Syria Gas Attack- What Now?

Russia is eating our lunch politically over this whole Syria thing.

The Russian leader said he was convinced the suspected chemical attack was a provocation aimed at drawing the U.S. military into Syria's civil war, implying he believed the attack was carried out by the Syrian rebels.

If the Americans have evidence proving the involvement of President Bashar Assad's regime, they should present it to the United Nations inspectors and the U.N. Security Council, he said. "If it is not presented, that means it does not exist," Putin said.
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"We have to remember what has happened in the last decades, how many times the United States has been the initiator of armed conflict in different regions of the world," Putin told Russian journalists, including from state television, covering his visit to Vladivostok in the Far East. "Did this resolve even one problem?
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"

http://news.msn.com/world/putin-urges-us-to-hold-off-on-striking-syria/
 
"We have to remember what has happened in the last decades, how many times the United States has been the initiator of armed conflict in different regions of the world," Putin told Russian journalists, including from state television, covering his visit to Vladivostok in the Far East. "Did this resolve even one problem?
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Damn.
 
A little blast from the past....
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/10/us_strike_in_syria_d.php

Al Qaeda leader Abu Ghadiya was killed in yesterday's strike inside Syria, a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal. But US special operations forces also inflicted a major blow to al Qaeda's foreign fighter network based in Syria. The entire senior leadership of Ghadiya's network was also killed in the raid, the official stated.

Ghadiya was the leader of al Qaeda extensive network that funnels foreign fighters, weapons, and cash from Syria into Iraq along the entire length of the Syrian border. Ghadiya was first identified as the target of the raid inside Syria late last night here at The Long War Journal. The Associated Press reported Ghadiya was killed in the raid earlier today.

Several US helicopters entered the town of town of Sukkariya near Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, just five miles from the Iraqi border. US commandos from the hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88 assaulted the buildings sheltering Ghadiya and his staff.

The Syrian government has protested the attack, describing it as an act of "criminal and terrorist aggression" carried out by the US. The Syrian government claimed eight civilians, including women and children, were killed in the strike. But a journalist from The Associated Press who attended the funeral said that only the bodies of seven men were displayed.

The US official said there were more killed in the raid than is being reported. "There are more than public numbers [in the Syrian press] are saying, those reported killed were the Syrian locals that worked with al Qaeda," the official told The Long War Journal. "There were non-Syrian al Qaeda operatives killed as well."

Those killed include Ghadiya's brother and two cousins. "They also were part of the senior leadership," the official stated. "They're dead. We've decapitated the network." Others killed during the raid were not identified.

The strike is thought to have a major impact on al Qaeda's operations inside Syria. Al Qaeda's ability to control the vast group of local "Syrian coordinators" who directly help al Qaeda recruits and operatives enter Iraq has been "crippled."
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He (Putin) urged Obama to reflect on the results of the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan
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That Commie bastard has some gall, I guess he forgot his 10 year genocidal war there.
 
I turned 18 in Dec. 1991. Since I became an adult and by my count, regardless of how well our men fought:

Somalia - Loss
Bosnia - Ongoing (though you could also argue as a loss or a win)
Cruise missle strikes in the Sudan and Afghanistan - Loss
Kosovo - Win (airpower only)
Iraq - Loss (Some will argue the opposite)
Afghanistan - Loss
GWOT in the Philippines - Win or Winning
Africa - Very debatable
Colombia - Maintaining the status quo/ winning

Think about it and look at the patterns. Regardless, our track record is kind of ugly....
 
I have NO idea if this story is accurate, and I'm not vouching for the news source. But:

http://www.examiner.com/article/bre...attack-result-of-mishandling-chemical-weapons

"In a report that is sure to be considered blockbuster news, the rebels told Dale Gavlak, a reporter who has written for the Associated Press, NPR and BBC, they are responsible for the chemical attack last week.

Gavlak is a Middle Eastern journalist who filed the report about the rebels claiming responsibility on the Mint Press News website, which is affiliated with AP.

In that report allegedly the rebels told him the chemical attack was a result of mishandling chemical weapons."
 
Scotth said:
Not trying to start a fight just curious why you could consider Bosnia a loss? Because we are still there maybe?

Somolia was a lost because of US domestic politics and not because of the military.
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Yeah but that's all of them bro, lol. We probably could have "won" every conflict we've been engaged in since WWII, if not for political considerations. Then again, the military is used for political goals, not for its own ends.
 
