Syria - BOOM!

[Skids]

US Forces give the nod.

BOOM!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-trump-address-nation-possible-syria-strike-retaliation-chemical-attack-live-updates-2018-04-13/

[Jezza]

Terrible decision by Trump. The NeoCons are firmly in charge.

[stui magpie]

^

Dunno.

He has the support of Britain and France.

First time they used chemical weapons, Obama made threats but blinked. Second time, under pressure, he fired off a couple of shots but didn't follow through. The Donald doesn't blink, he makes others blink. Like china backing down on their tariff war threats.

[Jezza]

Is there any evidence Assad was behind the chemical weapons attack?

Just seems illogical he would perpetrate such an attack when he's close to winning the war. Though the alternative is he's a psychopath.

[Mugwump]

I agree with Jezza.

Firstly, There is no certain evidence that Assad was behind the attack (there are some very, very ugly groups in the opposition which have used CWs in the past, and it is hard to see what Assad has to gain from their use given he is winning anyway.

Secondly, there is no core strategic defensive interest here that requires us to risk the lives of our young men as world policemen. What really is our objective here and how will this achieve it ? Unless we have specific and compelling national interests, such things should be undertaken with UN support if at all.

Wars are easy to enter, but they are wildly unpredictable in their course and consequences. It is time we stopped treating them with all the seriousness of a date night.

[pietillidie]

[Culprit]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-12/trump-syria-response-embroils-russia-iran-israel/9642154

In an interview with Reuters, then Republican candidate Trump, said the focus should be more on Islamic State than Bashar al Assad's Syria; indeed ousting Assad, he argued, was "secondary, to me, to ISIS"

Obviously Trump has changed his position.

Russia has gone to the UN, the UN have told them to suck eggs. Putin has a big ego and he will want to make a Statement as well. A strike against US, UK or France would be a massive escalation.

[Pies4shaw]

As long as they aren't looking for a soft target, like, say, in the South Pacific.

[pietillidie]

[Mugwump]

^ agreed, PTID, and one of th most interesting things about Trump is that he is inadvertently redefining (liquefying might be a better term) the concept of leadership as we understand it. It should be (as we have defined the term) about strategy and direction, focused execution and inspiration. Instead, he is the first major Western leader since 1945 to make it solely about the capricious exercise of power. It is possible that this will unfreeze and wrong-foot some players for a while and give him some successes. But it is a matter of time before it becomes (at best) only farcical or (at worst) eruptive. We shall see.

[ronrat]

You gotta love him. Diplomats and bureacrats spend years looking at every single issue from tiolet rolls to apricots to used underwear vending machines from Japan . Trump, nah get rid of it. Doesn't help etc.

Pockets of the USA growing niche fruits etc will go bust but it won;t worry him until he goes back to his hotels. Where is so and so. "Oh didn't you hear Sir, you ripped up the TPP so they pulled the trees and we know have to import them from some country you just banned from exporting to us"

The bigger picture is not his thing. It seems the 140 characters of twitter is his limit.

[David]

A whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, wasn’t it? Just another impotent show of force as a response to a stalemate that nobody wants (or can afford, or has any idea how) to break. Maybe they’ll do the same in 6 months, there’ll be a whole lot of sabre-rattling, and Syrians will continue to be cruelly slaughtered in their thousands.