War in Syria within 72 hours?

This post will be quite short because instead of writing, I prefer the readers to watch this Blackstone Intelligence video (no relation to Blackwater). 24 minutes

Brief synopsis:

1. Russia urges 24 hours be allotted for international experts in chemical warfare be allowed to examine Douma

2. Trump marshaling large naval taskforce off coast of Syria, some ships within 100 km of Russian base.

3. France eager to get in on the action

4. Saudi Arabia agrees to join in the action (but Israel staying mum!)

5. Russian military build up in Donbass and artillery shelling already occurring

6. Iran vows reprisals for killing of its citizens in Syria

7. James Bolton, John McCain, Lindsey Graham--need I say more?

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8HRcISVwYM]

Am I an alarmist? Listen to the video--then tell me.

In the meantime, I am renewing my relationship with Jack Daniels.

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mimi's picture

network face value? Don't waste your whiskey. You will need it when the wars are happening, not before.

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Knob Creek, Bruddah, 100 proof and Much smoother. If it's the end of the world coming, indulge.
The crew I work with(basically good people) think the wars started already and murica will 'kick ass' like always. They ain't worried, and I tell them they Should be worried but no getting through to them. Either that, or they're fronting and really scared shitless.
I'm scared, and sad.

Stop These Fucking Wars

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

has sent out warnings of possible missile strikes affecting flight patterns in that area of the middle east.
Whiskey gives me a hangover, but I probably won't give a shit and just might drink some.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Wes Clark told us Syria was on the list.
Bolton was a PNAC signator.
Trump has always been part of the plan.
Maybe dust off the moonshine equipment.
'It's only empires burning...'

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bygorry

Big Al's picture

@bygorry what he really wants to do, how much the deep state is affecting him, etc., and focus on the fact that the dude is a war criminal that should be impeached and thrown in prison for the rest of his miserable life.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@Big Al

every last warmongering bastard down to the most recently elected/appointed. Otherwise we might as well stick with the Killer Klown, because there is no one better and a whole lot of them are worse. VP Pence, for instance.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

k9disc's picture

You mean back to a Clean Break for Securing the Realm? Or just back to Rebuilding America's Defenses? Or did he pop up in Joint Vision 2020?

Drumpf is an understudy - an unexpected free agent. If I had to guess, his inclusion into the cast bumped up the timeframe significantly, but other than that, not much change.

I'd like to know how Drumpf was "always" part of the plan. I think he's the catalyst for a speedier, more crude, plan B.
@bygorry

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

@k9disc
a wannabe for the part. there's always one in the wings.

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bygorry

CB's picture

Americans have only ever experienced war as a sanitized version - never viscerally like those on the receiving end have. Maybe that is why they are more eager for war as a solution.

A FINAL PLEA FOR PEACE

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1sCHUg0tM]

With the continued push for war by elements of the deep state, mainstream media and international community, Stefan Molyneux makes a final plea for peace, sanity and salvation.

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Big Al's picture

@CB in Syria and why. They only know what the headlines tell them. Even those that know some or even most of the truth can't help sticking with the Assad is an evil dictator narrative, even though they're just parroting what's been drilled in their heads and don't really know the truth. That gives them the out to not oppose what's happening. It's like, "I don't agree with war, but Assad is an evil guy, so . . "

Nothing new of course, they do that before and during all wars.

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@Big Al so we took him out. Worked out pretty well.....for somebody. Same deal, Assad has WMD. We're number 1. I always thought it was funny how perplexed Bush was about WMD, they were so sure he had them. I figure it was because the U.S. GAVE them to Saddam to use against Iran, they must be there somewhere. They didn't think he'd actually destroy the stuff. Send in Hans Blix, stat!

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snoopydawg's picture

@Snode

And you're right, they were the ones that we gave him. The troops then burned them in the burn pits that made them sick and so far congress hasn't declared the pits as causing disabilities. This will take another decade before they do that, just like it took them awhile to declare the air from 9/11 covered. This is why I don't understand why people keep joining the military. They have to know how congress feels about people who can't pull their weight.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Alligator Ed's picture

@snoopydawg the "RoundUp" of Vietnam.

