OMFG - watch this Ex UK Ambassador - who benefits?

[malaise]

[malaise]

1. By the way this is Sky News

Another Murdoch link

[angstlessk]

2. Fake news, sorta like Sandy Hook?

[malaise]

3. I'll never fathom that one

I swear the lunatics have taken over

[Warpy]

4. I welcome skeptical viewpoints, but calling all Syrian rebels "jihadis" betrays

a certain bias here. There are so many factions that it's hard to keep track of them. Some are religious crazies, but there has been little evidence of the religious overreach against everything female in rebel held territory that we've seen in DAESH territory.

He needs to remember that this whole thing started when a group of teenagers were tortured and executed for spraying anti Assad graffit onto a school wall. Demonstrations ensued and the army fired into the crowds. That started this whole mess.

Once it got started, opportunists flocked in. The US hasn't intervened because of all the factionalism, we had no reliable dog in this fight, and that it's dangerous to tweak Putin's nose too hard.

As for the gas, chances are it wasn't faked. Some people were transported to Turkey and forensics confirmed Sarin by the presence of isopropyl phosphojawbreaker in respiratory secretions. I doubt the gas was faked.

Now the origin might be dubious if the rebels were on speaking terms with DAESH, which they don't appear to be. So far.

The first casualty of war is truth and I'd suggest taking most eyewitness reports with a pound of salt. Turkish forensics? Probably a little more reliable.

What we do know is that there has been a whiplash inducing change of policy a day after Bannon was bounced off the NSC. That is where the real story is.

[malaise]

5. I am always skeptical

Truth will out

[Jim Beard]

8. Yeah, the Bannon deal has been tossed around today...

I used to be so angry at Republican Allan Dulles's approach of siding with dictators of nations because it keeps nations for the US to deal with. I don't like that but at the old age of 70, I see that there are just some things we need to do differently. As with Iraq, Afghanistan Libya and to some extent Egypt, there is no government it waiting. Seems as though civil wars follow the downfall of tyrannical leaders and unless there is a strong victor, conflict continues.

[Jim Beard]

6. Just listened to John McCain saying Obama did everything wrong and we need to basically

FIGHT EVERYONE. We have been snookered too many times. Personally, he should have been the one Baby Bush attack because daddy Assad was the cruel one and Junior learned from.

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-are-hama-rules-2353561

What Are Hama Rules?

Hama is Syria's fourth largest city after Aleppo, Damascus, and Homs. It is located in the northwestern part of the country. In the early 1980s, it was a stronghold of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, which was working to topple the minority, Alawite regime of then-Syrian President Hafez el Assad. In February 1982, Assad ordered his military to demolish the city. New York Times reporter Thomas Friedman called the tactic "Hama Rules."

Answer: Syrian President Hafez el Assad took power in a military coup on November 16, 1970, when he was the minister of defense. Assad was an Alawite, a splinter Islamic sect that makes up about 6 percent of the Syrian population, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim, with Shiites, Kurds and Christians forming other minorities.

[malaise]

7. McGramps is addicted to war

There is no basis for this crazy Western interference in the ME - it is nothing more than looting and plunder under religious pretext.