The Road to Damascus

[Aresen]

It's a military response for the twitter generation. Poetic justice more important than efficacy.

Wouldn't dropping Ivy League Poets on them be worse than chemical weapons?

[JasonL]

Just that one guy who got into the ivies because of his impressive history of social activism. Him, some paint and signs - whatever props he needs really - and a parachute. We don't want that airfield broke, we want it woke.

[Mo]

I have tried to find out what evidence has been obtained that definitively says the Assad government carried out the attacks - if indeed, they were attacks* - but all I've found so far is "We know Assad did it because he is the kind of person who would do it."

What hard evidence is there?

*The Syrian government claims that a bomb hit a rebel chemical weapons store/factory, so even they seem to say that there was some chemical agent involved.

We probably have satellite imagery showing the planes taking off and dropping the weapons over the site. If we aren't watching that stuff, at least passively, 24-7, I would be very surprised.

[thoreau]

We don't want that airfield broke, we want it woke.

Yeah, that's going in the signature.

[JasonL]

I hate myself for that one ...

[Warren]

I hate myself for that one ...

If it makes you feel any better, I hate you for that one too.

[dhex]

I hate myself for that one ...

dude i'm so jealous you can't even imagine. it's catchy as hell.

it'd be like if you saw someone sous vide a jeep. you'd be all "fuck, dude, they sous vide'd that shit like what" and you'd be ashamed of your comparative lack of sous vide-fu as you watched them cut through the tailpipe like it was butter.

[JD]

I have tried to find out what evidence has been obtained that definitively says the Assad government carried out the attacks - if indeed, they were attacks* - but all I've found so far is "We know Assad did it because he is the kind of person who would do it.

I have not seen hard evidence that the regime did it, but apparently there is solid evidence that the munitions were air-dropped chemical weapons. There is only one player in that game right now with the capability to do that, and that's the Assad government. That might not be a smoking gun but it's pretty convincing.

[dbcooper]

They only kept one bomb but Jill Stein showed them how to turn it into homeopathic munitions. It's her fault.

[JD]

Does firing cruise missiles at an airbase do anything?

I'm know cruise missiles can carry sub-munition warheads. Those can tear up both planes and runways. I assumed that's what they used but I don't have the details.

If they are serious about crippling the airbase they need to do an airstrike using Durandals or some such which are designed to penetrate and then explode making much larger and deeper hard to fix holes in the runway.

Even still if the enemy has the support structure to deal with it you may only disable an airfield for a short time. In a full scale war even a partially disabled airbase can significantly check operations in that area but in this low intensity warfare I'm not sure how much significant damage it actually does as other airfields and even open roads can substitute as improvised runways.

According to the reports, 59 cruise missiles were fired, each with (apparently) a 1000-lb warhead, and

The strike...targeted aircraft, aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and "the things that make the airfield operate," Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters.

If the targeting was good, I'd imagine 59,000 pounds of high explosive would do quite a bit. Even if the runways themselves were relatively undamaged, the airfield is a lot less useful if you don't have planes to operate from it, fuel to put in the planes, ammunition to put on them, etc.

If you want to be conspiracy-minded: sometimes you don't want to trash a runway if you expect you or another friendly power to capture it soon anyway...!

[Mo]

All the former Obama administration officials cheering on the airstrikes make me think that, despite the wild use of them, Obama may have actually restrained murder robot use.

[Mo]

If the targeting was good, I'd imagine 59,000 pounds of high explosive would do quite a bit. Even if the runways themselves were relatively undamaged, the airfield is a lot less useful if you don't have planes to operate from it, fuel to put in the planes, ammunition to put on them, etc.

If you want to be conspiracy-minded: sometimes you don't want to trash a runway if you expect you or another friendly power to capture it soon anyway...!

My understanding is that the Syrians had enough advanced warning to clear the planes out and likely a decent amout of munitions. The fuel and spare parts are likely gone. Also, I don't know why we would need the airbase, we have access to plenty of them in neighboring countries and Syria isn't that big.

