I would like to make a few responses:
“we have no idea of who the people fighting in Syria are.” - We do know that a lot of those gassed were _not_ fighting. What seems to be happening over there is a genocide of a certain portion of the Syrian people in a Sunni vs. Shia vs. Christian conflict. More in a bit on that.
“how is it different from them being killed by high explosives or bullets?” In the end, it’s not, of course. But there is a difference between a more-or-less quick death and a tortured death.
“when, in the whole history of warfare, was any nation at war stopped by aerial bombing, with the exception of nuclear bombing of Japan?” Well, in the entire history of warfare, there’s only been about 80 years in which ‘aerial bombardment’ even might have made a difference. There’s a theory out there that Nixon might have been within days or weeks of getting Hanoi to surrender thanks to his carpet-bombing campaign. So that might have been twice. I think you could argue for more cases involving the Iraq wars.
But that’s actually irrelevant. This wasn’t about ending a war... it was about a response to an atrocity. And we’re still monitoring this situation.
All that said...
> Since Russia was apparently in on the knowledge of this gassing incident, that suggests something else to me.
> Some (even in this forum) are suggesting that the gas attack was faked. I disagree, and suggest that we have some smart people that check such things before we go off half-cocked.
> However, that does NOT mean that the attack wasn’t staged. That these people were intentionally killed by Assad with Russia’s backing as a test of Trump by Putin to see what he might do.
That would certainly fit with the behaviors of all those involved... never mind their complete lack of respect for life, which tells US something.
Trump passed the test, I believe. He did it in a manner that should get the world to sit up and take notice. North Korea posed the next test. We’ll see how that one goes in the coming days and weeks.
Good reasoning, I too think this was a test of Trump and Trump passed. What he does next is also part of the test. I would hope that he does not get pushed into a second attack, but if they do push for it, I suspect some of Assad’s palaces will be the next target, and Russia will complain but that is all.
Maybe those who were gassed were providing aid and comfort to ISIS.