesn't care about the children.

He realizes it's bad PR for him not to act, with these terrible images on TV.

If he cared about the children he'd be allowing them to come here as refugees.

He's a dumb, incurious, vindictive asshole who only cares about himself. And now the death is on his hands of any kid who could have come here as a refugee.

[KingCharlemagne]

72. Please stop insulting Satan by comparing Trump to Him. Trump could never

Coin the phrase, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." (Milton)

[BeyondGeography]

16. He's so moved by the plight of Syrians that they're banned from coming here

[metroins]

17. I think he's an idiot

But human.

I believe he actually changed his mind after seeing pictures.

But we will find out in the coming weeks.

10 years ago I espoused "turn the middle East into glass" but now an older me knows they are human beings and many are civilian.

I think people can learn.

[Skittles]

22. it is amazing how Trump CONTINUES to fool people

sad, really

[BeyondGeography]

23. I think he saw what he perceived to be a political opportunity and took it

[trc]

30. This.

[sharedvalues]

31. Yup, he changed his mind on the PR impact on him after seeing pictures.

[radical noodle]

54. I know intelligent, reasonable people

who think this. I'm not convinced but we all have our line drawn about him. He does obviously care about his own kids and grandkids. It's not a huge leap to think that he gave some thought to them when seeing those photos.

I tend not to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I can see how someone might. Remember though, he's a pretty good actor.

[bdamomma]

24. He only values his life

and his family and the almighty $$$$$$. He is a con and playing us, well not all of us.

[dchill]

26. I'd rethink my opinion were I you.

There is nothing to Trump but self-interest.

[NanceGreggs]

28. Why would he be?

He's not moved by sick American children without healthcare.

He's not moved by American children seeing their parents picked-up for deportation.

He's not moved by American children going hungry or homeless.

He's not moved by American children sickened by the polluted air they breathe, or the contaminated water they drink.

What happened to "America comes first"?

He doesn't give a shit about the children whose lives his policies are directly putting in peril, but we're supposed to believe he cares about dead children on the other side of the world - children he doesn't want seeking refuge in the US?

Yeah, right.

[Cha]

70. Right

[LenaBaby61]

39. He doesn't care about anybody's life except ...

His and his families lives.

I doubt he'd allow Syrian refugees to stay here. Co-president bannon does't want those brown folks here in his country. tRumputin kept saying that Obamacare was a disaster, yet millions of people were insured for the first times in their lives. He also wants to pass that filthy Don't Care bill. You couldn't care much for human life if you know that 24 million people will be thrown off their insurance could you? And mind you, there are people on O-Care now who are fighting cancer and other life-threatening diseases. And if all those things weren't bad enough, didn't he stop medical payment of a nephew's baby?

To me, the man is an a moral piece of filth and so is that grifting, rotten ass family of his.

[BannonsLiver]

45. I can't fault your effort to see some good in him

But I think at some point it'll become clear that there isn't a humane bone in that man's body.

[still_one]

58. No way. His blocking of Syrian refugees makes that pretty clear

Elements in the military advised him to strike, and convinced him to sign the order.
If this was the Cuban Missile Crises, where Curtis E. Lemay tried to convince JFK to make a preemptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, thank goodness trump wasn't president then

[JI7]

61. Children were Gassed a Few Years Before , we have his reaction at the time

[meadowlander]

62. He didn't give a shit in 2013 when 1400 civilians were gassed.

He tweeted that the US should stay out of Syria because it wasn't our war.

[Cha]

69. No, trump gives a shite about no one but himself and his

kids.

All the heartache and hell he's causing in the world.. he doesn't get to be made a sympathetic person because he "acts" like he cares about Syrian Children.

And, he's blaming President Obama for everything.. Go Fuck yourself, trump.

[Hortensis]

75. Why? He has a personality and/or mental disorder.

He doesn't react like normal people. Also, we know he has been listening to far-far-right conspiracist/fake news sources for years. He has a very bizarre image of the world, typically unhinged from reality.

Btw, the day before the gassing, all the other children Assad's regime has murdered, including with gas, were of no concern to Rump. He wanted to work with Assad. And at least 4 times in his teleprompter statement last night he invoked "god" and a religious sorrow/righteousness theme. Not exactly typical of him, but claiming to act as an instrument of god's vengeance is a classic political position.

THIS from Foreign Policy discusses Rump's typical:

Trump’s Damning Global Retreat on Human Rights
The administration has already made it abundantly clear that supporting open societies, free speech, and the protection of civilians is of little concern.

