Syria

President Orange Baby ordered the military to launch missile strikes against a government base in Syria yesterday as a response to the gas attack earlier this week that killed a bunch of kids. He made a speech and everything, it was actually a not bad speech and his reaction to the attack seems to show some genuine humanity that has been pretty rare from him, like, ever.

That said it was a stupid thing to do in virtually every way.

From a practical standpoint it was pretty useless, by most accounts, US missiles hit a mostly unoccupied military base that was thought to be the source of the gas attacks, but no one knows for sure, there are some reports that those missiles also resulted in civilian casualties too. Assad hasn't exactly been running scared of US intervention before now, and this isn't going to change that, while it is going to piss off a lot of people the world over who tend to look askance at United States military intervention when it happens, IE basically everyone.

Morally it is a pretty shitty thing to do of course, but no one ever really thinks morals are something you talk about when in war, and perhaps if we were fighting the Nazis, or aliens or some shit they might be right, but since this is an entirely voluntary contribution to Syria's supply or exploded ordnance and rubble I feel like you can toss that argument out the window. Bombing or gassing, folks are still dead, folks who might not be dead if the government had made any attempt to work with the previous president regarding refugee placement and such. I know, I know, Obama also asked for authorization to conduct strikes in Syria, but congress told him no and so he didn't do it, The Toddler didn't ask at all.

Which brings me to some less tangible things, he says he authorized the strikes after seeing terrible pictures of dead children, while it is a sign of progress almost that the sight and thought of people suffering triggered an urge to do something in him, and that the urge to do something when confronted with tragedy is a pretty powerful one, it does run into one over riding factor that should have stopped him.

He is the fucking president

The president does not make decisions to use force against a foreign nation based on a few pictures, the president does not get he luxury of acting on instinct at the spur of the moment. I've said before I thought one of the major weaknesses of The Toddler was how easy he is to manipulate, I was referring to how cheap he could be bought in that context, but it appears that appeals to emotion might work just as well in some circumstances, and that is horrifying.

It's also hypocritical of course, he would commit millions of dollars of material, and possibly the lives of US soldiers, we'll see about that part, because of some pictures of dead kids, but he won't let them into the country so that they can avoid you know, not dying in the first place. You know, if I was to be killed, I would like someone to avenge my death, assuming my death was as a result of something that would need avenging, however I would first prefer to stay alive, and would look more kindly on someone who saved me in the first place.

The Toddler needed a PR boost, he got one because unfortunately our country is full of warmongering buttholes and millions will jump on board the "Kill the Muslims" train I would like to think it is a pretty temporary boost and that most people are on to the bullshit at this point, but our country if full of gormless idiots so who the hell knows.