@Big Al I'm not sure the right wing will continue to support Trump. They got burned by Bush, they just don't like to lose face and admit it in front of liberals. The right is split into xenophobic isolationist nationalists and corporatist fascist warmongers. The latter never supported Trump anyway; the former? I think they're quite capable of deserting Trump if he keeps this shit up.

so fucking tragic. Well I knew the dem party and it's supporters, like those on Daily Kos, COULD NOT be part of an antiwar movement because everything Trump would do was what Obama was doing or trying to do. They did paint themselves into a corner, a very hypocritical corner.

So now we find out who really is antiwar, anti-imperialism.
The right wing might not like it, but they'll still support Trump, like the left wing supported Obama. Like trained monkeys. "Support your party, support your politicians, don't think for yourselves you idiots!"

This is really bad. I'm seeing a lot of people that know the deal though, whether that's more than usual when it comes to U.S. wars or not I don't know. The way the corporate media is handling it and the comments I've seen on some mainstream news sites indicate a lot of people who are swallowing the propaganda hook, line and sinker. Even most of those who don't favor military strikes aren't saying it because the U.S. is the real criminal factor in this but because it's not their concern to "save" Syria and the Syrian people.
This really is an information war.

@GreatLakeSailor

Do I waste my time? Do I humor them in the pretense that they give a rat's tail what their constituents think? Or is it worth it, just to let them know someone is watching?

I vacillate.

I just sent this to my "liberal" and spineless Dem Senator

"Good" Senator Baldwin,

I read this on your website today:

“The Assad regime’s latest use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people is reprehensible and violates international law. The United States has taken a measured response, but I am concerned by the lack of a clear and comprehensive strategy for Syria and the region. I believe that the Administration must work with Congress as an equal partner regarding any additional military action and communicate its long-range goals and plans to the American people.”

And I have to ask: How do you know Assad used chemical weapons and can you generate a plausible reason why he would? A week ago the President & SOS said removing Assad was not a priority, then Assad does the one thing that will galvanize interventionists across the West against him. Why does that make sense to you?

GLS

for your edification "Good" Senator: https[colon-slash-slash]consortiumnews[dot]com[slash]2017[slash]04[slash]05[slash]another-dangerous-rush-to-judgment-in-syria[slash]

The dots 'n' slashes are spelled out because her web portal rejects anything that looks like a link. Claims it protects against malicious code but I think it's there to protect her bubble against information.

@snoopydawg is up to I guess but I admit, I only skimmed most of the attached idiocy. Thank you for subjecting yourself to it. I've been working hard not to rant all damned day and not doing well at it. These people. As I was reading this diary I got an incoming shit mail from none other than Nancy Pelosi, bragging about the "amazing fundraising" they're having today.... I cannot Unsubscribe to them now matter how many times I try. I'm going to go have a drink so I don't have to vomit.

In response to the diary you linked to on DK.

Anybody who believes that America, notwithstanding some major missteps — *cough* Iraq *cough* — is overall a force for good in the world understands that America cannot simply do nothing in the face of the horrific crimes against humanity currently being perpetrated out in the open in Syria. The attacks (assuming it doesn’t escalate) were proportional, appropriate, and just. Moreover, it appears to represent a major shift in not just American policy, but Donald Trump’s policy. Attacking Syria is a direct refutation of the xenophobic/nationalistic “America First” outlook of America and it’s place in the world, as well as it’s primary patron, one Stephan K Bannon. It is no coincidence that this occurred days after Bannon’s humiliating demotion. Not that Bannon, were he still on the principles committee, would have necessarily prevented this attack. Just that his demotion crystallized the waning influence of his world view in Trumps eyes, thus making yesterdays actions much more likely then had Bannon retained his out sized influence with the President. The hysterical reaction from the alt right/Breitbart part of the internet suggests all you need to know about how they — and their patron saint Steve Bannon — feel about the attacks (as a side note, WHY they are so opposed is a very interesting question, and likely an entire article in and of itself. My gut feeling is two fold: we know that Putin’s bot army tends to launder it’s memes/disinformation through right wing blogs/alt media, and that the Kremlin is clearly not happy about what’s unfolding in Syria. Thus even if most of the commentators are not themselves Russian disinformation agents, it makes sense that Kremlin approved views will matriculate to the “legit” alt right community. Second, ANY international adventurism, no matter how morally justified, is an inherent threat to the alt rights brand of ethno-nationalism. Such operations inevitably lead to coalition building, strengthened alliances and, increased economic ties and, by extension, more overall global cooperation leads to *gasp* more globalism).

