[The Urban Sombrero]

If Russians were at the Syrian air base, would it be reasonable to assume that key members of Russian military, if not Putin himself, knew about the nerve gas?

[TheRealThing]

If Russians were at the Syrian air base, would it be reasonable to assume that key members of Russian military, if not Putin himself, knew about the nerve gas?

Oh he knew alright. But I'd say if Putin didn't know about the nerve gas, those responsible for hiding it from him are either already dead or on their way to the Gulag.

[TheRealThing]

If anyone happened to catch one of the daily White House press briefings this week, you've seen a shameless display of hypocrisy across the board by the media. One gotcha ploy after the other. Quite frankly in watching the embarrassing spectacle, one is compelled to concede at least to some degree, the foreign policy position of Vladimir Putin. The entirety of the main stream media corps are doing their best to make it seem as if the Trump Administration has no cohesive policy in place where Syria is concerned. And unless the officials of Putin's government are completely blind and stupid, they can easily see that the only friends the Trump Administration has (in the continental US) are a few notables on FOX and those who voted for him. The free Press, along with activists attached to the Obama shadow government, the Deep State and every last Democrat past present and future, Russia, Syria, Iran and North Korea, are in total agreement with regard to their shared and unwavering opposition to the Trump Administration down to the minutest detail.

Therefore, if I were Putin I might be asking why short of the threat of further military action, I should do the first thing differently? After all, the American Press are knocking themselves out to destroy the integrity of this administration, and are a far more an effective tool for the sake of calling into question the motive and validity of this Presidency than the pitiful efforts of Putin's Politburo. Not to mention the fact that it won't cost them the first ruble, the onslaught is guaranteed to go on unabated 24/7/365, and has the added benefit of providing equally unceasing entertainment at the click of a TV remote.

These are the same media who could not have been more gracious with the former President who by virtue of foreign political paralysis, was too timid to make any move whatever past belching out endless spates of ideological rhetorical oratory attributable to liberal progressivism, and who are suddenly very concerned about Syria. They didn't give a whit when passionate Syrians begged President Obama for help in achieving a Democracy, nor were they particularly troubled when Assad was busy murdering more than a half million of his own people with WMD's and conventional weapons. No foreign policy no problem--- all the rabid chipmunks were lost in what seemed to be eternal La-La Land as Press Secretary Josh in-Earnest could filibuster on and on about nothing.

No but now suddenly, they insist on criticizing this Administration for what they believe to be a shortfall of adequate policy on Syria. Off the top of my head there are four epic foreign policy albatrosses which history will hang around the pencil neck of Barack Obama. The premature abandonment of Iraq, the failure to act under the auspices of the Budapest Memorandum in the Crimean Peninsula, the Syrian 'Red Line' failure, and the Iran Nuclear 'Deal', (whatever that is.) We Americans will be paying a dear price for the Obama Presidential paralysis for decades IMHO. But the same complicit media who gave Obama cover for his 8 years of darkness, have most certainly sprouted horns for DJT. And BTW, and not that the aggression mounted by the press against the Reagan Administration was comparable to what we have seen so far perpetrated against every last effort Mr Trump or his administration officials have made, but I have seen all this go down before. I said the left would sooner see this nation lying on the ash heap of history than to concede conservatives so much as a nod, and so it has been. Republicans better learn in a hurry what being in the majority means in today's world and start to implement the Trump agenda with a sense of urgency. "The people," need time enough to see how good things can be under conservative leadership before the midterms of 2018 roll around. Because the lies from the left will only get more vicious.

[The Urban Sombrero]

⬆ Secretary Tillerson suggested a hope that Putin would line up with western democracies in backing away from Assad. I do not believe that Putin, former KGB and fierce Soviet nationalist, is the least bit concerned about the desires of western democracies. President Trump has also been put on blast by notables on the right like Ann Coulter and others for sending in the Tomahawk missiles. I personally think President Trump is hearkening back to President Reagan's "peace through strength" principle, and, in my view, he should be given some latitude to work that out with his military advisers. I just think the media, especially the 24/7 channels and social media sites are so ratings driven and "number of clicks" driven that it's almost unbearable to watch, and TRT, in my view, makes a lot of good points. It seems like Putin wants to be a major player on the world stage, return Russia to a place at the big table in the world power chess game. In that they have, like us, about a zillion nuclear bombs, we have to maintain good lines of communication, regardless of the occasional tit-for-tat spats. You guys agree?

[TheRealThing]

^^agreed. Back in the 40's (no I don't remember them lol), the United States allied with Russia to defeat Nazi Germany. But instead of friendship, all we took away from that campaign was Stalin's deep seeded distrust. Then we endured the Cold War and decades of saber rattling and nuclear brinkmanship. I suppose the case could be made that if not for Stalin's paranoia, all of that might have been avoided.

But Stalin and his evil influence with him, died in 1953. So that can't explain Russia's continuing agression for over 70 years. They've plotted and connived against free societies since WW2 and are just as evil as ever. But the thing is this, if the US had any designs of ill will against Russia we'd have made our move long ago. Russia is not worried that the US is their enemy, they just don't like us and would love to bring us down out of nothing more noble than contempt.

The threat of large scale war is no more a passé relic of the 20th Century thinking, than the undeniable threats posed by Mr Putin and his band of brutal dictator brothers.

[NEWARKCATHOLICFAN]

This was a nice start but not nearly enough has been done.