Posted on 04/07/2017 2:13:29 AM PDT by Candor7
WASHINGTON, April 6, 2017 — The United States fired Tomahawk missiles into Syria today in retaliation for the regime of Bashar Assad using nerve agents to attack his own people.
President Donald J. Trump ordered the attack on Al-Shayrat Air Base, the base from which the chemical attack on Syria’s Idlib province was launched. The missiles were launched from U.S. Navy ships in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross fires a tomahawk land attack missile while conducting naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert S. Price The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross fires a tomahawk land attack missile while conducting naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert S. Price
The attack is in retaliation for the Syrian dictator for using banned chemical agents in the April 4 attack.
“Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians,” Trump said in a statement to the nation. “Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.”
Vital National Security Interest
Trump ordered the targeted military strike on the airfield that launched the attack. “It is in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons,” the president said.
No one disputes that Syria used banned chemical weapons of the people of Idlib, he said, adding that this is a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Syria also ignored United Nations Security Council resolutions.
“Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically,” Trump said. “As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.”
Trump called on all civilized nations to join the United States in seeking an end to the slaughter in Syria, and to end the threat terrorism poses in the blighted nation.
Details of Strike
Shortly after the president’s address, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis issued a statement providing details of the strike. It took place at about 8:40 p.m. EDT -- 4:40 a.m. April 7 in Syria, he said. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross fires a tomahawk land attack missile while conducting naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert S. Price The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross fires a tomahawk land attack missile while conducting naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert S. Price
The strike was conducted using Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, or TLAMs, launched from the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Davis said in his statement. A total of 59 TLAMs targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars.
“As always,” Davis said, “the U.S. took extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties and to comply with the Law of Armed Conflict. Every precaution was taken to execute this strike with minimal risk to personnel at the airfield.”
The strike was “a proportional response to Assad's heinous act,” the Pentagon spokesman said, noting that Shayrat Airfield was used to store chemical weapons and Syrian air forces. The U.S. intelligence community assesses that aircraft from Shayrat conducted the April 4 chemical weapons attack, he added, and the strike was intended to deter the regime from using chemical weapons again.
Russian forces were notified in advance of the strike using the established deconfliction line, Davis said, and U.S. military planners took precautions to minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel at the airfield.
“We are assessing the results of the strike,” Davis said. “Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat Airfield, reducing the Syrian government's ability to deliver chemical weapons. The use of chemical weapons against innocent people will not be tolerated.”
...in Retaliation for Syrian Chemical Strikes...
Where’s the proof they dropped chemical bombs not regular bombs that blew up a Rebel chemical weapons depot?
They have, quite often. That said, they’re usually chlorine, and a lot more limited. Sarin attacks by them are pretty rare, they gave up most (but not all) of their sarin and VX (over 90% of it before cooperation with inspectors was stopped). But in one of the dumbest oversights in “weapons inspection” history, Obama / Kerry did nothing to make Assad declare or limit chlorine supplies, because they’re “dual use”. So after a brief lull, chlorine attacks actually picked up vs. before the inspections.
Anyone remember the “Red Line”? What a joke.
Of course, it’s been years since the inspections stopped, so he could very well have whole new sarin / VX factories up and running by now.
Nerve agents are not a pretty way to go. And doctors are often afraid to touch you because a lot of the agents are oily substances that stick to your skin; you can become a living chemical weapon.
Funny how the rebels keep bombing themselves with chemical weapons and never Assad-controlled areas, isn’t it? Always at the same time that Assad is conducting air raids on the area too. What a wonky strategy.
Don’t get me wrong, if the rebels had the sort of stocks of chemical weapons that Assad confirmedly does, they would be using them. But they’d be gassing areas where Assad controls. Something that never happens.
Assad’s method of siege warfare hasn’t changed. If your enemies are too well hunkered into an area, gas can get them out. It worked in Homs, it worked in Aleppo, and he’s not going to stop doing it in his attacks on north Hama and Idlib unless someone - such as a US president who’s not a total pushover - makes him. That doesn’t mean going to war with him. But it does mean sending a message.
And here I’d definitely say, message sent.
So far it doesn’t look like Trump is interested in regime change. Its simply to remove one airfield off the battlefield that was responsible for the chemical attack
Obviously, as the Cdr and Chief, any president is empowered to use our military in defense of vital US interests and people. And that without congressional authorization.
Can he do the same on offense to promote vital US interests is the question.
Also, does the authization of force in Syria from Congress include this action? My guess is that it probably is written in such a way that it actually does. We sent Rangers and artillermen there a few weeks ago. Obviously, not for a checkers tournament.
I will always support our troops. No question.
I do not want another depose-a-dictator war in the mid-east, though. Imo, we should focus on winning the wars we already are engaged in.
Wonder how the US would feel if some African nation launched an attack on one of our military bases as a show of displeasure against the violence in Chicago.
Assad violated the Chemical Weapons Convention.
And, yes. We can retaliate on behalf of a third party. Suppose he had attacked a hundred or so miles away—Israel.
Apparently, there are many here who prefer Obama’s foreign policy and strategy of doing NOTHING.
I know the Arab Spring Agenda fully.....
But you left an important part out....
After Iran goes down. The POTUS has already publicly stated Iran has to be dealt with.
After that we will move onto another item he has endorsed.
The “Two-State Solution” for Palestinians which I expect to result in many Israelis in Judaea and Samaria being expelled from their homes.
Vladimir Putin may be the only person standing in the way of a process that will end in Jews being evicted from their homes.
Haha. So true. They wear uniforms in baseball.
If any raghead in Syria, of whatever persuasion, wears a uniform at all, it's what has been cast off by fleeing, trembling Iraqi "soldiers".
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2619622/
The S.O.S. said it was time for a regime change, so I guess the globalists have infected this administration...
PRINCE Kush with his suit and Kush flak jacket are advising him. Mattis who wants Dems under him. Tillerson who wants ASsad out. Oil prices up right now after bombing.
MCINSANE who has wanted this all along.
No russian asset was harmed. Russia gave the signal this was going to happen if you watched my thread yesterday. I went long oil and gold because I could see it. Out of it now.
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross. Both built at Ingalls Shipbuilding Pascagoula Mississippi.
“Wonder how the US would feel if some African nation launched an attack on one of our military bases as a show of displeasure against the violence in Chicago.”
You might as well wonder what the US would do is Santa Claus invaded Newark the day after Christmas with an army of reindeer. Both are pure fantasy & irrelevant to Trump’s action in Syria.
Suppose he had? That would still, in my opinion, call for the term "intervene" rather than "retaliate."
Why bother? Who cares? Let them kill each other.
Trump: Why I Launched a Missile Strike on Syria
To Show Everyone That I Am a Soros Stooge
The Donald Trump of the past month is not the Donald Trump I voted for.
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