Meanwhile in Iraq & Syria

[TheReal_ND]

[kybkh]

Amazingly the tone towards the president has turned slightly positive today.

[TheReal_ND]

Amazingly the tone towards the president has turned slightly positive today.

Could have something to do with lunch with the king of Jordan. It was supposed to have gone quite well and Rush is telling me the left likes the king because he's short and speaks with an English accent (dude what?) lol

[adwinistrator]

President Trump said some things during the Q+A portion of his joint press conference with King Abdullah II...

President Trump said Wednesday that he was moved by reports of a deadly gas attack in Syria carried out by forces loyal to Bashar Assad, adding that the Syrian leader had “crossed a lot of lines.”

“It crossed a lot of lines for me,” Trump said at a press conference with Jordanian King Abdullah at the White House. “When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, little babies with a chemical gas that is so lethal that people were shocked to hear what gas it was, that crosses many lines beyond the red line. Many, many lines.”

Trump said the reports of women and children who had died in the "horrible" attack had a "big impact" and caused him to rethink his strategy on Syria.

“I do change. I am flexible. I am proud of that flexibility,” Trump said. “I will tell you that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me. Big impact. It was a horrible, horrible thing. I've been watching it and seeing it, and it does not get any worse than that. I have that flexibility. And it is very, very possible, and I will tell you it is already happened, that my attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much.”
Trump declined to outline what his new approach to Syria may be.

On Tuesday, Trump faulted former President Obama, saying his predecessor created the conditions in Syria that led to the gas attack by backing away from his “red line” threat against Assad for the use of chemical weapons.

Trump on Wednesday continued to cast blame on Obama.

“A long time ago when he said the red line in the sand, when he did not 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,” Trump said. “I think it was something that was not one of our better days as a country.”

Trump said the responsibility for Syria is now his own.

“I now have responsibility, and I will have that responsibility and carry it very proudly,” he said. “I will tell you that. It is now my responsibility.”

[Martin Hash]

So, ginned up Fake News, probably at Trump's directive, so he could essentially declare war while the king of Jordan was visiting.

Fuck Trump.

[TheReal_ND]

Here we go!

[adwinistrator]

Remarks at an Emergency UN Security Council Meeting on Chemical Weapons in Syria

Ambassador Nikki Haley
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
U.S. Mission to the United Nations

New York City
April 5, 2017

AS DELIVERED

It was interesting to hear of the talk from my Russian colleague about the independent investigations and the importance of them, because this entire Security Council decided on what the Joint Investigative Mechanism would be and decided what it would do, and it was actually voted on unanimously. And the joint mechanism came back and said that the Syrian government committed chemical weapons acts against their own people three different times. But somehow now we don’t like what the Joint Investigative Mechanism does.

Having said that, I will say in the life of the United Nations, there are times when we are compelled to do more than just talk. There are times we are compelled to take collective action. This Security Council thinks of itself as a defender of peace, security, and human rights. We will not deserve that description if we do not rise to action today.

Yesterday morning, we awoke to pictures, to children foaming at the mouth, suffering convulsions, being carried in the arms of desperate parents. We saw rows of lifeless bodies. Some still in diapers. Some with the visible scars of a chemical weapons attack.

Look at those pictures. We cannot close our eyes to those pictures. We cannot close our minds of the responsibility to act. We don’t yet know everything about yesterday’s attack. But there are many things we do know.

We know that yesterday’s attack bears all the hallmarks of the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons. We know that Assad has used these weapons against the Syrian people before. That was confirmed by this Council’s own independent team of investigators. We know that yesterday’s attack was a new low, even for the barbaric Assad regime.

Evidence reported from the scene indicates that Assad is now using even more lethal chemical agents than he did before. The gas that fell out of the sky yesterday was more deadly, leaving men, women, the elderly, and children, gasping for their very last breath.

And as first responders, doctors, and nurses rushed to help the victims, a second round of bombs rained down. They died in the same slow, horrendous manner as the civilians they were trying to save.

We all also know this: Just a few weeks ago, this Council attempted to hold Assad accountable for suffocating his own people to death with toxic chemicals. Russia stood in the way of this accountability. They made an unconscionable choice. They chose to close their eyes to the barbarity. They defied the conscience of the world. Russia cannot escape responsibility for this. In fact, if Russia had been fulfilling its responsibility, there would not even be any chemical weapons left for the Syrian regime to use.

There is one more thing we know: We know that if nothing is done, these attacks will continue.

Assad has no incentive to stop using chemical weapons as long as Russia continues to protect his regime from consequences. I implore my colleagues to take a hard look at their words in this Council. We regularly repeat tired talking points in support of a peace process that is regularly undermined by the Assad regime.

Time and time again, Russia uses the same false narrative to deflect attention from their allies in Damascus. Time and time again, without any factual basis, Russia attempts to place blame on others.

There is an obvious truth here that must be spoken. The truth is that Assad, Russia, and Iran have no interest in peace.

The illegitimate Syrian government, led by a man with no conscience, has committed untold atrocities against his people for more than six years. Assad has made it clear that he doesn’t want to take part in a meaningful political process. Iran has reinforced Assad’s military, and Russia has shielded Assad from UN sanctions.

If Russia has the influence in Syria that it claims to have, we need to see them use it. We need to see them put an end to these horrific acts. How many more children have to die before Russia cares?

The United States sees yesterday’s attack as a disgrace at the highest level, an assurance that humanity means nothing to the Syrian government.

The question members of this Council must ask themselves is this: If we are not able to enforce resolutions preventing the use of chemical weapons, what does that say for our chances of ending the broader conflict in Syria? What does that say of our ability to bring relief to the Syrian people? If we are not able to enforce resolutions preventing the use of chemical weapons, what does that say about our effectiveness in this institution?

If we are not prepared to act, then this Council will keep meeting, month after month, to express outrage at the continuing use of chemical weapons, and it will not end. We will see more conflict in Syria. We will see more pictures that we can never un-see.

I began my remarks by saying that in the life of the United Nations, there are times when we are compelled to take collective action. I will now add this: When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action.

For the sake of the victims, I hope the rest of the Council is finally willing to do the same. The world needs to see the use of chemical weapons and the fact that they will not be tolerated.

Thank you.

Emphasis mine...

[Dand]

This is a joke. If we're really going to war over this then Trump wasn't enough. It's a blatant false flag and it won't be the first time a chemical attack was hoaxed in Syria.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-23892594

[kybkh]

Would the CIA be better off to blackmail Trump into enacting unpopular policies which they could not coerce Obama in to doing if they indeed "have the goods" on Trump?

Better yet isn't every president from now to eternity going to be able to be blackmailed with metadata?

[TheReal_ND]