The overnight missile attack on Shayrat air base near Homs was the latest instance of the Executive Branch taking military action without Congressional approval. Senator Rand Paul has taken the lead in condemning this action, on the grounds that Article I, Section VIII of the US Constitution clearly gives Congress the sole authority to declare war. As Senator Paul noted, the United States was not attacked by Syria.
Furthermore, while the satellite imagery clearly showed that the bombing of the Idlib town coincided with the unleashing of some form of chemical gas, there has been no conclusive investigation, and the Russian narrative--that the site held rebel chemical weapons--is plausible, if not yet confirmed.
The attack took place in the midst of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where one of the hot topics is what to do about North Korea's continuing long-range missile tests and work on completing a nuclear warhead. Clearly there was an implicit message to both North Korea and Iran in the attack.
Russia's immediate response, in addition to condemning the strikes, was to withdraw from the deconfliction agreements with the US. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson travels to Moscow early next week. The Russian government officially confirmed that they were alerted in advance to the pending US strike.
A new and even more unpredictable strategic situation has now emerged in the last 24 hours. The Constitution has been further eroded, and the global security environment has been set on a course that could lead to a much broader war.
Russia has always been the target. For, at least, the entire duration of the Afghanistan "wars". Since before the Crimean war in the 19th century. The resilience of Russia is amazing. They appear to have survived the entire Yeltsin/Harvard fiasco. Taking them on is insanity. But Hitler, Napoleon, etc. etc. were insane. Human beings have done a crappy job taking care of the planet. Maybe that problem is about to be solved. By Russia.
For the record. Not only did Russia defeat both Germany and Japan in WWII, they created modern theater (modern as in Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront and all the other Stanislavski's), their musicians have consistently been the best in the world... unless Irving Berlin, etc. etc. etc. don't count. They are a civilized country, or what remains of a civilized country. Compare St. Petersburg in Russia with St. Petersburg in Florida. Pretty much sums it up.
Posted by: Bill Herschel | 08 April 2017 at 07:24 AM
FB Ali
The tweets about chemical attacks before 4 April are not incriminating because other such attacks had been alleged in the preceding ten days. Specifically a chlorine attack on 25 March which supposedly killed a surgeon while he was operating, and an "organic phosphate" attack on 30 March which allegedly caused 70 casualties but no fatalities. The source for these is a French NGO called UOSSM, which has as its advisers Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, who appears to have been working for MI6 during 2013 in collecting environmental samples from Syria and also providing independent expert briefings to the media, and someone called Dr Raphael Pitti who appears to be his French equivalent (ex-military, collecting physiological samples).
All this is further evidence that the 4 April incident was planned in advance. It's possible that the videos showing victims were recorded on 30 March, and uploaded on 4 April after the air strike. If the US was notified in advance of the airstrike, maybe the rebels were notified also.
Posted by: pmr9 | 08 April 2017 at 08:08 AM
Interesting, thanks, bj. Doing something like that, needs a lot of patience. Not sure if I have it. But it no doubt would be important to take a closer cross-expert-perspective on the media productions. At least for this nitwits interested in it to the extend it drives events.
The doctor: His frequent referral to "another patient with pinpoint pupils" seems to use the hammer-in-technique, there may rarely be supporting visual evidence of the first take. For the layman this devide between what the image does and what the audio may be a challenge in that kind of analysis. Some of the cutting technique may be used to suggest a flurry/rush/hectic which would fit the occasion. Among many things that come to mind, more from the top of my head and from my own background. Anyway: it's result would be: anti-staged visually. ;)
Unfortunately not many people will pay attention. See above. This needs patience. And it needs expertise one way or another.
More arbitrary choice:
walking while holding his head. He looks a little unstable but walks on his own. He has no beard.
The limits set by our interpretation: I didn't check his Ghouta analysis. But from my very, very special background, in this case Film, TV, theatre, a lot of the videos I watched at the time had the feel and touch of a staging.
Concerning the interpretation of unstableness above. The impression/interpretation could result from the guy being led. In this context, from my own background, my more skeptic mindset, his gesture: "holding his head", made me wonder admittedly.
