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   From: acoustic@panix.com   
      
   Trump calls Assad an "animal".  Aren't we all?  And we kill cattle,   
   sheep and pigs regularly in the name of health and even piety.  And   
   these animals eat only grass or even garbage to survive.   
      
   That's why Jesus on the cross is often referred to as the "sacrificial   
   lamb".  And now Washington decides that more Syrian children shall be   
   sacrificed!  But for whose benefit?  Cui Bono?   
      
   You know, whether Assad is suicidal or not --- and they wonder aloud   
   about that a lot when their aggression fever is on North Korea's Kim   
   Jong-un --- the Syrian president basically has little choice about   
   what he can do.  So he might as well choose to fight.   
      
   And Russia has apparently decided to stick with Assad because somehow   
   it sees Syria's survival related to its own.   
      
   We know that because Trump waited for a favorable response from Russia   
   which did not come.   
      
   Trump *waited* to strike even as he already decided that Assad was   
   responsible by calling him an "animal" in the first hours precisely   
   because he was hoping that Russia would try to avoid a US strike in   
   Syria by letting the US-sponsored resolution pass.  Obviously, Russia   
   thought otherwise: letting the US hit Syria now apparently is a better   
   alternative than opening the door for a UN-backed intervention in the   
   long run like Iraq.   
      
   As to Trump's assessment, I haven't seen evidence for the crime he   
   accused Assad of.   
      
   Where is the evidence of all those chemical attacks Assad supposedly   
   committed (in the past and recently)?  There are so many actors and we   
   have all kinds of spies running amok in the Middle East.  What   
   evidence did Trump see?  He didn't say.  He was apparently relying on   
   the volume of an echo chamber!   
      
   We don't know how many missiles Trump will lob into Syria this time to   
   satisfy his "strong response".   
      
   Last time, it was 59 Tomahawk missiles.  This time?  Will 3599   
   Tomahawks   
      
     60 times 60 - 1 = 3599   
      
   suffice?   
      
   One thing we can be sure of is it won't change anything except more   
   poor souls will be lining up to see Saint Peter at the gate of heaven.   
      
   We know that there won't be substantive change to Syria's power   
   structure because Russia has chosen its path and Russia isn't stupid,   
   as we have learned in the past 5 years since Ukraine's Velvet   
   revolution.   
      
   But we do know that Washington doesn't care about Syrian lives.  The   
   rulers of the imperial city could not care less about those poor   
   innocent souls who have suffered their mischief for six or seven years   
   already.   
      
   lo yeeOn   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)