http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...71526.html

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned US cruise missile strikes on a Syrian government military target, saying they broke international law and have seriously damaged US-Russia relations.

The Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, viewed the action taken by Donald Trump as an "act of aggression" against a sovereign state on a “made-up pretext” to distract the world from civilian deaths in Iraq.

“Putin views the US strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law and on a made-up up pretext. Washington's step will inflict major damage on US-Russia ties,” Mr Peskov was cited as saying.

He added that Russia did not believe Syria possessed chemical weapons and that the air strikes would inevitably create a serious obstacle to creating an international coalition to fight terrorism.

This would appear to be something for Trump to point at to say he is not in Putins pocket.

Did I hear right, did Trump say they were notified? What happened to "We keep losing because we keep telegraphing".

This will only serve to radicalize more fighters. Soon we will see more jugheaded American and Russian Nationalists waving their flags and screaming at the TV cameras. Onward Christian Soldiers!

There are, from the American perspective, 5 sides in the Syrian struggle:

1. Assad's regime - target of the strike, an regime which had pursued a relatively moderate, secular,  west tilting approach prior to the "Arab spring".   It is now generally conceded the so called Arab spring could have gone in but one direction - replacement of failed secular state with Islamist, most likely radical, regime.  Nonetheless out of sheer indulgence in the fantasy that Arab spring will lead to western democracy, Obama/clinton team took umbrage at Assad' efforts to suppress the Arab spring and Assad has been the west appointed bogeyman ever since.

2. Islamist rebel - self explanatory, trying to take down Assad and install some shade of an expansionism fundamentalist caliphate in the true spirit of the real current of Arab spring,  as Assad predicted while we were basking in the Obama/clinton manufactured glow of the fantasy Arab spring.

3. Friendly rebel - a subset of Islamist rebels whom we, out of sheer desperate need for some straws to grasp, deemed to be not Islamist rebels and therefore our friends.   Not sure what we would say if we manage to actually be effective in making them win.

4. Russians - who wants to make sure neither 2, nor 3, nor anything actually more resembling Obama/clinton fantasy of 2011, establishes itself in Syria.  Furthermore whatever emerges will keep allowing Russia to use a naval base there the Russians had been using since the 1960s.   Russia is also willing to put boots on the ground to protect Assad' troops and regime, Russia is also very close and it is logistically simple for Russia to sustain both land and air operation there indefinitely.  It is also trivially easy for Russia to replace any equipment the Assad regime loses to American missiles or any rebels.   Russia could also put advanced air defense there and make any American air champaign there more costly than any the US has experienced since Vietnam.    If the US and Russia were to come to blows in Syria, turkey would reflexively side with Russia, unless the west were to make so much concessions to the Islamist regime in disguise in Ankara that for the pleasure of showing we are doing something, we bring the emergence of an Islamist neoottoman empire on the doorstep of the west several steps closer.

5. Trump and his smooth faced son-in-law.

(April 7, 2017 at 3:17 am)Isis Wrote:

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...71526.html

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned US cruise missile strikes on a Syrian government military target, saying they broke international law and have seriously damaged US-Russia relations.

The Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, viewed the action taken by Donald Trump as an "act of aggression" against a sovereign state on a “made-up pretext” to distract the world from civilian deaths in Iraq.

“Putin views the US strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law and on a made-up up pretext. Washington's step will inflict major damage on US-Russia ties,” Mr Peskov was cited as saying.

He added that Russia did not believe Syria possessed chemical weapons and that the air strikes would inevitably create a serious obstacle to creating an international coalition to fight terrorism.

What else did your expect? Blah, Blah, Blah.

(April 7, 2017 at 8:26 am)mh.brewer Wrote: What else did your expect? Blah, Blah, Blah.

I didn't expect anything else. I was just posting updates is all...

So what is your take on all of this ... is it just saber rattling ... or do you think something more will happen?

(April 7, 2017 at 8:31 am)Isis Wrote:

(April 7, 2017 at 8:26 am)mh.brewer Wrote: What else did your expect? Blah, Blah, Blah.

I didn't expect anything else. I was just posting updates is all...

Sorry, should have used "I expected". 

And spell checked, I'm such a putz.

(April 7, 2017 at 3:17 am)Isis Wrote:

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...71526.html

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned US cruise missile strikes on a Syrian government military target, saying they broke international law and have seriously damaged US-Russia relations.

The Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, viewed the action taken by Donald Trump as an "act of aggression" against a sovereign state on a “made-up pretext” to distract the world from civilian deaths in Iraq.

“Putin views the US strikes on Syria as aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law and on a made-up up pretext. Washington's step will inflict major damage on US-Russia ties,” Mr Peskov was cited as saying.

He added that Russia did not believe Syria possessed chemical weapons and that the air strikes would inevitably create a serious obstacle to creating an international coalition to fight terrorism.

Not unlike Putin to dismiss that "sovereign state's"  Sarin gas attack against a village of women and children...oh, and Putin claims he doesn't believe Syria possesses chemical weapons. Who else claims to believe that besides Putin, Iran, and North Korea?