We need to be careful. This is just not a we we want or need to be involved in. Yes, gassing civilians is against every treaty and needed to be stopped. But he's been killing people, many civilians, for years. Unless we plan on forming a coalition of Arab states and supporting them while they do the ground fighting and they pay for the rebuilding we need to stay out. We showed Assad he can't use gas, now time to stop.
The US military and intelligence community has intercepted communications featuring Syrian military and chemical experts talking about preparations for the sarin attack in Idlib last week, a senior US official tells CNN.
The intercepts were part of an immediate review of all intelligence in the hours after the attack to confirm responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in an attack in northwestern Syria, which killed at least 70 people. US officials have said that there is "No doubt" that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for the attack.
The US did not know prior to the attack it was going to happen, the official emphasized. The US scoops up such a large volume of communications intercepts in areas like Syria and Iraq, the material often is not processed unless there is a particular event that requires analysts to go back and look for supporting intelligence material. Ref. CNN.
Why dio I get the feeling that this is just a way for us to justify our action and to cover our butt in the global theater so that others understand why we did attack them. I doubt that the strike will stop him from using chemical warfare again.
Yeah, I agree with you. It's also a way to undermine Assad's claim that there is zero evidence of a chemical attack there. Of course, this is all part of the global theater that goes on all the time as nations lie about what they did and didn't do… and that includes us. In this case though, no one really believes Assad. I think he's saying this to provide cover for Russia and Iran. In response, we are letting both of those countries know that we know Assad is lying and this is how we know he's lying. If we can make this politically costly enough we could pry Russia away from this unholy trinity.