# American missiles fired at Syria **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 7, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944 "2017-04-07T02:03:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/281 "2017-04-07T21:14:27Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Legal accountability? You forget that the great powers are the law. I didn’t forget anything. 200 civilians blown into pieces doesn’t even merit an apology from the president of the country that destroyed their country and killed them But that Assad guy … ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/282 "2017-04-07T21:17:33Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > I didn’t forget anything. > > 200 civilians blown into pieces doesn’t even merit an apology from the president of the country who destroyed their country and killed them > > But that Assad guy … Killed 477 during that same month (deliberately)? Is a really snappy dresser? Has a great mustache? What? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/283 "2017-04-07T21:19:18Z")
So, what is the solution? Do nothing? Rely upon the UN? Invade? Nuke them? Obviously if we go for a measured response like bombing, mistakes will occur and innocents will die. We do nothing? innocents will die. UN? mistakes will occur and innocents will die. Invade? mistakes will occur and innocents will die. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/284 "2017-04-07T21:37:15Z")
> [@ganthet](#): > > I’m not sure if the strike was perfectly measured and calibrated since it apparently did not target or hit the runways or taxiways and [Reuters](https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/850425431899680768) is reporting that Syrian Air Force jets took off for a sortie this morning from the base. I think a more definitive response that would actually make a difference to Assad would have been to seriously damage the runways themselves, at least putting them out of action entirely for the short term. [Though that would have likely required the use of bombers as opposed to cruise missiles.](http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/why-firing-tomahawk-missiles-at-syria-was-a-nearly-usel-1794113103) Personally, I think sending manned bombers into the teeth of a very dense Syrian & Russian integrated air defense system seems like a needlessly-risky approach, especially when damage to the runways and taxiways would be trivially-easy and inexpensive to repair (at least when compared to replacing the destroyed jets). ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/285 "2017-04-07T21:43:06Z")
The US isn’t involving itself now in Syria out of some moral code it’s just rediscovered. The USA is treating Syrian civilians as much as pawns as anyone else in the region is so you could start by acknowledging USA foreign policy is self serving, and that all these civilians die in that cause. Except the USA is pretty much limited to cock waving and a pretense of power, which is what policy in the region amounts to atm. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/286 "2017-04-07T21:49:43Z")
[QUOTE=up\_the\_junction] The US isn’t involving itself now in Syria out of some moral code it’s just rediscovered. The USA is treating Syrian civilians as much as pawns as anyone else in the region is so you could start by acknowledging USA foreign policy is self serving, and that all these civilians die in that cause. [/QUOTE] From anyone else I’d assume it’s a slip, but the US has been involved in Syria for years now…fighting ISIS. The difference here is that we attacked, directly, Syrian forces. The reason has nothing to do with cocks or waving…the Syrian’s, against international law, used a weapon of mass destruction. I say all of this because, frankly, I doubt you know any of it, so just trying to get in a bit of education for you on the topic. Oh…Mosul is in Iraq, not Syria. And Syria and Iraq are different countries. Maybe I should hire an old actor that looks like a cowboy to work in some stuff for you during commercials like John Oliver does for Trump… Is this policy self-serving? Yes, of course. We don’t want other countries to use WMD on their own or on others. Pretty simple. And condemned by every country that doesn’t have a vested interest in having Assad continue the slaughter of his own people. I guess you are in that latter camp, based on your posting history, though honestly it’s hard to tell with your often cryptic drive by posts. > [@](#): > > Except the USA is pretty much limited to cock waving and a pretense of power, which is what policy in the region amounts to atm. Yeah, those 60 tomahawks were certainly a pretense. 😛 You are right, the US doesn’t really have any power at all…it’s a huge myth! Probably wasn’t even American warships that did the deed. Hell, might not have even happened. What’s Putin say? You should go check to see where you stand… ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/287 "2017-04-07T21:58:56Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > I didn’t forget anything. > > 200 civilians blown into pieces doesn’t even merit an apology from the president of the country that destroyed their country and killed them > > But that Assad guy … Selective outrage accomplishes what? War is always ugly. That’s just the reality of life. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/288 "2017-04-07T22:01:21Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > War is always ugly. That’s just the reality of life. C’est le guerre. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/289 "2017-04-07T22:40:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > And you managed to read that as “…some mechanics were able to evacuate the strike zone beforehand”? > According to [this link:](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/07/donald-trump-launches-us-air-strikes-against-assad-regime-syria/) > Using 59 Tomahawk missiles, we managed to kill six soldiers and nine civilians, four of which were children. > No word as to whether the civilians or the children were missile mechanics, though. Four children. On a military base. With at least 45 minutes’ lead time and the rest of the base evacuating. Let me see if I can verbalize this properly. Eeeeeeeeeeyeahrite. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/290 "2017-04-07T22:57:57Z")