Posted by: LeaNder | 08 April 2017 at 08:40 AM
Yeah, right
Maybe your moniker sounds like Israeli attitude to me. It is interesting that someone living in Australia has an Israeli e-mail address. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 08 April 2017 at 08:41 AM
Ahh, I see. My apologies for the confusion - I chose my moniker to reflect cynicism, not to conjure images of Zionism. And my email address is a word-play on my moniker, nothing more.
No drama, though I am slightly offended that anyone could regard me as being in any way "Israeli-like". That hurts, it really does.
But, hey, it's just me that's offended so..... no drama, I suppose.
Posted by: Yeah, Right | 08 April 2017 at 10:29 AM
Will those in the Pentagon and at Langley who advised the President (and put him in an impeachable box) to attack Syria be held accountable in this regard? The attack resulted in deaths in Syria, 5 may not be a big number however those 5 will never breath again.
Posted by: J | 08 April 2017 at 11:43 AM
"But I have no tribal loyalties towards Israel, and nothing but contempt for Zionism, and I have no idea why you would think otherwise."
Because this place has been under constant attack by Apocalyptic zIOmbie Trolls.
"But it does so on the coat-tails of the USA, not because it comes up with the idea on its own."
No, they use US goober goyim to mask their mad merciless intentions. This past event is the straw that broke the camel's back and it's owner is coming to collect. They did what Walrus' uncle warned about, take the step too far.
What is to be done when the manipulated masses awaken and tell the Masters "eff u too, it is time to fight"?
Posted by: Thomas | 08 April 2017 at 01:36 PM
Is this the beginning of retaliation:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-08/hacker-group-releases-password-nsas-top-secret-arsenal-protest-trump-betrayal
?
Supposedly a hacking group released the password to some of NSA's most secret hacking tools, and the password has passed muster.
Normally I'd dismiss anything on zerohedge.
Above my pay grade. Just asking ?
Posted by: FourthAndLong | 08 April 2017 at 08:26 PM
What do open sources say about TOMAHAWK ACCURACY AND EFFECTIVENESS AGAINST AIRFIELDS?
Posted by: William R. Cumming | 09 April 2017 at 10:41 AM
fyi not sure under which blog post the following fits, but in any event people may find the following reports of some value:
H. R. McMaster Manipulating Intelligence Reports to Trump, Wants 150,000 Ground Soldiers in Syria https://medium.com/@Cernovich/h-r-mcmaster-manipulating-intelligence-reports-to-trump-wants-150-000-ground-soldiers-in-syria-83346c433e99
Meanwhile, according to various reports, K T McFarland is now out at the NSC and will be appointed as Ambassador to Singapore to soften the blow:
Via @JenniferJJacobs KT McFarland out at @POTUS NSC. Confirmed. KT new ambassador to Singapore. #Trump wanted new post for KT to soften blow
https://twitter.com/MajorCBS/status/851091945325723654
On April 7, two 'senior military officials' briefed the press on background. Follows are two reports. The first is an article posted on the DOD website:
U.S. Strike Designed to Deter Assad Regime’s Use of Chemical Weapons
https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1145665/us-strike-designed-to-deter-assad-regimes-use-of-chemical-weapons
The second is from USAToday, republished by http://www.krem.com:
Pentagon says Russia could have stopped Syrian chemical weapons attack
http://www.krem.com/ext/news/nation-now/syria-us-aggression-kills-7-in-missile-strike-on-airbase/293/nationnow/kjLYjxsfEA6EUsOk8oiwO
Lastly, according to the DOD website, despite the shutdown of the de-confliction 'hotline' between the US and Russian Defense Departments:
Military Strikes Continue Against ISIS Terrorists in Syria, Iraq
https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1145930/military-strikes-continue-against-isis-terrorists-in-syria-iraq
Posted by: John_Frank | 09 April 2017 at 05:07 PM
Was the video shown to the President and he ordered the strike anyway, along with the putting together a cover story to justify the strike; or was the video withheld from the President?
If the video was withheld from the President and the intelligence was manipulated, then someone needs to bring the video to the President and play it for him, (easier said then done) so that he can take immediate action to correct the situation and stop the madness.
Would the logical conduit be someone like Senator Rand Paul?
Irrespective of whatever personal views people may have about Mr. Trump, he holds the office of the President.
Just my two cents.
Posted by: John_Frank | 09 April 2017 at 05:28 PM