Assessing The Fallout From Trump's Strike On Syria

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Apr. 07, 2017

While Trump supporters are furious and feeling betrayed, the lying media is universally celebrating President Trump's decision to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles at a strategic Syrian airbase in the Assad-controlled city of Homs.


Though the excuse for the attack on the Shayrat airbase Thursday was retaliation against Assad for "gassing children just to watch them die," the attack furthers the neocon agenda of "securing the realm" by creating a "balance of power" in the Middle East, aka a perpetual state of chaos.



Pentagon Captain Jeff Davis told reporters on Thursday: "These missiles targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage areas, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars."

Russian state TV is reporting nine Syrian air force jets were destroyed. Russia's Rossiya 24 released the first footage of the damages:



As RT reports: "The video shows a heavily damaged reinforced aviation hangar, its roof penetrated by an apparent direct hit. It's unclear from the footage whether there had been aircraft inside the hangar."

These are expensive jets which were destroyed, as you can see in this archival footage from Ruptly:



Overall, the damages do not appear to be too severe:



Уцелевшее б/к и ангары. #tamahawk #frontline #shayrat #homs #syria

A post shared by Александр Пушин, Москва. (@alex_pushin) on


Reuters reports:
The Syrian army said the U.S. attack killed six people at its air base near the city of Homs. It called the attack "blatant aggression" and said it made the United States a "partner" of "terrorist groups" including Islamic State. Homs Governor Talal Barazi told Reuters the death toll was seven.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strike had seriously damaged ties between Washington and Moscow. Putin regarded the U.S. action as "aggression against a sovereign nation" on a "made-up pretext", spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The Washington Post reports Russia has suspended a "key air agreement" with America:
Russia on Friday condemned the U.S. missile strike against Syrian government forces as an attack against its ally, and said it was pulling out of an agreement to minimize the risk of in-flight incidents between U.S. and Russian aircraft operating over Syria.

Even as Russian officials expressed hope that the U.S. strike against Bashad al-Assad would not lead to an irreversible breakdown in relations with Moscow, the Kremlin’s decision to suspend the 2015 memorandum of understanding on the air operations immediately raised tensions in the skies over Syria.

President Vladi­mir Putin’s spokesman said the risk of confrontation between aerial assets of the U.S.-led coalition and Russia has “significantly increased” after President Trump ordered the launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian military air base in retaliation for a chemical attack that killed scores of civilians.

The now-scrapped pact traded information about flights by a U.S.-led coalition targeting the Islamic State and Russian planes operating in Syria backing the Assad government.
It's worth keeping in mind Trump months ago escalated the drone war in Yemen.

While his administration was vocally in favor of leaving Assad in power as recent as one week ago, he did not run as a pacifist and these strikes do appear to be rather limited.

Nonetheless, it's a bad signal as it undermines our relationship with Russia and Assad and is likely going to prolong the Syrian war rather than bring it to an end.

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