As Trump Seeks Way Out of Syria, New Attack Pulls Him Back In

NY Times ^ | APRIL 8, 2018 | BEN HUBBARD and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

[McGruff]

Days after President Trump said he wanted to pull the United States out of Syria, Syrian forces hit a suburb of Damascus with bombs that rescue workers said unleashed toxic gas.

Within hours, images of dead families sprawled in their homes threatened to change Mr. Trump’s calculus on Syria, possibly drawing him deeper into an intractable Middle Eastern war that he hoped to leave.

“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday. He blamed Iran and Russia — even singling out President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia by name — for their support of the Syrian government.

[dynoman]

>>>Assad torture victims.<<<

[Mariner]

“No reason not to believe we don’t have that type of information now too. “

I hope that’s the case, and that we become privy to it.

That drives our POTUS and Congress to ask and answer this question as well:

“Is it in US interests to take out Assad’s air force and risk full engagement with Russia over a Chlorine attack in a town nobody in the US can pronounce, or has ever heard of before”?

I’d sure like to hear them make the case before they act. I want to know what US policy is under this administration.

[blueplum]

Jaish - sunni jihadis, mostly alqueda, partly pro-Taliban, definitely anti-Assad, they were the jerks that gave us so much trouble in Iraq. So, no, not US backed. With that caveat, there were certain elements of Jaish that temporarily joined the Harakat group, which was backed by the US, fighting Isis. Not that Harakat ever reported their personnel roster to the US.

Assad doesn’t have to be strategic. He’s standing behind Russia and Iran, oblivious that he will disappear when he’s served their purpose. As I said on a different thread, this is how terrorist regimes work - they kill the fighters and their families, whether it’s Isis doing it or Assad or Lil Kim. That is their mentality - wipe the enemy off the face of the earth. In the western world, we’ve long called thinking like this ‘savagery.’ To them, it’s perfectly normal logic that has defined most of the region’s history, most of the world, even.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

#47. Russian bombers are big and can be spotted/photographed or Iphoned from the ground and sent out to the world.

Smaller fighter planes or helicopters are the best way to deliver rockets and Fuel Bombs and toxic gas.

Could have been the Syrian Army, the Russians (who don’t give a shit what the world thinks), Al Qaeda’s own supplies, ISIS supplies, etc.

Everyone of these have something to gain from killing rebels and their families, including other rebels, so it’s a crap shoot right now as to who did it.

[dynoman]

Last year it was Syrian army fighter jets that delivered the gas. They were tracked loading, taking off, delivering and landing back at the airfield.