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Following reports of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, President Trump authorized the launch of Tomahawk cruise missiles against a base in Syria. The Russian government was notified prior to the launch as they have resources in the area that was attacked.
According to NBC News:
The United States launched dozens of cruise missiles Thursday night at a Syrian airfield in response to what it believes was Syria's use of banned chemical weapons that killed at least 100 people, U.S. military officials told NBC News.
Two U.S. warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired 59 Tomahawk missiles intended for a single target — Ash Sha'irat in Homs province in western Syria, the officials said. That's the airfield from which the United States believes the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fired the banned weapons.
There was no immediate word on casualties. U.S. officials told NBC News that people were not targeted and that aircraft and infrastructure at the site were hit, including the runway and gas fuel pumps.
Also at Al Jazeera:
The United States has launched 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles against Syrian government targets in retaliation for what the Trump administration charges was a Syrian government chemical weapons attack that killed scores of civilians, a US official says.
The targets hit from US ships in the Mediterranean Sea included the air base in the central city of Homs from which the Syrian aircraft staged Tuesday's chemical weapons attack, the US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
[...] He [Trump] called on "civilised nations" to join US in "seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria".
Syrian state TV said "American aggression targets Syrian military targets with a number of missiles".
The poison gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province on Tuesday killed at least 86 people, including 27 children, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Turkey said samples from victims of Tuesday's attack indicate they were exposed to sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent.
The New York Times adds:
The Pentagon informed Russian military officials, through its established deconfliction channel, of the strike before the launching of the missiles, the official said, with American officials knowing when they did that that Russian authorities may well have alerted the Assad regime. "With a lot of Tomahawks flying, we didn't want to hit any Russian planes," he said.
[...] It was Mr. Trump's first order to the military for the use of force — other operations in Syria, Yemen and Iraq had been carried out under authorization delegated to his commanders — and appeared intended to send a message to North Korea, Iran and other potential adversaries that the new commander in chief was prepared to act, and sometimes on short notice.
The airstrikes were carried out less than an hour after the president concluded a dinner with Xi Jinping, the president of China, at Mar-a-Lago, sending an unmistakably aggressive signal about Mr. Trump's willingness to use the military power at his disposal.
Mr. Trump authorized the strike with no congressional approval for the use of force, an assertion of presidential authority that contrasts sharply with the protracted deliberations over the use of force by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.
[...] Mr. Trump moved with remarkable speed, delivering the punishing military strike barely 72 hours after the devastating chemical attack that killed 80 people this week.
Wikipedia notes: Use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war .
(Score: 2, Insightful) by mendax on Friday April 07 2017, @02:48AM (26 children)
This is an example of Donald Trump showing the world that he has a big dick, and that his is bigger than Assad's, and indeed his is bigger that Putin's. Anyone who thinks Trump actually cares for dead Syrian children needs to perform a reality check.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 5, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 07 2017, @02:53AM (16 children)
Anyone who feels the need to demonize a political opponent to that extreme should seek help.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Informative) by hemocyanin on Friday April 07 2017, @02:59AM (2 children)
I'm sure Hillary Clinton is cackling with glee over Trump's murder shot, but pissed she didn't get to push the button herself.
I don't think it is possible to demonize these two enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @04:07AM
Yes, I wonder what Steve "Jared Kushner is a Globalist Cuck" Bannon has to say about this action.
(Score: 2) by GlennC on Friday April 07 2017, @01:23PM
I'm sure Hillary Clinton is cackling with glee over Trump's murder shot, but pissed she didn't get to push the button herself.
I'm sure she's consoling herself with the profit she's going to make, and that part of her glee is because Trump will get the blame instead of her.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @03:09AM (8 children)
Anyone who feels the need to demonize a political opponent to that extreme should seek help.
Hey buzz, you are looking a little anemic tonight.
Have you checked your irony levels?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 07 2017, @03:38AM (7 children)
Modded +1 Touche because we do not, as of yet, possess a "+1, Sick Burn" category :D But in all seriousness, no, the man has no sense of irony. That requires the ability to critically self-examine.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @03:47AM (6 children)
He even rips off his sig, I wonder if he's trolling with it or actually thinks its clever.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 07 2017, @04:04AM (5 children)
A little from column A, a little from column B, is my guess. The guy's a complete no-op when it comes to anything outside coding, sad to say.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @04:22AM (4 children)
> The guy's a complete no-op when it comes to anything outside coding, sad to say.
Even then I don't think he's all that bright.
Remember that crusade he went on to 'fix' the moderation system here because 'good' posts were getting downvoted too much?
He never had any solid proof of his premise but he spent months dicking around with moderation and lots of people gave him attaboys for it.
But even when it was all said and done he never had any proof that the new version was better than original version in any quantifiable way.
He was just fucking with it to fuck with it.
