Saturday, April 08, 2017

The strike in Syria was not about national security, It had no basis and very little effect.

1. President Trump (click here) is sitting at the narrow end of the table
2. Rex W. Tillerson, secretary of state
3. Stephen K. Bannon, chief strategist
4. Stephen Miller, senior adviser
5. Michael Anton, adviser on national security
6. Dina Powell, deputy national security adviser
7. Gary D. Cohn, chief economic adviser
8. Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, national security adviser
9. Reince Priebus, chief of staff
10. Joseph Hagin, deputy chief of staff
11. Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser
12. Steven T. Mnuchin is the Treasury secretary
13. Wilbur L. Ross is the commerce secretary
14. Sean Spicer, press secretary

"The Masters of the Universe"

Where's the popcorn?

Ready for "Sunday Morning?" There are more press people in the room than military. I can't ignore the presence of economic personnel. This is ridiculous. Economics of Wall Street are being calculated while the missiles drop? Cheney all over again. The USA invaded Iraq on March 19-20 and Halliburton was on the ground on the 21st.

Joe Biden, (click here) vice president of the United States, 
Barack Obama, forty-forth president of the United States
Marshall B. Webb (seated at the head of the table, with a laptop) is a United States Air Force major general who served as Assistant Commanding General of the Joint Special Operations Command during the raid.
Mike Mullen (standing, wearing a tie), a career naval officer,
Tom Donilon (standing, arms folded) was President Obama’s National Security Advisor 
Bill Daley (standing, with jacket) was the White House Chief of Staff for President Obama from January 2011 to 2012.
Denis McDonough (seated) Deputy National Security Adviser.
Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State 
Audrey Tomason (standing, furthest in back), director for counterterrorism
John Brennan (standing, wearing gray), director of the Central Intelligence Agency
James Clapper (standing, wearing tie) the Director of National Intelligence
Robert Gates (seated) Secretary of Defense

Obama actually accomplished something, Trump didn't. Trump made it worse. Moscow is tightening up their relationship with Syria. Twenty people counted as dead so far, no specifics as to who they are.

April 8, 2017
By Louisa Loveluck

...Although American officials predicted (click here) that the strikes would result in a major shift of Assad’s calculus, they appeared to be symbolic in practice. Within 24 hours of the attack, monitoring groups reported that jets were taking off from the bombed Shayrat air base once again, this time to bomb Islamic State positions.

There were also reports of Syrian government and Russian airstrikes across the provinces of Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib and Daraa, all killing civilians. However, there were no reports of further use of chemical weapons.

“The American strikes did nothing for us. They can still commit massacres at anytime,” said Majed Khattab, speaking by phone from Khan Sheikhoun. “No one here can sleep properly, people are really afraid.”...