a repost
ON BOMBING SYRIA
In theory, almost nobody would have a problem with taking it to Assad...if we lived in a vacuum where no other countries exist.
In reality, we've already seen the consequences of executing an entrance strategy while having no exit strategy; Iraq was/ is/ always-will-be a U.S. foreign policy disaster.
And I don't care what anybody says, breaking Iraq helped break Syria.
Arab Spring or no Arab Spring ISIS is made up of the Iraqi soldiers left Iraq unemployed after the U.S attempted regime change in Iraq. Saddam Hussein may have been an evil dictator, but he was holding Iraq together. If Iraqis were ready and willing to kill and die to throw Hussein off their backs, they would have set it off themselves. We shouldn't have done it on their behalf (<-- a="" font="" lie="" was="" which="">
Bush Jr. was capitalize on the panic of 9/11 and get white people to actually believe Iraq had something to do with 9/11...so we could get to the second largest oil reserves in the world a little more easily.
Iraq wound up being a
You Break It, You Bought It
Scenario
Syria could wind up being a
"You Break It Some More. You're Gonna Wind Up Buying It
Cause
You're The One That Got Caught Holding The Bag
Scenario
But, regardless of what was right and what was wrong in this particular action, what scares me is that Mean Tangerine is more than a little stupid. ("Nobody knew healthcare could be" soooo "complicated.") It scares me that Trump is capable of seeing dead children in Syria at 4:02 PM and ordering a military strike at 4:05 PM.
Think about it. Trump saw some half-baked story on Obama and wiretapping, and he's tweeting it x-minutes later. More than one news outlet has linked what he's watching on television and what he says he believes in a tweet the next day.
This time, instead of just tweeting after he saw dead children in Syria on television, he ordered 59 bombs dropped on an airbase halfway around the world
...as if have never been children dying horribly in every war the U.S. has ever had a hand in.
It actually scares me that we aren't really talking about the decision making behind a huge, SUDDEN flipflop that involved bombing another country -- regardless of what "the right move" actually was in the moment with Syria. Mean Tangerine might have gotten lucky THIS TIME. But the next television info-tainment quasi-news show might prompt him to bomb something that gets us into something we can't back out of.
And I'm actually having a problem being confident the intelligence is accurate this fast.
* * * *
LET US VISIT THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE
WHERE HILLARY WON
JUST FOR A MOMENT
Imagine, for a moment, that Hillary's stance on foreign policy was isolationist all through her presidential campaign-- like Trump's actually was. Imagine she said Syria's internal problems were Syria's. Too bad, so sad for them. To be more specific, imagine that she did not want to bomb multiple military targets in Syria --as she did in reality-- and instead wanted to put "America First" just like Donald Trump said during his campaign and repeated not three days before bombing Syria.
By any stretch of your imagination can you envision Hillary Clinton NOT being called unstable and emotional if she did an about face based on a picture of a man holding two infant sons that just died of a chemical attack?
Can you, instead, imagine the unstable memes and genuine worry on the faces of white men on news shows everywhere?
I can.
All we're getting from the white, mostly male, talking heads right now is "What an about face for Trump? Is this an actual policy change? Is this a one-off?"
And I'm not talking about sexism in regards to being "fair" here. I'm talking about the male dominated press complete failure to even discuss Mean Tangerine's emotional and mental fitness to be president.
If someone without a penis had done this, every news outlet you can name would whispering about women and emotional responses compromising logic.
And in my opinion, this is actually a legit concern in his case. Trump's complete turn around based on a photograph of children dying and deciding to bomb Syria makes him about as stable as a teenage boy who just found his girlfriend kissing another guy --a whole four weeks after he became captain of the high school football team.
- Did he actually think about how Russia and Iran would respond?
- Did he care about any responses anywhere?
- Did somebody do that part of the thinking for him?
- Did this man just up and decide he wanted to look like a bad ass while the president of China was sitting next to him?
