Cruise Missiles For Kids? Or Distraction From Russian Meddling?

5-year-old Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh in 2016 [AP]

Listening to Trump express his contrived personal agony over viewing photos of "beautiful babies" from Syria killed in the heinous chemical weapons attack on Tuesday strained the boundaries of hypocrisy.

As he used his fake moral outrage over Syrian children as justification to order U.S. Navy ships to launch 59 cruise missiles at the Al Sharyat airfield in Syria, the EPA announced plans to cut $17 million from two programs intended to protect American children from the effects of lead poisoning.

Back in August 2016, as the world reacted in horror to the photograph of shellshocked five-year-old Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh sitting in an ambulance covered in blood and dust after an airstrike on the Syrian city of Aleppo, the puffed-up anti-immigrant xenophobia that defined Trump's nationalistic presidential campaign rhetoric, made no mention of the hundreds of Syrian children being injured and killed.

One of Trump's very first bungled initiatives as president was the executive order banning Muslims from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. - a ban that included Syrian refugees fleeing the same horror of war that the erratic POTUS used as an excuse to bomb Syria on Thursday.

So was Trump really motivated by his concern for the welfare of children?

Or was his military order simply an excuse to try and shift public focus from the ongoing Congressional and intelligence probes into he and his top advisor's ties to Russia and Putin's interference in the 2016 elections?

Ethically-compromised GOP Rep. David Nunes

Remember folks, there were two major news stories released hours before the cruise missile attacks that cast even more clouds over the Trump administration's conspiring with Russia.

It was during the day on Thursday that the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Republican Congressman David Nunes, finally announced that he was stepping down from his role in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

Over the past two weeks, the Republican Party has taken serious heat over Nunes' role.

It's actually remarkable that it's taken Republican leaders so long to understand that the ethical minefield of a Trump advocate leading a bi-partisan Congressional investigation of Russian meddling has exponentially increased suspicion that the White House is engaged in a massive coverup.  

From a strategic political perspective, the Trump administration has been on the defensive in the wake of the failure of the Republican-controlled Congress to even vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act.

The monumental conflict of interest from Nunes having secretly travelled to the White House to brief Trump on intelligence information about the investigation, classified information that he had not shared with Democratic members of the Intelligence Committee investigating the White House, only seemed to magnify the political dysfunction of a Republican Party that controls the Senate, House and White House - but has yet to pass one single significant piece of legislation.

Remarkable? It gets even better.

As TheHill.com reported on Thursday: "(Nunes') announcement came moments before the House Ethics Committee announce an investigation into Nunes over potential 'unauthorized disclosures of classified information'."

On the very same day, Jo Becker and Matthew Rosenberg published an article in the New York Times about Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner having committed a felony by lying about meetings he had with foreign leaders on a questionnaire he filled out to grant him top-secret clearance for national security.

Were the cruise missile attacks a cover for
Kushner's lie about meeting with Kislyak?

As the Times reported, those meetings include two meetings in December "with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, and one with the head of a Russian state-owned bank, Vnesheconomobank, arranged at Mr. Kislyak's behest."

So after both the Nunes and Kushner stories were preparing to dominate the weekend news cycle, by Thursday evening, at a hastily-arranged press conference at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida, Trump announced his decision to order the cruise missile attacks on Al Sharyat airfield just south of the Syrian city of Homs.
 Coincidence?

Knowing Trump's well-known propensity for showing a willingness to do or say almost anything to deflect negative press coverage, I'd say no.

Shocking atrocities against Syrian children didn't start with Tuesday's chemical attack - and Trump's own policies haven't exactly made concern for children's welfare a priority of his administration.

As Yvette Cabrera reported in an article for ThinkProgress.org on Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services conducted a survey in 2011 that showed that up to a third of the approximately 106 million homes in the U.S. are contaminated with lead-based paint.

Contamination that will have an adverse impact on poor children, especially poor children of color.

The EPA voted to lift restrictions on
the pesticide chlorpyrifos last week

As Cabrera noted, the Washington Post first published a copy of an EPA memorandum sent by the agency's acting chief financial officer David A. Bloom outlining a 31% cut in the EPA's budget for fiscal year 2018.

Cuts which include the two programs intended to educate Americans about the dangers of lead poisoning, as well as 54 other programs targeting issues like pesticide safety.

Those cuts also include a 25% cut in staffing at EPA, cuts which will have a direct affect on the health and well being of the "beautiful babies" Trump suddenly seems so concerned about.

The EPA's own research showed the pesticide chlorpyrifos poses a risk to babies, but they lifted restrictions on it last week.

