After running a campaign as an extreme isolationist, Donald Trump’s cabinet of generals and billionaires and billionaire generals convinced him to respond to an alleged Syrian government chemical weapons attack with a cruise missile attack on a Syrian airfield. Liberals are largely against this act of militarism, this despite the fact that Obama got the U.S. involved in Syria in the first place.
Syrians Miss Obama’s Kinder, Gentler Bombing Style
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
15 Comments. Leave new
The “liberal” establishment has finally deigned to recognize Herr Hair as genuinely “presidential” since he emphatically entered the bipartisan US pantheon of oh-so-humanitarian mass-murders-in-chief.
Trump launches military strike against Syria on April 6, 2017:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/06/politics/donald-trump-syria-military/index.html
“(CNN) Hillary Clinton called on the United States to take out Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s Air Force on Thursday, days after a chemical attack killed more than 70 people in the war-torn country,” mere hours before Trump launched his attack on Syria.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/06/politics/hillary-clinton-syria-assad/index.html
Note the date of the “Hillary Clinton Interview [at the] Tina Brown’s Women In the World Summit 4/6/2017”, where she calls for Trump to attack Syria.
I’m sure the Syrians missed the woman’s touch that Trump was unable to administer.
«Liberals are largely against this act of militarism …» I must be reading the wrong US journals – and the wrong epigoni here in Europe – Ted ; my impression was that the so-called «liberals» in your neck of the woods (as in mine) loved Mr Trump’s bombing of the Syrian army, but were a tad put out that he didn’t seek their permission (which would, of course, have been freely given) first. Perhaps I’m misinformed ?…
Henri
I gave up on ”liberals’ in this country when they started cheering Obomber’s gangland style execution of UBL. You can’t claim to be the good guys when you act just like the bad guys.
I’m reminded of the scene in “To Kill a Mockingbird” when Atticus kills the rabid dog. He takes no joy in it; he just does it because it has to be done. I suspect that the reason Atticus took no joy is similar to why Hillary and Obama bragged about it: it’s how each was raised.
Not to mention Ms Clinton’s (in)famous cackle We came, we saw, he died ! referring to the murder of Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi that same year….
And the US wants other countries to disarm (save for its minions in NATO, who are expected to increase their military spending, to the profit of certain industries in the US) ?…
Henri
Trump launches military strike against Syria on April 6, 2017:
[My previous comment here was being moderated, I assume for having two links. So please delete it, Ted. My apologies, as I am now a repeat offender.]
“(CNN) Hillary Clinton called on the United States to take out Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s Air Force on Thursday, days after a chemical attack killed more than 70 people in the war-torn country,” mere hours before Trump launched his attack on Syria.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/06/politics/hillary-clinton-syria-assad/index.html
Note the date of the “Hillary Clinton Interview [at the] Tina Brown’s Women In the World Summit 4/6/2017”, where she calls for Trump to attack Syria.
I’m sure the Syrians missed the woman’s touch that Trump was unable to administer.
« I’m sure the Syrians missed the woman’s touch that Trump was unable to administer.» Not to worry, Glenn – I am told on good (?) authority that Ivanka Trump influenced her father’s decision to bomb Syria….
Not even the Trump administration is lacking a woman’s touch….
Henri
> Not even the Trump administration is lacking a woman’s touch….
Trump has always been about touching women. 😀
«Trump has always been about touching women.» The ambiguity of the genitive case – lingusitics’ answer to die Heisenbergsche Unschärferelation…. 😉
Henri
Obama’s Plan A for Syria was Libya Redux, a no-fly zone of the ‘We came, we saw, he died’ kind. The US Ambassador to Libya lost his life arranging for al-Qaeda in Libya to send matériel to the pro-democracy activists in Syria, matériel paid for by the US and Saudi. This matériel included sarin, to be used to peacefully establish democracy and freedom in Syria. After the sarin was used and crossed Obama’s Red Line, the US military was under orders to prepare for the no-fly zone, but then Parliament voted ‘NO!’ and Obama could not defy Parliament the way he could defy the Colonial Congress when it ordered him to stop the campaign to force regime change in Libya (a campaign the Parliament approved, wholeheartedly).
So, after having the Ambassador help arrange for the sarin attack that crossed Obama’s Red Line, Obama could do nothing about it. Trump, however, did not need a vote by the Parliament: the attack on the Syrian airbase took place before the Parliament could vote.
Additional sarin attacks will occur until Trump orders a campaign similar to the one that liberated Libya.
Of course, Russia and Iran are rattling sabres, saying they will never allow Trump to hand Syria over to the Higher National Council, al-Qaeda in Syria, and the ISL, but Russia and Iran are not strong enough to stand up to the US, so Putin will be forced to back down, or the US will force regime change on Russia. (And if Russia does like the evil dictator of Libya and dismantles all the Russian defences, Russia will receive the same gratitude that the dictator of Libya received.)
Indeed. I rather suspect the Russian leadership is well aware of this fact, and is unlikely to disarm. I note, moreover, (as certainly the Russians certainly have) that Mr Trump, speaking alongside that noted statesman Jens Stoltenberg, has determined that NATO is «no longer obsolete» – prologue to the omen coming on ?…
Henri
Perhaps the liberals are upset because Trump went after an airfield (a legitimately military target), showing that Obama was simply bloodthirsty?
+1
I don’t doubt that many of you will find this Washington Post article by Verlan Lewis as interesting as I did. I suspect that there are also other factors, which the good Dr Lewis for some reason omits from consideration, which impel US presidents towards the military option, but in any event, the historical pattern is well worth noting….
Henri