Assuming there IS a plan.
More likely this is dick waving because “they” told him it is what is done.
Making it part of a plan? I don’t think so.
There are at least 2 B-2s deployed in England right now. They were moved in 2014 when things with Putin started getting tense following the annexation of Crimea. I haven’t found any record of them redeploying back. England to Syria would be a significantly shorter round trip.
[QUOTE=ABC (Aust) newsfeed]
•President Trump calls on “all civilized nations” to help "end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria.
[/QUOTE]
Does that that mean he wants to rejoin the club?
FWIW I’d categorise this as swift, targeted, justified and proportionate.
And per DoD, they have identified the site of the suspected chemical attack, showing the bomb crater to be in a road and not actually inside any kind of structure, let alone something that could resemble a depot, warehouse, or secure site to store or manufacture chemical weapons. The side by side pictures are a bit confusing because they are from different directions.
I would categorise this as Trump being just as impotent and useless on the subject as Obama was. They warned the Russians beforehand for God’s sake. Don’t you think the Syrians hadn’t already scrambled their fighters long before the Tomahawks hit?
It just shows the facts on the ground. There is a choice between doing something cosmetic or doing something concrete, and risk a war with the Russians.
Obama sent TOW ATGM’s to the rebels. Trump launched Tomahawks. Accomplished? Fuck all.
I’m guessing his “plan” is to ocassionaly appear to be taking his role as leader of the free world seriously. I’m pleasantly surprised, but far from impressed.
ABC News is reporting the US notified Russia before the attack.
ABC News also reports that eyewitnesses saw the Syrian military moving out of the attacked airport before it was hit.
Personally, I’m not convinced it’s a bad thing to bomb Assad. Fuck him. Doesn’t make me a Trump supporter though.
Yes and no. Shorter if going as the crow flies, but doing that would have required getting permission to cross the airspace of a number of European countries (also Turkey), or at least give them early warning in order to avoid diplomatic fallout and/or a missile up the keister. Each of which could have refused/warned Assad/delayed the works.
To avoid that, the B2s would have had to circumnavigate western Europe, over the Sahara and into Syria. That’s a long detour.
Sounds like Trump cashed the check Obama wrote. Even though he said it wasn’t a check that should have been written.
Just looking at it without snarking about our idiot Presidents, it was the right thing to do. WMD use is unacceptable and there should be a price to pay for any country that uses them. Especially since we made an agreement with Syria to get rid of their chemical weapons as a condition for not attacking them the first time.
I’m more worried about the bump he will surely see in his poll numbers. Means he’ll probably start finding someone to bomb every week to keep those numbers up.
No doubt coincidental, but doing this right before meeting Xi Jinping does give Trump some credibility* over his stance of being ready to deal with North Korea on his own.
- yes I know , I used credibility and Trump in the same sentence.
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Don’t worry. He may have done the right thing this time, but I’m confident he’ll find some way to fuck it up. (Hopefully, without bombing someone new each week, although it may be time to teach those uppity French bastards a lesson. ;))
“Right thing”? How is creating jobs for the local cleanup crew “the right thing?” The Syrian were long gone when the base was hit.
I know it’s frustrating but they had to warn the Russians and they would inevitably warn the Syrians. America couldn’t have any Russian blood on their hands.
So this accomplishes, what exactly?
Possibly as much as Reagan’s missile attack on Libya.
You know how sometimes when one country is mad at another, the head of state summons their ambassador? It’s like that but with missiles.
Probably bugger all, unless he heads in there headlong - hopefully Congress would pull him up short.
I doubt he’ll even try to go all-in, though he might make noises making it sound like he might. As it is, he’ll get a bump in the polls, which might even take him out of the negatives, for a bit.
And since he warned the Russians, I’d say it’s safe not to discount collusion yet.