The entire process for going to war should take a lot more proof. It would be nice to see a process where the data could be examined. Since there is no national interest at play, we had no reason to bomb that quickly.
My personal bugaboo is that I can think of NO logical reason for Al Assad to gas these people. There was nothing to gain, and lots to lose.
I am not taking his side. Nor the Russian side. But I cannot see an upside for Assasd or the Russians from these bombings.
Your mistake is in thinking that Syria or Russia act rationally.
Gen. Mattis stated he saw conclusive evidence that Syria used chemical weapons and Russia assisted.
I trust Mattis.
I agree completely, but I do realize I am not privy to the whole dataset they look at.
I mean, let’s face it. Giving the minimum we know, they know the date this happened. There are probably satellites up the ying yang doing imaging of Syria 24x7. We know the level of surveillance possible with satellites...drones...you name it.
I will be the first to say that I have no idea who to back in many areas of the Middle East, and as a result, I don’t feel we should be “backing” anyone unless it is completely clear. We did the right thing, AFAIC, in Iraq. We could have marched in there and taken the oil, the country, whatever we wanted, but we didn’t. We tried to do the right thing and got shat upon for it.
The only thing involved here is chemical weapons that makes it different. (I for one, am of the belief that these weapons and possibly equipment to manufacture were taken by Saddam Hussein in Iraq to Assad.)
If not for the use of these weapons, I wouldn’t like doing it, but I think taking a hands-off approach and watching these people killing each other off (a la Iran-Iraq war) is an option we would consider...it is a civil war.
As for an upside, isn’t that area a small holdout in a largely Syrian government held area? I would just starve them out, but...perhaps that isn’t an option for them. I don’t have to go far to imagine Assad needing to rid himself of a thorn in his side. (without rooting for that scumbag who was responsible for thousands of American deaths)