[grania]

I listened to that press conference this AM. There's NO evidence that the Assad regime was responsible for those illogical chemical attacks. Just more of "we have to keep our sources confidential". Say, what? Sources from inside the rebel-held territory?

Maybe I'm hearing what I want to hear. The carefully crafted statements and President Trump's comments make me hopeful that there's skepticism about Assad being involved. It sounded as if the strikes were to assure that Assad couldn't manufacture chemical weapons if he chose to do so.

But, yeah, freepers who like more US-led chaos in Syria. McCain and his Terrorists applaud the strikes! Doesn't that give you pause?

[Mariner]

I opposed the strikes.

But I believe Mattis and Trump when they say they can trace the chem attack to Assad.

They are a far cry from the Bush and Obama era.

[Redwood71]

grania,

Our being involved with Syria is just like our involvement in Vietnam. We had no business being there getting into someone’s civil war. The atrocities that happen in these cases are horrible at best, some call them savage, but they exist no matter who accomplishes them.

The thought that there is a way to stop the use of weapons like NBC in the middle east is only as good as the people there willing to stop it. An outsider like us, Russia, France, England, even Saudi, are not going to get the weapons out. They have been entrenched there since long before the 80’s and are being manufactured far faster than they can be found.

The manufacture of NBC has been a use for leaders in the middle east for a long time. We gave a lot of it to Saddam to use against Iran (VX). But his favorite was mustard gas most of which he got out of Germany. And the cake for his fledgling nuclear program came out of Niger and South America.

Something as simple as chlorine bleach and ammonia, the basic formula for mustard gas, can be purchased at almost any store in the world. Toss in a little sulfur, in the US that can be purchased at any hardware store, and you’ve got a long lasting product that can poison others just by contact with one who has it on their clothes. And it lasts for days with residual effects on the ground.

I disagree with the US as Obama and Bush did the same thought process, that NBC attacks need to stop and we can do that. We can’t. But at least it is not like Afghanistan as we do not “officially” have boots on the ground there.

But as Jack Palance said in the movie, “Day ain’t over.” And confession is good for the soul.

rwood