I don’t!
What message was that? first we need to know whether it was Assad or not (as it could be a set up to frame Assad for it, since those fighting Assad would love nothing more than instigate a US strike on Assad forces, since they can’t themselves). And secondly, now Russia is in place to shoot down any further missile strikes. All it did was escalate and make matters worse, as it will continue to do unless the USA and Russia work together.
If Trump’s administration has proof that Assad was responsible, they should share that with Russia and both Russia and the US should work together to curb their use and ultimately resolve the Syrian conflict.
Or Trump and his administration were duped, either one. Doesn’t change what I said above though.
I hope this has helped
God Bless
Thank you for reading
Josh
It seems we have to agree to disagree then.
My reason to agree with President Trump’s action is as follow:
(1) It is a fact that some eighty people including children died of toxic gas.
(2) Whoever did the killing did it against the Geneva Convention and therefore was illegal, a war crime.
(3) The Intelligence feedback said that Assad was responsible. Yes, he denied it and his Foreign Minister gave a lengthy press conference to deny it. They said the chemical weapon was kept by the rebels in their ammunition depot which was bombed by the Syrian jets.
(4) The Russians concurred with the Syrian version and asked for further investigation.
(5) President Trump initiated the strike against the Syrian airfield where the jets were launched that caused the chemical weapon death. There were some six Syrian soldiers killed and much of the airfield and fighter planes destroyed.
(6) The Syrians said four children were also killed in the American strike even though it was done at 3 o’clock in the morning and targeted at the airfield, mostly aeroplane shelters.
With the facts above, I would rather believe the Americans rather than Assad and the Russians. In any case, people, including children died by the poison gas.
Granted the Syrians have their version of the incident. I would think it is more likely that Assad had the chemical weapon rather than the rebels and besides he had the planes to deliver them, whereas the rebels did not.
Assad had a history of killing his people with poison gas, the last one was in 2013. His father did it too when he was alive. It seemed a common deterrence used by them to intimidate their people.
The strike was surgical – the Russians were informed before it was launched and the target was a military base. Considering the gravity of the strike, collateral damage was minimal. It is hard to believe that children were killed at 3am in a military airfield. Even if it was true, the Syrians had definitely used human shield knowing (they admitted that they knew the strike was coming) that the strike was coming. It was therefore a very inhuman thing to do. How could we allow such person to get away with murder?
Punitive strike at the Syrian airfield at the moment is just that. The Syrian rebels are not saints either. Maybe the Americans should not be involved at all and let them kill themselves to kingdom come. But making a statement at war crime (by chemical weapon) is reasonable action and for that I agree with President Trump.
The strike sent a message that chemical warfare is a no no and Trump would not compromise with it. It would also send a message to potential user of chemical weapon or maybe to the North Koreans.
President trump had chosen a course of action that is fair if he wanted to be taken seriously on something fundamentally wrong, inhuman and against humanity.
As for sharing information with the Russians, that would be the ideal situation but in reality, such situation does not exist with the Russians. There is so much to hide, so much at stake to outdo one another. America and Russia are still adversaries in many ways even though the Cold war was over, which one should not expect the Russians to suddenly changed just because of it.