Last night Donald Trump ordered an attack on Syria. In less than 100 days, Trump has taken more action against Assad than obama did in eight years. The attack was appropriate, measured and proportional. It sent a message.
To Assad and to North Korea.
Trump did not have to set a red line and then walk away from it.
President Obama’s decision to hold off on military action against the Assad regime after signaling that it was on the cards in response to last summer’s chemical weapons attack made the U.S. “appear weak,” former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden said on Thursday.
“My raw emotion, watching it from the outside, was just embarrassment,” he said.
“Sometimes the certainty of an action is far more powerful than the severity of an action,” Hayden told the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ annual forum in Washington.
“We’ve made everything uncertain, which actually makes you appear weak at some times, but also then demands that when you want to appear strong, you may have to be overly severe to overcome the uncertainty. It’s just bad all around.”
It seems the evidence was slam dunk. I watched retired Four Star general Jack Keane say we had military personnel on the ground who witnessed the aircraft drop the bomb and that we have radar tracking that traced the aircraft departure from and return to this targeted airfield. This is largely confirmed here.
Syrian fixed-wing aircraft dropped chemical weapons on civilians in Idlib earlier this week, two U.S. military officials told NBC News.
The U.S. military saw the aircraft on a radar and watched them drop the bombs, the officials said. The radar soon picked up the flashes and booms in the rebel-held area of Syria.
And from the NY Times
Witnesses described how Tuesday’s attack unfolded. That morning, a network of observers was, as usual, tracking the skies to warn residents and rescuers of possible airstrikes. They spotted Syrian aircraft and sent out warnings on walkie-talkies.
Syrian Su-22 aircraft were then seen circling above Khan Sheikhoun at 6:47 a.m. and again at 6:51 a.m. One of the observers — based on long experience — believed that the planes might be carrying a chemical payload.
“Guys, tell people to wear masks,” he warned.
It remains intriguing that Syria was able to mount a chemical weapon attack as both John Kerry and barack obama assured us that all chemical weapons had been removed from Syria.
Earlier in the day Secretary of State Tillerson hinted at this:
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that “steps are underway” on an international coalition to pressure Bashar Assad from power, as President Trump was being briefed on military options for Syria – though what specific steps the U.S. and its allies might take in response to the latest deadly chemical weapons attack remained unclear.
America’s top diplomat addressed the Syria crisis a day after Trump declared in the Rose Garden that the chemical strike would not be tolerated. Tillerson pointedly said Russia should “consider carefully” its support for the Assad regime, while calling for an international effort to defeat ISIS in Syria, stabilize the country and ultimately work with partners through a political process that leads to Assad leaving power.
Asked if the U.S. would organize a coalition to remove Assad, Tillerson said: “Those steps are underway.”
One wonders where the chemical agents originated. It was suggested that Saddam moved his WMD’s to Syria– by Obama DNI James Clapper:
WASHINGTON — The director of a top U.S. spy agency said Tuesday that he believes that material from Iraq’s illicit weapons program had been transported into Syria and perhaps other countries as part of an effort by the Iraqis to disperse and destroy evidence immediately before the recent war.
The official, James Clapper Jr., a retired lieutenant general, said satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, just before the U.S. invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit weapons material “unquestionably” had been moved out of Iraq.
“I think people below the Saddam-Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse,” Clapper, who leads the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said at a breakfast with reporters.
He said he was providing a personal assessment. But he said “the obvious conclusion one draws” was that there “may have been people leaving the scene, fleeing Iraq, and unquestionably, I am sure, material.”
A spokesman for Clapper’s agency, David Burpee, said he could not provide further evidence to support the general’s statement.
Other U.S. intelligence officials said Clapper’s theory is among those being pursued in Iraq by David Kay, a former UN weapons inspector who is leading the U.S. effort to uncover the weapons cited by the Bush administration as the major reason for going to war against Iraq.
Clapper’s comments came as the CIA prepared to defend its prewar assertions that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons and that it sought to reconstitute its nuclear program. The director of central intelligence, George Tenet, has written a letter to the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence saying the agency will be ready to provide an assessment by late November.
In the letter, the contents of which were described by several intelligence officials on Tuesday, Tenet proposed that a team headed by John McLaughlin, the deputy director of central intelligence, provide a briefing for the committee after Nov. 20, when the agency’s internal review is expected to be completed.
