Syria/Iraq

[Vrede too]

Sen. Chris Murphy, Contributor
United States Senator for Connecticut

Trump Is Dragging Us Into Another War... And No One Is Talking About It
While Americans have been focused on the ACA and Trump’s ties to Russia, Trump has been busy expanding the American troop presence inside Syria.

[Vrede too]

Assad and Russia have been rightly condemned for what they're doing to the (Aleppo) civilian population in their efforts to root out the rebels. It will be interesting to see if the same standards are applied to the US, Kurds and Iraqi government in their efforts to root out the Daesh rebels in Mosul.

Ask the dead babies in Fallujah

Eyewitnesses describe deadly (as high as 300) airstrike in Iraqi neighborhood (in Mosul)

[billy.pilgrim]

Assad and Russia have been rightly condemned for what they're doing to the (Aleppo) civilian population in their efforts to root out the rebels. It will be interesting to see if the same standards are applied to the US, Kurds and Iraqi government in their efforts to root out the Daesh rebels in Mosul.

Ask the dead babies in Fallujah

Eyewitnesses describe deadly (as high as 300) airstrike in Iraqi neighborhood (in Mosul)

March 17th

To be fair, we have announced that there will be an investigation

[Vrede too]

How do those usually turn out?

[billy.pilgrim]

How do those usually turn out?

Likely the evil - insert name her - were attacking us. How were we to know these evil scum were using human shields,

or

Russia did it like way more than us.

[billy.pilgrim]

Assad and Russia have been rightly condemned for what they're doing to the (Aleppo) civilian population in their efforts to root out the rebels. It will be interesting to see if the same standards are applied to the US, Kurds and Iraqi government in their efforts to root out the Daesh rebels in Mosul.

Ask the dead babies in Fallujah

Eyewitnesses describe deadly (as high as 300) airstrike in Iraqi neighborhood (in Mosul)

March 17th

To be fair, we have announced that there will be an investigation

scroll line on msnbc this a.m. read, "dozens of civilian causalities to be investigated".


I'm so relieved by this comforting information - imagine dozens of people - I suppose it could be less next week.

[billy.pilgrim]

Assad and Russia have been rightly condemned for what they're doing to the (Aleppo) civilian population in their efforts to root out the rebels. It will be interesting to see if the same standards are applied to the US, Kurds and Iraqi government in their efforts to root out the Daesh rebels in Mosul.

Ask the dead babies in Fallujah

Eyewitnesses describe deadly (as high as 300) airstrike in Iraqi neighborhood (in Mosul)

March 17th

To be fair, we have announced that there will be an investigation

scroll line on msnbc this a.m. read, "dozens of civilian causalities to be investigated".


I'm so relieved by this comforting information - imagine dozens of people - I suppose it could be less next week.

Investigation over. All is well.

[Vrede too]

Donald J. Trump‏ Verified account
@realDonaldTrump

Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin – watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.

2:39 PM - 9 Oct 2012

“What will we get for bombing Syria besides more debt and a possible long term conflict? Obama needs Congressional approval.”
-- Donald Trump, August 2013

Trump's dangerous expansion of executive war powers
For decades, Congress has relinquished its constitutional role in declaring war. But Trump is taking it to new extremes.

Syria strike disappoints Trump backers in media

President Trump railed against military intervention in Syria before he even launched his presidential campaign. Attacks in Syria, he warned President Obama in 2013, would only lead to "more debt and a possible long term conflict."

Trump carried that notion with him on the campaign trail last year, blasting what he deemed unnecessary military intervention and vowing to implement an "America first" foreign policy.

Trump's decision to launch a missile strike at a Syrian air base on Thursday night was seen as a departure from that stance, leaving some of the president's biggest right-wing media boosters furious and feeling betrayed....

Rand Paul: Trump needs Congress to authorize military action in Syria

... "While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked," Paul said in a statement shortly after reports that the U.S. had launched more than 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles against an airfield in Syria.

"The President needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution, and I call on him to come to Congress for a proper debate," Paul said. "Our prior interventions in this region have done nothing to make us safer, and Syria will be no different." ...

Tell Congress: Stop Trump’s illegal war in Syria



(Tell) Congress: Oppose Illegal War in Syria

Tell President Trump: Open Doors to Survivors of Violence in Syria

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Eyewitnesses describe deadly (as high as 300) airstrike in Iraqi neighborhood (in Mosul)

Investigation over. All is well.

And Trump was accountable:

"(An) attack that was so horrific ... against innocent people, including women, small children and even beautiful little babies. Their deaths was an affront to humanity. These heinous actions ... cannot be tolerated. I now have responsibility and I will have that responsibility and carry it very proudly. I will tell you that. It is now my responsibility. (It crossed) many, many lines. It crossed a lot of lines for me. That was a horrible, horrible thing, and I’ve been watching it and seeing it. And it doesn’t get any worse than that. And I have that flexibility. And it’s very, very possible and I will tell you it’s already happened that my attitude ... has changed very much.”

Oh wait, he was talking about Assad's weapons, my bad. Never mind.

[Vrede too]

Why would Syria mount 'chemical attack'?

While Western powers have blamed Syria's regime for this week's suspected chemical attack, questions remain over why it would make such a move following a string of victories and a diplomatic comeback....

[billy.pilgrim]

Why would Syria mount 'chemical attack'?

While Western powers have blamed Syria's regime for this week's suspected chemical attack, questions remain over why it would make such a move following a string of victories and a diplomatic comeback....

Putie thought Donnie needed a photo op

[O Really]

Putie thought Donnie needed a photo op

I think you've hit a real possibility there.

[Vrede too]

Struggling POTUSes do always resort to a foreign "crisis" in order to deflect from their failures. Otoh, it could be that Trump's overt sloppiness in courting Putin's help to get elected has now backfired and he'll find it difficult to do Putin's bidding.

[Vrede too]

Twitter Reminds Trump of All the Times He Said Not to Attack Syria

[JTA]

Twitter didn't come about until 2006, and really came to fruitation during Obama's term(s). A lot of social media really took off during that time.

Now we have a gold mine of hypocrisy.

[Vrede too]

White House press secretary Sean Spicer, today:
"You had someone who was despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons."

Then later:
"... he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing."

Oh good, all those German Jews survived the gas chambers. I was worried.

[Vrede too]

Eric Trump says his 'heartbroken and outraged' sister Ivanka helped persuade their father to strike Syria

Great, our foreign and military policy is being decided by a former model with a bachelor's degree in economics, a current employer of Chinese and other offshore labor with zero relevant training or experience, and her brother is dumb enough to tell us this.

[Vrede too]

Petition to be delivered to The United States House of Representatives

Sign the bipartisan Lofgren letter telling President Trump he must come to Congress for authorization before military escalation in Syria.

[Vrede too]

Donald Trump Committed Another Impeachable Offense This Week
And it had nothing to do with the Russia investigation.

[rstrong]

Donald Trump Committed Another Impeachable Offense This Week
And it had nothing to do with the Russia investigation.

Nor the real world.

Republicans in Congress declared Obama's military action in Libya to be unconstitutional, because it was done without Congress's authorization. President Bush I did the same, ordered troops into Panama in 1989 to overthrow General Manuel Noriega. As with Obama, President Bush consulted with Congressional leaders but did not seek or receive Congress' authorization.

In reality the legal issues were settled by the Office of Legal Counsel when the same thing was done with troops sent into Haiti and Bosnia in the 1990s.