There may be some upside to this bombing. There really may be. But if there is, Trump isn't the one who thought it out. He's not capable. So if the military is the one pumping him up, we need to be worried. Because when you're a hammer (the military) everything looks like a nail (bomb the crap out of X)
A leader who can't think and lead on his own is something to worry about.
I've been damn glad to hear that some are seeing smoke signals over D.C. that seem to saying that the White Nationalist Bannon, lost his seat on the National Security Counsel and is losing favor after having embarrassed Trump twice with the Muslim Ban and Healthcare.
But who's the main puppet master of the "leader of the free world" right now? His son-in-law? (<---i ask="" believe="" can="" font="" have="" i="" t="" that.="" to="">
There's also the possibility that Trump is thinking, that he's thinking about polishing his image same as always.
ME, MYSELF, and MINE is all he really thinks about consistently. So this time, let's assume that this has NOT changed. That would mean the bombing is communication and self-promotion of some kind.
Attacking Syria puts an easy victory in his cap during his first 100 days -- that's otherwise been dismal. His NSA choice had to resign, FBI director called him a liar to congress, his Muslim Bans have been stopped twice, and Repeal and Replace flamed out spectacularly.
Making himself look good while not doing much may be all he has left. Making himself look good while sending a few messages might be even better.
POSSIBLY SYRIA BOMBING MESSAGES:
I. TO CHINA (with the Chinese President sitting right there)
"Take care of North Korea or we will"
"See this is what we'll do in your backyard if you don't lean on North Korea as hard as you can."
(That bombing in Syria happening during the meeting with China's President must have seemed sent directly from hyper-masculinity heaven.)
"This is what might happen to you. Keep it up with the missile testing."
"Shaking in your boots aren't ya? Don't worry. I'm your friend. You need to act like you're more grateful though. You better pay your fair share of .....something." (wink wink)
"I hit a practically valueless target except for the optics. Let's just cool this bro-mance off a little. We can play kissy-face again after the FBI and CIA probes are over."
G. TO UNITED STATES VOTERS
"See, I'm not in Russia's pocket. See! No reason to investigate me.
H. TO IRAQ
"I'm just over here rattling your cage. Don't worry, I'm sending more troops into Iraq again."
If only 6 or 7 Syrian army personnel were killed, and planes were still taking off from the airfield today, what was the bombing other than a message?
Only time will tell if the action is going to be worth the reaction that we have yet to see.
But one thing seems certain: Trump can't do this again in Syria without serious consequences.
1) He's made Putin look stupid
Russia signed agreements with president Obama that were supposed to reduce/elminate aggression. Trump violated that (after Russia already did in my opinion)
Russia also told the United Nations(?) there weren't chemical weapons and Russian troops were SUPPOSEDLY sitting on a base where the chemical weapons were launched from -- if our intelligence is correct. Trump's United Nations Ambassador called the Russians incompetent or "played for fools"
2) Russia's reaction may be to refuse to communicate and coordinate where their troops will be in Syria at any given moment...which kept Russia and U.S. Troops from accidentally blowing each other up in Syria for months.
This agreement/ open line of communication to coordinate military aircraft movement was the method by which Trump was able to tell Russia about bombing the airbase before it began. Russia was able to move their personnel out of the way
So now the U.S. cannot bomb Syria again without the risk of hitting Russian troops, right?
All this for 6 or 7 dead at a bombed Syrian Airport that can still launch planes?
Sooo...um...How many of our troops are over there right now? I don't know. But I know it's a number a hell of a lot larger than 6 or 7.
I think bombs as messages is a reckless maneuver . I think making a move sans any big picture or a plan is stupid (Republican Marco Rubio, while cheering Trump on admitted there's no overall plan.) I think you should only drop bombs when you're going to war to win.
However, I also wonder if Trump looking unstable might give our enemies pause.
His being seen as Unstable Able might not be the worst strategy in the world ...if whoever is holding the puppet strings right now actually knows what he's* doing