Clapper’s agency is responsible for interpreting satellite photographs and other imagery.
Especially as the sarin gas precursors were taken from Syria.
The Trump administration’s apparent acceptance of the Syrian regime may well have been another Trump ruse to inspire Assad to commit an act which necessitated a response.
An unhappy Russia has responded:
“President [Vladimir] Putin regards the US attacks on Syria as an aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law, and under a trumped-up pretext at that,” Pesov told reporters.
Fox News just reported that Russia has also shut down the “deconfliction channel.”
If nothing else, this should put down once and for all the idiotic Trump-Russian collusion meme. There is a new sheriff in town.
Update:
For our liberal friends, Trump’s new theme song
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
@DrJohn:
Got it.
You have periodic binge drinking sessions whereas your fellow clones stay on month long drunks.
If lives weren’t at stake, or perhaps if partisan bigots such as you and your hero Trump gave a flying rats ass about other people’s lives, this could perhaps be funny. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.
Pop a top again my friend.
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
Please understand this Bill. I wasn’t talking to you nor do I care what you oppose, or don’t oppose, or oppose you oppose, or as simply as I can say it, anything else.
Perhaps when dr john sloshes down a few more, he will find the balls to respond again and sound, well, pretty much like you.
@Redteam:
i’ve yet to see anything substantial from the Left since coming back here a couple of weeks ago……
they drop their load as if its fact…..
@Greg: #53
“And Christians are all fanatical assassins that gun down doctors who provide women with abortion services.”
That’s a baseless assertion and so full of crap it defies imagination……..
(or maybe it’s hyperbole?)
@Esdraelon, #57:
It’s an example of a group-level attribution error, as is Bill’s generalization regarding Muslims:
Both generalizations are complete bullshit. Some Muslims don’t think much of the lives or rights of others; some Christians are homicidal fanatics that will kill abortion service providers. A minority does not automatically define an entire group.
I suspect you didn’t actually require an explanation.
@Greg:
Really? This happens on a regular basis? Citations, please.
Such as? Such as calling all voters for Trump racists? Are you denying that Islamic extremists not only preach killing anyone that does not believe as they do, but actually carries it out? What are we talking about here… OH, YEAH… that’s right. Muslims using poison chemicals on other Muslims because they are of a different sect. Meanwhile the other side (the “bad” guys) burn people alive, drown them, behead them and take the women (and girls) as sex slaves. Have I offended their good name? I profoundly and sincerely apologize.
This is merely something you and millions of other liberals have concocted from your own warped imaginations. Nowhere, anywhere, is there any such statement or policy. You foolishly ignore real threats to follow the party line while condemning anyone that recognizes the threat as racists. This political blindness has not served Sweden, France, Germany, England very well and it is absolutely imperative we make sure this stupidity does not bring that same plague to our neighborhoods… though we HAVE seen it rear its ugly head.
@Ajay42302:
Please understand this: you are a liar and a coward that runs like a screaming little girl from questions that you cannot answer and maintain your alignment with your failed ideology. Understand that really well.
@Greg: It’s far easier to act as if critics of Islam have a problem with Muslims as people than it is to accept the uncomfortable truth that Islam is different.
Greg, Islam is different.
For each and every dollar every peaceful Muslim “tithes” (zagat) to his religion 1/8th of it has to go to support the “holy warriors” (jihadis).
Anything like that in any Christian church you know of?
Didn’t think so.
It’s not the people.
It’s the organization, Islam.
@Nanny G, #60:
That isn’t an entirely inaccurate characterization.
There’s no requirement that 1/8th of zakat go to jihadists, nor is jihad defined only in terms of warfare, except, of course, in the West. Support of Muslims fighting on behalf of Islam—through word, pen, or sword—is only one of eight mentioned proper uses of such contributions.
@Esdraelon:
I agree, I don’t know if they are really that stupid or if they are just drinking the kool aid. (while it’s probably too close for comfort, it’s probably the koolaid.
@Esdraelon: You seem like a reasonable guy–maybe in the Mata/Word/Aye Chi camp of Conservatives–They are the reason I came here– and stayed.
You blast the Libs–fair enough but the blather coming from The Right—unbelievable and confirms the reasons I remain a Dem.
@Rich Wheeler:
Yeah, they don’t need to re-do the fiasco that the Dims heaped upon the country, take their time and get it right.
