U.S. Attacks Syria

[Dill]

(04-14-2018, 12:21 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/13/601794830/u-s-launches-attacks-on-syria?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20180413

...Trump said the attacks were underway and that Great Britain and France were also taking part.

The French are framing this somewhat differently.

Perhaps they are stepping into the power vacuum the US is leaving in the ME?

Macron: France persuaded Trump to strike in Syria

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/04/15/macron-france-persuaded-trump-strike-syria/518960002/
France persuaded President Trump to stay in Syria and launch airstrikes as punishment for an alleged chemical weapons attack, French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday.

He said France now wants to involve Western powers, Russia and Turkey in a new diplomatic initiative to find a sustainable political solution in Syria.
Macron also offered to play the role of intermediary between the United States and Russia.

[fredtoast]

(04-16-2018, 12:55 PM)Bengalzona Wrote:  I like that the action was taken by a coalition rather than unilateral.

This X 1000

When we are not getting attacked ourselves we should never get involved with any conflict unless it is part of a coalition.

[Bengalzona]

(04-16-2018, 07:57 PM)Dill Wrote: The French are framing this somewhat differently.

Perhaps they are stepping into the power vacuum the US is leaving in the ME?

Macron: France persuaded Trump to strike in Syria

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/04/15/macron-france-persuaded-trump-strike-syria/518960002/
France persuaded President Trump to stay in Syria and launch airstrikes as punishment for an alleged chemical weapons attack, French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday.

He said France now wants to involve Western powers, Russia and Turkey in a new diplomatic initiative to find a sustainable political solution in Syria.
Macron also offered to play the role of intermediary between the United States and Russia.

Interesting.

I sure hope our intelligence community had some input on the decision. I like the French and everything. But at the end of the day, the French are French and we are not. (No offense, Arturo. You know I love your country!)

Also looking to see how Teresa May's grilling went today. If Parliament is cool with her actions, that would add credibility to our actions.

Missing the days when the POTUS stepped up and used to tell us (without being too specific) where the info came from and that he checked with Congress first.

[*michaelsean*]

Damn French warmongers.

[GMDino]

So much for Trump being "tougher on Russia than anyone else ever"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-puts-the-brake-on-new-russian-sanctions-reversing-haleys-announcement/2018/04/16/ac3ad4f8-417f-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.553a5a1f8415

Quote:President Trump on Monday put the brakes on a preliminary plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia, walking back a Sunday announcement by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that the Kremlin had swiftly denounced as “international economic raiding.”


Preparations to punish Russia anew for its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government over an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria caused consternation at the White House. Haley had said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that sanctions on Russian companies behind the equipment related to Assad’s alleged chemical weapons attack would be announced Monday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.


But Trump conferred with his national security advisers later Sunday and told them he was upset the sanctions were being officially rolled out because he was not yet comfortable executing them, according to several people familiar with the plan.


Administration officials said the economic sanctions were under serious consideration, along with other measures that could be taken against Russia, but said Trump had not given final authorization to implement them. Administration officials said Monday it was unlikely Trump would approve any additional sanctions without another triggering event by Russia, describing the strategy as being in a holding pattern.


Sometime after Haley’s comments on CBS, the Trump administration notified the Russian Embassy in Washington that the sanctions were not in fact coming, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said Monday.



The Trump team decided to publicly characterize Haley’s announcement as a misstatement. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Monday: “We are considering additional sanctions on Russia and a decision will be made in the near future.”




Privately, another White House official said Haley got ahead of herself and made “an error that needs to be mopped up.”


But other administration officials expressed skepticism that Haley had merely misspoken. They said Haley is one of the most disciplined and cautious members of the Cabinet, especially when it comes to her public appearances. She regularly checks in with Trump personally to go over her planned statements before she sits for television interviews.



Haley issued no clarifying statement on Sunday after news organizations, including The Washington Post, reported prominently that the new sanctions would be announced Monday based on her comments to CBS.




Asked Monday morning why it had taken 24 hours for the administration to walk back Haley’s comments, one White House official said only that there had been confusion internally about what the plan was.




...


Some officials said the misunderstanding could have been the result of Haley’s tendency to speak directly with the president, sometimes outside of the normal policy process. “She’ll usually talk to the president without the rest of the White House and get her remarks cleared directly,” said the senior administration official. “Often we don’t know about them.”


[Doubting the intelligence, Trump pursues Putin and leaves a Russian threat unchecked]



Early in the Trump administration, there were conflicts between Haley’s team and the president on Russia. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Haley delivered a speech at the United Nations that recommitted the White House to the Obama administration’s policy on sanctions related to Russian aggression in Ukraine. The speech was cleared by David Cattler, then a senior official on the National Security Council, but the remarks frustrated Trump, who demanded to know who had approved them.



