Posted on 04/22/2018 5:01:16 AM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON — This was the week when America was being praised around the world for punishing Syria's evil, despotic regime that killed scores of men, women and children with its arsenal of lethal chemical weapons.
It was certainly President Trump's finest hour in global leadership, hailed by our allies, several of who joined in a retaliatory attack to destroy much of Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons facilities.
Russia, Assad's accomplice in murder and mayhem, called the attacks an "act of aggression." Iran, which has bankrolled terrorist plots throughout the region, labeled it a "war crime." And Syria, whose government is accused of crimes against humanity, had the nerve to call the U.S. bombings "barbarous."
It was not only Trump's largest use of military force to date, it was conducted against a nation that Vladimir Putin has fully supported militarily and financially in an unholy alliance between two dictators.
It represented a complete, if momentary turnaround by Trump, who, up until now, has refused to condemn Putin's duplicitous interference in America's 2016 elections or his alliance with Assad to prop up a brutal, politically repressive dictatorship.
"Mission Accomplished," Trump tweeted last Saturday in the aftermath of the U.S. and allied bombardment, vowing to repeat the attack if Syria dares to use chemical weapons again.
"I spoke to the president this morning, and he said, 'If the Syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the United States is locked and loaded,'" U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told an emergency Security Council meeting in the aftermath of the U.S.-led bombing raid.
"When our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line," she said.
Putin called on the U.N. to declare the airstrikes a violation of international law, but only two nations — Bolivia and China — joined Russia in condemning the action in the 15-member Security Council.
Among his pitiful, hypocritical charges, Putin called the U.S. actions an attack on Syria's sovereignty. But he didn't care about Ukrainian sovereignty when he sent hoards of Russian troops into the Crimean Peninsula and annexed it, before his forces then drove deep into eastern Ukraine. powered by
But Trump seems to be hardening his attitude toward the Russians, at least when it comes to Syria's chemical weapons.
When Russian officials bragged last week that they would shoot down any U.S. missiles aimed at chemical storage sites in Syria, Trump shot back on Twitter:
“Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!'"
According to news reports, the president's military advisers were surprised by Trump's immediate threats, since no final decision on whether to strike or where had been reached.
But within a couple of days, military officials presented the White House with a list of targets, and the president gave the order to attack.
It turned out that Russia did not attempt to shoot down our missiles, though Syria did. But almost all of the 40 Syrian surface-to-air missiles fired had "no material effect" on the U.S. strikes, according to the Pentagon.
Throughout the Pentagon's preparation for the missile strikes, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis sought definitive evidence that Syria was behind the chemical attacks, and for days remained unconvinced.
But near the end last week, the evidence showed that Assad was clearly behind the horrible gas attacks, and by Sunday morning, Trump decided the Syrian regime needed to be hit and hit hard.
"Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria," he tweeted. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay."
Notably, the president had carried out a clean attack on the chemical sites in Damascus without provoking the Russians.
"Before we took action, the United States communicated with the Russian Federation to reduce the danger of any Russian or civilian casualties," said Jon Huntsman Jr., U.S. ambassador in Moscow, in a video message to the Russians posted on social media last Saturday.
Trump had proved he could deal with world's bad guys on his terms, and it was no more Mr. Nice Guy.
DONALD LAMBRO has been covering Washington politics for more than 50 years as a reporter, editor and commentator.
Some planted assumptions here and a strong demonstration that these guys do not understand Trump at all. We need for that lack of perception to continue. If they ever figure out who and what he is and how he operates his job of MAGA will become more difficult than it is.
POTUS Trump has only been in office over a year and he’s doing some great things and it’s really getting on my nerves big time that the more he accomplishes the more these rat bastard treasonous sc*mbag mofos (see how mad I am?) on the left become more hellbent than ever to get him removed from office. SUING him now for colluding with the Russians? Are they freakin kidding me?? He might not run for a 2nd term because of all this BS. I know his first wife Ivana has told him not to do it. He don’t need this BS, he’s a billionaire in his 70s, he spent his whole life building up his business and his name and it’s getting destroyed and all he gets is crap, like this piece of sh*t yesterday Alec “a*shole” Baldwin shrieking that Democraps must win the midterms to save the country from the “madman Trump”.
Good article.....Putin tries to prove himself over and over but TRUMP isn’t being fooled.
False flag
The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them.
Lambro is a Trump hater who is losing readers so comes out with an article that gives Trump a little credit every now and then and then it’s back to anti Trump.
A little iffy on the chem attack; but they were not supposed to have chems any more. So blowing them up was right in either case.
If $50,000 in Facebook ads could swing the election, why did Hillary spend $1.2 billion?
He should run for a 2nd term just to spite his enemies. Then he should quit 2 years into his 2nd term when things tend to go stale-probably won’t. Quit only if the GOP retains both houses. 10 years of Pence will REALLY set the left off.
That occurred to me but then maybe we are just too cynical? Somehow I think not. And I think most of those ads were not specifically anti Trump and there were also ads from the same sourcethat could be construed as anti Democrat.
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