Civil War in Syria

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/355906-us-backed-fighters-say-raqqa-liberated-from-isis

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Winning!!!

(Not saying this in a Trump-related way. Just happy that the forces of good are further weakening ISIS)

Well, the forces of 'not nearly as bad as ISIS' anyway.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Dozens killed in apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria, rescue workers say

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This looks so obviously stupid for Assad, and so obviously convenient for Western war hawks, that I am immediately suspicious and skeptical.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

This looks so obviously stupid for Assad, and so obviously convenient for Western war hawks, that I am immediately suspicious and skeptical.

Not sure how it's stupid for Assad.  He's gotten away with chemical weapons attacks in the past, and he'll continue to do so in the future.

Well, I haven't been following the war super-closely, but from what I've been reading the Syrians-Russians-Iranians have it mostly won at this point. And Trump was just talking about pulling out last week.

So it Assad (or whoever calls the shots) is risking pulling the US back in in a big way, against the miniscule military benefit of a single act of terror. So it seems like a really dumb move.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

This looks so obviously stupid for Assad, and so obviously convenient for Western war hawks, that I am immediately suspicious and skeptical.

Not sure how it's stupid for Assad.  He's gotten away with chemical weapons attacks in the past, and he'll continue to do so in the future.

Well, I haven't been following the war super-closely, but from what I've been reading the Syrians-Russians-Iranians have it mostly won at this point. And Trump was just talking about pulling out last week.

So it Assad (or whoever calls the shots) is risking pulling the US back in in a big way, against the miniscule military benefit of a single act of terror. So it seems like a really dumb move.

Why is it dumb?  The Syrian regime likely thinks (and correctly in my opinion) that the risk of a significant response to this by the US is minimal.  It makes a lot of realpolitik sense for them to be doing this to areas that are still resisting their rule. Disproportionate force against those still resisting them combined with a relatively light hand against those who have resigned themselves to their continued rule (if they can get those in the areas still struggling against them to believe that light hand actually exists) would be an excellent tactic to bring the fighting to a relatively quick end on their terms.

I suppose it comes down to how likely whoever is calling the shots in Syria is that the US won't launch a major intervention. It seems to me that some faction of the US government really wants to make sure Assad goes down, and giving them any excuse is bad judgement.


But maybe Syria's Russian patron has given them reason to be very confident that the US won't take any decisive action. I suppose is Trump really is a Russian agent  then this horrible attack does make a certain sort of evil sense.