“Lots of people got yelled at — some by the president,” said a U.S. official at the United Nations. Cattler, in turn, was pushed out of his job a couple of weeks later in a reorganization of the NSC by McMaster.



White House officials said Trump has been impressed with Haley lately, particularly her remarks about Syria over the past week, and stressed Monday that the president holds her in high regard.




In the absence of a permanent secretary of state, Haley has been the face of American diplomacy, playing an especially prominent role over the past week as the Trump administration responded to the attack in Syria.

More at the link.

[Dill]

(04-17-2018, 11:46 AM)GMDino Wrote: So much for Trump being "tougher on Russia than anyone else ever"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-puts-the-brake-on-new-russian-sanctions-reversing-haleys-announcement/2018/04/16/ac3ad4f8-417f-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.553a5a1f8415

More at the link.

So imagine you are Nikki Haley and the two score or so UN representatives she got on board for the sanctions--

suddenly you are flat on your ass because Trump came up behind you and jerked the rug from under you. 

EVen the Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya can't believe his ears.  He was already to negotiate a stand down and . . . .

WWHHAAATTTT?????

[GMDino]

(04-17-2018, 12:29 PM)Dill Wrote: So imagine you are Nikki Haley and the two score or so UN representatives she got on board for the sanctions--

suddenly you are flat on your ass because Trump came up behind you and jerked the rug from under you. 

EVen the Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya can't believe his ears.  He was already to negotiate a stand down and  . . . .

WWHHAAATTTT?????

https://apnews.com/04e34010449a4e89ae63169155e04d4e/White-House-adviser-apologizes-for-saying-Haley-was-confused

White House adviser apologizes for saying Haley was confused

Quote:PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The new White House economic adviser apologized Tuesday to U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley after suggesting she was suffering from “momentary confusion” when she announced over the weekend that new sanctions against Russia were imminent.


Haley had fired back at Larry Kudlow, saying, “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”


A White House official said Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, called Haley to apologize Tuesday afternoon in an effort to mend fences. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.


A striking intra-administration quarrel played out in public when Kudlow told reporters during a briefing in Florida that Haley “got ahead of the curve” when she said the U.S. would be slapping new sanctions on Russia on Monday in retaliation for the country’s support for Syria’s Assad government after its latest suspected chemical attack.


Kudlow said additional sanctions are under consideration but have yet to be implemented. Of Haley, he said, “There might have been some momentary confusion about that.”


Haley had said Sunday during an appearance on “Face the Nation” that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would be announcing new sanctions directed at companies associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program on Monday, “if he hasn’t already.”


But Monday came and went without an announcement.


On Tuesday, following Kudlow’s remark that she must have been confused, Haley said in a statement to Fox News: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”


The dispute between Haley’s team and the White House had been playing out largely behind the scenes since Haley’s initial comments. The White House has been struggling to explain Haley’s remarks amid reports that President Donald Trump put the brakes on the new sanctions. 


Several administration officials have disputed that characterization, saying Haley was out of the loop.


Three senior administration officials said there were several attempts to get Haley to back off or clarify her comments, but she refused.


The officials said that, under the plan conceived last week, the sanctions would have been announced Friday night, at the same time U.S., 
French, and British forces launched a missile strike on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons facilities. But the sanctions were not ready in time for Trump’s Friday night statement, so they were delayed.

The officials said a decision was then made to announce the sanctions as an answer to Russia’s response to the strikes. But that plan was re-evaluated and then put on hold over the weekend as it became clear that Russia’s response was less robust than anticipated. The officials were not authorized to discuss private administration deliberations publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.


A National Security Council memorandum sent overnight Friday said the new sanctions would be announced soon, but it did not specify a date. Over the next 36 hours, officials began to delve deeper into the proposed sanctions and decided to hold off on anything imminent, but Haley was unaware, the officials said.


On Monday, a new memo went out from the NSC saying that additional sanctions were under consideration, but no decision had been made. 


In the face of Haley’s refusal to clarify on Sunday, draft language was sent to her suggesting again that she do so, the officials said.


Haley and her office ignored that so the White House decided to push back, the officials said.


On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., applauded the administration Tuesday as having “moved miles in the right direction” on Russia policy.


“Not only did we scuttle the reset, not only are we now sanctioning Russian citizens, not only are we sanctioning Russian oligarchs, we’re sanctioning Russia itself. We have so improved our policy with respect to Russia, far more hawkish, far more realistic,” he said.

