Syria - what is to be done?

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

The US has just launched missile strikes against Syria.

A link to the UN and Amnesty.

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

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.

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

no, it wasn't then.

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

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

I won't even pretend to understand what that strange comment means...

It looks better in colour, Ana.
You need to read another thread.

As you know, we don't all read your links, durhamjen. Thanks Jalima.

Jalima, my link on Wednesday.

This was on my FB page this morning, a copy of an email sent to someone who helps refugees in Turkey, I hope it is OK to copy it here:
Dear D*******,
You may have heard about the chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun in northern Syria. My friend Abed was at the scene and updating me on Whatsapp. He and others counted more than 60 people dead: suffocated by a poisonous gas from a bombing yesterday morning. Most of the photos that are being sent are of vulnerable people, little babies and the elderly. Chemical attacks affect their lungs the most and they are the first to die.
We thought we were done with chemical weapons, and especially with sarin gas. But the pictures I’m scrolling through look exactly like the ones I took four years ago in Eastern Ghouta. I survived the Syrian regime’s sarin gas attack there in 2013 where I was living and working as a war photographer.
I uploaded the photos and they were picked up around the world. Promises were made that it wouldn’t happen again. Red lines were drawn. World leaders guaranteed it.
Today I’m in Brussels where some leading European politicians are talking about pouring billions of dollars of reconstruction money into the regime responsible both for the chemical attack in 2013, the one today, and countless other war crimes in my country.
We have decided to mock these people and their unbelievable positions.
Please watch this 60 second video of the brand new device called PEG which shows how politicians are ignoring war crimes. Sometimes humour is the best way to make powerful people take action.
As a Syrian I am used to dark humour. It is how we survive the worst times. Humour is what makes us human. It will never be taken away from me.
I am furious that politicians from Europe and the US are considering cutting deals with Bashar al-Assad, while he continues to gas his own people. I’ll be out on the streets of Brussels with friends, launching this new satirical campaign that will shame those politicians who think it’s ok to cut deals with war criminals.
You can play a critical part by watching, signing and sharing the campaign at NosePeg.com. These politicians are obsessed with their media profiles, so if we can shame them online as well as in the real world, we can make them listen. When we reach 25,000 signatures we’ll deliver actual PEGs to those politicians looking to ignore war crimes in Syria.
Thanks,
Artino

I'm sure the diplomatic skills of President Trump will resolve it in a trice. John Wayne to the rescue - not!

I don't think I've seen anything more heartbreaking than the picture of a father holding his dead baby twins. How can that man live with himself.

Rose I agree, it's so bad that what you say is about the size of it.

I agree with your posts Monica Syria is so complex a problem that it doesn't have a workable solution and may not end until the whole country is rubble and most people dead or gone elsewhere.

The only 'justification' I've heard that in any way rings true, for Britain's involvement in the arms trade is employment.
I know it's a huge industry and I know that shutting it down will cause problems but I can't accept that these jobs are legitimate.
How many of us who've invested any cash at all whether bonds, pensions or anything else, have actually questioned where our money goes?
My few experiences of investing have shown me that ethical funds are available. The return is less but the investors have no blood on their hands.
Time to think radically and since there is so little we can do, then it's time for individuals to do that little bit.

Will the US now join in? The dreaded Trump has at last taken some notice. Cut

It is all unspeakable and we are all so helpless.