Photograph from Facebook page of Bashar al-Assad – By Donna Westfall – March 13, 2018 –
With the combined operation of armed forces from France, the United Kingdom and the United States, Syria has been attacked.
Trump labels Syrian President Bashar al- Assad a monster and a dictator. Assad has been in charge of that country since the year 2000. His father ruled before him for the previous 30 years.
Syria is bordered by the Mediterranian Sea along with the countries of Israel and Lebanon on the west and southwest, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the South and Turkey to the north.
Last year Trump had 58 missles rain down on Syria after they used toxic chemicals on their own people. Those US missiles took out 20% of the Syrian air force.
Last Saturday, April 7th, claims that 500 people, mostly women and children were injured and needed medical attention with 40 deaths occuring due to chemical weapons used against them. Reports passed to the World Health Organization by partner agencies indicate that those people had the signs and symptoms associated with toxic chemicals. Symptoms included frothing at the mouth, suffocation, dilated and constricted pupils, corneal burns, central cyanosis – a blue tinge to the skin – and a chlorine-like odour, were consistent with exposure to an organophosphorus compound. Sarin gas is such a chemical.
UN aid agencies cannot get into the area. The Syrian government has denied responsibility. The United Nations put out estimates of a quarter of a million people killed due to anti-regime uprisings resulting in a civil war that started in 2011. Millions of people have fled their country.
Why does the Trump administration believe the Syrian government are responsible for the chemical weapon attack?
Here’s what happened in 2013… 1,700 people were killed. How? Chemical weapons.
Just keep in mind that chemical warfare was banned after World War 1. That’s 100 years ago! Also keep this in mind. In 2013, more than 1,700 men, women and children died after the Syrian government launched attacks using nerve agents, which nearly prompted a US intervention in the war.
Here enters Russia. They failed to keep their promise (Russia’s chemical disarmament agreement from 2013). The Russians and US arrived at an agreement to rid Syria of their chemical weapons. Syria was not to develop, produce, retain or use chemical weapons or toxic chemicals as weapons.
Everything started out well enough, and then Syria apparently didn’t keep their end of the bargain, for a change. They declared their chemical weapons were removed from their country in 2014 and they were destroyed in 2016. They possessed large stockpiles of sulfur mustard, sarin, and VX nerve gas. Skepticism is high that ever took place.
Back to the present.
Witnesses have said six loud explosions have occured in Damascus, the capitol of Syria along with strikes in the Barzah district which is the location of a major Syrian scientific research center.
Trump had this to say to Iran and Russia. “What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children?”
Speaking from the White House, Trump said the main reason for tonight’s action is “to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons.”
Trump is not stopping with a military attack. He went on to state, “We are prepared to sustain this response (military, economic and diplomatic) until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents.”
On the other hand, Russia is threatening the US with trade sanctions.
According to USA Today, “Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Friday accused Russia of lies and covering up for Assad, which she said had used chemical weapons at least 50 times in the past seven years of warfare.”
This started before the elections Obama put sanctions on Russia. Then after the elections, it was time to undo everything Obama ever did. White wash history. Now we are back in the thick of it the war criminals that lied us into war there in the first place Dick Cheyne, Lord Rothchild and Rupert Murdock ( fox ) have got together with Genie Oil and are looking to drill for billions of barrels of oil on Syrian territory that was stole by Israel with the help of Russia and Iraq. Any bombing there is a gift to Putin, Iraq and Israel. Unless its a bomb in Assads lap. How is killing thousands supposed to help the dead? How is it that we already knew of chemical war factories but chose to do nothing? Yet are just learning that it was clorine and not the nerve agents that trump said they were. I think trump got a two-fer – he helped his pal Putin and looked tough for his base while taking attention away from his problems with pornstars and his personal lawyer getting raided at Trump Towers.
Genie is up over 10% since the bombing.
This is not a Trump thing. This is an Obama thing. In 2013 many of us called the White House (2000 to 1) in favor of not attacking Syria after Obama did his war drum speech one night. In 2009 Iran, Iraq, and Syria agreed to a pipeline that would drain the worlds largest oil and gas reserve into the Mediterranean sea where European buyers would buy the assets in non=USD currency. Enter the Syrian “Civil” war. A civil war where participants come from Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Not really a civil war. The other big financial pusher is Genie Energy, a US publicly traded company that has rights granted from Israel to explore oil and gas production in Golan Heights, an area annexed by Israel and recognized as sovereign Syria by the international community, so to take the assets would be a war crime.. plundering, however, not if Syria were to be reshaped and reconsidered. About 2 years ago Genie Energy subsidy Afek Oil discovered a bonanza of oil and gas in this area. Of course all of these moderate states we have attacked.. Libya, Iraq, and Syria have one thing in common,, socialism. The motto of the Baathist party that had led these states is “socialism, unity, and liberty for all”. The motto of the Muslim Brotherhood is death to non-believers and these are the people you will find that Bashar has been at odds with. The “chemical attack” in 2013 was debunked by MIT professors and Obama had threatened to bomb a UN investigative team off the ground after reporters there were getting reports that these weapons were gifts from Saudi princes. We have funded this to such an extreme, arming “moderate” rebels that become ISIS with US weaponry once they cross the border, that in 2014 a study found that 2/3 of the shells on the ground were manufactured in the US, and if US troops were put on the ground, the bulk of bullets fired at them would have been manufactured here. We attacked Iraq, not after 9-11, but after he stopped trading oil in USD and went to Euro. This is very similar. the pipeline, if completed and the oil was not buyable with dollars, would cripple the value of our currency. I don’t believe that Bashar is responsible for these babies, I believe they are the new “weapon of mass destruction” since that would be too obvious. Further, the photos are taken by White Helmets, also called The Syrian Civil Defence, however, these people are not Syrian but Turkish. We are accountable for about a decade of hell there, if you paid taxes and spent or made money. Now we will never know who was responsible, because we have destroyed the evidence.
Great article Donna. Nikki Haley cuts Assad and Russia zero slack; impressive lady from Dixieland. Atlanta Braves fans are saying “Tomahawk chop!”
What a great team the US, UK and France make. Where was Germany? Next time we need to give Al-Assad himself a proper scalping with an American made Tomahawk missile delivered directly to his living room.