This is how it starts…

[UtahFanSir]

Obama’s call for Asad to go was right, but it contained no real bite from actual teeth. Trump is poised to completely reverse his stance over the course of one news cycle. That is the power of the press, or dead children on sea shores or sprayed with chemicals. During the campaign, Trumps warned us voters that Hillary Clinton would begin WWIII by increasing the U.S. role in Syria. According to the New York Times, today Pentagon officials are preparing options for a military strike in Syria. One option includes a “saturation strike,” using dozens of cruise missiles to attack military targets. Dead Russians are expected. Welcome to the next war.

[zeous]

Ssdd

[SkinyUte]

I thought Trump’s whole shtick was that the US isn’t the world’s policeman anymore. Guess he must have finally figured out the profit (and distraction) found in going to war. Lovely.

I don’t see any scenario where this ends well.

[UtahFanSir]

A profit motive could be there for the US, but frankly, I don’t think so. Assad is just a bad guy, a classic tyrant over “his” people. He is another Saddam Hussein. Trump finally has caught up with where HRC was in respect to Assad. As with Bosnia, the world’s leading countries have waited until the carnage is horiffic before seriously considering exercising the bad seed. At least they welcomed the refuguees with open arms, until swamped.

I’ve seen folks here or on UFN who are more conservative than me complain about Obama’s weak response to Assad-Russian killing of Syrians. Those same folks blamed Obama for the rise of ISIS in Syria due to Obama’s weak response.

As I noted above, Trump did in fact say during the campaign that HRC would lead the US into WWIII by venturing into Syria to get at Assad. Now, a news cycle or two in post-chemical weapons use on Syrian people, and Trump sees the light. Why the Russians have not been able to contain their guy is a mystery to me. For them it may be about arms sales and a client state in the Middle East. But the military targets the US has in sights, will have Russian boots on the ground. Any strike, which appears likely now, may kill Russians.

If I were a betting man, I’d bet dollars to donuts that Trump’s folks have already told the Russians to lead, follow, or get out of the way, because Assad’s days are over. The US is not asking for permission. I’m not making this up, this is not fake news. All of you unhappy folks with my post above, it is real stuff.

The Russians now know just how far Trump’s administration can be pushed.

[SkinyUte]

I actually don’t have much issue with him kicking Assad in the face, especially after his recent chemical attack. My issues with this particular action is twofold:

1. We’ve seemingly reversed our entire middle-east policy in a 24-hour period, which only adds to the perception that everything this administration does is on a whim, rather than planned out with a deliberate strategy. Tillerson’s comments today about how this doesn’t change the administration’s stance on Syria only serve to reinforce the question of “does anyone actually know what we’re doing?”

2. What’s the end-game here specifically as it relates to Russia? It’s being widely reported that they received advanced notice and cleared out their people (why there were Russians stations at a base where chemical weapons were being deployed against civilians is another discussion entirely). What will be the response? Or will there even be a reesponse? The Kremlin was asked whether it’s true that the Russian anti-missile systems were switched off for the attack: “No comment” Between this and reports from ABC that the entire base and its equipment were evacuated, the whole thing stinks of coordinated theater.

There’s a lot that remains to be seen here, and actions in the coming days will tell us a lot. With any other President, I might see this as firm and decisive action in the face of a difficult decision. With Trump, I see it as yet another example of his hair-trigger temper and inability to stay consistent on any position.

It just so happens in this case that most people support the action. But what happens when North Korea says he has a tiny penis and he rains missiles on Pyongyang? It’s unfortunate that my default position on Trump is to not trust whatever he does even if I agree with it, but that’s the bed he made by lying with every breath.

[UtahFanSir]

Great to know that other folks think about these issues as deeply as I do, and are not afraid to articulate our concerns. Your comment on Trump’s flip flop being a case in point. The deeper issue in his “conversion” is it means almost nothing a politician says in a campaign has any validity at all. To me that is troubling.

Edit: “Since taking office 11 weeks ago, Trump has ramped up military involvement in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. In Yemen, where the United States previously had little presence, he expanded a bombing campaign after a botched special forces raid ended in the death of a Navy SEAL and dozens of civilians. Meanwhile, troop levels in both Iraq and Syria have increased as well.”

Making America Great Again…