SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @03:18AM (8 children)
"Yes, we prefer Clinton at war than the Donald at war".
Yes we do.
Don the Con is purely reactive, the guy is so ADHD that he doesn't even know the meaning of the word strategic.
Clinton is a planner. If we are going to get in a real fight, not just a twitter beef, I'd much rather have her running it because she knows how to think ahead and most importantly, consider the consequences. Nobody can seriously argue that Don has even the faintest grasp of consequences. Thus far in life he's been insulated from consequences by a big fat pile of money.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @03:33AM (3 children)
>Clinton
>plan
She failed to plan against a buffoon, despite all the connections, despite all the donations, despite all the favors, yet you are telling me that was her strength?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @04:04AM (2 children)
(other AC) The opposition party typically gets the win after 2 terms of the party in power. No mystery there.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @04:10AM (1 child)
Furthermore, winning a campaign doesn't mean you did everything right nor does losing a campaign mean you did everything wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 08 2017, @04:29AM
Clinton ran one of the most incompetent campaigns in recent history, and her whole attitude seemed to be "I'm going to win anyway so why even try?".
Trump didn't deserve to win, but Clinton deserved every bit of her loss.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday April 07 2017, @11:23AM
Planning?
"At this point, what does it matter???"
I wiped my planning... "You mean, like, with a cloth?"
Hillary plans her poops in the morning, maybe, but wtf else?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Friday April 07 2017, @12:15PM (2 children)
Neither Clinton is a planner. They're opportunists only. To be a planner you would have to have some sense of what it takes to do something, and to organize action accordingly. Bill and Hillary are lawyers and politicians and influence peddlers and have never been anything else and don't know how to do anything else. They have no clue what it takes to do the simplest tasks. True story: Bill has a posh crash pad in a penthouse on the roof of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. He stays there when in town. One time he wanted to hang an award somebody gave him on the wall, and had to call maintenance at 10pm to drop everything with their families at home to come over and hammer a nail into the wall.
The dude had to call a specialist to hammer in a nail.
I'll let that sink in.
Such a person is in no way a planner.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @02:43PM
The dude had to call a specialist to hammer in a nail.
I'll let that sink in.
Such a person is in no way a planner.
What you fail to mention is that the maintenance staff at the clinton library is unionized.
If he had hammered that nail himself it would have been a union violation.
Sure, he could have done it and crossed his fingers that no one noticed.
But if it got out that clinton himself was not honoring the contract with labor that would have been a huge scandal.
So he followed proper procedure and because he is clinton they hopped to it and took care of it post haste instead of waiting until the next day.
So yeah, unlike you and your petty invective, he absolutely did think through the repercussions of his choices.
Not that what Bill Clinton did has anything to do with what Hillary would do in office. But again, petty invective.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 08 2017, @02:38AM
Let me add that a "planner" has to actually have some goals. No goal, no plan. If any of our politicians have any real goals, they manage to keep those goals very secret. There are no long range goals, other than accumulating and holding power and wealth. All of our modern technology, for instance, takes politicos by surprise. All the stupid shit over "online bullying" is simple reaction to unforeseen consequences of that technology. No one had a plan, no one had a goal to make the internet "safe". Cyber security, ditto - everything we do in regards to security is reactionary nonsense, after some OTHER actor discovered how to use technology to their own advantage.
There are few if any plans in Washington, aside from acquiring personal wealth.