I considered that angle as well (the comey book coming out timing angle).
Right? I won't go as far to say that this was "Wag the Dog" all over again. But the timing sure is suspicious. Five minutes ago, every single news outlet was reporting Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, and Robert Mueller in an endless loop. Now? That's all gone. It's all about Syria. Our entire approach to Syria has been interesting.
In 2013, Assad used chemical weapons and crossed President Obama's "red line." President Obama (correctly) approached Congress on the use of force. Donald Trump even warned President Obama to "stay out of Syria" and if he were to use force, that he should, "go to Congress." Well, President Obama followed Trump's "wisdom" and did just that. The GOP controlled Congress told President Obama to, "go pound sand."
As a result, for the past five years, we've essentially condoned Assad's actions and have agreed that he's the side we are going to fight on (or at least, not resist). I don't necessarily disagree with that move, since the alternative was to side with the rebels who were joined with ISIS fighters.
Over the past five years, we have witnessed day after day, scenes of horrible tragedy in Syria. But as a nation, we essentially agreed that this was a "necessary price to pay" in order to stay out of larger conflict between us, Syria, Turkey, and Russia. Right? Trump even went as far as to shut off our acceptance of Syrian refugees. We've accepted a whole 11 refugees this year. That's not exactly showing that we give a **** about that country, right?
Last year, in an attempt to show strength and to appease his daughter who was confirmed to have been greatly distraught over the scenes of gassed children, Donald launched an attack on an empty airfield days after he gave Russian forces a warning. He didn't go to Congress, as he advised President Obama to do. He just launched an (illegal) attack on Syria. It... I guess accomplished something? What" I'm not sure. It gave us warm fuzzies? But it did absolutely nothing to deter Assad from killing thousands more. It did nothing but embolden Russia.
Fast forward to today. Trump has continued his ignoring of the Syrian people and called for American forces to quickly withdraw. Not a week goes by where we don't see horrific scenes from Syria. But again, we've accepted this fate, right? Assad is going to win, thousands will unnecessarily die, and we won't see larger conflict arise between us, right?
So why would this attack be so outrageous? Why would our response do anything to dissuade Assad from continuing to kill innocents? Wasn't HR McMaster recently fired because he called for greater American involvement in Syria while Trump wanted the opposite? So why did we launch an attack this week?
And what do we hope to accomplish by it other than distracting the media for a few days and giving us the misperception that we actually helped the Syrian people in some way? And if we are going to continue to attack Syria, shouldn't the President at some point go to Congress with a plan? I thought Congress was supposed to be the only branch of government that could declare war? Should we support continued American attacks without a larger discussion with the American people and its elected representatives?
What's the plan?