Generational Dynamics World View

[Ragnarök_62]

(04-05-2017, 10:29 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: *** 6-Apr-17 World View -- President Trump plans military action on Syria after horrific nerve gas attack on civilians

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• President Trump plans military action on Syria after horrific nerve gas attack on civilians
  
• President Trump declares that he's changed his mind about military action
  
• Marco Rubio says Trump's policy emboldened Bashar al-Assad
  
• John McCain and Lindsey Graham advocate cruise missiles and safe areas
  

****
**** President Trump plans military action on Syria after horrific nerve gas attack on civilians
****


In a very dramatic gesture, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley at the Security Council stands and displays picture of baby killed by nerve gas and excoriates Russia's ambassador for supporting al-Assad, saying, 'How many more children have to die before Russia cares?'


statement is credible, in view of the evidence.  ARA News (Syria) and SANA (Damascus)

Related Articles

• Syria crosses a 'red line' with chemical weapons (20-Mar-2013)
  
  
• U.N. report contains calculations implicating Syria's regime (19-Sep-2013)
  

****
**** President Trump declares that he's changed his mind about military action
****

At a news conference on Tuesday, Trump commented on Monday's nerve gas
attack in Syria, explaining why he changed his mind:

>        [indent]<QUOTE>"Yesterday, a chemical attack -- a chemical attack
>        that was so horrific, in Syria, against innocent people, including
>        women, small children, and even beautiful little babies.  Their
>        deaths was an affront to humanity.  These heinous actions by the
>        Assad regime cannot be tolerate. ...
>    
>        Well, I think the Obama administration had a great opportunity to
>        solve this crisis a long time ago when he said the red line in the
>        sand.  And when he didn’t cross that line after making the threat,
>        I think that set us back a long ways, not only in Syria, but in
>        many other parts of the world, because it was a blank threat.  I
>        think it was something that was not one of our better days as a
>        country. ...
>    
>        I now have responsibility, and I will have that responsibility and
>        carry it very proudly, I will tell you that.  It is now my
>        responsibility.  It was a great opportunity missed. ...
>    
>        It crossed a lot of lines for me.  When you kill innocent
>        children, innocent babies -- babies, little babies -- with a
>        chemical gas that is so lethal -- people were shocked to hear what
>        gas it was -- that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line.
>        Many, many lines."<END QUOTE>[/indent]

In 2013, Bashar al-Assad launched a Sarin gas attack against
civilians, after President Barack Obama has said that doing so would
"cross a red line."  At that time, Trump tweeted the following:

>        [indent]<QUOTE>"AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK
>        SYRIA - IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT
>        FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!"<END QUOTE>[/indent]

However, Trump has now reversed those sentiments, and is blaming Obama
for not intervening in 2013.  However, he's not calling it "a
flip-flop," instead ascribing it to flexibility:

>        [indent]<QUOTE>"I like to think of myself as a very flexible person.
>        I don’t have to have one specific way, and if the world changes, I
>        go the same way, I don’t change.  Well, I do change and I am
>        flexible, and I’m proud of that flexibility.  And I will tell you,
>        that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me -- big
>        impact.  That was a horrible, horrible thing.  And I’ve been
>        watching it and seeing it, and it doesn’t get any worse than that.
>    
>        And I have that flexibility, and it’s very, very possible -- and I
>        will tell you, it’s already happened that my attitude toward Syria
>        and Assad has changed very much.  And if you look back over the
>        last few weeks, there were other attacks using gas.  You’re now
>        talking about a whole different level."<END QUOTE>[/indent]

He says that he will not reveal his plans, but implies that the plans
are military (as opposed to, say, sanctions):

>        [indent]<QUOTE>"Well, one of the things I think you’ve noticed about
>        me is, militarily, I don’t like to say where I’m going and what I
>        doing.  And I watched past administrations say, we will attack at
>        such and such a day at such and such an hour. ...
>    
>        I watched Mosul, where the past administration was saying, we will
>        be attacking in four months.  And I said, why are they doing that?
>        Then a month goes by, and they say, we will be attacking in three
>        months, and then two months, and then we will be attacking next
>        week.  And I’m saying, why are they doing that?  And as you know,
>        Mosul turned out to be a much harder fight than anyone thought,
>        and a lot of people have been lost in that fight.  I’m not saying
>        I’m doing anything one way or the other, but I’m certainly not
>        going to be telling you, as much as I respect you,
>        John."<END QUOTE>[/indent]

