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US Strikes Syrian Base With Over 50 Tomahawk Missiles (nbcnews.com)
mi writes: Two U.S. warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired 59 Tomahawk missiles intended for a single target -- Shayrat Airfield in Homs province in western Syria, the Defense Department said. That's the airfield from which the United States believes the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fired chemical weapons on Tuesday. There was no immediate word on casualties. U.S. officials told NBC News that people were not targeted and that aircraft and infrastructure at the site, including the runway, were hit. Slashdot reader Humbubba shares a similar report from Washington Post, adding that Thursday's strike was the "first direct American assault on the government of President Bashar al-Assad since that country's civil war began six years ago." The report also notes that the strike "dramatically expands U.S. military involvement in Syria and exposes the United States to heightened risk of direct confrontation with Russia and Iran, both backing Assad in his attempt to crush his opposition."
Yes there absolutely is. Apart from many people suffering with sarin symptoms, and the fact that Assad has done exactly this before, there have been autopsies on three victims:
http://www.npr.org/sections/th...
http://metro.co.uk/2017/04/05/...
Dump multi-millions of military hardware onto a target without even bothering to wanting to hit something.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say there, but the target was a military airfield. The one that they launched the sarin attack from.
Sure, I'll ignore the EU, Arab League, UN, UK, Israel, Turkey, France, Germany. Some random guy on ./ knows way more than them. You agree with Syria, the accused perpetrator, and Russia, their only real ally. That's a bold stance my friend. F*cking Hezbollah criticized Assad for launching the strikes. Hezbollah. Let that sink in.
Lest you disagree with me: Here's a nice summary: It dismissed the possibility that evidence supporting the US government's conclusion could have been manufactured by the opposition, stating it "does not have the capability" to fabricate videos, eyewitness accounts, and other information. The report also said that the US believed Syrian officials directed the attacks, based on "intercepted communications."[12] A major element, as reported by news media, was an intercepted telephone call between a Syrian Ministry of Defense official and a Syrian 155th Brigade chemical weapons unit commander in which the former demanded answers for the attacks.
Here's the actual US government report: https://obamawhitehouse.archiv...
Well, if the US had not destabilized the entire region by failing at nation-building it's unlikely that any of the current events in Syria/Iraq would have occurred.
This doesn't mean the US bears responsibility for actions that other countries perform, but it's just a matter of fact that US warmongering has created a massive power-vacuum in the middle-east which has lead to the rise of the current clusterfuck of issues.
Using overseas wars as a distraction from domestic politics comes with a price.
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
With Assad's own jets? Evidence says no.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
The first gas attack in Ghouta in 2013 was confirmed by the UN to be initiated by the (US backed) rebels.
No it wasn't and who modded up your lie?
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Obama's "cutting and running out of Iraq ASAP" was the result of an agreement with the Iraqi government that George W. Bush's administration put into place. Obama could either "cut and run", or he could place US troops in Iraq under Iraqi liability for war crimes.
The "creation of the power vacuum" was actually the result of Donald Rumsfeld PERSONALLY and UNILATERALLY deciding to disband the Republican Guard, rather than turn them into local peacekeepers. THAT SINGLE ACTION was what created the Iraqi insurgency and ISIS.
Sorry to disturb your narrative with facts.
You didn't get any "insight" mods, but I think yours was one of the better comments so far. However, you did leave out some of the key players in the mess.
In particular Iran was the big winner of Dubya's war against Saddam, and they seem to be playing a similar game in Syria now. Basically just laying low and moving into the power vacuums that appear. They would gladly consolidate a Shia caliphate if they could. Turkey is quite nearby and extremely concerned, though it is hard to tell if they are more concerned about getting more involved or about the situation getting more out of control. Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabians are pumping money into the mess and might get desperate if their "proxy warriors" in the region are being exterminated on a wholesale basis.
#PresidentTweety has not done anything to improve the situation, but it's unclear if the launch of roughly $100 million of fancy missiles is going to make things worse. Hard to see how things could get worse (especially in Syria and North Korea), but I keep getting surprised in the worst way... (I just hope Bannon is really on his way out rather than on route to greater mischief.)