Where is Trump's concern about the babies whose neurological health will be impacted by the presence of chlorpyrifos on the fruit and vegetables they eat?

Most people would agree on a unilateral UN-supported global effort to stop the civil war in Syria, just as most people are outraged and horrified over using chemical weapons on civilians.

But launching 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield isn't going to stop Bashar Al-Assad from killing his own people - with chemical or other weapons.

Nor will a cruise missile attack quell the American people's demand for a thorough Congressional investigation into links between Trump and his top advisers, and Russian efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential elections.

Syrian refugees arriving in Lesbos, Greece

Frankly if Trump really cares about the "beautiful babies" in Syria or anywhere for that matter, he should stop gutting the budgets of the Department of Education, HHS, EPA and cutting U.S. contributions to the United Nations.

If he hadn't signed executive orders banning Syrian families from coming to the U.S. in the first place, maybe some of those "beautiful babies" killed in chemical attacks in a rebel-controlled province in northern Syria would be alive today.

After all, Assad's decision to use chemicals against civilians in his own country (again) last Tuesday may well have been motivated, in part, by the White House's own decision last week to publicly announce that it had ditched the goal of removing Assad from power as part of its ambiguous "America first" foreign policy.

As White House press secretary Sean Spicer said just last Friday, "With respect to Assad, there is a political reality that we have to accept,"

What a sad and tragic difference a week makes.

Oh and by the way, Reuters is reporting that the $90 million worth of cruise missiles that were fired at Al Sharyat airfield did very little damage since Trump informed Putin before the attack and Putin in turn informed Assad - so the Syrians actually moved planes and other equipment before the cruise missiles hit.

As the British-based Syrian Observatory For Human Rights reported, Syrian planes took off from the base on Friday and attacked rebel-held areas in the northern Homs province.

$90 million to make a point and the airfield is still operational - par for the Trump presidency and bogey for the American people.

Petra Laszlo Gets Three-Year Suspended Sentence

Petra Laszlo tripping Osama Abdul Mohsen and
his seven year-old son Zaid
 

It's been just over 16 months since Hungarian camerawoman Petra Laszlo made global headlines during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe.

Laszlo was one of many journalists capturing images of terrified Syrian refugees desperately trying to evade capture by police in a field near a makeshift relocation camp outside the Hungarian village of Roszke next to the Serbian border.



But instead of just using her camera, Laszlo famously stuck out her leg and tried to kick at the legs of a little girl holding the hand of her father.

Laszlo didn't stop there, she successfully tripped a 56-year-old Syrian football coach named Osama Abdul Mohsen, sending him toppling to the ground on top of  his terrified seven year-old son Zaid (pictured above).

Unbeknownst to Laszlo, another journalist captured video footage of her intentionally trying to trip the little girl, and another journalist took photos her tripping Mohsen and his son.

The video of the incident went viral, and the footage captured not just Laszlo's reprehensible actions, but the heart-rendering images and sounds of crying, traumatized children and adults who've fled war-torn Syria trying to pass through Hungary to find sanctuary in Europe.

News of her actions exploded across social media and her name and photo quickly spread to mainstream media as well, earning widespread condemnation from people across the globe.

Xenophobic Camerawoman Petra Laszlo

It was soon revealed that Laszlo was actually working for N1TV, an Internet news channel with ties to Hungary's right-wing anti-immigrant Jobbik party.

In November the UK's Independent reported that the Jobbik party was conditionally supporting a constitutional amendment submitted to the Hungarian parliament that would permanently ban the resettlement of refugees in Hungary.


As Robert Mackey reported in an article in the New York Times, as outrage swelled over Laszlo's actions, N1TV, which functions as a something of a propaganda arm for the Jobbik party, fired her; saying that she had "behaved in an unacceptable manner" in a statement.

Last Thursday Laszlo appeared at a hearing via video link in Szeged district court in Hungary to answer for her actions.

As Vladimir Kozlov and Nick Holdsworth reported for The Hollywood Reporter, a judge rejected Laszlo's absurd claim that she tripped and kicked fleeing Syrian refugees in self defense and gave her a three year suspended sentence and ordered her to pay a fine equal to about $183.

It's delayed justice but it is a measure of justice for innocent refugees.

Osama and Zaid Mohsen

But more importantly at a time when right-wing populist political movements are gaining traction and influence in different parts of Europe, and Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric has stirred up xenophobia here in America, Hungary's court system deserves credit for holding Laszlo accountable for her actions.

Nothing can fix the trauma seven year-old Zaid Mohsen experienced on that day in Hungary, but at least what he and his father experienced brought global attention to the plight of Syrian refugees.