White House

****
**** Marco Rubio says Trump's policy emboldened Bashar al-Assad
****

In the past, I've criticized President Obama for flip-flopping on his
"red line" statement.  My point was not that military action should
have been pursued.  My point was that Obama should never have made a
threat that he wasn't going to act upon, since flip-flopping only
emboldened Bashar al-Assad to commit worse atrocities.

Now Senator Marco Rubio is making a similar criticism of President
Trump.  He's referring to recent statements by Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson that the Trump administration no longer plans to demand that
Bashar al-Assad step down.

According to Rubio:

>        [indent]<QUOTE>"In this case now, we have very limited options and
>        look, it's concerning that the Secretary of State, 72 hours ago or
>        a week ago, last Friday, said that the future's up to the people
>        in Syria on what happens with Assad. In essence almost nodding to
>        the idea that Assad was gonna get to stay in some capacity.
>    
>        I don't think it's a coincidence that a few days later we see
>        this."<END QUOTE>[/indent]

Rubio's claim is quite plausible.

One might ask what al-Assad's motivation was for ordering Monday's
horrific nerve gas attack.  It was so outrageous, and so likely to
backfire politically, that it really makes no sense.

Every time I write that Bashar al-Assad is psychopathic monster and
war criminal committing genocide against Sunni Muslims in Syria, I get
criticized by al-Assad acolytes and paid Russian trolls.  But I don't
think that there's any doubt about this.  Bashar al-Assad is the worst
war criminal so far this century, with a psychopathic desire to
exterminate all Sunni civilians.  Nothing else can explain this insane
action.

Al-Assad has never agreed to the peace that was agreed a few months
ago in Astana, Kazakhstan, between Iran, Russia and Turkey.  In fact,
he's never shown any interest in participating in any peace process.
I've pointed out many times, that al-Assad clearly has no intention of
doing anything but torturing, slaughtering, and exterminating as many
Sunni civilians as possible.

Al-Assad has apparently been controlling his urges for political
reasons for the last few months.  Trump's previous reluctance for
military action in Syria, reaffirmed by Tillerson's claims that the US
would no longer demand that al-Assad step down have given a free
ticket to al-Assad to do anything he wanted, and like an alcoholic who
suddenly is told he can start drinking again, al-Assad suddently felt
freed to do whatever he wanted.  I believe that that's what Rubio
meant, and I agree with it.  International Business Times

****
**** John McCain and Lindsey Graham advocate cruise missiles and safe areas
****

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham were interviewed on Fox News
on Wednesday evening.  Although they were interviewed separately, they
made exactly the same points:

• Military action is required.
  
• Barack Obama is at fault for not solving this problem
  earlier.
  
• Cruise missiles should be used to disable al-Assad's air
  force.
  
• Safe zones should be set up so that Syrian refugees in Europe and
  America could return to Syria.
  

Here are the remarks of John McCain (my transcription):