I saw a number of agent orange victims in my practice--they weren't a happy lot.

Bad

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@snoopydawg just remember the pictures of Rumsfeld (Cheney?) chumming it up with Saddam and him being our guy in the ME against Iran.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@CB Molyneaux expressed far more eloquently than I how helpless, totally powerless I feel. The pilot is putting the plane into a crash dive, tells the passengers what he's doing, smiling while they scream in fear. The pilot will eject, leaving the rest behind, including the crew, to their inevitable destruction. I held out one single hope for Trump. It wasn't for him to dismantle the deep state or put Hillary in jail. It was to keep us out of war.

If we do go to war, as now seems imminent, there will be no further elections, no more Democrats, no more Republicans, no more us. Proud to be an American? I was in the 50s and 60s--up to Viet Nam. Now my shame is that I cannot be proud of a country whose leaders wantonly kill and maim, as if it were sport--because to them it is. The elites care not one whit about you or me. If we survive this totally avoidable final conflagration, there cannot be more "business as usual".

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@Alligator Ed

what you say here is so beautifully expressed. Wherever I look this week there are similar statements by people who understand what you do.

How is it possible that the pundits and politicians who say they are mortified by Assad killing babies have one plan in response: the killing of more babies and the possible killing of all babies who live today and who will ever live?

Does that mean they think they are stronger than Assad?

Does that mean they think Assad will learn never to do it again?

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@Linda Wood You're assuming they're thinking At All! I have to believe they Are Brain Dead and truly do not know what they are fucking with.
I got nothing else to explain it?

Stop These Fucking Wars

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

WaterLily's picture

But I may need to make an exception.

Heading to Ireland next week for a family event. I may just stay there.

@CB, I'm with you: sad, and scared.

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WaterLily's picture

@WaterLily Reading too many essays on Syria simultaneously. I think CB's comment was in a different thread.

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I hope to hell you are but this sure does look like a powder keg about to explode.
However the country Jake didn’t mention was China who has said, ‘Don’t Do It’
I do wonder what role they will have to play?

Woke up this morning after most of the night up on edge, feeling the need to bake something sweet...
brownies. And firstly, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, rarely ever bake except brownies and only when a hurricane is imminent.

Looks like a storm is coming but let’s hope cooler minds that seem in short supply will appear and prevail.

Thank you for your informative post.

Peace.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@Sirena Although not overtly as "free" as we are, covertly, we are no more free. China knows that even if they merely stand by, the nuclear fallout from this wanton slaughter will harm their country more than their already terrible air pollution.

China has sensible plans to rid itself of American pressure. Should the world persist long enough, the One Belt, One Road program will slowly do us in. To which I say hurray. For better or worse, and I think worse, the USA's relative spatial isolation from other major countries protects us from armed invasion (immigration being another form of invasion). Not since 1865 have American citizens experienced such direct and personal violence. This is entirely a significant problem, which results in the ho-hum isolationist, national solipsism which many of the citizens do not comprehend. "Did you read my Twitter? I liked your FB post. The instagram of cousin Harry was awesome!" What wasteful, egocentric vain nonsense, even if not in times of war, is now starkly outlined for the stupid, vacuous, superficial, contentless void bereft of humanity.

I posted this essay because I am seriously worried that there might not be a Saturday this week. There might not be us, our community, our loved ones, hopes, dreams, simple pleasures. Yes, this essay is alarmist but it is also an elegy for all that we have known or ever will know. I wanted to share this with you because this might be our last time together as a community.

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@Alligator Ed

what many are feeling, not just in this group, but in many throughout this country and abroad. You are not alone in these thoughts.

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@Alligator Ed

I suspect that in view of what The Wizard wrote we are going to see some hasty back pedaling.
In fact I think we already did this morning’s latest tweet. Whether it was because Cheeto got accused of spilling the orange jelly beans, or because like May, he is having some second thoughts.

Perhaps this isn’t the same scenario as NK where playing the Madman w several bolts lose works to his advantage and is too great of a risk to gamble with?

But in case if I’m wrong and you will never be able to tell me so, let me just say, I love me some reptilian too.