[Dill]

(04-16-2018, 08:43 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: Interesting.

I sure hope our intelligence community had some input on the decision. I like the French and everything. But at the end of the day, the French are French and we are not.  (No offense, Arturo. You know I love your country!)

Also looking to see how Teresa May's grilling went today. If Parliament is cool with her actions, that would add credibility to our actions.

Missing the days when the POTUS stepped up and used to tell us (without being too specific) where the info came from and that he checked with Congress first.

Someone had to step up and fill the leadership vacuum, now that we are all "America first."

Same thing is happening in the Far East, as China steps up with the TPP.

[Bengalzona]

(04-18-2018, 03:47 PM)Dill Wrote: Someone had to step up and fill the leadership vacuum, now that we are all "America first."

Same thing is happening in the Far East, as China steps up with the TPP.

When I see "TPP", I always think "toilet paper party".

[Dill]

(04-18-2018, 04:23 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: When I see "TPP", I always think "toilet paper party".

Well that was the original idea--involving 11 countries.

Then Trump pulled us out of all the fun.

[Bengalzona]

(04-19-2018, 01:57 AM)Dill Wrote: Well that was the original idea--involving 11 countries.

Then Trump pulled us out of all the fun.

Now I have visions of TP'ing the Forbidden City.

[ballsofsteel]

The head of our country, Vad Putin instructed Drumph, "no sanctions comrade".

[GMDino]

(04-19-2018, 06:04 AM)ballsofsteel Wrote: The head of our country, Vad Putin instructed Drumph, "no sanctions comrade".

http://www.newsweek.com/now-russia-says-it-told-us-where-syria-it-was-allowed-bomb-895204

Quote:RUSSIA SAYS IT TOLD U.S. WHERE IN SYRIA IT WAS ALLOWED TO BOMB


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has claimed that Moscow dictated where U.S., British and French forces were allowed to attack in the weekend's air strikes on suspected Syrian chemical weapons facilities, Sky News reported.

Coalition forces destroyed three storage and production sites in response to an alleged April 7 chemical attack on civilians that killed at least 40 people in the rebel-held city of Douma, near Damascus.

Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, denied that a chemical attack took place. Investigators from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were trying to reach Douma to establish what happened but were struggling to gain access.

According to Lavrov, Russia had been in contact with the coalition in the days leading up to the attack, dictating its “red lines” beyond which air strikes would be considered unacceptable. Russian officials had previously warned that any attacks on Syrian territory would result in Russian retaliation.

“There were military leadership contacts between generals, between our representatives and the coalition leadership,” Lavrov told state news agency RIA. "They were informed about where our red lines are, including red lines on the ground, geographically. And the results show that they did not cross these red lines.”

The U.S. and Russia use a so-called “deconfliction” telephone-line communication channel to avoid accidental clashes in Syria. The country has become a congested war zone in which multiple nations are fielding forces to pursue differing interests. It is likely the line was used in the run-up to the weekend’s attacks, but for the two sides to be discussing the acceptability of specific targets would be unusual.

Though the attacks were lauded as “precise and overwhelming” by a Pentagon spokesman, the military admitted it was unlikely that it would be able to completely stop Assad’s chemical program.

At least 105 missiles were launched at the targets. The Pentagon said that all weapons hit their targets successfully. Russia claimed that Syria’s Cold War–era air defenses shot down 71 coalition missiles but provided no evidence. The Pentagon said Syrian batteries fired 40 interceptor missiles, most only after the strikes had finished.  

Lavrov said Russia is now planning to supply Syria with modern S-300 air defense weapons to improve the country's shield against future strikes. “Now, we have no moral obligations," Lavrov commented. “We had the moral obligations; we had promised not to do it some 10 years ago, I think, upon the request of our known partners.”

He continued, “We took into consideration their claim that this could destabilise the situation. Even though it's purely defensive. Now we don't have this moral obligation any longer.”

Lavrov said he was confident that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump would not allow tensions in Syria to escalate into all-out war. “They are the leaders who were elected by their peoples, and they are responsible for peace and calm,” he said.

[Arturo Bandini]

The russians are playing with the rules, they love to do that and in Syria, they mix toxic weapons and normal ones so they search the limit where it could be detected or not.

When in 2013, they played the first time, Poutine saw that we did nothing and he invaded Ukraine a short time after that.

We just made sure Poutine knows, USA, France and UK can strike in coordination where they want and when they want ( it is basically 75% of the world military power ) far from our countries and not far from Russia itself.

He got payed for his bluff that time because he doesn't have much to give back except cyber attacks.