And now I'm beginning to think the moderation system here is holding the site back in exactly the opposite way. I think it elevates empty partisan bickering and does little, if anything, to encourage thoughtful discussion. Just look at the stories that get the most comments, they are all political stories and half the comments are the same old shit about horrible SJWs. Lather, rinse, repeat. Giving everybody 5 mod points every single day encourages people to use them on bullshit posts. And when someone does mod down a bullshit post, there is always at least one butthurt fool who thought the post was an expression of their own personal angst who feels it ought to to be modded back.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 07 2017, @04:27AM (1 child)
All true, but the code itself works. If the idea behind it is bad, well, it's at least competently coded I guess \(O_o)/ I dunno. Makes it easier to make changes later maybe?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @04:38AM
> All true, but the code itself works.
And yet meta-moderation was too hard to get working.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday April 07 2017, @02:50PM (1 child)
Maybe, but I do have to say that for whatever faults this site's moderation system may have, it's still light-years better than Slashdot's. Discussion there has devolved to nothing more than nasty bickering and flame-wars over inconsequential bullshit. At least here I don't see so much of that, and I do see a much higher ratio of thoughtful posts than over there. Some of that may be due to size (the population here is much smaller) and selectivity (basically all the decent people left Slashdot or curtailed their usage of it in favor of sites like this, leaving the scum at Slashdot).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @04:08PM
Moderation has nothing to do with that.
Its a function of the number of participants.
Soylent is just a microcosm of what you complain about happening at slashdot.
There are just less people here and there is only so much any one person can write in a day.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Friday April 07 2017, @03:47AM (2 children)
This wasn't a demonization; it was a psychological analysis of a political opponent. Trump has long given me the sense that he feels inadequate. In this case he decided to use penis-shaped objects--59 of them to be precise--to compensate.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @01:18PM (1 child)
Sometimes a missile is just a missile.
(Score: 2) by n1 on Friday April 07 2017, @04:23PM
As footage of missiles being fired plays on loop across the country on all the networks....
"They are beautiful pictures of fearsome armaments" - Brian Williams
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @03:50AM
Such a wimpy reply, everyone tells me this vulture person is just a troll. Sad.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @02:58AM (7 children)
Fun fact: nobody cares about dead Syrians, or this would have been over long ago.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @03:36AM (6 children)
But they are absolutely shitting-bricks terrified of live syrians coming to live with us.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @03:45AM (5 children)
I know right?
https://www.change.org/p/j-k-rowling-petition-for-j-k-rowling-to-take-in-muslim-refugees-in-her-18-spare-bedrooms [change.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @03:51AM (4 children)
Real or satire? Who knows anymore.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @06:26AM (3 children)
J.K Rowling has been politically active in favor of refugees, but she doesn't suffer the impact because she is isolated by her wealth. She's effectively saying "refugees for you, in your neighborhood, not anywhere near me". This is typical of wealthy liberals who have become detached from normal people's reality.
So it's a real request, but knowing that she will certainly refuse. The bit about refugees being harmless is of course known to be false.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @08:03AM
I meant the comment I quoted in support of the petition. Could be real, could be satire.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @08:03PM (1 child)
While I do have a job that pays above median income, I don't consider myself at all wealthy. And, for a time, I was registered as Republican, although I left the party back when I moved to another state several years ago. (Actually, it's more like the party left me.) I would say that I am not all that detached from "normal people's reality". I can't speak for Rowling but I welcome refugees to move into my neighbourhood. In fact, several years back I was a volunteer for a charitable organization that was helping to acclimate recently arrived refugees to American life. I spent a lot of time with a recently arrived Iraqi family; got to know some of their other expat Iraqi friends. I am hoping to do the something similar again soon.
Says who? At least in America, refugee communities have below-average crime rates. In fact, my experience has been that it is more likely that the refugees are far more terrified of your typical American than the Americans are of them. Typically, they are afraid of not being able to communicate with the local population and not understanding the local culture and customs. My experience has been that refugees are extremely appreciative when an American takes the time to befriend them and teach them about the culture and language. Maybe you should try and be more friendly. Just sayin'.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday April 08 2017, @03:05AM
When I went looking for actual stats... well:
http://scottjhiggins.com/are-crime-rates-higher-among-migrants-including-refugees/ [scottjhiggins.com]
Okay, that's Australia, we'll throw it out. Try again:
Not quite what I was looking for, but at least it's hard numbers:
http://irregulartimes.com/2015/01/31/after-somali-immigrants-arrived-in-minneapolis-did-crime-change-differently-than-in-other-minnesota-cities-fact-check/ [irregulartimes.com]
Do you see what's wrong with these numbers?
They're not counting changes in crime rates from when Somali refugees started arriving *in significant numbers*.
Rather, they're counting changes in crime rates starting from when the crime rate began its sharp decline -- which will naturally disguise any increase in crime brought by a relatively small proportion of migrants.
Further, 99% of Somali migrants arrived after 2004; here's a Handy Chart:
http://www.michaelpatrickleahy.com/Somali.jpg [michaelpatrickleahy.com]
So by starting in 1992, they get to include not only an existing decline in crime, but also 12 years during which only 1% of Somalis arrived in the U.S.
This is called "lying with statistics".
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Friday April 07 2017, @01:29PM
Um, the tiny handed one needs to understand that Clinton's is bigger.
And her husband's is even bigger than that.
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