Big Red Car here pondering the fallout from America’s fifty-nine Tomahawk cruise missile strike against the Syrian airbase from which Bashar al Assad launched the airborne Sarin gas attack against his people earlier this week. President Trump took it out without telegraphing the punch and without talking it to death. Ahh, that’s refreshing, no? Syria!
Last night at 8:30 EDT, the Trump administration gave the world an insight into how this President will conduct the affairs of America’s foreign policy.
This guy is now in charge. He is a guy who favors action over words. New foreign policy. New military awareness. New outcomes?
Today, the world will be sorting out the message delivered. The Big Red Car will help y’all with that.
Syria — how did we get here, Big Red Car?
Syrian is run by a butcher, Bashar al Assad, who has killed half a million of his own people. <<< Please read that again. 500,000 dead Syrians and the world is not doing anything to get rid of this POS.
His family has been running Syria for almost half a century. He inherited the title from his father, another ruthless butcher. Believe it or not, the son-of-a-bitch is a doctor who studied in London.
Thugs shaking hands. The guy on the left is the Butcher of Syria, Bashar al Assad. The guy on the right is the Devil, Vladimir Putin of Russia. This is the face of evil in the world. Remember this.
In the euphoria of the Arab Spring, the Syrians began to resist the repressive regime and the regime began to annihilate the resistance. The casualty rolls are horrific as al Assad has killed or wounded approximately twelve percent of the pre-war population of Syria. This includes almost 20,000 women and 12,000 children. This butcher makes war against women and children.
This has resulted in a flood of refugees — 5,000,000 who have fled the country and 6,000,000 who have been internally displace (meaning they are no longer in their homes but still within the territorial boundaries of Syria). All of these refugees have to be settled somewhere, right? The best solution would be to return Syria to peace and let them go home, no?
He has deployed soldiers with rifles and crew-served weapons (machine guns), artillery, bombs (barrel bombs), and chemical weapons.
The al Assad regime is propped up by the Russians who want to continue to use Syria for a warm water port and airfields in the Middle East. For Russia, a thuggery in its own right, it is all about sticking their finger in the world’s eye, confronting a weak American President Obama, and the strategic implications of military facilities while regaining influence in the Middle East, having been run off after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
The Iranians have also stepped up their support of the al Assad regime which really clouds things as the Iranians have more than 100,000 troops in Iraq “helping” that country. If the war widens, the potential for a regional conflict driven by the Iranians is huge. The US under President Obama has really screwed Iraq up. We might as well have given Iraq to the Iranians as part of the Iranian nuclear deal.
What else, Big Red Car?
In addition to the above, the Obama administration floundered for eight years trying to sort out what it wanted to do in Syria. They whispered they were in favor of regime change and slipped support to those rebelling against al Assad. Not enough to make any real difference, but enough to let them chatter about it on Martha’s Vineyard and pretend they were badasses.
That created a problem because some of those folks they supported were al Qaeda in new robes or the beginnings of ISIS. ISIS has their freaking headquarters in Raqqa, Syria.
Then, President Obama in one of the most ill-advised utterances ever proclaimed that any additional use of chemical weapons would cross a RED LINE. He red lined them. [This is the diplomatic equivalent of your Dad saying, “You want me to stop this car? If I stop this car, somebody is getting a licking. You want that?” Yeah, sure, Dad. Maybe Mom’s getting a licking.]
Of course, as you know, when the Syrians actually used chemical weapons, our feckless President panicked and pretended to go to the Congress for authorization to use force (not actually required as there is a longstanding AUMF (authorization for the use of military force, a declaration of war bought on the cheap over at Overstock.com) and that didn’t go well.
The whole RED LINE shit turned into an embarrassing revelation of President Obama’s ineffectiveness and cowardice. Big talker, not so much on the doing. Made the US look stupid and weak.
So, the President did nothing. President is a bullshitter who actually never accomplished much while giving speech after speech after speech. [Admission: At first, the Big Red Car used to love to listen to the guy speechify. Not so much when they all turned out to be crap. The BRC did like the crying. Now, that was special, y’all.]
Then, there was the head fake with Syria turning in all of their chemical weapons — haha, the US cut a deal with a butcher to turn in all of his chemical weapons, paid for it, and just took him at his word, no kidding — and the US paying for their neutralization.
Hello, America, the butcher Bashar al Assad didn’t turn in ALL of his chemical weapons as recent events indicate. How stupid and naive can an administration be?
So, there you have it, feckless American foreign policy coupled with cowardly execution begat the Syrians, Russians, and the Iranians running amok with chemical weapons. Earlier this week, the Syrians used Sarin gas — a deadly nerve agent which assures immediate death — against their own people. Again. Again. Again.
Messages delivered
In addition to the obvious message — President Trump is not going to be telling the world about any bullshit RED LINES, he is going to take action without telegraphing it to the world. Syria wants to use an airfield to bomb its citizens with Sarin gas? This President is going to destroy that airfield. Game the fuck on, y’all!
1. The Syrians and the Russians now know there is a new Sheriff in town and the Sheriff is not going to wait for the United Nations (whereat the Russians have a veto) to sit around and gaze at their navels while talking, talking, talking. This President is going to act and act with tactical surprise and fierceness.
2. The thug-love-prom-queen-date with Putin is in the trash can. Pretty sure this is going to take the starch out of the Trump-Putin thug love conspiracy theorists. Maybe not?
Hey, President Trump, you bombed my boys in Syria. WTF is up with that? They’re a sovereign country and I’ve had a good run with that Obama guy. Can we talk?
3. The Chinese President Xi was sitting down to a nice steak (no cheeseburgers as Candidate Trump threatened, broken campaign promise, y’all, one of the first) at Mar a Lago with President Trump and their wives when our President leaned over and said,
“By the way, President Xi, a minute ago, I had my Navy destroy the airfield from whence that butcher Assad mounted his chemical attack against his own people. Might want to consider that when we talk about what the fuck we’re going to do about that Kim Il Mojo asshole. Your steak good? Bit of bernaise, maybe? Oh, yeah, we need to talk about your “instant islands” in the South China Sea. More mushrooms, pal?”
Hello, China. North Korea? Yeah, we have a lot more Tomahawk missiles.
4. The guy who lost his dinner last night was Kim Il Mojo the leader of North Korea who thinks he can be a nuclear pain in the entire world’s ass with impunity. Hey, Kimmie, you’re next, asshole.
You’re next, Fat Boy. Yeah, you and your goofy hat and your goofy hatted generals. Get ready, asshole.
5. So, yes, the relationship with Russia is on a whole different plane now. No RESET madness. Reset this, Russkis!
Says the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, “This is way too easy. This woman is nuts. I’m going to call Vladimir and tell him to move on the Crimea. These Americans are into pussy hats.”
And, so there you have it, dear reader. We are a long way from getting the mess in Syria fixed, but the United States of America has a new leader who is going to take forceful action and not talk the world to death. We have needed a doer and not a talker for a long time. This is a good first step.
Pray for our President. Pray for America. Pray for our armed forces. Pray for the world. Pray for peace, but be ready to fight for it. We might just have a chance.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. It’s Friday, y’all. Date night. Go have a blast with someone you love and if you need some transportation, call me.