> [@Navy\_draftee](#): > > No, I believe if Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s mommy felt it was sooooo important for her little boy to have a MUSLIM name, the least I can do is put it in CAPS. I’m betting your rating was bosun’s mate. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/291 "2017-04-07T23:15:53Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > The US isn’t involving itself now in Syria out of some moral code it’s just rediscovered. The USA is treating Syrian civilians as much as pawns as anyone else in the region is so you could start by acknowledging USA foreign policy is self serving, and that all these civilians die in that cause. > > Except the USA is pretty much limited to cock waving and a pretense of power, which is what policy in the region amounts to atm. You know, kid, when the cock you’re waving could obliterate basically anything it wanted to with a decent amount of accuracy and if it felt like it could pour money, weapons or troops into the mix, that’s not nothing. I doubt a single person in this thread thinks the US is regaining some moral high ground. ---
**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/292 "2017-04-07T23:20:20Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Personally, I think sending manned bombers into the teeth of a very dense Syrian & Russian integrated air defense system seems like a needlessly-risky approach, especially when damage to the runways and taxiways would be trivially-easy and inexpensive to repair (at least when compared to replacing the destroyed jets). It obviously would be risky, but replacing runway/taxiway-grade concrete, particularly in multiple sections, would take some time. Aviation parts or whole jets can be replaced by Russia on whatever line of credit that Assad has been sponging off of for years. Since the air base was used this morning by Syrian jets, just hours after the U.S. strike, this appears to have been just a minor speed bump to Assad’s operations rather than something that actually causes some painful choices and re-positioning. [QUOTE=up\_the\_junction] The US isn’t involving itself now in Syria out of some moral code it’s just rediscovered. The USA is treating Syrian civilians as much as pawns as anyone else in the region is so you could start by acknowledging USA foreign policy is self serving, and that all these civilians die in that cause. [/QUOTE] Every nation-state’s foreign policy is self-serving. Just because the motivation is self-serving doesn’t mean that it is wholly so, that it does not also serve in the interests of any other country’s self-interest, or that it cannot produce some good down the road. Ultimately, the one person who thinks of Syrian citizens as pawns more than anyone else is Assad, since he has been perfectly willing to let (and actively cause) 400,000 or so Syrian citizens die rather than step down and live the rest of his life in exile. ---
**Author:** ![Barack\_Obama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@Barack\_Obama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barack_Obama)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/293 "2017-04-07T23:23:12Z")
The russians are only in ties with Assad because they want their oil. We should just assassinate assad and let the rebels/kurds take over then work on defeating isis. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/294 "2017-04-07T23:24:25Z")
Syria has oil? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/295 "2017-04-07T23:25:57Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Syria has oil? [Yes, it does.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Syria) ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/296 "2017-04-07T23:31:34Z")
> [@Barack\_Obama](#): > > The russians are only in ties with Assad because they want their oil. > > We should just assassinate assad and let the rebels/kurds take over then work on defeating isis. Sure, it’s not as if the USA hasn’t fucked up the entire region enough. They definitely need more, esp. from a nation led by Donald Fucking Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Barack\_Obama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@Barack\_Obama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barack_Obama)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/297 "2017-04-07T23:31:37Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Syria has oil? If this isn’t sarcasm google Iran iraq syria pipeline. Russia sides with assad for the sake of oil. If there was no oil, they would not side with assad. ---
**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/298 "2017-04-07T23:32:47Z")
> [@Barack\_Obama](#): > > The russians are only in ties with Assad because they want their oil. > > We should just assassinate assad and let the rebels/kurds take over then work on defeating isis. Syria doesn’t have much oil. While it made up a significant part of their own economy prior to the civil war, it accounted for just [.5 percent of the total global production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Syria) in 2010 before the Arab Spring. [Russia barely beat Saudi Arabia as the top oil producing country in 2016](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_production), so it is especially unclear why they would want the meager reserves of Syria. For Russia, it’s more about geopolitics. They have a long-standing relationship with Assad from the days of his father and the USSR, they have a naval base in Tartus that they are in the process of expanding, and they get to flex their military and political might in the Middle East to not only showcase their own power and hardware for domestic consumption and export sales but also poke the U.S. and its allies in the eye. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/299 "2017-04-07T23:34:01Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > [Yes, it does.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Syria) Yeah, my hair has oil if I skip the shower. > [@](#): > > Syria is a relatively small oil producer, accounting for just 0.5 percent of the global production in 2010.[2][3] Saying Russians (who produce about 12% of the world’s oil) want Syrian oil is about as clueless as it gets. No offense, Barack. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944/300 "2017-04-07T23:37:26Z")
> [@Barack\_Obama](#): > > The russians are only in ties with Assad because they want their oil. You do know that Russia is a [net exporter of oil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Russia), right? It’s kind of like their only biggest export industry, along with natural gas. Kind of one of the reasons their economy is shit is that there is a huge glut of oil on the international market and the prices are down. Why do you think Russia wants to be in bed with Syria/Assad for oil?? 😛 ETA: Or what CarnalK and ganthet said. [QUOTE=Johnny Ace] I’m betting your rating was bosun’s mate. [/QUOTE] Deck ape for sure… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-missiles-fired-at-syria/783944.md?page=16)