HARPER: SYRIA ATTACK MORE EXECUTIVE OVER REACH

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.

Comments

[VietnamVet]

Harper.

Steve Bannon is sidelined. The search for new Chief of Staff is on; most likely from Goldman Sachs. The soft coup worked. Donald Trump will serve out his last four years alive. A more suitable figurehead Emperor will replace him in 2021. I agree that this is meant to scare the shit out of Xi Jinping in order to continue the rule as the Hegemon. Wish us luck. Things are cracking apart; F-16C crashing, errant cruise missiles, collateral damage. A rouge Empire, camouflaged by fake propaganda, runs the world.

[pj]

Hypocrisy

On March 16 of this year, the US Air Force bombed a mosque near Aleppo, Syria, killing at least 46 people. After some delay, the US Air Force said an investigation was required to determine what actually happened.

On April 4 a suspected chemical weapons attack took place in Idlib Province in an area controlled by al-Qaeda affiliates. The Trump administration immediately, and without a proper investigation, blamed the Syrian government and sent 50 cruise missiles to bomb the air base where supposedly the attack originated. (As an aside, if this base had originated a chemical weapons attack, why would you bomb it and potentially release chemical weapons into the air when villages are nearby?)

Throughout the Trump administration, the media and the Democratic establishment have, mostly rightly in my mind, criticized the Trumpers for all manner of suspected unethical, or potentially illegal acts.

On April 7, the Trump administration violated the Constitution itself by committing an act of war through the bombing of a Syria military target without congressional approval. The mass media and the Democratic establishment applauded him.

[doug]

It's been quite some time since Dec. 11, 1941, which was the last time Congress followed the Constitution's requirements for declaration of war. Like some other provisions in that great document, it seems to be viewed as a quaint vestige of no current significance.

[Mikey]

It would be wonderful if Jared's Journey were published. It would make an excellent Neocon children's book.

BTW: the link has one too many http:'s

[Laura]

Priam's Crazy Daughter...

You are not crazy. Amen.

[plantman]

This is an excerpt from an interview with former CIA officer and Director of the Council for the National Interest, Philip Giraldi, who explains what’s happening behind the scenes in the Middle East where “military and intelligence personnel,” “intimately familiar” with the intelligence, say that the narrative that Assad or Russia did it is a “sham.” (The interview took place just hours before Trump launched the attack on the Syrian airfield)

Philip Giraldi– I am hearing from sources on the ground, in the Middle East, the people who are intimately familiar with the intelligence available are saying that the essential narrative we are all hearing about the Syrian government or the Russians using chemical weapons on innocent civilians is a sham. The intelligence confirms pretty much the account the Russians have been giving since last night which is that they hit a warehouse where al Qaida rebels were storing chemicals of their own and it basically caused an explosion that resulted in the casualties. Apparently the intelligence on this is very clear, and people both in the Agency and in the military who are aware of the intelligence are freaking out about this because essentially Trump completely misrepresented what he should already have known — but maybe didn’t–and they’re afraid this is moving towards a situation that could easily turn into an armed conflict.

https://scotthorton.org/interviews/4617-philip-giraldi-says-ic-military-doubt-assad-gas-narrative/

[Richard]

Could the legal justification for Trump's military action have been derived from this?

S.J.Res.21 - Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against the Government of Syria to Respond to Use of Chemical Weapons
https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/21

Of course, this is only an authorization of use of military force subject to the condition that the Syrian government did *in fact* use WMDs.

[Old Microbiologist]

Plus, on a larger issue, what has this to do with the US at all? We are illegally in the country already and now we have created a situation far more dangerous than is justified even if the gas attack was true. Why is it we believe we are the policemen of the Planet?

I admire Putins restraint. I would have sunk 2 ships immediately. Putin always plays the long game so we will have to wait and see where this goes. If this was an elaborate charade just to get Gorsuch approved and the Borgistas off Trumps back, then that might explain why the attack was so amazingly ineffective. The removal of Bannon and Priebus are also coincidentally interesting. There seems to be a lot in play and it is confusing. Maybe there is a much larger gambit going on here that we don't see yet?

[Dr.Puck]

Jack Goldsmith at Lawfare ends his analysis with this:

I can imagine the smile on Trump administration officials’ faces when they figured out that they would both enforce a red line that Obama wouldn’t and rely on Obama administration legal thinking to provide cover for doing so.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/constitutionality-syria-strike-through-eyes-olc-and-obama-administration

[Cold War Zoomie]

BOHICA.

[charly]

In the number of death obviously but in my guess is that those tomahawks carried in the same order of explosives and hit more targets.

[charly]

Laos and Cambodia?

To be fair a drunk lawyer could get you out of those legalities. For wrong i would look at Central America.

ps. I only care about international law as an outsider to America.

[sid_finster]

Am I the only person who finds it utterly rich that the CIA, which tortures people, and Trump, who gives the go-ahead to torture people, have proclaimed themselves to be the Defenders of Human Rights(tm) in Syria?

