Take A Breath

The schizophrenia is palpable.
We get rid of Obozo, send Shrillary to the showers - probably forever - thus ensuring she doesn't drive the country right off a cliff in fifth gear, and somehow, someone straps a 2x4 to Bitch McConjob long enough for him to use the nuclear option, derail ChuckU Schumer, get Judge Gorsuch confirmed to SCOTUS, and pave the way for Trump to carpet the country with conservative judges in every district and circuit, undoing Leftist destructive judicial activism for decades. Pretty good, right?

Then Trump drops a few dozen old Tomahawks onto one of the vilest dictatorial regimes on the planet, one of the OGs of the Axis Of Evil, and everyone on both sides, but especially those nominally on his own, totally loses their collective shit.

Seriously?!?

Take. A. F*(#!ng. Breath.

1) We had troops in Syria since last summer. If you haven't been on the barricades BMWing about that since January 20th, (let alone since Congress signed off on the AUMF last year) kindly STFU. You're a poser, a Johnny-come-lately, and you're just virtue signaling your imaginary moral superiority. It's just as noxious and obnoxious when you do it as it is when the Leftards do it, and the preening self-awarded superiority is just as unearned. The other one or two (three, tops) of you out of 300M, go ahead on. At least your consistency is an actual virtue, this time out.

2)"But the sarin attack is a false flag!"
Really, Cupcake? So, everyone who "knows", and can back it up, that Assad is a swell fellow, doesn't have nerve gas, and would never ever use it on his people, because it's bad, raise your hands.
Beuller? Beuller..? Ferris Beuller...?
Yeah, thought so.
Assad has the weapons. Not just his own, courtesy of German and Brit chemical companies building him the infrastructure, nor least of which from any number of midnight flights from Baghdad and vicinity, in 2003, just before OIF kicked off, and a like number of truck convoys. Unless you figure that was just Saddam's sons flying to Baghdad for the great hummus at this cool mom-and-pop stand at the bazaar, and the after dinner show at the Casbah.

3) "But Assad was winning! He would never do something so stupid as to pull the world down on his head!"
Right. Like Khaddafi wouldn't bomb a Pan Am flight over Scotland a coupla years after getting an F-111 telegram up his butt for blowing up a Berlin disco before that.
Like Saddam wouldn't taunt and test the Coalition with not one, not two, but hundreds of violations of the no-fly zones, and then playing footsie regarding WMD inspections, after having the world's sixth-largest land army turned into the world's largest corpse and scrap collection on the highway from Kuwait City to the Iraqi border. This is why Operation Iraqi Freedom never happened, right?
Sociopathic Middle Eastern dictators don't act rationally.
Write this on your hand with a laundry marker.
That's generally how they got to be Middle Eastern dictators.
Psychotic and unpredictable is a defining characteristic.

4) "But Putin is upset! This could be WWIII!"
Russia's economy is smaller than Italy's. And Putin pulled back, because he's a puss, and a bully, but not a stupid or insane one, and he isn't going to trade Moscow for Damascus, ever, nor his dacha for a brick wall and a blindfold.
And now Assad knows just how far Putin will go to back him up. In this case, across town for a beer, until the fireworks are over.
Putin also knows now that Assad's crap will get him in trouble, and next time, the American warning might arrive with a good deal less than two hours to pull his people back.
What neither of them knows is what the next thing is that'll give Pres. Trump a case of the ass with Syria at 3AM.
But there's no uncertainty that using WMDs, especially on civilians, is right off the table.
Whether they did it, or not.

5) "But this couldn't be real! Because reasons!"
Look, Baby Ducks, for 72 years, the one thing Russians did as good Soviets, was dezinformatsiya: disinformation. In fact, they've been at it since the Byzantine Empire ran things east of Rome. (That would be before Gilligan's Island, for those of you Ivy League history majors). They're kind of good at it, too. Maybe you've seen their work on ABCNNBCBS lately?
So when all their outlets crank up minutes after the smoke cleared, why is anyone surprised that it's all intended to cast doubt and aspersion on US motivations and rationales, let alone effectiveness? Oh, wait, let me guess, because you were born after Madonna's last hit record, and the Cold War, to you, is about as relevant as medieval poetry, or trench warfare at Verdun. Got it. Sorry six millennia of recorded world history happened before your birth, but what the hell can we do to make it up to you? Geez, you probably still think pro wrestling is real too, right? (Wait, you mean it isn't?!)

6) This is the Middle East. Entropy was invented here.
So, how did Britain's efforts go, in Afghanistan?
How about Britain and France, across the rest of the region?
How about the Soviet Union's efforts in Afghanistan in the 1980s?
How about our work there, and Iraq, to date?
Or in Iran before that?
Or anywhere else from Morocco to Pakistan, ever?
So, the Russians are backing Assad's regime now. Please tell the class the last longest lived prior puppet regime in the region. Show your work.
Bonus points: where was the last puppet leader buried, and how did he (and probably his whole family) die? What about the other ten or twenty times its been tried?
Let me know when you spot the trend.

So in summation, we burned up some aging cruise missiles, to erase an entire squadron of Assad's dwindling loyalist forces. (Bet your ass the other squadrons will bear that fate in mind from here on out.)
We gave the surface Navy in the Med some good training and a great live FIREX.
Putin has his pants around his ankles.
Assad has a bloody nose.
And Kim, Xi, and the mullahs in Teheran are leaning forward much more attentively when we speak.
President Trump, and the US, are much more feared. Which means respected.
As Niccolo Machiavelli would've said, "You could look it up."

Some of you old enough to remember may recall, this was how things used to be for the U.S., pretty much every day. A serious country, with a serious leader. And note that our current one hasn't gone on a forty-country World Apology Tour, or kissed anyone's ass or ring. What a difference a little peaceful regime change makes.

And now, the Norks want to party like it's 2009?
Good luck with that, Gangnam Fool.
From where I sit, I can Xi someone tiptoeing up from behind, with a big stick in his hand.
Korea may be getting a new ruling clan any day now, but I suspect they're definitely going to get a new attitude.

So keep up your PT, stock up on supplies, go to the range for some practice.
The world is still a scary place, and there's plenty of real things to worry about, and for which to prepare. So all you dutiful good pessimists, cheer up: bad times are always coming. (The only question is when.)

But apparently, the days of America walking around with no pants are over for some time to come.
Take a breath, and enjoy the show.

"You have five airbases. Now it's four. Would you like to go for three?"

 

 

For those still inclined to disagree, your medicine is ready at the pharmacy pick-up counter:

 I'm pretty sure it's covered under your mommy's insurance, once you fill out the proper claim form: