Syria - what is to be done?

For anyone who wants to, you can sign up to it from this link.

act.thesyriacampaign.org/go/494?t=2&akid=454.124249.khCyKF

djen I missed it first time round, perhaps it was when I was having trouble with my email.

no, it wasn't then.

But it was worth repeating the whole email on here I hope.

Oh, yes, Jalima. No problem with me there.
I know that some people don't read links. I was just pointing out that if anyone wanted to they could see it on the link I put up yesterday, and could add their name to it, too.
I presume you did that anyway.

A link to the UN and Amnesty.

webmail.amnesty.org.uk/_act/link.php?mId=J9187223391817591636428806363818&tId=225233588

The US has just launched missile strikes against Syria.

Yes, and it makes horrific reading. What a nightmare this has turned into.

DJ, for months I've been signing one kind of petition or other. It's very little, but I like to think it's having some kind of impact on such tragic situations. Thanks for the link.

The attacks Trump ordered seem to have support from both democrats and republicans in the US. It's also claimed that allies of the US support the action. I was relieved when Ed Miliband led the LP in opposing air strikes/further military involvement and hoped diplomacy would make progress. Since then, we have all watched in horror, many signed petitions, wrote to MP's etc but things continue to get worse.
Russia's support for the Syrian government alongside increased US campaigns seem inevitably to increase the conflict. I may be wrong about that, as others have said, this situation is so complex. The rebels include Daesh, Trump has also said he'll wipe that organisation out. How?

I suppose this could be a one off, if it stops the use of WMDs but I somehow doubt it will all the time Assad is there. So, the question is how to proceed. I hope Trumps got a plan as no one else seems to have come up with one including his predessor. I think Obama understood how hellishly complicated and impossible it all is out there. Trump appears to have acted emotionally rather than cerebrally.

Interestingly Trump didn't go to Congress which I thought was the correct procedure?

Trump has done a total volt face over this including ignoring Congress which pre his election he always insisted should be done.

Trump has acted fast and well IMHO in knocking out the airfield and infrastructure that supported the chemical weapon attacks.

There is a report that there were Russian personnel at the air base, which may suggest that they knew about the use of Sarin on children.

I'm holding my breath to see what the reaction is from Russia and Iran. If it's just angry words then fine...

In the first Iraq war, someone I knew was one of Saddam Hussein's human shields.
The hostages were tied to barrels of oil and weapons, so that if they were hit, the hostages would be the first to die.
Not sure about the ethics of firing rockets at a place where you think there are definitely chemical weapons.

dj yesterday there was a British military bod on the radio, saying that the chemicals don't work if they are blown up. I haven't a clue if that is correct. I must admit it doesn't sound right.

Report I've read said that the warehouse suspected of harbouring the chemicals was deliberately avoided. I don't have much confidence in the US's ability to target do accurately but oh! the irony if the military personnel who dropped the chemicals had been poisoned by their own chemicals in a misfire

Saddam forgot to tell the hostages that, whitewave. They would have been dead anyway if the barrels had been hit.

Wonder if Trump will change his intention towards Syrian refugees now?

Wishful thinking there, whitewave.
I was listening to his speech on the radio, and wondering how Americans can take him seriously. He talks to them as if they are all toddlers.

I think the real worry is what will happen now. I would be utterly amazed if has any sort of plan in place whatsoever. Just like Iraq. What a blighted area the Middle East is.

Well done America and Donald Trump for stepping up to the mark and taking action against Assad, about time

WW when some chemicals are blown up/ignited they can interact with the component chemicals in the bomb and/or the oxygen in the surrounding air and form new, less dangerous compounds. That's basic chemistry.

But if the shelling fractured the casings and simply realised the raw chemicals into the surroundings that could be a different matter, depending on how close you were to them before they were dispersed into the air (and therefore diluted and rendered harmless)

Oh thanks anya for that bit of enlightenment, in my none chemically /forgotten all I'd ever been taught ignorance

It's a gamble though ninny - my own gut reaction is that someone needs to stand up to Russia, as Putin has been testing and pushing the boundaries (in Ukraine, Syria and our air space for example). Hope it's just sabre rattling, but who knows how these egotistical men might react?

And what about that fat idiot in North Korea?