04-14-2018, 02:41 PM
(04-14-2018, 10:18 AM)Duchess Wrote:
I can't even find out what last night's mission was supposed to accomplish. Assad wasn't targeted, his air force remains intact. I don't know why an effort was made. Nothing has changed and I've read that the distraction cost close to a quarter billion dollars. There's smarter people than me in here, maybe they know.
I'm not smarter than you, but here's my thinking as to the possible motives behind the strikes last night:
1. Wipe out some of Assad's chemical weapons production facilities for humanitarian reasons.
2. Send a strong message to Putin, who guaranteed the world that he'd prevent Assad from producing more chemical weapons after the 2013 agreement.
3. Give the impression to U.S. citizens that Trump is not beholden-to or in awe-of Putin.
4. Take the focus off of Trump's domestic dramas (the Cohen criminal investigation, the hush money/NDAs, the flip-flopping on tariffs and TPP participation...).
5. Save face -- Trump drew a red line and made public threats over the last week without consent of his security and military advisors and had to follow through, lest be weakened and guilty of what he repeatedly hammered Obama about.
6. A combination of some or all of the above -- this is most likely, in my opinion.
The use of chemical weapons is in violation of international law, no doubt.
But, they've been used frequently on Syrian civilians many many times since Trump took office and way more civilians have been killed and displaced by conventional weapons without any retaliatory action from the U.S. (or France or the U.K.). I think that's one reason a lot of people, including Trump supporters, are questioning Trump's true motives for last night's strikes.
Trump has publicly proclaimed many times that Obama never should have gotten involved in Syria at all, and he and his spokespeople are emphasizing now that last night's strikes were aimed at Assad, Putin, and Iran only (not an attempt to intervene in the country's civil war or to force regime change). Macron and May are echoing the same. Trump didn't get authorization from Congress to take military action and I don't believe Macron or May went through formal channels in France or Britain either.