Trump Orders Strike Against Syrian Base

President Trump is putting both Russia and Syria’s leader Bashar Assad on notice

(NBC News) The United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syria overnight in response to what it believes was a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 100 people.

At least six people were killed, Syria claimed, but the Pentagon said civilians were not targeted and the strike was aimed at a military airfield in the western province of Homs.

The action completed a policy reversal for President Donald Trump — who once warned America to stay out of the conflict — and drew anger from Damascus and its main ally, Russia.

The missiles were launched from the USS Ross and the USS Porter in the Mediterranean Sea toward Shayrat Airfield. American officials believe it was used by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad to carry out a strike on Tuesday involving chemical weapons that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people.

“Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children,” Trump said in remarks from Mar-a-Lago, his family compound in Palm Beach, Florida. “It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”

For all the attacks that the U.S. has launched in Syria, this is the first time the Assad regime’s infrastructure was attacked. As Marco Rubio noted, this was no symbolic strike

Syria’s military said the U.S. attack violated “all international laws and customs” and that it made America a “partner” of ISIS “and other terrorist organizations.” It condemned the White House for acting “without knowing the truth about what occurred and without identifying those responsible” for the chemical attack.

Our intelligence was pretty darned certain who was responsible for the attack, as were other intelligence services.

The good thing here is that Trump is a maverick. Assad can’t be certain what Trump will do next, other than launch massive airstrikes for the use of chemical weapons. And that should concern Assad heavily. Perhaps Assad thought Trump would just shrug his shoulders like Mr. Obama did.

So far, most liberal opinion pages haven’t decided what to make of this. The NY Times Editorial Board hasn’t chimed in yet. They’re surely attempting to find a way to slam Trump. The Times’ Thomas Freidman is on Morning Joe as I type this, and approved of the strike. The Washington Post Editorial Board takes a rather even tone in a rather short piece, wondering what he might do next. Most other major outlets haven’t run anything yet.

But, then, there are the Democratic Base nutters. Salon’s Tatiana Baez runs a short (well, short for Salon) article, but, then the nuts go nuts in the comments

• We have been through this movie before: a peacock-strutting neophyte, desperate for “tough-guy” street cred, blows the shit out of a puny, inconsequential “enemy”…because he can. The crack-like rush of one sortie will not be enough for Trump. Next up: North Korea.
• Trump the draft-dodging moron is the best recruitment tool ISIS ever dreamed of. the goddam idiot is now a murderer on top of all his other disgusting titles.
• TRAITOR TRUMP FU

Just a few. Then we jump to the Democratic Underground, which has been ramping up the crazy back to George W. Bush levels since the end of January

This supposed f***ing ‘missile strike’ STINKS to High Heaven. I’m not buying it …

I’d bet that *IF* the US actually DID what the Drumpf Administration is claiming in Syria today … then we did probably not blow up a single actual plane, or munitions dump, nor kill a single person.

In fact I’ll go a step further and say PUTIN, in cahoots w/Drumpf … probably ordered the chemical attack in the first place.

It’s all WAY TOO CONVENIENT that it all happened just in time to distract the public from:
a) Nunes stepping down from Russia Probe, due to Ethics violations, directly involving Drumpf,
b) The F***ING GOP using the Nuclear Option to force Gorsuch down our throats,
c) Bannon being removed from NSC,
d) The ex-CIA Chief coming out and saying that they’d been monitoring the Russian Connections between Drumpf’s cohorts and Russian operatives for MONTHS before the elections,
e) the FAILURE of the AHCA to get through before the Congressional Recess

What could POSSIBLY WORK BETTER for Drumpf … than the entire sequence of events that just happened?

I mean, not only does he distract from these negative stories, he gets to ‘appear’ to be ‘acting against Russian interests’. HOW PERFECT!

And people are BUYING THIS BULLSHIT?

Adam Schiff (D) whined over at Raw Story about Trump not having the authorization to do this from Congress, and attempts to claim that he was against Obama doing this. Rep Jim Himes (D) is on Morning Joe attempting to find ways to slam Trump along the same lines, until Joe got him to agree that the strikes were a good thing.

Deadspin called the release of photos showing the launch of the missiles “war propaganda.” Oh, and ANSWER, which had been pretty quiet during the Obama regime period, goes nuts

Protests across the country this Friday & weekend against Trump’s war on Syria. Read, share & mobilize! https://t.co/LHVBAvN2qk

— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) April 7, 2017

Got that? Trump’s war on Syria after one strike.

Wrapping up, Joe Scarborough makes a good point, namely that it would be a Bad Idea for Syria or Russia to mock Trump, especially with anything that notes that Trump didn’t do that much damage. Because Trump will attack back to finish the job.

Well, one more bit of nutbaggery. I’ll leave you with this conspiracy theory

And there you have it….. https://t.co/vOXWpEXSfh

— CODEPINK Cleveland (@CodePinkCLEVE) April 7, 2017

It’s referring to this

Oil prices leap after U.S. missile strike on Syria https://t.co/eQTizUvpN6 pic.twitter.com/Azw542tzf0

— WLWT.com (@WLWT) April 7, 2017

Crossed at Right Wing News.