The talk on the media took me right back to the Iraq war buildup in 2003, so I immediately thought false-flag.
Apparently Trump phoned Putin to tell Assad that this attack was gonna take place though?
Yea, to make sure his intentions were clear. Basically Trump saying "Hey some fuckwad used chemical weapons that we told them not to use so we gonna bomb the air base that the weapons were launched from, cool?" Imagine the shitstorm that would occur if the base was fully occupied with Russian and Syrian forces? The media and people are already trying to spin this shit as the start of Trump invading Syria.
Also, Frozen, since you know a lot about this stuff, I've seen a lot of comments today in reply to other people comparing this situation to Iraq, saying that Iraq DID have WMDs but they hid them under the ground in Syria when the inspectors came the last time before the invasion. Any truth to that? Some of them even suggest that the gas missiles Saddam hid were found by Assad and used all the times he has "apparently" done so already...
Would sure seem strange that the WMDs were considered important enough to invade a country for, but then to stop caring about them and looking for them the second Saddam was taken down...
I think Iraq is still a pertinent point mind you. Look how awfully it's ended up, and how much debt the main countries are now in. If UK people actually WANT another potentially never-ending Middle Eastern war with full UK involvement (unfortunately such saps who actually genuinely do believe that the UK and USA are white knights above reproach and full of goodness and therefore SHOULD be Policing the world actually do exist), then they'd better NEVER EVER complain the next time the govt doesn't have enough money for services like the NHS that we as taxpayers NEED, way more than we "need" a war with someone who may be bad, but isn't a threat to the UK or USA.
If a messy shooting war that involves Russia then happens, I for one will absolutely dodgy any draft or requirement to start working at a munitions factory. Not a chance I am gonna have my life put in even more risk just because some politicians couldn't be fucked to keep their egos in check...
Likely, but unverified. A couple of Iraqi generals claim that in the time frame between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, Saddam moved his weapons to Syria. Makes sense considering Saddam was supposed to dismantle his entire inventory of chemical weapons in the 90s and the US finding this inventory would be a nightmare. However, the US knew that there were still old chemical weapons in Iraq. The CIA literally has been buying these weapons from an Iraqi seller in order to prevent terrorists from getting their hands on them. Due to the age of the weapons, they were not as potent as freshly manufactured weapons. Sarin gas is nasty stuff, if a person is exposed to high enough concentrations of the gas, it will stay on their clothes for a while and kill off anyone who tries to help the victim.
The first responders weren't affected by the sarin gas, which suggests that the weapons used had low potency, which is consistent with a weapon that is 40 years old, that used a compound with high sarin purity at the time of its creation.
I don't think this situation is similar to Iraq, though. A lot of the Iraq war business was fueled by the attacks on 9/11. It was a really complex web that is a conspiracy theorists wet dream. Today we do not have the same bloodthirst that was spawned by 9/11 so there is no reason for the US to go forward with a full on invasion with this shit. Literally everyone except for some crazies at the top is tired with this bullshit in the middle east and it would be political suicide to invade.