dagblog - Comments for "Trump Promises Strike on Syria and Warns Russia Against Backing Assad"

I spent the wee hours of the

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:03:55 +0000

I spent the wee hours of the night channel surfing for heavy sax, and all I got was Kenny G...

Emily wins this time.

moat — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 22:45:19 +0000

Emily wins this time.
I am just glad there wasn't a gratuitous display of violence this morning.
Tomorrow is a new day, fresh with boundless possibilities.

Current NYTimes:

artappraiser — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 22:22:32 +0000

In reply to Trump Promises Strike on Syria and Warns Russia Against Backing Assad

Current NYTimes:

Mattis Urges Caution in Responding to Attack in Syria

By HELENE COOPER and THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF 19 minutes ago

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis took pains on Thursday to walk back President Trump’s threats of an imminent strike on Syria, and is expected to urge caution at a meeting of U.S. officials.

Nevermind:

artappraiser — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 22:21:09 +0000

In reply to Trump Promises Strike on Syria and Warns Russia Against Backing Assad

Nevermind:

Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our “Thank you America?”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2018

The Emily-Litella President:

Defending Assad, Russia Cries

artappraiser — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 00:50:56 +0000

In reply to Syria: 500 Douma patients had

Defending Assad, Russia Cries 'Fake News'

In this war, truth itself is a battleground.

By Uri Friedman @ TheAtlantic.com, April 11

As Russia tells it, reports of an attack over the weekend in the Syrian town of Douma that left victims’ mouths foaming and corneas burned do not suggest what the United States and its European allies suspect: that the Russian-backed Syrian government once again used chemical weapons against its own people.

Instead, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, they amount to “fake news” spread by the White Helmets. The group of Syrian first responders, which was recently celebrated in a documentary and has provided reliable accounts of such attacks in the past, is in Russia’s view actually working “hand in glove with the terrorists” and “other pseudo-humanitarian organizations headquartered in the U.K. and the U.S.” The Kremlin characterized the White Helmets’ report, which it cosigned with an organization that provides medical services to Syrians, as an effort to prevent the Syrian army from “liberating” Douma and justify military intervention by foreign powers. [....]

At the United Nations, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya fuzzed and fudged facts in the guise of fact-finding. He announced during an emergency Security Council meeting that Russian specialists had found no evidence of chemical-weapons use in Douma—without mentioning that no one else could confirm that finding, or the contradictory findings of aid and activist groups, because Syrian and Russian forces had restricted access to the area. He called for international chemical-weapons investigators to visit the site of the alleged atrocity immediately (they say they’re headed there soon), but then vetoed a U.S. resolution empowering those investigators to assign blame for chemical attacks. He simultaneously urged his fellow ambassadors to presume that a chemical attack had not taken place and noted suggestively that Syrian troops had discovered artisanal chemical factories near Douma maintained by the rebel group Jaish al-Islam [....]

Conflict displaces almost 700

artappraiser — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 00:27:23 +0000

In reply to Trump Promises Strike on Syria and Warns Russia Against Backing Assad

Conflict displaces almost 700,000 Syrians in deadly first months of 2018

Crisis has deepened for civilians caught up in attacks on hospitals, schools and homes, and cut off from humanitarian aid, says UN

By Peter Beaumont @ TheGuardian.com, April 10

Almost three-quarters of a million Syrians have been forced out of their homes by fighting in the first months of 2018, according to the senior UN official coordinating the crisis response.

With growing anticipation that retaliatory US strikes may be launched imminently in response to the latest suspected use of chemical weapons in Douma, Panos Moumtzis, regional humanitarian coordinator for the country’s crisis, issued a bleak picture of continuing large-scale displacement.

“I am deeply concerned about the continuing massive displacement of close to 700,000 Syrians since the beginning of the year due to ongoing hostilities in the country,” Moumtzis said in a statement.

Moumtzis added that the figures are in addition to the 6.5 million people already internally displaced, and the more than 5.6 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries [....]

U.N. News version: Syria: WHO

artappraiser — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 00:18:23 +0000

In reply to Syria: 500 Douma patients had

U.N. News version: Syria: WHO demands ‘unhindered access’ to site of suspected chemical attack

11 April 2018

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that it has received reports that some 500 patients at Syrian health facilities have exhibited signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals, after the shelling of a Damascus suburb over the weekend.