... Through words and now actions it is clear the Trump administration intends to severely downplay — if not eliminate — the promotion of human rights from its approach to foreign policy. This is a wholesale retreat from the position of every U.S. administration since Jimmy Carter’s. Although there have been inconsistencies and even policies adopted that were antithetical to human rights, every administration has championed their advancement. This norm has become an integral part of U.S. foreign policy not only because supporting human rights, good governance, and the rule of law has enhanced the lives of countless people around the globe, but because it has also been in the U.S. national interest.

... Third, the Trump administration’s proposed 2018 budget seeks to severely cut foreign assistance and funding for multilateral institutions. ... “This is a hard-power budget,” he said, “[a]nd that was done intentionally. The president very clearly wants to send a message to US allies and potential adversaries that this is a strong power administration.” Cuts to foreign aid instead say that helping marginalized populations ... (Our foreign aid, of course, saves a lot of children from death from starvation, disease, war...)

Fourth, under the guise of leveling the playing field for U.S. businesses, Congress gutted rules — with Trump’s blessing — that would require oil and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign governments. These rules, besides promoting better governance, are important to prevent or mitigate grand corruption — wholesale theft of national wealth — the sort of massive stealing that empowers rights abusers and affects basic social services. ...

The article goes on through various points, including that we are/will be selling war arms to a number of nations in the troubled Middle East, which if used will, of course, kill many children.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/06/trumps-damning-global-retreat-on-human-rights/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Ed%20pix&utm_term=%2AEditors%20Picks

I really think we should consider that the primary motivation for this attack is right here at home and is about Rump's wellbeing, not some Middle Eastern children.

[uponit7771]

5. MSNBC reporting about (10:04 pm) the "De-Confliction" line ... yes, its a warning

[MrPurple]

6. Hate to be such a conspiracy theorist, but I totally agree

Missile strike on Putin's ally Syria is a made to order distraction. It's only been a few months and I fear some pretty Orwellian shit will unspool in the the coming years.

[sharedvalues]

32. DJT will be out in the coming months. Hold on, stand up, stay positive and resist!

[uponit7771]

11. Brian Williams just reported (10:06c) ***THE AIRSTRIP WAS NOT TAKEN OUT*** !!!

[pimpbot]

14. Probably blew up some unused buildings

The only hope is that the media and others on the ground do their jobs and show what this really is.

If we were serious about taking out Assad they wouldn't have told the Russians and would have hit something more important.

[Catherine Vincent]

37. Kind of how cons crowed Clinton bombed an aspirin factory

[KittyWampus]

25. It's impossible to be too cynical about this.

[ucrdem]

47. Exactly.

[R B Garr]

65. Exactly, they managed to coordinate election meddling

over a period of time, so it's not out of the question they coordinated this head fake.

[Cha]

76. Good point, R B!

[NCjack]

33. Trump and Putin have the Syrians act badly,

Last edited Fri Apr 7, 2017, 07:17 AM - Edit history (1)

Trump punishes a Syrian airbase that Putin can rebuild in a month, the Putin-Russian cooperation in USA politics is pushed to page 11, and the Congressional Repukes can go home and talk to their base about war instead of their failures in the the first 2 months. Rebuke approval numbers climb, on the backs of Syrians.

[MrPurple]

48. And it conveniently pushes eliminating the SCOTUS filibuster off the next day's top headline

[BigOleDummy]

59. Exactly!

You hit the nail on the head there. I'm outraged, and I mean that wholeheartedly, OUTRAGED by the Senate's actions today. But watch, it will be second page news tomorrow. We are being duped and led around by the nose by the puppetmaster Putin and his lapdog Trump and his enablers. As said elsewhere in this thread, Putin will have that airstrip up and running in a week or so, but we'll have Gorsuch shitting on our rights for decades.

[pimpbot]

34. Did Kushner change the message?

Remember Trump's first response was to attack Obama and dismiss the attack. Its like he was following Bannon's orders. When he saw how that went over like a lead balloon, I feel like Kushner/Ivanka stepped in and whispered Putin's words in Trump's ears.

Wonder why Bannon is on the outs?

[triron]

38. Can you elaborate?

Not sure what you are getting at here (it sounds potentially fascinating)

[pimpbot]

40. Trump is lazy

He sits around and watches Fox News all day. The only thing he cares about it money. Even going back to the VP pick before the election, he picked Pence based on someone else's advice (Bannon).

I feel like there are two factions inside the White House. The Bannon/destroy the govt faction and the Kushner/Ivanka/Russia deal making faction.

The initial statement Trump made about the gas attack sounded like something Bannon would say. Spin it into an attack on Obama.

After the blowback from that statement I believe Kushner approached Trump and offered another path. This would explain Trump's sudden reversal. It would also explain Bannon getting removed from the NSC just before the US launches an attack. Kushner is playing the long game to make LOTS of money, primarily from his Russian buddies.

