The U.S. has carried out an airstrike on a target in Syria

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Not a major shock considering we have a neocon back in the White House but I wasn't expecting it this quickly.

Link?

It's just the beginning.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/2 ... cks-471680

Did Syria declare War On US .

Isn't it simply retaliation?

Simple ???? Retaliation ?. Throwing bombs back and forth .... maybe Biden won’t be a slouch about people getting killed in US armed forces .

Didn't age well...

Source: https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1225963586197086208

Maybe we should listen to the spokesperson for the state department:

Source: https://twitter.com/jrpsaki/status/850173258540474368

Some context:

I would welcome a more recent chart if someone finds it.

Yay, let's have even more fighting in the Middle East.

That always goes well...

...for prices of oil in the US.

Biden isn’t a neocon, he’s a social democrat with a mixture of hawkish and dovish views. He opposed the Gulf War for example, which was an incredibly justified war.

Of course, President Trump massively stepped up airstrikes against Syria, including against the Syrian government itself.

Again I find it pretty hard to see any reasonable objections to this action. A terrorist group has been attacking the US military, the US retaliated. Unless one is an absolute pacifist then this seems like a reasonable and proportionate use of force. It isn’t a “war”, and it isn’t a strike against the Syrian government.

I think the administration owes the public some basic explanation of policy. However, for the US military to simply stand down at this point would represent a major shift and would have to be discussed within the entire military establishment and couldn't be carried out overnight. You may be aware that Barack Obama retained Bush's SecDef Robert Gates. After Gates eventually left, he was asked for an honest assessment of Obama's performance as CIC and he replied that Obama basically did a good job but bemoaned Obama's lack of "enthusiasm" compared to Bush.

BTW I can recall at the start of the Syrian Civil War when Christiane Amanpour was loudly complaining that Obama was NOT invading Syria. How should we feel about that today?

Obama dropped so many bombs on Syria in 2015 that we literally ran out of the mother f*****s. But at least he didn't invade the country. *Snicker*

Great time to be ramping up miltary actions in foreign country, isnt it? Let's displace bunch of people and spread the virus as much as possible.

Anybody who is an apologist for this s**t is dispicable.

No big surprise since we have a career politician back in the White House. His masters probably have a lot more military adventures planed for the future.

Here is what I would assume is a fairly middle-of-the-road AP report that includes some of what the Biden administration is saying publicly, judge for yourselves:

US airstrike in Syria kills Iran-backed militiaman, a retaliation for deadly rocket attack in Iraq (Baltimore Sun)

I have to admit I have some issues with how the epithet "neocon" is used against certain political leaders, in the US it's typically used against Democrats. Interestingly, this sort of attack can just as easily come from the Sanders wing of the Democratic party as from Republicans. The difference though is that a Republican won't level this charge at a fellow Republican in the same situation. This sort of military operation would not have drawn criticism had it happened during the Bush administration or during the Trump administration. I have to confess I can't recall what sort of military operations were reported in the Middle East during the Trump administration. If there was one silver lining to Trump, it was that he was not enthusiastic about combat in which US personnel might actually get killed. He seemed to prefer to escalate a Cold War with China but without any clear reason to believe any actual shooting would take place. I personally am against either but at the same time I am not a Bernie Bro per se and not eager for reasons to actively dislike Biden.

One aspect of the "neocon" label that disturbs me is its origin. As I recall, the original "Neoconservatives" who became prominent in the 80s were a predominately Jewish group of baby boomers who had begun their political development as anti-war Leftists in college but then "converted" to more conservative views largely out of a concern for the well-being of Israel, whose views were published in an opinion publication named "Commentary". I point this out because I sense a mildly anti-Semitic undercurrent on the part of some who use this term. TBH I've also seen Jewish people use this term to criticize policies such as Biden seems to be following, so I'll admit that might be somewhat paranoid.

It is, and Syria has nothing to do with it.

Syria is just a wasteland battleground.