[Kolohe]

If the targeting was good, I'd imagine 59,000 pounds of high explosive would do quite a bit. Even if the runways themselves were relatively undamaged, the airfield is a lot less useful if you don't have planes to operate from it, fuel to put in the planes, ammunition to put on them, etc.

If you want to be conspiracy-minded: sometimes you don't want to trash a runway if you expect you or another friendly power to capture it soon anyway...!

My understanding is that the Syrians had enough advanced warning to clear the planes out and likely a decent amout of munitions. The fuel and spare parts are likely gone. Also, I don't know why we would need the airbase, we have access to plenty of them in neighboring countries and Syria isn't that big.

Plus its why we spend literal gigabucks on aircraft carriers. Syria's nice and coastal so US forces don't even need to get overflight permission.

[JasonL]

I hate myself for that one ...

dude i'm so jealous you can't even imagine. it's catchy as hell.

it'd be like if you saw someone sous vide a jeep. you'd be all "fuck, dude, they sous vide'd that shit like what" and you'd be ashamed of your comparative lack of sous vide-fu as you watched them cut through the tailpipe like it was butter.

I'm drunk crying

[Ellie]

They only kept one bomb but Jill Stein showed them how to turn it into homeopathic munitions. It's her fault.

[Aresen]

If the targeting was good, I'd imagine 59,000 pounds of high explosive would do quite a bit. Even if the runways themselves were relatively undamaged, the airfield is a lot less useful if you don't have planes to operate from it, fuel to put in the planes, ammunition to put on them, etc.

If you want to be conspiracy-minded: sometimes you don't want to trash a runway if you expect you or another friendly power to capture it soon anyway...!

My understanding is that the Syrians had enough advanced warning to clear the planes out and likely a decent amout of munitions. The fuel and spare parts are likely gone. Also, I don't know why we would need the airbase, we have access to plenty of them in neighboring countries and Syria isn't that big.

Plus its why we spend literal gigabucks on aircraft carriers. Syria's nice and coastal so US forces don't even need to get overflight permission.

I have heard that, when a military ship follows a repeated route in a particular area, it is said to 'orbit'. In that sense, the US fleet can nuke Syria from orbit.

[Mo]

I will say this positive thing about the Trump supporters that are pissed about the intervention, they have hewed to their principles more than any Congressional Republican.

[Number 6]

I hate myself for that one ...

dude i'm so jealous you can't even imagine. it's catchy as hell.

it'd be like if you saw someone sous vide a jeep. you'd be all "fuck, dude, they sous vide'd that shit like what" and you'd be ashamed of your comparative lack of sous vide-fu as you watched them cut through the tailpipe like it was butter.

This is poetry.

[Aresen]

I will say this positive thing about the Trump supporters that are pissed about the intervention, they have hewed to their principles more than any Congressional Republican.

Which one?

[Sandy]

I will say this positive thing about the Trump supporters that are pissed about the intervention, they have hewed to their principles more than any Congressional Republican.

Ahem. Way to throw your Arab brother under the bus.

[Kolohe]

The Syrian airstrike = Operation Theranos. An expensive pinprick, hyped by clueless & derided by experts, whose failure means more blood.

[Painboy]

The Syrian airstrike = Operation Theranos. An expensive pinprick, hyped by clueless & derided by experts, whose failure means more blood.

Well at least it wasn't a baby aspirin factory.

[Hugh Akston]

Haha whoops

An airstrike by the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State killed 18 Syrian fighters allied with the United States, the military said on Thursday.

The strike, on Tuesday in Tabqah, Syria, was the third time in a month that American-led airstrikes may have killed civilians or allies, and it comes even as the Pentagon is investigating two previous airstrikes that killed or wounded scores of civilians in a mosque complex in Syria and in a building in the west of Mosul, Iraq.

[fyodor]

How they gonna prevent airstrikes with a patrol of armored vehicles?

[Kolohe]

MANPADS probably.