UPDATE:
President Trump has issued an official statement regarding the attack on the Syrian military base that launched the aircraft which dropped the alleged chemical weapons, although Russia claims the attack targeted a rebel weapons depot which contained the chemicals and they subsequently escaped into the population.
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Moments ago, contrary to calls for peace from the vast majority of his base, President Trump issued the order to launch a cruise missile attack on a strategic military base in Syria
In response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his own people earlier this week, which has not been confirmed by any independent investigators and claims of a false flag have surfaced, President Donald Trump approved the targeting of a single target in Syria, Ash Sha’irat in Homs province in western Syria.
MORE: Nearly 60 cruise missiles launched from ships in eastern Mediterranean aimed at locations around Syrian airfield, @CBSDavidMartin says pic.twitter.com/3Y5QZiScfh
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 7, 2017
CNBC is reporting that a total of 59 tomahawk missiles had been fired.
The United States launched dozens of cruise missiles Thursday night at a Syrian airfield in response to what it believes was Syria’s use of banned chemical weapons that killed at least 100 people, U.S. military officials told NBC News.
Two U.S. warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired 59 Tomahawk missiles intended for a single target — Ash Sha’irat in Homs province in western Syria, the officials said. That’s the airfield from which the United States believes the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fired the banned weapons.
There was no immediate word on casualties. U.S. officials told NBC News that people were not targeted and that aircraft and infrastructure at the site were hit, including the runway and gas fuel pumps.
The New York Times is reporting that no Russian soldiers or assets were present at the time of the attack and U.S. officials were informed them prior to taking military action.
A senior military official said that 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles had hit Al Shayrat airfield in Syria. The missiles were aimed at Syrian fighter jets and other infrastructure but did not target anything that may have had chemical weapons.
He said that no Russian planes were at the airfield and that the cruise missiles did not target any Russian facilities.
The Pentagon informed Russian military officials, through its established deconfliction channel, of the strike before the launching of the missiles, the official said, with American officials knowing when they did that that Russian authorities may well have alerted the Assad regime. “With a lot of Tomahawks flying, we didn’t want to hit any Russian planes,” he said.
The cruise missiles struck the airfield beginning around 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday and the strikes continued for three to four minutes.
According to one military official, the Tomahawks were launched from two Navy warships.
If there were indeed no chemical weapons at the site of Trump’s missile strike, and the damage was restricted mostly to aircraft, one has to wonder who actually benefits from this loss of military equipment on the part of the Syrian army? ISIS certainly can’t be complaining about the attack, which would logically protect them from future attacks launched from that airbase.
Oddly enough, this attack comes only a day after Steve Bannon, once a close confidante of Trump, was “removed” from the National Security council, which prompted rumors that he alone was the sole voice of opposition to military strikes in Syria. Ironically, Steve Bannon helped shape the policy that won Trump the election, so for him to be sidelined is a worrying event for the populist movement.
It’s important to note that Donald Trump did not run on military strikes in Syria during his campaign, in fact he stated quite the opposite and was more in favor of establishing safe zones, yet despite those words it appears pressure from inside his administration may have finally gotten to the president.
Given how unpopular military strikes were with Trump’s base, I suspect a flurry of disappointment to be hitting social media and conservative news websites. Some of Trump’s strongest supporters in conservative talkshows, including Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham Sean Hannity and Alex Jones, were fiercely against the president falling into similar traps of past president. Traps, which even Trump had criticized in 2013 where he warned Obama against military action in Syria without the consent of Congress. In fact, he wanted against getting involved in Syria at all.
The following Tweets will undoubtedly be used against Trump in the coming days after his military strike in Syria.
AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA - IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2013
The President must get Congressional approval before attacking Syria-big mistake if he does not!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2013
It appears the only people who are celebrating this strike (Marco Rubio, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and their allies) are the same people who hold policies that America voted against in last year’s election. Also of note, these are all politicians who also did not want Trump to win the election and actively spoke out against him as well as his policies.
An alternative theory as to why Trump chose to attack Syria’s military assets, despite his previous statements against it, is due the recent escalations in North Korea by dictator Kim Jong Un and meant to send a message that he is not afraid of confrontation. Or perhaps Trump is eager to finally put to bed the mainstream media’s rabid claims of Russia collusion, despite there being no evidence to back up their claims, although the opinions of the opposition media should be the last concern of President Trump.
The question on everyone’s mind once the dust of this attacks settle will be, how will Russia respond to such a brazen attack on their ally, especially since they warned America earlier today that “negative consequences” would occur if such actions were taken.
Has the media achieved victory in pressuring yet another politician into military action by waving pictures of dead children on the television, a favored tactic whenever they want to outrage the public into supporting what is clearly an unpopular war.
Time will tell, but for now it appears the neocon/liberal warmonger influence is growing in the White House, while the nationalist/populist messengers who propelled Trump to victory are losing ground.