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snoopydawg's picture

yep. the dumb asses are holding meeting on Farcebook to get to the bottom of nothing. Meanwhile, their citizens are worried that the events in Syria might start a world war and are looking for congress to stop this asinine war.

That folks is what you have when you live in an empire that is spiraling the drain.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Alligator Ed's picture

@snoopydawg

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China has assets in the Mediterranean and just said that they support Russia.

But the biggest problem for the US is that they have never had to deal with certain loss of major assets. Up to now the US naval fleet has been a stand-off weapon for the US because she picks on helpless third world countries. A retaliation from Russia puts Trump in an impossible bind. US major assets lost along with the crews. The pressure will be enormous to escalate. Russia's nuclear posture to to not go to first use unless the country is seriously in danger. Them let em rip. OK, Trump will risk this for what? A punitive measure against Assad? No way. Same issue with the DPRK. Two nukes, one over Tokyo one over Seoul and the stakes are suddenly way too high. So Trump bloviates and then backs down. My opinion is that the DPRK won and Russia has won, because the US cannot strike without dire consequences. The tell = Trump is screaming fire and brimstone again. Russia was caught napping with the last missile strike, now she has drawn a line in the sand. Will President Putin back this up? Does the Bear eat honey?

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

k9disc's picture

armaments in the 21st Century.

They didn't do so well with the war games back in the 00s where we lost the whole damn navy to kamikaze peasant fishing boats in the Gulf.

Not thinking they are going to hold up to 1st world warfare in the 21st Century. They can deliver punishment, but how is their chin?

Someone mentioned China... Turkey is the country I'm worried about. Erdogan is a messianic loon, or playing one on TV, and it looks to me that they've got eyes on rekindling the Ottoman Empire.

That's all we need, right? Messianic empire culture reclamation amidst this cluster fuck.

You guys are all making me very nervous today, and yesterday felt completely weird for some reason... maybe we are perched on the precipice of something awesome (true intent of the word).
@The Wizard

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

@The Wizard

your comments are among the most definitive that I've read in several days of non-stop reading of everything I can find about the crisis. My respect for you therefore is enormous. But I fear your hopeful view may be misplaced. I am re-arranging some of your comments here:

Russia was caught napping with the last missile strike, now she has drawn a line in the sand. Will President Putin back this up?

Trump will risk this for what? A punitive measure against Assad? No way.

Trump bloviates and then backs down.

My opinion is that the DPRK won and Russia has won, because the US cannot strike without dire consequences.

I agree with your logic that no sane person would risk war with Russia just to tag Assad on the chin. But are we dealing with sane persons here? That is the question.

No sane person would have gotten us into this. No sane person would re-vamp our nuclear weapons in order to make them "more useable." No sane person would risk the lives of all children on earth in order to avenge the lives of the children of Syria, nor the children of Douma.

What makes it more believable that our political/military leadership is nuts is that some of us are old enough to remember and to have studied the rise and specter of Hitler. Governments armed to the teeth and drunk with power do insane things.

I hope you are right. More substantially I hope Putin does something to diffuse this. But if he manages to do that, he is a lot smarter than I am. I'm desperate enough to hope he just hands over the keys to his country to Trump and the neocons, knowing he would save humanity, no, life on earth, in the process. But he has made it clear he will not do that. So Trump and Bolton are risking the lives of all babies and children and their parents to show how brutal they are.

I'm sorry to say, I think you have to trust them, the fascists who rule our government, to mean what they say.

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@Linda Wood But I suspect that the Generals have to think this out and present their best estimate of alternatives and consequences. The best evidence that I have heard of this is that Mattis said that they are considering the evidence. If Trump backs out he will have to cover for this and the only cover is that the evidence is faulty, which of course it is. The Generals must be pooping in their pants as the probable scenarios are horrific. Moscow will sink ships and shoot down airplanes if Russians are put at risk, and there is no definitive map of all locations of Russians in Syria. The hawks will be bullshit and demand extreme escalation. So my prediction is that this outcome is way too extreme to risk and therefore Trump backs off, but if I am wrong the consequences are disastrous. And remember that Putin just stated that a world without Russia is unthinkable, in other words there will be no world if there is no Russia. This is perhaps as serious a situation as the Cuban missile crisis. We backed into this because Putin was far to much of an optimist about the US being a rational partner, combined with totally sinister actors in the US government, a flake for a CIC and a monster who would risk destroying the world if she could not become president.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