Imagine Putin is laughing about dragging the US into another mideast conflict. Follow the money.

[MrPurple]

46. At least Trump isn't a teleprompter president

After all the blather about how he doesn't use teleprompters, Trump can't even appear on live tv to tell the American people about a missile strike, he releases a prerecorded message where he's reading from multiple prompters? Has any other President ever released major event statements in prerecorded form like that? What happened, did the scheduled address time conflict with an episode of Cake Boss or something?

[C Moon]

41. We all knew this was coming in one form or another. I know I mentioned it a few times on DU.

These jackasses are getting so predictable. They use the same play book over and over.

[harun]

68. +1, knew it was coming in January.

[longship]

42. Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo... Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo

More tin foil, please.

[msdogi]

43. Exactly

First thing we thought while watching msnbc coverage

[58Sunliner]

44. Would it be a false flag if Russia helped bomb them? What about the boots on the ground?

Survivors said they saw Russian and Syrian planes during the attack. Does Putin now collude with US to play good cop, bad cop with Syria? To what end? It all stinks. Where are the American soldiers? False flag on foreign soil. Has anyone read about the plane that had the top leaders of Poland and crashed due to Russian air traffic controllers? https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwia9ee1vpHTAhUBQCYKHbDZB8AQqOcBCCkwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hindustantimes.com%2Fworld-news%2Fpoland-accuses-russia-of-deliberately-causing-2010-plane-crash-that-killed-president%2Fstory-O0grXI4UIvOX65SuWErHEM.html&usg=AFQjCNHtGtY5ZcUXMt0-mvw2jIGs5vPkcA
There is no bottom to the evil. They are sociopaths. Dumps buddy was a pedophile. Is it possible DT did not know chemical weapons would be involved? Putins threat to DT to keep it together. Would not surprise me. Maybe he wasn't worried about the kids, he was worried about himself. That may be why someone might think there was genuine concern.

[elmac]

49. I was thinking about that right after news broke

was it all a setup, a false flag? If this happened under President Hillary the Jones republicans would be screaming false flag so I guess we should too. Yep, it was a conspired false flag between Putin and tRump.

[KingCharlemagne]

74. Cui bono? Assad had very littke motive to use chemical weapons, since the

Syrian government HAS ALMOST WON THE CIVIL WAR!!! So who did have a motive to use chemical weapons??? Jesus H. Christ.

[zentrum]

50. Yup.

It really smells.

[radical noodle]

52. Putin wants to bring us down in status

not let us look like the tough guy in the world. But either way chemical weapons of some sort were used and people died. The Russia investigation won't stop because of this.

It changes the narrative for a few days. He'll step on his own story before long, he always does.

[cilla4progress]

53. THERE IS

NO PIVOT

[Jonny Appleseed]

56. Pray to god that these idiots didn't realize the FBI has been watching their every move (I hope)

[Mountain Mule]

60. Trumpf is so clearly a pathological Narccisist

Such people feel absolutely nothing while putting on a very convincing display of emotion. If this is not a classic set-up, you can bet the next bombing will be one. Trumpf will play it all to the max, cheered on by his wealthy associates in the backrooms and obscured by the blue haze of these never-ending wars in foreign places. When will it ever end?

[MrPurple]

64. Maybe this can be referred to as Operation Wag the Pussy

just what passes for humor at 1:45 am

It's not a war, it's a pageant.

[ecstatic]

66. I'm guessing any journalist who dared to question the veracity

of this shady episode would be fired.

We knew this was coming, it's just surreal how quickly it's occurring while the people who have the power to do something continue to turn a blind eye. I feel helpless.

[MFM008]

67. if it was Obama

The nut jobs would be screaming "FALSE FLAG" and they would storming a pizza hut or something....

[Cha]

73. No kidding!

[Vinca]

77. A big diversion from the Russia story.

Trump suddenly does a 180 on how he feels about the people of Syria and comes to their defense . . . but still won't allow them in the country as refugees. It was the "action" part of the script.

[FarPoint]

78. Yes....

This is their faux war action to create doubts that Putin owns tRump.

[Ilsa]

79. Ivanka was around go explain to him how he was

supposed to feel about the murder of children and other civilians by such horrible ("horrible&quot means. He certainly thought they were expendable during the campaign.

[Loki Liesmith]

80. If you wear a paper pyramid on your head

I promise you'll feel better.

[erpowers]

82. I Had A Similar Thought

I thought Rex Tillerson's telling Assad that he could do whatever he wanted to do in Syria and the United States would not do anything was an attempt to get Assad to go forward with the bombing. Then Trump could act tough and bomb a small section of a nearly empty military base.