Apes Bush’s ‘mission accomplished’ brag
PRESIDENT TRUMP proclaimed victory in no uncertain terms on Saturday following a one-off bombardment in Syria that experts cast as a saber-rattling exercise in futility.
The overnight assault of cruise missiles was the biggest intervention by Western countries in a bloody seven-year civil war that has sparked a humanitarian crisis and sent millions of refugees fleeing for safety.
The strikes against President Bashar Assad’s regime were limited to chemical weapons facilities and not aimed at toppling the leader.
“Mission accomplished,” Trump tweeted on Saturday, oddly echoing former President George W. Bush’s cringe-worthy premature use of the phrase in 2003 after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Bush was widely ridiculed for using the slogan after fighting dragged on for years.
The air strikes were meant to punish Assad for a suspected chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians last week and to deter him from doing it again.
Defense officials echoed Trump’s glowing assessment.
The 4 a.m. assault, carried out by a coalition of American, British and French forces, “successfully hit every target,” according to Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White.
“We met our objectives. We hit the sites, the heart of the chemweapons program,” she added. “So it was mission accomplished.”
Warplanes, ships and submarines fired a total of 105 cruise missiles on three targets, including chemical weapons facilities near the Syrian capital of Damascus, officials said. No deaths were reported. The Trump administration dialed up the cowboy rhetoric Saturday, keeping geopolitical tension high.
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley told her counterparts that allied forces remain “locked and loaded.”
Haley went on to accuse Russia, the Syrian government’s key ally in its fight against rebel forces, of covering up the chemical attack for the Assad government.
“When our President draws a red line, our President enforces the red,” she said. “The United States of America will not allow the Assad regime to continue using chemical weapons.”
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, meanwhile, said Washington had embarked on an “illegal military venture.”
“Russia condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack against Syria where Russian military personnel are assisting the legitimate country and their counterterrorism efforts,” Nebenzia said, reading a statement from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The UN Security Council met to debate the strikes, but rejected a Russian resolution calling for condemnation of the “aggression” by the three Western allies.
The White House said Trump spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, and the trio agreed the bombings “were successful and necessary to deter” the future use of chemical weapons.
Photographs released by the Pentagon Saturday showed three large buildings that appeared to have been flattened by the air strikes.
On Saturday, Syria released video of the wreckage of a bombed-out research lab — along with clips of Assad arriving at work as usual, with the caption “Morning of resilience.”
Syrian state TV claimed that three civilians were wounded after “several” missiles were intercepted by Syrian air-defense systems. Government forces also entered Douma, the site of the purported poison gas attack, and expelled rebel fighters from the town.
Hundreds of Assad supporters took to the streets of Damascus to denounce the bombings.
“We are not scared of America’s missiles. We humiliated their missiles,” said Mahmoud Ibrahim, who waved a Syrian flag as he hung out of his car window.
Lt. Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that none of the aircraft or missiles involved in this operation were successfully engaged by Syrian air defenses, and there is no indication that Russian air defense systems were employed.
Syrian forces fired 40 interceptor missiles in an attempt to combat the barrage from the allied forces, but most were launched after the last incoming missile had already struck its target.
It was unclear where the ineffective Syrian missiles landed, McKenzie said.
“When you shoot a lot of iron in the air, it’s going to come down somewhere,” he added.
The allied attack used nearly double the amount of firepower of a unilateral U.S. air strike Trump ordered last April.