I think I'm going with WTF!
The US is a force of good in the Middle East except for Iraq ?
So basically the author is saying that what this country did to Libya was a good thing? Or it was great that Obama using drones in 7-8 countries that had nothing to do with 9/11 was a good thing?
Or any of the other things this country did to the Middle East when Obama was president.

As for the horrific crimes against humanity that this author unequivocally states was done by Assad that needed to be responded to. I guess that all the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed by this country aren't considered horrific crimes against humanity because they were done by this country.
Does he agree with Albright that it was worth it to kill 500,000 Iraqi children due to the sanctions that Clinton put on Iraq?
And that destroying Libya was another good thing done by this country because Gaddafi is dead?
I wonder how he feels about our complicity in the genocide that we are helping the Saudis commit in Yemen.
And more WTF from the author.

Without doubt, some good has already come from this. The positive reviews from the “fake news”, the broad and wide ranging (and, it should be said, appropriate) bipartisan support from players from John McCain and Lyndsey Graham and Ted Cruz to Al Franken and Chuck Schumer will further marginalize Bannon’s toxic influence. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that move with Bannon’s fingerprints on it has led to failure and ridicule (the travel ban parts 1 and 2, the Obamacare repeal, the absurd Nunes affair) and the one major move that is explicitly anti Bannonesque seems to be his biggest winner will almost certainly further move Bannon out the door. This is an unequivocally good thing.

Oh hell yes, getting bipartisan support from Schumer, McCain and Graham is without a doubt a good thing that came from Trump bombing the Syrian Air Force base.
At least he's getting some flack in the few comments on this POS diary.
Now excuse me while I go throw up.

@NCExile
we started school and even before then. I don't know how old you are, but I grew up playing cowboys and Indians thinking that if I was the cowboy and killed the Indians then I was the good guy because the Indians just slaughtered everyone they saw and the cowboys saved us from them.
Then we pledged allegiance to the flag, celebrated Columbus because he discovered this wonderful country but we were never told the truth about what he did to the Natives. Look at how long it has taken for people to try to change Columbus Day to something else because we finally found out what he did.
Even after Obama broke so many of his campaign promises, and continued to do everything that Bush did, so many people still were supportive of the DP until Bernie came along and told us the truth about them.
You are right that Obama did what he could to keep large numbers of troops out of Iraq and especially Syria. The pentagon, the CIA, the republicans and even some members of his party wanted him to put troops in Syria. I'm not excusing what he did do, but he was under a lot of pressure to expand the wars with more troops.
I too try to cling to some hope that some day there will be something done to our government and this madness will stop. But I don't think it's going to be in my lifetime.
People keep saying that all empires finally die. This one is long past its due date.

I can't cite specific diaries, but this outcome was discussed here multiple times, that Drumpf would be pushed in whatever ways necessary to get him to do the neocons' and neoliberals' bidding to get 'em that NEW war they're all pining for like the f'd up psychopaths they apparently all are. When I read Greenwald's article today I nearly screamed out loud at the horror of it all. The world has indeed turned upside down even more than it did during the election. All my naïve beliefs growing up and on into adulthood about the U.S. keep getting re-destroyed.

My first taste was from being a double-major in English Literature and, more to the point, Spanish, as an undergraduate. Taking poetry classes in the Spanish language taught by professors from different Central and South American countries featuring poets from those countries many of whom used imagery of a death-eagle with bloody talons to describe this country shocked me, but somehow I continued to believe that this was all the doing of conservatives / Republicans.

Now I know that isn't true and that Mammon is the only true god of the leaders of this place no matter whether they wear a pachyderm or a jack-ass pin on their label next to the felon-striped American flag one. I watched in confusion and then growing disillusionment as Obama broke so many promises, many related to foreign policy, but still he held back from directly inciting a world war. So, thanks, I guess. Meanwhile, we won't get the truth about this specific event from these excuses for human beings any more than we have about anything else war and money-munitions related. At the next Olympics, instead of chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!", we really should all just start yelling "Ka-CHING! Ka-CHING! Bombs for everybody!" It's our real national motto after all.

I'm nauseated by all this death-dealing and charnel house hypocrisy. Please let there be some sane force / nation or nations out there that will hold us back enough to prevent the worst. I'm not confident, but I have to cling to hope.

@Bollox Ref
Trump killed over 200 people in Mosul after the military watched as ISIS herded civilians into a building and destroyed anyway. And how many hospitals has this country bombed, but the only bombings of hospitals we hear about is when it's Russia or the Syrians doing it.

but, why is it that kids killed by Assad is a war crime (genocide???), but the four children just offed by Trump (via Raytheon) is just fine and dandy? How does Trump compute that?

Seems to me that the partisan residents of the Duopoly (formerly the United States of America) have suffered some collateral damage when it comes to thought processes.