@Greg:
total BS. By definition a murderer can’t be a Christian. Christians are followers of Jesus and Jesus was not a murderer.
Agree, but unfortunately the same premise is used for radical Islamists blowing innocents to kingdom come: “they aren’t true Muslims” even though the Koran is radically different from Christian scripture and demands the Infdel be killed in the name of Allah
@Redteam, #64:
Republicans are the followers of whom?
Ayn Rand, Not Jesus, Is The Moral Guide For Today’s Republican Party
@Greg: What sort of jihad has been carried out for the past 20 years? A jihad of kindness?
The small percentage of radical Islamists are allowed to bully the rest, often into participation, thanks mainly to those that excuse it away and take the position that since not ALL Muslims are radical, the real and present danger should be ignored.
Tha fact is that the hatred and violence is inherent in that society and it just so happens that the majority ignores those tenets.
@Greg: And Democrats historic strong arm was the KKK and now their Saint was the rabidly racist Margaret Higgins Sanger.
How can you ignore your own very bloody history?
The Democratic Party has changed a great deal since it found its conscience during the FDR and civil rights era.
The Republican Party isn’t what it used to be, either. They appear to have no social conscience at all.
@Greg: The alternate to your truth is making its voters comfortable in its poverty for votes by taking from those that are productive.
Perpetual victimhood, now resistance and anger at those that worked hard to earn what they have. Trying hard to normalize various deviant behavior , your party now uses soft racism and hard bigotry. Your quote, some Christians are homicidal fanatics that will kill abortion service providers. Has it changed much? It was the republicans that passed civil rights without dem votes. So the Dem party afterwards found a conscience, when the 70s?
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
It’s a weekend and I understand that you and your snuggle buddy dr john like to hit the bottle quite heavily but maybe on a Tuesday or Wednesday or maybe during some dry spell (if such an era exist), you might try again?
@Greg:
My first thought was that you asked a stupid question, but then I realized it was you.
@Greg:
Oh, so that’s why they voted 100% against the civil rights act of 1964. Oh, no…..wait…….uhhhhhhh……..
@Redteam: Gregs other hero FDR spoke at the 1924 Democrat National Convention, also known as the “Klanbake” for the “heavy representation of Ku Klux Klan-friendly delegates,” as reported at the Wall Street Journal. According to Digital History, after the Klanbake, “some 20,000 Klan supporters wearing white hoods and robes held a picnic in New Jersey…”
Roosevelt appointed “confidant” James Byrnes to the Supreme Court, who was so powerful that he was known as the “assistant president on the home front” and who “believed in racial segregation…and worked to defeat anti-lynching bills introduced in Congress.”
Alternative facts strike again.
@kitt: 1875?? You gotta be kidding–We are talking about the Civil Rights Act of 1964–
RT said there wasn’t a single Dem yea–I posted the vote-crickets from him.
Why would “the former Confederate States” vote for Obama?They’ve been Repub.. since just after CRA passed
-WE’VE PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED WHY===Nixon Southern Strategy ring a bell? Do you agree with me re KellyAnne?
Education?? See#85 and anything posted by Spewing Bile and others right here. LOL
@Greg: The Democrats have changed only in that their racism is less overt than it was. They have tried to off-load the racism onus onto Republicans while changing from excluding minorities to enslaving them into dependence upon the government and handouts… handouts THEY control, since Republicans push for a system which provides them with their pathway OUT of dependency.
@Ajay42302: Odd… you don’t care about my opinion, yet you continually seek it out. This reminds me of when you wrote:
@Redteam: AND KITT
FOR THE RECORD—1964 CRA Senate vote was really North vs South
FOR 73 Northern Dems 45 Northern Repubs 27 Southern Dem 1
AGAINST 27 Southern Dems 20 Northern Repubs 5 Northern Dem I-Southern Repub I
Note 5 Northern Repubs voted No-one Northern Dem
House vote similar demographics
RT You strangely said Christians by definition can’t be murderers–Crusaders??
Where is our alternative facts girl–KellyAnne Conway??
@Rich Wheeler:
Crusaders? murderers? Were American soldiers in Viet Nam murderers?
@Rich Wheeler:
She was on a tv interview show yesterday.
@Redteam: Lt Calley yes–crusaders yes—are you saying if you kill in the name of Jesus you can’t be a murderer?
