Trump's Fail on Syria

[rareboy]

I wonder if the Chinese hadn't been over for a steak barbecue if the missiles would have been fired?

 

[Kulindahr]

From what I've read, Tomahawk missiles can fly over 1,600 km (1,000 miles) and explode within a metre (a few feet) of its target. The airport and runway should have been toast. That tells me that the misses were intentional and were nothing more than show, more for Trump's supporters and the rest of America than for Russia and Syria.

That's a pile of taxpayers' money that might as well have been flushed down the toilet... not to mention how many trips to Mar-a-Lago that would have paid for.

Out of 59 Tomahawks there was reportedly only one miss. The issue is that the runway was not a target. They've released pics of the results, though for some reason not a single site that says it has images is responding to my clicks. But the DoD says they wiped out fuel storage, munitions storage, a parts depot, and more -- just not the runway.

And they explicitly said the runway wasn't targeted in order that the Russians can keep using it.

 

[gsdx]

^ Then the missiles and the money were wasted for nothing. It solved nothing. It deterred nothing.

Did it even gain Trump a ratings percentage?

 

[Telstra]

I think bombing airfields is the right strategy if Assad soldiers used chemical weapon (the news didn't say 100% for sure). What do you thing?

 

[Kulindahr]

^ Then the missiles and the money were wasted for nothing. It solved nothing. It deterred nothing.

Did it even gain Trump a ratings percentage?

I just saw a report from the BBC that the attack destroyed 20% of Syria's air force. If the earlier report of 20 planes destroyed, then Assad has eighty planes left. That should be a pretty clear message not to cross the line again.

As for Trump there are a lot of his followers mad at him for this, so he might have actually lost a point.

 

[kallipolis]

^It was coincidental that the Chinese leader was visiting with Donald Trump at the time the missiles were launched.

For the United States, North Korea is a much more important challenge...than Syria.

Reports this morning suggest that China is positioning 150,000 troops on its frontier with North Korea.

 

[kallipolis]

The redeployment of US naval forces could also be an exercise that reminds North Korea there are options, as the recent strike on Syria has demonstrated.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/11/north-korea-ready-for-war-us-navy-redeploys

I quote:

North Korea 'ready for war' after US navy strike team redeploys
Pyongyang cites ‘reckless moves’ by US and says it will defend the country from invasion ‘by powerful force of arms’, according to reports

 

[rareboy]

The US is not going to invade Korea.

 

[kallipolis]

^No one here, or elsewhere is suggesting that the USA will invade Korea.

The deterrence factor placing a naval squadron off Korea is to address the concerns of South Korea, and Japan nervously watching North Korea's regular missile tests.

 

[rareboy]

With China massing troops at the border with N. Korea and TrumpCo. calling for plans on neutralizing the threat from baby Kim....there is definitely some buzz around this.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and recognize that any American provocation on the peninsula would trigger much broader consequences.

Even now, North Korea must also be laughing over the US 'destruction' of the air base in Syria.

 

[rareboy]

I just saw a report from the BBC that the attack destroyed 20% of Syria's air force. If the earlier report of 20 planes destroyed, then Assad has eighty planes left. That should be a pretty clear message not to cross the line again.

As for Trump there are a lot of his followers mad at him for this, so he might have actually lost a point.

I haven't seen this report...but I am sceptical that Syria would have allowed 20% of its airforce to be destroyed, given that this airfield is one of 26 in the country and that Russia would have given them advance notice of the impending strike.

 

[Stardreamer]

I just saw a report from the BBC that the attack destroyed 20% of Syria's air force. If the earlier report of 20 planes destroyed, then Assad has eighty planes left. That should be a pretty clear message not to cross the line again.

As for Trump there are a lot of his followers mad at him for this, so he might have actually lost a point.

I saw it too but it was 20% of the Syrian planes at that airfield.

 

[gsdx]

Priorities, Mr. Trump. Priorities.

(Thanks once again to johaninsc for finding this.)

 

[rareboy]

^ Sounds more like it.....which is why it is a meaningless, token effort that hasn't degraded Assad's forces at all.

 

[gsdx]

^ Fixing Flint would have cost a lot less money and probably wouldn't have involved explosives.

 

[Sausy]

Yeah, Syria had time to move some planes... if true I do think it's Stardreamer said 20% of the Syrian planes remaining on that airfield. Read an article today about if Assad were overthrown, and yes he IS a bully and monster... most likely radical Sunni groups just barely less terrible than al-Qaeda would most likely win control. So we are in a terrible fix here. Russia would never allow for the replacement of this regime anyway... even if they were to decide Assad was not worth the trouble personally, they would want someone in his party they could control. So essentially an authoritarian regime would be in charge no matter what.

And it is sad that Trump would be so offended by seeing all those bodies, especially the children... yet have such a cruel streak regarding their refugee status. There was another set of pics awhile back that showed a young Syrian refugee boy dead on the beach...but of course no Syrian refugees for America, they're too many potential terrorists among them!

And yeah that kicker with that tweet regarding all those children in Flint exposed to lead in their water where we could do something tangible... replace those lead pipes with a safe delivery system, far more easily than we can do anything to solve the Syrian crisis. Trump screams " America first" yet the only ones he seems to care about are those with at minimum nine figures worth.

 

[gsdx]

And it is sad that Trump would be so offended by seeing all those bodies, especially the children... yet have such a cruel streak regarding their refugee status.

I think it was simply a response to all of the bad publicity he was getting for ignoring the event in the first place.

 

[Stardreamer]

Yeah, Syria had time to move some planes... if true I do think it's Stardreamer said 20% of the Syrian planes remaining on that airfield. Read an article today about if Assad were overthrown, and yes he IS a bully and monster... most likely radical Sunni groups just barely less terrible than al-Qaeda would most likely win control. So we are in a terrible fix here. Russia would never allow for the replacement of this regime anyway... even if they were to decide Assad was not worth the trouble personally, they would want someone in his party they could control. So essentially an authoritarian regime would be in charge no matter what.

And it is sad that Trump would be so offended by seeing all those bodies, especially the children... yet have such a cruel streak regarding their refugee status. There was another set of pics awhile back that showed a young Syrian refugee boy dead on the beach...but of course no Syrian refugees for America, they're too many potential terrorists among them!

And yeah that kicker with that tweet regarding all those children in Flint exposed to lead in their water where we could do something tangible... replace those lead pipes with a safe delivery system, far more easily than we can do anything to solve the Syrian crisis. Trump screams " America first" yet the only ones he seems to care about are those with at minimum nine figures worth.

I think the warning is over emphasized. The only figure I've seen for that warning was 20 minutes and that was relayed through the Russians so the actual amount of time they had was less. That is enough time to sortie some ready aircraft, move some vehicles and get most of the personnel into shelter but not enough time to evacuate many assets.