>        [indent]<QUOTE>"Those are horrible, and I spoke to the president this
>        morning.  He's angry as he well should be , and he's consulting
>        with his military leadership, as well as his Secretary of State,
>        and I have some optimism that he will take some concrete action
>        here.
>    
>        He is obviously, as we all are, appalled.
>    
>        Could I make two points.  One, this is a legacy of Barack Obama.
>        The last time this happened, Barack Obama said they crossed a red
>        line, called me and Lindsey Graham down to the White House, and
>        did NOTHING.  You know, one thing worse than doing nothing is
>        saying you're going to do something as the most powerful leader on
>        earth, and doing nothing.
>    
>        So this is a legacy of Barack Obama, and it's been going on for
>        the intervening four years.  So what we need to do, we need to
>        stop Bashar Assad's planes from flying.  And we can do that
>        easily.  Just say don't fly, or you're gonna get shot down, and if
>        you start operating out of the six bases that they have, we're
>        going to crater your runways with cruise missiles and other
>        weapons.  41:54
>    
>        But you can't fly because we're not gonna let you drop nerve gas.
>        We're not gonna let you drop chlorine.  We're not gonna let you
>        drop barrel bombs.
>    
>        You know what barrel bombs are?  They're large cylindical things
>        filled with shrapnel.  And they explode about 20 feet above the
>        ground, and they indiscriminately kill people.
>    
>        He's got to be stopped from flying, and we can stop him easily,
>        using our cruise missiles and other capabilities.  and we'll tell
>        the Russians, it's your guy, you can join us in stopping him from
>        flying and committing these war crimes.
>    
>        Then I would have safe zones, and there's a lot of other things,
>        but the first thing we gotta do is stop his ability to slaughter
>        people."<END QUOTE>[/indent]

Here are the remarks of Lindsey Graham (my transcription):

>        [indent]<QUOTE>QUESTION: "What should President Trump do to Syria?"
>    
>        GRAHAM: Destroy his air power and create a safe zone in Syria
>        where this never happens again."
>    
>        QUESTION: "We'd have to bomb their airfields, right?  There are
>        Russian planes there."
>    
>        GRAHAM: "They should move them.
>    
>        Then I would make sure that the people in Idlib would never be
>        bombed again by Assad.  There would be safe havens where people
>        could go back to Syria from Europe and the United States.  Talk
>        won't do it.  This is a time for Pres Trump to show the world he's
>        not President Obama.
>    
>        This is a horrible event out of which could come an opportunity to
>        reset the Mideast, to establish his presidency as something
>        different than Obama, to send a dictator to everyone in the world
>        there's a new sheriff in town.  And if he would actually hold
>        Assad accountable and protect the innocent people of Syria, it
>        would help us in Iran and North Korea and everywhere
>        else."<END QUOTE>[/indent]

As I've been writing for years, Generational Dynamics predicts that
Iran and the West will be allies in the approaching Clash of
Civilizations world war, and that China, Pakistan and the Sunni Muslim
countries will be pitted against the US, India, Russia and Iran.  In
the Mideast, Generational Dynamics predicts a full-scale Mideast war,
pitting Jews against Arabs, Sunnis against Shias, and various ethnic
groups against each other.

These predictions will come true with absolute certainty, and it would
have made no difference whether Trump or Hillary Clinton had been
elected president.  The events of the last two days are a major step
forward along that trend line.

Related Articles

• Investigation reveals depraved new atrocities by Syria's Bashar al-Assad (08-Feb-2017)
  
  
• After Syria's so-called ceasefire, tensions grow over the future of Bashar al-Assad (13-Feb-2017)
  
  
• US increasingly expresses total disgust with Syria regime for Bashar al-Assad's atrocities (21-Sep-2016)
  
  
• Furious UN envoy Staffan de Mistura excoriates Syria's Bashar al-Assad (19-Aug-2016)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Syria, Bashar al-Assad,
Russia, Barack Obama, Marco Rubio, Rex Tillerson,
John McCain, Lindsey Graham

<snip>

Well, well, a whole cabal of war mongers seems to be there.  So, Rags knows the end result.  [IS,Al Queda, or anarchy]  lurk in the future for the area known as "Syria". Lots of emotions, but no forethought as to the ramifications of whatever the US decides to do. So, how many fuck ups need to happen before the US gets the idea that really, really bad results come after so called humanitarian interventions? Qod, I wish Saudi Arabia would just fucking run out of oil so that Qod forsaken place just goes to utter shit and camels become the main means of transportation. It's obvious, man. Anything McStain and Graham Cracker endorse is just stupid. Rags does not get upset with "humanitarian fuckups" because that's the natural state of tacky,tacky humans. Oh, wait, Marco Rube and Nikki Staley joined that choir.   Einstein was right, there's no limit to the amount of human stupidity in this universe.