“The media is going to do all they can to try to make this attack a lose-lose for Trump”
They don’t have to...there’s enough people around here to do the job for them!!
According to this article, all 59 made there mark. And it sounds like the US has some serious intel on the gas attacks, even down to the pilots:
“On April 4, 2017, the commander of No. 677 Squadron — Col. Yusuf Hasuri — received written orders from the Ba’ath Party headquarters in Damascus to arm two of his Sukhois with bombs filled with chemical agents. Syrian intelligence believed that leaders from Syrian jihadist group Hayat Tahrir Ash Sham were planning on meeting in the town of Khan Sheykhoun.”
On April 4, 2017, the commander of No. 677 Squadron — Col. Yusuf Hasuri — received written orders from the Ba’ath Party headquarters in Damascus to arm two of his Sukhois with bombs filled with chemical agents. Syrian intelligence believed that leaders from Syrian jihadist group Hayat Tahrir Ash Sham were planning on meeting in the town of Khan Sheykhoun.
The Su-22s took off at 6:30 in the morning — unusually early for a Syrian air operation — and took the population of Khan Sheykhoun by surprise. Local early-warning systems activated minutes after four chemical bombs released by Hasuri and his wingman hit a road inside the town.
Between 74 and 86 people — including dozens of children — died within minutes. As at least another 557 people were injured. An Su-24 launched from Tiyas air base at 9:04 that morning dropped four bombs on a field hospital treating the wounded.
The Russian Ministry of Defense further claimed that only 23 out of 59 Tomahawks fired by the U.S. Navy reached their targets. How the Russians “know” this remains unclear, but one thing is certain.
The strike was executed with such precision that none of the Russian Kamov Ka-52 helicopters nor any of the Russian air force personnel deployed at Shayrat was harmed.
Money quote:
If no fewer than 26 BGM-109s failed to reach their targets, their wreckage would litter Syria. And regime and militant forces would likely be showing off ruined Tomahawks in propaganda videos.
agreed
I am not a McCain Saudi-Turkey connected globalist seeking before hand (for more than a decade) regime change in Syria.
I have enough to not buy as 100% all there is that the civil war was inevitable due only to the “opposition” (MB backed from I’ve read) “Arab Spring” protests and Assad’s response. Minus the foreign backers, cheerleaders, sponsors and supporters the “Syrian opposition” would have stood down pretty quickly and the status quo restored. That status quo was a security situation we and Israel were able to contain and maintain and including the level of Russian and Iranian support Assad had at the time. But the regime change agenda behind the “syrian opposition” agenda, and the destabilization across Syria resulting in greatly magnifying how broadly and deeply both Iran and Russia became involved helping Assad, and magnifying and making more complex and difficult a security situation that was under control.
With all of that said, I think Trump did as much and as little as was called for, and politically he could not have just done nothing. It was a pragmatic response in a very complex situation. Now it is up to Russia and Assad to decide to make things worse, or not.