What show K.A.? I credit Trump’s win to her bringing on female voters in spite of Trump’s obscenities– her replacement of Manafort very smart tactical move
@Redteam, #73:
Possibly that’s part of the right’s bogus revised history, but it has very little to do with actual historical reality. That is to say, it’s a load horse manure. I’m sure a lot more will be spread, now that Betsy Voss is head of the Department of Education. Hopefully any references to evidence supporting the presence of dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark will be omitted from the elementary science curriculum, but my confidence level is declining.
More Democrats than Republicans voted in favor of passage of the Civil Rights Act, both in the House and Senate. This was true of the original House bill, and also true of the Senate version of the bill that ultimately became law.
It was Southern Democrats who opposed the bill—“southern” indicating those elected Democrats who represented states that made up the former Confederacy. Historically, their political power was based on the South’s rejection of Republicans as “the party of Lincoln.” After passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 they deserted the Democratic Party in droves, precisely because the Democratic Party had become a pro-civil rights party. This was the historical point when much of the 20th Century South shifted into the Republican camp.
@Rich Wheeler:
Christians do not kill in the name of Jesus. Murderers kill in the name of “for no reason’.
really? You think Lt Calley was acting as an “American Soldier” when he did his killing? Maybe he was acting as a killer.
I saw ‘yesterday’ to watch some show with guest KellyAnne but I didn’t watch the show. I googled her and see where she was on Fox yesterday, two days ago and three days ago, so I’m guessing she’s on fairly regularly. hmm, looked again, Justice with jeanine yesterday(Sunday, I think) and First 100 Days” last Fri night..
@Greg:
You seem to be saying that ‘Southern’ Dimocraps are not real Dimocraps, that they have to be Northern to be ‘real’. Do you tell Southern Dimocraps that they are not real?
@Redteam: My “choice” doesn’t matter–He was convicted of murder
As usual you seem very confused RT.
You wanna recant your statement in#73 that 100% of Dems voted against 1964 CRA? Anyone with a grade school education knows that’s false–46 Dems and 27 Repubs voted for the CRA.
You do realize Trump’s E.C numbers in 2016 worse than BHO’S in 2008 and 2012–just checking.
Fact is someone should check all your wild assertions–but who’s got the time.
@Rich Wheeler: #77 Too many scan history and the way it is written can at times be confusing to some. Not one Democrat in Congress voted for the Fourteenth Amendment. … Not one voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1875. then they go on to list all the civil rights acts ever passed. So looking at the southern Dems a stronghold at the time 85 % of those voted nay. The political landscape changed with Powerful unions in the North and so many blacks migrating to those jobs. It took time but Obama only got 18% of the former Confederate States, and his politics blew up the rustbelt stronghold and coal mining regions. Leaving only the uber liberal coastal states that dont have enough electoral votes to carry a Presidency for the Democrats. But looking at consistancy of voting for Civil rights Republicans far and away carry the banner.
Democrats on the other hand are superior to pandering, freebies that trap minorities in a cycle of poverty.
Lowering standards and affirmative actions that give cover for poor education and encourage reverse discrimination.
One wonders how they got accepted to college let alone graduated.
Then there is this racist hag…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/11/susan-rice-us-national-security-agencies-too-white/
@Redteam, #83:
I said something specific, and with sufficient clarity that my meaning should be clear.
I’m beginning to think all voting machines should include a simple logic puzzle that must be solved before a vote can be cast.
@Redteam: For the record Calley was court martialed and convicted of murder-
Because you are an American soldier. a Christian soldier or any kind of soldier does not mean you are exempt from committing murder—as in they can do whatever the hell they want.–you think otherwise?
Semper Fi
@esdraelon:
your security clearance is not that high
@Greg:
hmmm, so you won’t be voting in the future?
@Rich Wheeler: Let me try to clear that up for you Rich. If you are a Christian, you are a follower of Jesus and you are not a murderer as murdering is not something Jesus condones. If you decide to become a murderer, you decide to stop being a follower of Christ and become a follower of murderers. By the same token, if you are an American soldier and you decide to become a criminal, then you also decide to give up your civil rights, which includes being a member of the US Military. Murderers are persons acting of their own will or because they believe in someone that tells them to murder someone. I’d also like to point out that Lt Calley did not kill anyone. He only ordered his men to kill them.
