What would you do in Syria

[Dill]

(04-09-2017, 03:15 PM)JustWinBaby Wrote: I'm not sure why there is praise or criticism.  IMO, this was a necessary action as reprisal for failing to abide by the agreement, which was specifically to get rid of chemical weapons.  Almost literally the only way to have done less would have been to do nothing. 

So I'm not sure what you think this means in terms of long-run policy goals.  We were kind of backed into a corner by virtue of making the agreement in the first place.  Not that we shouldn't have gone that route, but Assad kind of forced our hand here.  I don't see how this bombing, on its own, represents any "long-term policy", much less a change in one.

And it's quality spin claiming Trump triggered an attack with weapons Syria wasn't supposed to have....it's Trump's fault, not a failure of the prior administration.  Nice.

Seems if Assad either withheld some Sarin or acquired it after the previous batch was destroyed, it is clear he did not use it again while Obama was president. I do not regard that as "failure," however much Fox and McCain wanted a firestorm with dead Americans and Syrians.

Whether Trump "triggered" an attack is to be settled by looking at the sequence of events leading up to the attack. That Assad was in violation does not mean he did not take Tillerson's statements as permission, much as Saddam misread US intentions before his invasion of Kuwait.

At the moment, I do not think this means anything in terms of long term policy goals except that we don't seem to have any, which is a minimal requirement for judging whether Trump's act was a "success."  I agree that Assad forced Trump's hand (and Obama's before him). He is the bad actor here, not Trump.  But that does not mean Trump has acted wisely or effectively, and therein lies the concern.

I am not against air strikes. Perhaps they were necessary. But there was a framework in place for respecting international law, and Trump suddenly ignored it, acting impulsively, with no further plan that I can see. My hope is that Mattis and McMasters have more control than they have heretofore appeared to have.