We should all be outraged at these horrific reports and images from Douma,” Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response said, referreing to reports from the agency’s health cluster partners – a WHO-led team of 118 national and international nongovernmental organizations, UN agencies, national authorities and donors working inside Syria to provide emergency and trauma care, as well as basic health services.

According to those reports, patients at health facilities displayed signs of severe irritation of mucous membranes, respiratory failure and disruption to central nervous systems.

More than 70 people sheltering in basements have reportedly died, including 43 with symptoms consistent with exposure to highly toxic chemicals. Two health facilities were also reportedly affected by these attacks.

These detailed reports from WHO’s partners come as the Security Council tried and failed on Tuesday to adopt two competing resolutions that would have established a mechanism to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria, as well as another concerning a fact-finding mission in the war-torn country.

Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed his outrage at reports that civilians in the enclave continued to be targeted by toxic agents, saying that any confirmed use of chemical weapons, by any party to the conflict, “is abhorrent and a clear violation of international law." [....]

Syria: 500 Douma patients had

artappraiser — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 00:13:49 +0000

In reply to Trump Promises Strike on Syria and Warns Russia Against Backing Assad

Syria: 500 Douma patients had chemical attack symptoms, reports say

World Health Organization says it is deeply alarmed by evidence of gas attack on rebel-held town outside Syrian capital

By Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul for TheGuardian.com, April 11

An estimated 500 people went to Syrian health facilities with “signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals” after the attack on the rebel-held town of Douma at the weekend, according to reports passed to the World Health Organization.

“WHO demands immediate unhindered access to the area to provide care to those affected, to assess the health impacts and to deliver a comprehensive public health response,” said Peter Salama, the agency’s deputy director general for emergency preparedness and response.

UN aid agencies do not have access to most of the enclave of eastern Ghouta, including Douma where the alleged attack occurred. The Syrian government has denied responsibility for the attack.

The report from the WHO’s partners in Syria adds to mounting evidence of the use of toxic gas in the attack, which killed at least 42 people [.....]

Medics on the ground in Douma – the last besieged town that was under opposition control in the enclave of eastern Ghouta, near Damascus – reported that hundreds of patients arrived on Saturday night with symptoms of exposure to toxic chemicals [....]

Russians are laughing at

rmrd0000 — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 21:03:17 +0000

In reply to Trump Promises Strike on Syria and Warns Russia Against Backing Assad

Russians are laughing at Trump’s Twitter diplomacy

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-to-trump-we-dont-participate-in-twitter-diplomacy?ref=home

Original WaPo article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/11/we-do-not-participate-in-twitter-diplomacy-russia-responds-to-trump/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.63c35d109fd5

John Bolton: 'Syria is a

artappraiser — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 20:07:30 +0000

In reply to Trump Promises Strike on Syria and Warns Russia Against Backing Assad

John Bolton: 'Syria is a Sideshow' by Adam Rawnsley @ DailyBeast.com, April 11

[....] “I believe since the Syrian civil war broke out nearly seven years ago that the subject of Syria is, sadly, tragic though it might be, is a sideshow in terms of the bigger strategic picture in the Middle East,” Bolton said on Fox in February, using his preferred epithet for the conflict.

[....] Bolton instead posited that the dictator of Damascus was at best a tertiary concern, ranking him “a distant third” behind Iran and ISIS in terms threats to the region. “If you want to know where to go to at least resolve the bulk of the problems we face,” he told Fox’s Martha MacCallum, “it’s not getting rid of Assad in Syria. It’s getting rid of the ayatollahs in Tehran.”

The Trump administration hasn’t made regime change in Iran its policy, but Bolton’s hawkish views toward Tehran are likely to find a receptive audience with the president, particularly around the Iran nuclear deal. Trump has labeled the agreement the “worst deal ever” and Bolton’s argument to undo it may have already won the day before the newly appointed national security adviser stepped into the White House. While James Mattis supports the Iran deal, the defense secretary, long considered an Iran hawk, may find common cause with Bolton over the shared goal of rolling back Iranian influence in the Middle East [....]