Notice. I see where at the killing at the school today in San Bernardino that the FBI is involved. I thought Gayfornia wanted to be a sanctuary state, why is the FBI there?
@Redteam: ‘Lt Calley “Did not kill anyone–he ordered his men to kill them.” Is that your idea of a bad joke? That would also make him a coward.
Your paragraph one truly bizarre.
Are you saying when Calley’s men murdered those civilians they gave up their rights as American soldiers—do they, like Calley, have a right to trial under UCMJ?
@Rich Wheeler: I know it was 1964, but those scanning writings of history can assume when it begins no votes for 14th amendment and 1875 then the writer goes on to list the rest of civil rights votes, unless they do their own looking might assume the dems also did not vote for the rest. ( I think you knew what I meant, or am I giving you too much credit?)I was mentioned in your post, but KellyAnne I dont follow her, and no longer support cable propaganda news I no longer subscribe to cable tv. I know she was a staunch supporter of DT. My main point is historic progressives were nasty racists and to idolize them attaches you to that label in response to #68.
This could be a topic of its own, back to DT striking Syria, lets hope this time the weapons will really be removed.
@Redteam: The school shooting at this time looks like a domestic thing murder suicide, just what I can quickly lookup, guns going off in an elementary school yes send in the FBI, this is bigger than Barney Fife.
@kitt: Which “historic progressive racists” do I “idolize.” Kitt.? That’s a nasty assertion.
BTW BHO did great in E.C 08 and 2012—much better than DT.in 2016.
Assad not gonna change a wit as long as he has Russian backing. He’s thumbing his nose at DT. Hope Tillerson gives Putin an earful
@Rich Wheeler: Do you mean the Crusaders that waged war to stop the aggression by Muslims into Europe? THOSE Crusaders?
@Rich Wheeler: #94 How the hell should I know that give me a list. Saying they did 1 or two good things is different than holding them out as an example. You think those that idolize Hitler or Stalin are a group you would like to join up with?
@Esdraelon: Yes, I find the laws of Muslims to be quite different from Christians. Killing is a part of their religion, it’s not a part of Christianity.
@Rich Wheeler:
I’ve read different versions, some say he was shooting, some say he only gave the orders. Your choice.
You still need to insist on a refund of your tuition. You certainly failed to get much of an education.
Didn’t I say “or because they believe in someone that tells them to murder someone. “? Seems as if they were following orders they thought legitimate, based on orders they had been given on other occasions, by their duly appointed commander. Yes, they were entitled to trial by UCMJ.
@kitt: I don’t disagree with Federal law enforcement. my point was Gayfornia want’s to not have to live by Federal law, so why should we send in Federal forces, let them spend their money for it.
@Redteam: I dont think k-6 know much about federal law. If it wasnt a domestic thing but some terrorist damn send in the Marines get that cockroach. Its a matter of response training, save those babies.
@Rich Wheeler:
Sheesh. I would offer that ANY candidate that the media spews out a steady torrent of praise and buried every negative detail could easily win.
Well… except for Hillary.
@Bill- Deplorable Me: ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS——They were barbaric mercenaries. No better no worse than The Muslim fighters.
# 102 That damn LAMESTREAM MEDIA spreading
fake news.
Alternative Facts That’s what we need more of—where’s Kelly?
@kitt: What the hell are you talking about—I idolize few men–Gandhi comes to mind.
Stalin and Hitler ???
Time for a throwback.
@Rich Wheeler: Just a wild analogy
@MOS #8541:
Just enough to know the difference between the Christian scriptures and the Koran…:-)
@Rich Wheeler:
What’s your point? It only takes a margin of one to win. DT got 100 more than Romney and 133 more than your hero, that war collaborator, McCain. Do you think that DT got so many more than those two indicate that he was a much better candidate? I doubt that you believe that. I personally don’t think the margin is very important and the popular vote means nothing at all.
How do you know he has Russian backing? Is that from the same school that thinks Russia hacked the election? Would you supply a link of Putin ‘thumbing his nose’ at anyone? Are you getting all your info from the Dimocraps inside sources? The Obozo school of intelligence?
I’ll predict that Assad WILL NOT do another chemical weapons attack. He doesn’t want to lose all his airplanes and Russia damn sure can’t afford to replace them.