[thoughtomator]

Nonsense. There is a near-zero real-world chance that Assad actually ordered a chemical weapons attack.

It makes no sense as a military strategy.

It makes no sense as a political strategy.

One basically has to assume that a man who has kept control of a highly fractious nation for many years is actually completely arbitrary and suicidal.

This is not a realistic explanation.

The only realistic explanation is that the same forces which have been doing their best through deception and fraud to get the United States deeper and deeper into a war against Syria (and by proxy, against Russia) have concocted yet another lie.

I am not having any more friends die for their lies.

No more.

Never again.

[Zhang Fei]

One basically has to assume that a man who has kept control of a highly fractious nation for many years is actually completely arbitrary and suicidal.

---

Hafez Assad kept control of Syria. Bashar, not so much. His use of chemical weapons is consistent with his repeated resort to foreign troops to keep him propped up against civilians armed with little more than raw courage - he lacks both good judgment and political sense. And that is to be expected from someone who inherited his position. Kim Jong-un is a skilled political operator rare among hereditary rulers. But he is the exception to the rule. Bashar’s incompetence is more typical.

[Manuel OKelley]

Yep