Alligator Ed's picture

@The Wizard

This is perhaps as serious a situation as the Cuban missile crisis. We backed into this because Putin was far to much of an optimist about the US being a rational partner,

One thing gives me hope. Putin years ago said the U.S. does not keep its agreements. He hasn't forgotten that. He is not optimistic; he is hopeful. Hopeful that some rational people in the US will take control of the situation before it is too late. Mattis et. al, realized that a hot war with NK would present enormous risks for all involved, especially SK and Japan. Perhaps sober assessment will lead to the same conclusion regarding Syria.

But the most sobering thought for me is that the elites don't give a damn about us. We, the useless eaters, will be sacrificed on the altar of Thomas Malthus.

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@Alligator Ed

I am reading you both with hope and appreciation of your insights, your honesty, and your clarity. Wishful thinking is not going to do it for me this week.

I do have hopes that the American military will lay it on the line for Trump. Possibly he will see the difference between our military leadership and Bolton, as an incinerated America may not be his vision for a prosperous outcome. Somehow I think their real experience will hold up well against Bolton's fanaticism. The fact that Trump tends to respect Putin means a lot to me. Bolton and his brotherhood of screw-loose killers exhibits nothing but death.

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k9disc's picture

to not want to push the nuclear button in the Oval Office during the Cuban Missile Crisis was a 29 year old RFK... I think that's right. A 29 year old kid saved us from nuclear armageddon as advanced by the generals and top brass at the time.

Have to agree that we've got psychopaths at the top. All bets are off on logic and self preservation being first and foremost in their decision making process.

@The Wizard

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

I visit TOP to scan the headlines to get the latest DNC press releases. The Trump quotes were discussed. The front pager and minions agreed that Trump is colluding with Putin (on Putin's orders) to create this political theater to throw Mueller off the scent. See no war.

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@MrWebster

Is that where they are?

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Alligator Ed's picture

@MrWebster TOP denizens are clearly delusional and nothing they conjure up even has proximity to reality.

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The instant the first missile is triggered, they have to start decisively taking out as many attackers as they can as fast as they can; this is the final stage of the War On The World, TPTB are going to hit Syria, Russia and Iran all at once, for starters, ganging up like the rabid bullies they are, and if this psychotic lunacy cannot be stopped now, we are anyway doomed.

Trump, with Bolton and the rest, being brain-dead cowards, will probably turn to nukes once they start losing and that will be answered in kind, as it must.

The US President has been, by dint of Obama passing a 'law', been given the ability to shut down internet in any emergency, to try to limit us to 'The Official Story', so we'll have to bear this in mind.

And I've gotta say that I've never met a more wonderful/human/brilliant/interesting/informative group of people and feel damn lucky to have found 'here' and ya'll and hope that this works out OK all round, apart from The Psychopaths That Be, of course, who I hope rot in prison for war-crimes and other crimes, this starting right about now.

Sending massive hugs and best wishes to all humans, animals and other non-psychopathic/pathogenic life.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Alligator Ed's picture

@Ellen North But we will will lose. We don't have enough conventional missiles. The S400s and newer are better than our anti-missiles. But we have many "new and better small" nukes to use.

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@Alligator Ed

*sending hugs*

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Ellen North

you and all the humane writers here are keeping me from despair.

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@Linda Wood @Linda Wood

brighten my day, considering the important and often depressing subject matter, but they kinda do anyway, because of your humanity, balanced and informed perspective and good sense, as well as the quality of your writing. Good combination, lol, and I appreciate it.

Maybe if the intended victims 'shock and awe' the attackers enough, they'll think a bit and decide not to go for Armageddon, realizing that their playing the 'chicken' game gets everyone - including them, roasted to a radioactive crisp, because these victims don't play games or bluff. Sometimes happens with bullies, when they realize they've 'picked on someone their own size', only tougher and smarter, rather than meaner and more ignorant.

And maybe the anti-war groups will start appearing, when they realize that these psychopaths hazarded their world for more crimes using false Flags and false accusations...

