Tomahawks and Sarin

Last night the President authorized a missile attack on a Syrian airbase where those stocks of sarin nerve gas which weren’t surrendered to the Russians as the agreement that the Kerry/Obama team required were stored. From the Washington Post’s Dan LaMothe;

The U.S. Navy launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles early Friday in Syria at a military airfield in response to a chemical-weapons attack this week on civilians, U.S. military officials said, relying on a mainstay weapon when the Pentagon wants to attack from a safe distance.

The missiles were launched about 4:40 a.m. local time from the USS Ross and USS Porter, Navy destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, defense officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the operation. The strikes targeted al-Shayrat air base in Homs province, from which the Syrian military allegedly launched chemical weapons attacks against civilians Tuesday…Russian forces also use the base, but U.S. military officials said they “deconflicted” with them ahead of time to minimize the possibility of them being caught in the strikes.

The Syrians are complaining that seven people were killed in the attack, including four children. I don’t what four kids were doing on an airbase at 4 o’clock in the morning, but those people aren’t very good about telling the truth. From Stars & Stripes;

Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian opposition monitor, said the U.S. missile attack killed at least four Syrian soldiers, including a general, and caused extensive damage, according to AP.

The attack was designed to avoid the actual chemical weapons to prevent the accidental spread of the deadly nerve agent, but the question should be; “why hasn’t Russia taken possession of these weapons?”

Ron Paul claims that the attack on civilians was a “false flag” attack designed to make it appear as if the Syrian government used the weapons, but I’m guessing that no one else in Syria has sarin gas or the means to deliver it to the battlefield, besides the Russians.

His son, Rand Paul, wants to take part in the decision;

But Sen. Rand Paul called on Trump to consult on Congress.

“While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked,” Paul said. “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.”

Trump’s opponents are wringing their hands about world war. From CNN;

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the US airstrikes on Syria as “an act of aggression against a sovereign state” that “dealt a serious blow to Russia-US relations,” according to a Kremlin statement. Russia said it believed Syria had destroyed all of its chemical weapons and the US strikes were based on a “far-fetched pretext.”

Yeah, well, the Syrian government shouldn’t have access to the weapons, Vlad. Straighten that problem out first.

According to Reuters, Hillary Clinton was calling for strikes on Syrian government airfields in the hours before the attack.

Asked whether she now believes that failing to take a tougher stand against Syria was her worst foreign policy mistake as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, Clinton said she favored more aggressive action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“I think we should have been more willing to confront Assad,” Clinton said in the interview, conducted by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.

“I really believe we should have and still should take out his air fields and prevent him from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them.”

Category: Terror War