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Amazing how the rebels keep bombing themselves with chemical weapons while never hitting Assad-controlled areas with them.
They did. The first reports of usage of chemical weapons in Syria were about the rebels using them against Assad.
Moreover the manufacturing of dangerous chemical components is quite easy. The difficult part is to use them effectively against an enemy. It is far easier to use them in false flag operations, than directly hit your foes.
And how they keep simultaneously destroying their hospitals at the same time. Silly rebels!
The rebels sold all the medical equipment they found to hoard money for their war. Those hospitals were already destroyed.
Obama pulled them out on the timetable that was agreed upon by Bush and the Iraqi government. Iraq would not allow an extension for a large number of troops with immunity as the US demanded.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
It wasn't that the Iraqi troops were afraid of the small group of ISIS fighters comping from Syria, but they knew that the minute they showed up the Suni population was going to rise up against them and they would find themselves sourrounded, outnumbered and cut off from their supply lines
From the (referenced) Wikipedia article on Carla:
Since September 2012, Del Ponte has been a member of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic,[9] under the auspices of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In May 2013 she accused the Syrian rebels of using chemical weapons, a view diametrically opposed by the majority of Western government officials. She stated, "We still have to deepen our investigation, verify and confirm (the findings) through new witness testimony, but according to what we have established so far, it is at the moment opponents of the regime who are using sarin gas."[10] The following day, in an apparent reaction to Del Ponte’ comments, the Commission issued a press release clarifying that it “has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties in the conflict”.[11]
In March 2014, the Commission published a report that stated that the chemical agents used in the Khan-al-Assal chemical attack bore "the same unique hallmarks as those used in Al-Ghouta" in the August 2013 chemical attack. The report also indicated, based on "evidence available concerning the nature, quality and quantity of the agents used" that the perpetrators of the Al-Ghouta attack "likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile of the Syrian military". In none of the incidents, however, was the commission’s "evidentiary threshold" met in regards to identifying the perpetrators of the chemical attacks.[12]
But I know that nothing that you say to a "false flag conspiracy" theorist will ever be listened to.
You don't exist. Go away.
How is claiming that there was a big payoff "conspiracy stuff". Every one of these attacks is a big corporate payoff no matter what the reasoning behind the attack.
'Slashdot reader Humbubba shares a similar report from Washington Post, adding that Thursday's strike was the "first direct American assault on the government of President Bashar al-Assad since that country's civil war began six years ago."'
That's odd. Here was I thinking that the NATO air strike on Syrian Army positions last September, which killed about 100 Syrian soldiers and wounded about as many more, was a "direct American assault". It was immediately followed by a mass terrorist attack that overran the Syrian Army positions - which had previously held out stubbornly for years. Almost as if the terrorists had known about the air strike before it happened.
Of course, maybe some Americans think that killing a mere 100 soldiers and wounding another 100 doesn't really amount to an "assault". After all, they are Asian Muslims, aren't they?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
This is how it works now. Lies are not as effective as false narratives, so you mostly see false narratives trending. They are harder to refute, and more convincing.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
US is #1 arms dealer to the planet, if war is happening, US is profiting.
It is kind of ridiculous to think the US profits from war just because it is the #1 arms dealer. It is certainly expected that the country with the #1 GDP would also be #1 in arms dealing. And if you look at the size of US arms exports, this industry makes up 0.05% of US GDP. International instability is a far greater risk to the US economy than any gains it could have from arms exports.
If you include the potential strategic benefits of winning a war then you have at least a rational argument, but as it stands your entire comment is just trolling.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Since the Cold War, Russia has always tested the will and reactions of he U.S., especially when there's a new sheriff in town
Absolutely! I find it "fascinating" that they do that...but you forgot to mention that this is standard procedure exercised by ALL serious military powers. For instance, air space is regularly and deliberately violated by all sides to test readiness and the capabilities of their respective detection systems.