Report: U.S. had intel on Syria's chemical attack before it happened

[Cowicide]

Now I’m confused, but that’s nothing new.

[Rindan]

@Cowicide

That’s ridiculous. Let’s not muddy the waters here. This is all “black and white” and simple. The Syrian government is solely at fault and the only answer is dropping profitable bombs all over the place.

Now, get back in line and quit distracting us with shades of grey, you paranoid leftist.

I am pretty confident at my complete and total inability to find the truth of the matter. Unless the Syrian government announces “we used chemical weapons”, which they won’t, you will be able to find information pointing to whatever conclusion helps you sleep best at night. Russia, China, and the Syrian government have a very strong interest in the government to look as if it has not used chemical weapons (regardless if they have or have not). The rebels and some factions within the US, Israel, and a number of nations and factions around Syria has a strong incentive to make it look as if chemical weapons have been used (again, regardless if they have or not). Both sides have the incentive, power, resources, and will to spread their version, regardless of its truth.

Frankly, I don’t care if Syria used chemical weapons or not. Worrying about a few hundred people dying to chemical weapons in the middle of a genocidal sectarian war is fucking stupid. I don’t think eating nerve gas is all that much more horrible than taking a bullet and slowly bleeding out, or getting being burned and taking days to die.

If the US could spend a few billion dollars and hit the magic off switch, I would say go for it. That switch doesn’t exist. The US could almost certainly collapse the Syrian government… but then what? Will the victors be content to peaceful rule, or are they going to murder all of the Shia and Christians? Will it stabilize into something less horrible, or spend years in collapse only to be replaced by something worse? What will the fallout be for other nations and groups in the area?

Syria is a complex system and as the US so eloquently displayed during the Iraq war, it doesn’t have even the foggiest fucking clue how it works. The best thing the US can do is slash the shit out of its military budget and remove the temptation.

The people of Syria have my utmost sympathy. Assad is a piece of shit. Many of the factions in and around Syria are pieces of shit. However, it is delusional to believe that the US, even if its intentions were pure (and they aren’t), can fix it.