Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/26/we-got-a-fuckin-problem.html
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This is super crazy. Honestly I hadn’t even heard that there was truth to the claim that it was a weapons cache.
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Trump and the current administration have rarely failed to live down to my worst expectations of them.
Nevertheless, I’m not sure how much weight to give to an alleged conversation between two unidentified individuals whose qualifications to comment I have no way of judging. There’s even something a little stilted about their conversation; it reads a bit more like a radio play than an actual conversation between two human beings. Ultimately, whether this is worth anything depends on whether you believe Seymour Hersh or not – and there does seem to be reason to think that Hersh’s reporting, while often insightful and important, should be taken with at least a pinch of salt.
There are some interesting claims, though. Media unsympathetic to Trump has largely concluded that the strike was ineffective and unnecessary, so that’s not a new idea. But the claim that “We KNOW that there was no chemical attack. The Syrians struck a weapons cache … and there was collateral damage” is a new one to me. This is, of course, what the Syrian government claimed, but the last time I looked US media were still solidly pushing the story of a chemical attack launched by Syrian government forces. I don’t think I’ve seen anything in major US media suggesting that there was intel that actually supported the Syrian claim.
As to the claim that “There has been a hidden agenda all along. This is about trying to ultimately go after Iran,” well, if there’s any truth in that, then we may be living in very interesting times indeed.
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Any surprise this hasn’t been reported in US media? Why did Hersh write this for Welt assuming a German audience and not for say the NYTimes?
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People think it is crazy that the Trump braintrust would imagine provoking a lukewarm conflict with Russia might make charges of colluding with Russia seem less plausible? People really think that Trump would avoid a conflict with Russia if he thought it might prevent impeachment? People think that a Russian/Trumpian collusion wouldn’t happily toss a few million in missiles to create a semblance of animosity?
Really? What is really crazy, that he would do this, or that we think he wouldn’t do this?
No one is talking about the entire reason we’re in Iraq and Syria in the first place. That mission is fucked now.
So tell me - what is the real reason we are there in the first place?
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Because it is complete bullshit and doesn’t square up with a ton of evidence (like the sarin detected by multiple international labs):
Here is the debunking:
Mr. Hersh has even less credibility than Donald Trump, I am afraid.
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After Hersh’s Bin Laden story, I’ll take any unsubstantiated rumors from him with a grain of salt… The transcript reads like such an unnatural conversation for one, and similar to the Bin Landen story, this one proposes that random mid-level operatives know “the real story” about what’s going on and have casual conversations about it… And grunts in the US armed forces consider Russia to be the real straight-shooter in Syria? But who the fuck knows? I don’t think taking the US intelligence community at their word is great either.
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I think it’s safe to surmise that the United States has absolutely no clear leadership. The administration is going in one direction, the military leadership in another, state department - who knows, congress is dismantling any safety net and the democratic leadership is not offering any viable alternative to this mess. I’m going to send America a day planner for it’s birthday next week.
(edit: fixed typo so as not to look dumb on the internets)
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This transcript reads like something written by Russians.
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Please don’t give Trump another excuse to shout “fake news”.
Let’s look at this critically before sharing. Take a look at the quotes from the article below and see if you think they came from an American solider or another source…
“We are likely to get our asses kicked by the Russians.”
“We KNOW that there was no chemical attack. The Syrians struck a weapons cache (a legitimate military target) and there was collateral damage. That’s it. They did not conduct any sort of a chemical attack.” [note the caps and parens]
“What the people around Trump do not understand is that the Russians are not a paper tiger and that they have more robust military capability than we do.”
“Am I correct that we did little real damage to Russia or Syria?”
“I guess it really didn’t matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump.”
“Hell we even told the Russians an hour before impact
SA: But they clearly knew it was coming”
“Russians are being extremely reasonable. Despite what the news is reporting they are still trying to deconflict and coordinate the air campaign.”
" i don’t think we appreciate how much damage the Russians can do to us."
“They’re showing amazing restraint and been unbelievably calm. They seem mostly interested in de-escalating everything. They don’t want to lose our support in the help with destroying Isis.”
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AS: Russians are being extremely reasonable. Despite what the news is reporting they are still trying to deconflict and coordinate the air campaign.
AS: They’re showing amazing restraint and been unbelievably calm. They seem mostly interested in de-escalating everything. They don’t want to lose our support in the help with destroying Isis.
This is 100% real news and not at all propaganda, I feel certain. Wtf.
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I know these soldiers may have not been back to the states in a while but the saying " You can’t make this stuff up" is no longer valid. You watch the media everyday and there isn’t much to make up at this point.
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Read: [The Russians] don’t want to lose access to their port/Naval facility in Tartus.
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This reads like play acting by 4th graders. Russian 4th graders. Nobody needs to convince me that the strike was a dumb display/distraction by a White House under fire, but this whole “Good thing the Russians are so calm - they could kick our ass!” thing…? I’m not buying it.
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I came to this thread to hope anyone else thought it sounded fake.
I guess we do.
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Literally unbelievable.
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