Scotth said:
Not trying to start a fight just curious why you could consider Bosnia a loss? Because we are still there maybe?

Somolia was a lost because of US domestic politics and not because of the military.
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Originally we the people were sold on a short term stay. What was it? 2 years or something? Now we're on 14/15-something years? I won't even "what if" it by saying "if we pulled out tomorrow," but as it stands we're there for a lot, lot longer than anyone thought.
 
Freefalling said:
I turned 18 in Dec. 1991. Since I became an adult and by my count, regardless of how well our men fought:

Africa - Very debatable
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Disagree here. Well, not that it's debatable- but that we are currently winning handily. I believe it to be much less a debate. The last ten years of warfighting have enabled us to avoid making the same mistakes, and the way that we navigate certain issues and actually prosecute targets is extremely efficient, and we are showcasing this in Africa.

I think that time will show we have done very, very well in Africa for what our main purpose is- AT and counterproliferation of forces/weapons/mindset.

Now, as far as letting each brand of cat/dog/lion run their own country, under a democratic rule, and giving them a solid city state in which all can live? No. But that's not why we are in Africa, is it?

As far as length of stay- we are going nowhere, if I had to guess. I definitely plan on seeing The Dark Continent again in my career- if not a couple more times. We shall see.
 
Marauder06 said:
I have NO idea if this story is accurate, and I'm not vouching for the news source. But:

http://www.examiner.com/article/bre...attack-result-of-mishandling-chemical-weapons

"In a report that is sure to be considered blockbuster news, the rebels told Dale Gavlak, a reporter who has written for the Associated Press, NPR and BBC, they are responsible for the chemical attack last week.

Gavlak is a Middle Eastern journalist who filed the report about the rebels claiming responsibility on the Mint Press News website, which is affiliated with AP.

In that report allegedly the rebels told him the chemical attack was a result of mishandling chemical weapons."
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As you can see in this article, Russia investigated the Sarin attack and concluded that it was the rebels, they have supposedly handed their findings to the UN.

The Russian Ambassador to the UN speaks at the 2:46 mark, though the whole thing is worth a look as it talks about a chemical factory the rebels have, with chemicals from Saudi Arabia, which gels with what I heard earlier, and backs what @racing_kitty thought about the rockets used. "Not industrial manufactured".

 
amlove21 said:
Disagree here.
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Fair enough, though it kind of drives home one of the patterns I mentioned. Perhaps "very" wasn't appropriate, but I was thinking more in terms of Somalia, Mali (though that seems to have turned the corner last year), and radical influence in places like Egypt, Libya, Algiers, etc.

We could probably split hairs over what constitutes a win. Counterterror and weapons proliferation. Done. If we try to keep it in line with our muddled end-states in places like Iraq and Aghanistan I think we could call Africa a work in progress at best.
 
Freefalling said:
Fair enough, though it kind of drives home one of the patterns I mentioned. Perhaps "very" wasn't appropriate, but I was thinking more in terms of Somalia, Mali (though that seems to have turned the corner last year), and radical influence in places like Egypt, Libya, Algiers, etc....If we try to keep it in line with our muddled end-states in places like Iraq and Aghanistan I think we could call Africa a work in progress at best.
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I'm in total agreement here.

I guess I was framing it differently too. In the construct which you referenced, I think I would be more inclined to agree with you wholeheartedly. But even in Somalia, Mali (places which have been much much worse) and the "on the brink countries" (South Sudan, Algiers, Kenya), I think we are effecting the proper change there.

But bottom line- for over all, I don't think "work in progress" is 100% wrong- I'm of the opinion that we are on the "getting better" side of it though.
 
Freefalling said:
Originally we the people were sold on a short term stay. What was it? 2 years or something? Now we're on 14/15-something years? I won't even "what if" it by saying "if we pulled out tomorrow," but as it stands we're there for a lot, lot longer than anyone thought.
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Bosnia is an EU operation IIRC, we have a small Liason Cell, but SFOR is over (Bush II did it about year 5).

The problem with these ops is everyone gets used to them, and no one takes a hard look at why we are there (i.e. Kosovo).
 
SOWT said:
Bosnia is an EU operation IIRC, we have a small Liason Cell, but SFOR is over (Bush II did it about year 5).

The problem with these ops is everyone gets used to them, and no one takes a hard look at why we are there (i.e. Kosovo).
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Another small plus for a change.
 

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