People can't actually 'get the government they deserve' without free and fair elections and a choice of real people with binding public-interest-serving platforms who and which the people've picked out themselves to suit their own public interests, rather than being stuck with the pre-selected 'choices' they're offered in serving the private greed of those predating upon them.

There must be some way to achieve that... extra incentive now, assuming all goes better than might be expected.

Edited because I'd missed changing a word when I changed a sentence. Sigh...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Alligator Ed's picture

@Ellen North I will write another essay and after calm (!) reflection, will write an epic rant. My reptile brain has been triggered.

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@Alligator Ed

Maybe post it earlier, just in case, because I always hate the idea of missing anything you write?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Ellen North

We play Trump.

We all know he has an enormous ego, right? Bigly.

We have to make him think like when JFK averted the Cuban Missile Affair, he and he alone, saved the world from an impending disaster by backing off when the rest of the psychopaths wanted to go forward.

Make signs like ‘Yay Trump like JFK averted World Destruction’

He has to be able to walk away from this feeling like a hero.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@Sirena I'm going back to my swamp.

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@Sirena

And maybe add in the fact that he wouldn't have had a country to be President of anymore, even if he'd survived?

Not to mention the property damage to his fire-traps and leased buildings.

We must, however, bear in mind that Hillary Would Have Got MAD Done a long time ago, sparing us all of the worry we've undergone in the interim.

Not that the world isn't going to be destroyed piecemeal, one way, and another, and another, and so forth anyway...

https://sputniknews.com/us/201804121063498020-trump-tpp-rejoining/

22:22 12.04.2018(updated 22:41 12.04.2018)

Trump Directs Cabinet to Look Into Rejoining TPP Trade Agreement - US Senator
© AFP 2018 / SAUL LOEB
US

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - President Donald Trump, in a meeting with Republican lawmakers, told National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow to explore options for re-entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, US Senator Ben Sasse said on Thursday.

Trump told lawmakers he now believes TPP "might be easier for us to join now" because the 11 other TPP nations are close to finalizing a deal without the US, Sasse told reporters at the White House, as quoted by The Hill.

"The president multiple times reaffirmed in general to all of us and looked right at Larry Kudlow and said, ‘Larry, go get it done,'" Sasse said.

However, the senator from Nebraska indicated Trump could change his mind, because he is a person open to different suggestions. ...

It's a race to see which hell gets us all first.

'Chemicals weapons facility'? Nice propaganda effort, there, bud. Musta been a productive circle-jerk for the warmongers; wonder if they passed around the sexual humiliation pictures of kidnapped cab drivers and farmers* in one of their torture facilities to get them off and running at the mouth?

https://sputniknews.com/us/201804121063498907-syria-eight-possible-targe...

US Eyes Eight Potential Strike Targets in Syria - Report
© REUTERS / Robert S. Price/Courtesy U.S. Navy
US
22:50 12.04.2018
9030

With US President Donald Trump meeting with officials to discuss the US response to the alleged Syrian government chemical attack in Douma, one source tells CNBC that there are eight possible targets that the US is eyeing.

According to the report, the US might be considering using some "nice and new" missiles on eight targets which may include two Syrian airfields, a research center and a chemical weapons facility. ...

... As the US brainstorms it's next steps, British Prime Minister Theresa May and her top-level advisers agreed Thursday "on the need to take action to alleviate humanitarian distress and to deter the further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime."

"Following a discussion in which every member present made a contribution, cabinet agreed it was vital that the use of chemical weapons did not go unchallenged," a statement released from Downing Street added.

The UK ordered the British Royal Navy to move its submarines within missile range of Syria on Wednesday.

Why the hell aren't politicians making an illegal, immoral and (they think) self-serving choice to attack other people's countries forced to be the only ones manning the guns within range of return fire?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkhNM4pIKog

gary numan praying to the aliens

Well, the title fits, anyway...

No evidence necessary then or now. Or at any point in between.

... In addition, the statement points out “a separate but related problem was that often absolutely no evidence relating to the detainee was turned over, so there was no real method of knowing why the prisoner had been detained in the first place.” ...

