Syria’s Turmoil
- Don Juice
- Apr 10, 2017
- 3 min read
A lot occurred in Syria from the gas attack to the missile strikes last week. So let’s dissect things and figure out what the hell is going on. I’m going to take a look at the gas attack, the missile strike, and the conspiracy theories surrounding it from the internet.
Gas Attack
The gas attack that occurred was horrific killing 70 people and many of the pictures that were posted online showed babies dead or fighting to breath. Doctors suspect that what they were dealing with was Sarin gas from the pale skin, the sweats, and the respiratory detachments that were apparent. This attack reminds many people of a similar gas attack that happen in 2013 where Assad was again accused of committing that attack on his civilians. Seeing those pictures really moved people worldwide to condem the actions but the Syrian Army denied that they carried out the attack. In a statement they said “The Syrian army holds the terrorist groups and those supporting them responsible for the use of chemical and poisonous material and for the careless wasting of innocent civilians' lives to achieve their despicable goals and agendas”. They also state that they struck a factory that was manufacturing these deadly weapons in an airstrike and that, that was the cause of the gasses being released. But that still implies that they were responsible because if you knew that was a gas factory, why strike it? This is also the Russians explanation of what happened as well.
Missile Strike
Now let’s look at that missile strike that happened because this came as a surprise. For whatever reason Trump decided that the Syrian government was definitely behind the strike and that it warranted a retaliatory strike and that’s exactly what he did. Sitting in his Floridian estate before having dinner with the Chinese president he ordered 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles rained down on al-shayrat airfield destroying jets and ammo bunkers to radar equipment. Also precautions were taken to make sure that Syrian and Russian military personnel wasn’t hurt in the attack so they were informed before the attack occurred. His pentagon officials quickly delivered him options after his news conference condemning the strikes and the three options were narrowed down to two. One of the strike options was a decapitation strike on the Presidential Palace but the other two involved striking multiple airfields. President Trump chose the latter.
Conspiracy Theories
With all of this happening there are numerous conspiracy theories on what actually happened and we’ll take a look at 3 major ones. The Steve Bannon dismissal from the national Security Council prompted some from the right wing to believe that those who support Jared Kushner worldview had a hand in that dismissal and wanted a Syrian strike while Bannon didn’t want one and Steve bannon lost out. This is also circulating because there’s inside leaks of those two going at it behind closed doors for influence over trump. McMaster is on the national Security Council and him and Defense Secretary Mattis are more hawkish considering the fact that they were both previous generals. Another theory is the “rebels did it” perspective. Some believe that the rebels conducted the attack to gain international sympathy for their cause of fighting to overthrow Assad. Since Assad has the upper hand with Iran and the Russians, it doesn’t make sense for him to attack with chemical weapons when he’s the only one who will get blamed and this makes the most sense in my opinion. However to be fair, let’s remember that his father did the hama massacre in 1982 and Saddam conducted the gassing of the Kurds so just because they are secular dictators doesn’t mean they are good either and not above things like this. Both leaders at the time were not in danger of being overthrown just to point out. The last theory is Trump colluding with Russia over a strike to look tough. And this comes about because the runway wasn’t targeted and Assad was able to make the base operational again. Also people believe this was done to end the Russian rumors so by pretending to be tough he would be seen as opposing Russia and Russia will condemn it every step of the way.
In my honest opinion I think it may be multiple if not all three of theories because this stuff is widely complicated and there are many moving pieces at play here. It’s too early to be definitive but I look forward to seeing things play out to get a better grasp of the situation as days go on because I’m torn between conclusions. Also I look forward to seeing the response from Syria, Russia and Iran and I’m looking to see if the status quo continues or we moving to a different phase in this seemingly endless conflict.
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