[turcopolier]

b

It is clear that they simply used the target package from the 2013 planning. They have similar target packages for the other Syrian air bases. The pattern is clear to me. From now on AQ derivatives will stage a gas attack whenever they want to have the US attack Syria. The Borg (deep state/US) has mastered the man easily. I am told that McMaster successfully argued for the smallest strike package among the three options offered. The knowledge of the fraudulent TV propaganda nature of the Idlib attack is widely known in the US government. There was a strategic level recon drone watching during the attack because of Russian notification. It will be difficult to keep the truth hidden but the Trumpians will try very hard. pl

[turcopolier]

charly

I guess you are too young to understand that the opinion of "drunk lawyers" counted for nothing. pl

[sid_finster]

Good to admit that you made a mistake. I was never a fan, but a limited apologist.

No more of that for me.

[anon]

all those sitting ducks on the med are being joined by anothe frigate and a monster sub.radar love is in the air

[Kooshy]

It's the fault of the imperial presidency we all loved and didn't stop when started.

[CulturalHusbandry]

Colonel,
I've lurked here for about a year and a half and love the boards yet have never posted until today. Thank you for allowing me to absorb thoughtful discussion.

Syria is known to have SS-21 Missiles and SCUD variants capable of delivering CM. However I know of NO aircraft remotely capable of delivering either weapons. Those are the only two known Syrian-owned missile systems capable of being outfitted with CM. So it was no missile strike by an aircraft.

The ZAB-incendiary bombs and PTAB 500 cluster bombs, both in use in the region, could possibly be outfitted to carry CW and are air deployable by their very nature. If in fact Syria did deploy one of the latter two bombs it would be the first known use of either as a CW and the development would have had to have been post-2012 and to go a bit further the development program would have had to have eluded OPCW. With the US gov't doubling down on this apparent abhorrent attack as being Assad generated and releasing the "flight path" then shouldn't they be able to answer one simple question.... how the hell did they do it?

[BraveNewWorld]

"Somewhere in the past couple of decades, we seem to have crossed that line"

That day was 9/11. On that day the US government went from being owned by the American people to owning the American people. (Thanks Dick) Bin Ladin could never dream that the results of the attack he planned would be the US government funding, arming and performing attacks for his organization. It's a surreal world.

[ancient archer]

I still think this was a fake attack (with minimal damage - only a few old MiG23s which were in maintenance hangers with airport runway still in operation and some 6 people - who exactly we don't know but that's what has been told to us) in response to a fake chemical attack propaganda. Perfect reply I think.

Now that trump is fighting with Russia - with words if not missiles - there can hardly be the continuation of the Russia story in the neocon controlled media. And war hungry commentators could hardly go back to bashing him after praising him on tv so publicly. If Trump keeps on this charade for another week or two, the neocon media will have forgotten what they were attacking him before this sham chemical attack event happened.

Secondly, with this much hooha from certain quarters within the US as to the legality of this strike, you can be sure that any further aggression will be stymied for the time being. It's not as if Trump is going to be impeached for this attack - AIPAC won't let its domestic dogs in the senate and the congress do that. There was much more chance of Trump being impeached if he didn't order this attack.

So, the benefits of this. Trump-Russia story in the media now grounds to a complete halt. Trump gets his own trumpet blown by the neocon media who like missiles on Syria.

Trump's words immediately after 911 were very insightful. He has seen through propaganda time and again. He know what is fake and what is not. No way he was taken in by the fake chem attack propaganda. But he has paid back the fakers in their own coin! A fake attack on Syria in response to a fake chemical attack propaganda. Bravo!!

[Kooshy]

Don't take me wrong I am not trying to defend Mr. Trump, but what we all exprinced here in US,10 weeks of constant 24/7 politicaly getting beat up in media, with no suport from his own party, getting blocked at everything he said he will do, that did him in. IMO, he soon understood it is easier to be a waiter instead of the cook, and take no heat in the kitchen.

[Mark Logan]

kao_hsien_chih,

Quite. I would suggest as a solution we abandon the tactic of limiting Presidents, it is, IMO, fighting the tide with a bucket. There is nothing in the Constitution which prevents Congress from abdicating their power to the POTUS, and that is essentially what has been happening for a couple decades now. It's much easier than governing. The tactic is to put good people in congress. People who view their role of that body as something much more than that of getting themselves re-elected.

We The People have lost faith in the institution. This is how our representative democracy is actually breaking down. We clamor for change but look only to POTUSes to provide it while sending the same people back to Congress every year, and at the same time. Lawyers can not save us from ourselves. We The People have begun, I fear, to crave the simplicity and coherence of one man rule in the form of a constitutional monarchy, and the poorer We get the more We will demand a government which can act swiftly to save us from our condition.

What to do though...is a troubling question. The system has become a circus in which good people, for the most part, want nothing to do with. Vexing, to say the least.

[Jack]

OM

Occams's Razor would say the gambit is simple. President Trump folded. The Borg won. Probably with Jared Kushner as Trojan Horse.

Reading the comments at InfoWars, it seems that the alt-right feel betrayed. Not easy to regain back trust. Let's see how this gambit works for Jared and Ivanka.

[Sam Peralta]

It makes no sense. If Assad had such weapons why would he use it on some poor village with civilians rather than on AQ forces that he's been battling hard for years?

This was a false flag bait and Trump decided to be on the same side as Hillary.