...The U.S. rightly criticizes Iran and China for wrongfully imprisoning people. So what are we as a nation going to do now that an insider from the Bush Administration has courageously revealed the truth and the cover up about U.S. politicians wrongfully imprisoning hundreds and not releasing them even when they knew they were innocent? Our response will tell much about our national commitment to justice for all.

And it certainly did, didn't it? Injustice for all! Torture/bomb, invade away! We don't need no stinking evidence!

After all, Bush Admin reps are active in the machinery still, Cheney himself personally mentoring Vice President Pence from the start, this perhaps explaining the rabid Bolton and the fact that a psychopathic torturer-for-fun is to be running an unbelievably 'more vicious' (and still terrorist-training) CIA...

Hitler failed the first attempt at global domination, mostly because of that pesky Russia fighting back against the Nazi invasion; US industrialists are going to do it right this time and do it themselves, with their own representatives running government.

* https://www.commondreams.org/views/2010/04/20/bush-insider-reveals-guant...

Published on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

Bush Insider Reveals Guantanamo Deception: Hundreds of Innocents Jailed
by Bill Quigley

Colonel Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, provided shocking new testimony from inside the Bush Administration that hundreds of the men jailed at Guantanamo were innocent, the top people in the Bush Administration knew full well they were innocent, and that information was kept from the public.

Wilkerson said President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld “indefinitely detained the innocent for political reasons” and many in the administration knew it. The wrongfully held prisoners were not released because of political maneuverings aimed in part to cover up the mistakes of the administration.

Colonel Wilkerson, who served in the U.S. Army for over thirty years, signed a sworn declaration for an Oregon federal court case stating that he found out in August 2002 that the US knew that many of the prisoners at Guantanamo were not enemy combatants. Wilkerson also discussed this in a revealing and critical article on Guantanamo for the Washington Note. ...

... It soon became clear to him and other State Department personnel “that many of the prisoners detained at Guantanamo had been taken into custody without regard to whether they were truly enemy combatants, or in fact whether many of them were enemies at all.”

How was it possible that hundreds of Guantanamo prisoners were innocent? Wilkerson said it all started at the beginning, mostly because U.S. forces did not capture most of the people who were sent to Guantanamo. The people who ended up in Guantanamo, said Wilkerson, were mostly turned over to the US by Afghan warlords and others who received bounties of up to $5000 per head for each person they turned in. The majority of the 742 detainees “had never seen a U.S. soldier in the process of their initial detention.”

Military officers told Wilkerson that “many detainees were turned over for the wrong reasons, particularly for bounties and other incentives.” The U.S. knew “that the likelihood was high that some of the Guantanamo detainees had been turned in to U.S. forces in order to settle local scores, for tribal reasons, or just as a method of making money.”

As a consequence, said Wilkerson “there was no real method of knowing why the prisoner had been detained in the first place.” ...

... In addition, the statement points out “a separate but related problem was that often absolutely no evidence relating to the detainee was turned over, so there was no real method of knowing why the prisoner had been detained in the first place.”

“The initial group of 742 detainees had not been detained under the processes I was used to as a military officer,” Wilkerson said. “It was becoming more and more clear that many of the men were innocent, or at a minimum their guilt was impossible to determine let alone prove in any court of law, civilian or military. If there was any evidence, the chain of protecting it had been completely ignored.”

Several in the U.S. leadership became aware of this early on and knew “of the reality that many of the detainees were innocent of any substantial wrongdoing, had little intelligence value, and should be immediately released,” wrote Wilkerson.

So why did the Bush Administration not release the men from prison once it was discovered that they were not guilty? Why continue to keep innocent men in prison?

“To have admitted this reality would have been a black mark on their leadership from virtually day one of the so-called War on Terror and these leaders already had black marks enough: the dead in a field in Pennsylvania, in the ashes of the Pentagon, and in the ruins of the World Trade Towers,” wrote Wilkerson.

“They were not about to admit to their further errors at Guantanamo Bay. Better to claim everyone there was a hardcore terrorist, was of enduring intelligence value, and would return to jihad if released,” according to Wilkerson. “I am very sorry to say that I believe there were uniformed military who aided and abetted these falsehoods, even at the highest levels of our armed forces.”

