The World Is Getting a Taste of the Trump Doctrine - Are The London Attacks A Result?

[TomCADem]

Since Trump has been President, he has issued directives to the military to be less restrained when it comes to avoid civilian casualties. This was made most evidence when he authorized the deployment of a multi-million dollar 21,600 pound bomb in Afghanistan. Given the U.S. increased willingness to tolerate the civilian casualties, is it any wonder that terrorists are beginning to ramp up attacks on civilian soft-targets? Also, hasn't Trump abandoned the moral high ground to complain about civilian casualties given his new directives.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-world-is-getting-a-taste-of-the-trump-doctrine-w476839

What to make of the sudden jump in "collateral damage" – i.e., the piling up of dead civilians in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Afghanistan, thanks to U.S. airstrikes? Do the out-of-the-blue missile attacks against a Syrian air base last Thursday and this week's deployment of a 21,600-pound, never-before-used "mother of all bombs" in Afghanistan signal that the White House has given the green light for what Donald Trump promised in 2016 – "I would bomb the shit out of ISIS" – with little regard for innocents caught in the blasts?

Based on the results of a lengthy string of attacks, beginning just days after Trump took office in January, it sure looks that way.

Despite his bomb-ISIS outbursts, Trump ran a neo-isolationist electoral campaign, repeatedly slamming Hillary Clinton for her vote in favor of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Thus, his startling bout of muscle-flexing is a sharp departure from his America First posturing. The dropping of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) in eastern Afghanistan, in the remote hills of Achin District in Nangarhar Province, unleashed a weapon of staggering power, one widely described as the largest non-nuclear explosive device in the entire American arsenal. "The after-effect, the shock wave, not only has physical effects but psychological effects," Col. Cedric Leighton (Ret.), told CNN.

"This is not the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as a testing ground for new and dangerous weapons," former Afghan President Hamid Karzai wrote in a series of tweets.

[justiceischeap]

1. I wonder how long it will be before Human Rights Watch issues a paper

about the Trump administration

[malaise]

2. All I know is that war never has one side

You kill and they kill - there are no innocents except the poor civilians caught on the middle of this madness..

[TomCADem]

3. Trump said he would take out the families of ISIS fighters. Did an airstrike in Syria do just that

Poor civilians are not just caught in the middle. They ARE the target for both the U.S. and terrorists. Trump has validated targeting civilians.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/05/27/trump-said-he-would-take-out-the-families-of-isis-fighters-did-an-airstrike-in-syria-do-just-that/?utm_term=.6d74cdae24ed

Back when he was still a candidate and not president of the United States, Donald Trump had a suggestion for winning the battle against the Islamic State: “Take out their families.”

“The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox News' “Fox and Friends” in December 2015. “They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. When they say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families.”

The comment prompted criticism from other candidates, who argued that such a tactic would constitute a war crime.

A year and a half later, Trump is now president — and on Friday, a monitoring group said that airstrikes from a U.S.-backed coalition on a town in Syria had killed a large number of relatives of Islamic State fighters.

[malaise]

5. I'm agreeing with you

Bush and Cheney exacerbated this madness. Also ask BLIAR about Iraq and then Cameron about Libya.
How many people were blown up in Mosul recently? How many were blown up in Afghanistan a few days ago. No flowers and barely a mention about those brown people.

They're all fucking terrorists - and the Con is only making it worse.

[Thomas Hurt]

4. WTF is the Trump Doctrine, besides a continuation of Bush and Obama policies...

I suppose you could say the whole sucking up to Russia to work toward peace is part of that.....but frankly that is bullshit as far as I am concerned. We were already working with Russia anyway.

I am not about to believe that Trump and GOP give a damn about peace over profit.

bombing the shit out of ISIS.....we were already bombing the shit out of them.

Another thing Trump has his name on properties around the world if he had aggravated ISIS why do his properties remain unscathed. ISIS has no problem killing innocents.

[malaise]

6. And neither do Western governments n/t

[TomCADem]

7. Civilian deaths from US-led airstrikes hit record high under Donald Trump

I think that is a bit of wishful false equivalency to say that Trump is no different than President Obama.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-civilian-deaths-syria-iraq-middle-east-a7649486.html

A non-profit organisation that tracks civilian casualties caused by airstrikes in the Middle East said it has shifted nearly all of its resources to track a surge of claims regarding US-led strikes in Syria and Iraq.

The group, called Airwars.org, had been tracking deaths caused by both Russian and US airstrikes but said in a statement Friday that it was suspending its work on "alleged Russian actions in Syria -- so as best to focus our limited resources on continuing to properly monitor and assess reported casualties from the US and its allies.

"Almost 1,000 civilian non-combatant deaths have already been alleged from coalition actions across Iraq and Syria in March - a record claim," the statement said. "These reported casualty levels are comparable with some of the worst periods of Russian activity in Syria."

In the last week, three mass casualty incidents have been attributed to US.-led forces in Iraq and Syria, making March one of the most lethal months for civilians in the the two-year-old war against the Islamic State.

[DFW]

8. I think that London (and Paris and Nice and Stockholm and Brussels etc) would have happened anyway

The more free a society is, the more vulnerable it is to people who hate the concept. The real question is how badly do the deranged killers want to destroy the very freedoms that allow them to be what they are in the first place? I seriously doubt there are any devoted followers of some invisible friend in the sky living as they please and plotting such an act in Pyongang.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. All political theorists state that the son is not the father, meaning you can't punish the children.

[WinkyDink]

11. Refutation Point #1: George W. Bush.

[WinkyDink]

10. I'm thinking terrorism pre-dates the Trump Presidency. J/S.

[Warpy]

12. Short answer: NO

However, England and the rest of our allies are starting to realize that the US has to be counted out of the antiterrorist game for the time being since an egocentric, ethnocentric shithead is now in charge of the country and who will blab any shared intelligence he gets to enemies.

This is going to have consequences far beyond Fuckwit's administration, which we all sincerely hope will be cut short when the GOP realize he's a loose cannon who wants what he wants and won't settle for any half measures they send him to sign.

[world wide wally]

13. I can't help but wonder how much American taxpayers are forking out to protect Trump's

properties around the world now as compared to 2 years ago.