The refusal to let the detainees go, even those who were likely innocent, was based on several political factors. If the US released them to another country and that country found them innocent, it would make the US look bad, said Wilkerson. “Another concern was that the detention efforts at Guantanamo would be revealed as the incredibly confused operation that they were. Such results were not acceptable to the Administration and would have been severely detrimental to the leadership at the Department of Defense.”

At the Department of Defense, Secretary Rumsfeld, “just refused to let detainees go” said Wilkerson.

“Another part of the political dilemma originated in the Office of Vice President Richard B. Cheney,” according to Wilkerson, “whose position could be summed up as ‘the end justifies the means’, and who had absolutely no concern that the vast majority of Guantanamo detainees were innocent, or that there was a lack of useable evidence for the great majority of them. If hundreds of innocent individuals had to suffer in order to detain a handful of hardcore terrorists, so be it.”

President Bush was involved in all of the decisions about the men in Guantanamo according to reports from Secretary Powell to Wilkerson. “My own view,” said Wilkerson “is that it was easy for Vice President Cheney to run circles around President Bush bureaucratically because Cheney had the network within the government to do so. Moreover, by exploiting what Secretary Powell called the President’s ‘cowboy instincts,’ Vice President Cheney could more often than not gain the President’s acquiescence.”

Despite the widespread knowledge inside the Bush administration that the US continued to indefinitely detain the innocent at Guantanamo, for years the US government continued to publicly say the opposite – that people at Guantanamo were terrorists.

After these disclosures from deep within the Bush Administration, the newest issue now before the people of the U.S. is not just whether the Bush Administration was wrong about Guantanamo but whether it was also consistently deceitful in holding hundreds of innocent men in prison to cover up their own mistakes.

Why is Colonel Wilkerson disclosing this now? He provided a sworn statement to assist the International Human Rights Clinic at Willamette University College of Law in Oregon and the Federal Public Defender who are suing US officials for the wrongful detention and torture of Adel Hassan Hamad. Hamad was a humanitarian aid worker from Sudan working in Pakistan when he was kidnapped from his apartment, tortured and shipped to Guantanamo where he was held for five years before being released.

At the end of his nine page sworn statement, Wilkerson explains his personal reasons for disclosing this damning information. “I have made a personal choice to come forward and discuss the abuses that occurred because knowledge that I served an Administration that tortured and abused those it detained at the facilities at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere and indefinitely detained the innocent for political reasons has marked a low point in my professional career and I wish to make the record clear on what occurred. I am also extremely concerned that the Armed Forces of the United States, where I spent 31 years of my professional life, were deeply involved in these tragic mistakes.”

Wilkerson concluded his article on Guantanamo by issuing a challenge. “When – and if – the truths about the detainees at Guantanamo Bay will be revealed in the way they should be, or Congress will step up and shoulder some of the blame, or the new Obama administration will have the courage to follow through substantially on its campaign promises with respect to GITMO, torture and the like, remains indeed to be seen.”

The U.S. rightly criticizes Iran and China for wrongfully imprisoning people. So what are we as a nation going to do now that an insider from the Bush Administration has courageously revealed the truth and the cover up about U.S. politicians wrongfully imprisoning hundreds and not releasing them even when they knew they were innocent? Our response will tell much about our national commitment to justice for all.

Some things never change. Although they must, and should have, long ago.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

earthling1's picture

for all the great conversation.
As noted above, the internet will probably be gone when the first ship is sunk. All info coming to us will be carefully crafted propaganda thru the MSM.
When this is over, and should I/we survive, every ounce of energy should be devoted to destroying this fuck up regime we call a government. From the office of president,the Congress, the courts, the military, and all the alphabet agencies, all need to go.
Start anew.
With plain, sane, ordinary citizens the only ones eligible for elected office.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Alligator Ed's picture

@earthling1 we could then eliminate the psychopaths, detecting them by their defective wiring.

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@Alligator Ed

If they demand drug testing for people to qualify for jobs or assistance, where do they get off without empathy testing to establish whether or not they qualify as fit to run/apply/be considered for public service positions?

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.