And the Hungarian legal system made clear that unwarranted acts of hate or prejudice against refugees will not be tolerated.

That said, at least this particular story has a somewhat happy ending.

As Nicolas Lupo Sonnabend reported for Aljazeera.com last February, a week after he and his son were tripped by Laszlo, they were able to make their way to Spain.

Today they live in the town of Getafe near Madrid, where he works as a football coach at the CENAFE football coach academy - and more importantly, has a legal residency permit.

He is still trying to cut through regulatory red tape to get his wife and other two children in the country from Turkey.

In a reflection of the complexity of issues facing refugees fleeing war or political persecution, to get his wife and other children into the country legally, Spanish law requires that Mohsen obtain documents from the Syrian embassy in Beirut.

But because he has expressed open criticism of the Syrian regime, he could be risking his life and freedom to go the Syrian embassy - opponents of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad face persecution, jail, torture or worse.

But for now, unlike thousands of other refugees from the mid-east and Africa, Osama and Zaid Mohsen are safe in Spain.

Despite the best efforts of Petra Laszlo.

The Civilian Price & U.S. Patriots in Paradise

Aftermath of U.S. bombing of Kunduz hospital [Photo - RT.com]

The news of the horrific American air strikes that struck the only civilian hospital in the city of Kunduz in Afghanistan on Saturday is a costly (and deadly) warning that any serious effort to defeat ISIS forces and other terrorist groups operating in Syria is going to take a lot more than just air strikes.

It's going to require a commitment by a consortium of nations to deploy a massive humanitarian relief effort as well as ground troops at a time when many Americans are wary of sending service men and women overseas into combat after over a decade of simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that took the lives of over 6,800 Americans, thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians and cost U.S. taxpayers over a $1 trillion.

Saturday's bombing happened after members of the Afghan military requested US air support after coming under heavy fire from Taliban forces; it killed 22 Afghan patients and injured at least 37 people in the hospital which was run by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders or MSF.

Pentagon officials initially called the casualties "collateral damage".

Sadly, in a reflection of the complexity and senselessness of the "fog of war", the U.S. air strikes on the civilian hospital continued for quite some time even after representatives from MSF frantically called both the US military and Afghan officials to report the hospital was being targeted by mistake.

A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign military issued a statement saying that U.S. not only knew the location of the hospital in Kunduz, they had the exact coordinates to prevent something like this from happening.

Now even though this happened in Afghanistan, it offers an example of why targeted air strikes alone are not going to be enough to weaken and defeat ISIS in the war-torn nation of Syria.

Syrian women in front of a building destroyed by air strikes in Brimahle

US-led coalition aircraft killed at least 52 Syrian civilians during an air strike in May on the Northern Syrian village of Brimahle in Aleppo province. 

Just a few days ago a Russian air strike in Syria killed at least 39 civilians.

The Russian government has already indicated  that they intend to deploy troops in some capacity on the ground in Syria.

So the question remains how committed are the US and it's coalition allies to putting a halt to the war that is wreaking unspeakable havoc on the Syrian people?

One that's causing an international humanitarian crisis as thousands of refugees have fled to Europe.

It's reasonable to assume that the US already has a limited number of special forces on the ground in Syria helping US-backed insurgents and directing airstrikes, but will America send a larger contingent of soldiers to confront ISIS?

Interestingly, there are a number of Americans who aren't waiting for the government to answer that question.

Last Wednesday Jennifer Percy wrote a fascinating article in The New York Times Magazine, entitled, "Meet the American Vigilantes Who Are Fighting ISIS" which offered a look at the strange collection of American civilians who've used their own money to travel to Syria to fight ISIS.

Now these guys are not members of any of the professional security organizations that are contracted by the CIA or the Pentagon to fight insurgents abroad.

These guys are, well, regular American guys (some not even ex-soldiers) motivated by everything from boredom, curiosity or a craving for adventure, to a sense of patriotic duty to take on ISIS.

But their presence there isn't having a measurable impact in the fight against ISIS; and frankly ISIS isn't loosing any sleep because of these civilian volunteers.

John (Ray Milland), Beau (Gary Cooper) and Digby (Robert Preston) Geste

One of my absolute all-time favorite classic Hollywood films is Beau Geste, the 1939 version of the novel of the same name directed by master filmmaker William Wellman.

The film stars Gary Cooper, Robert Preston and Ray Milland as three orphaned brothers adopted by a wealthy British woman named Lady Brandon; a young Donald O'Connor plays Beau as a young boy in the 1st act.

As the brothers come of age, Lady Brandon's finances start to get tight and she's faced with the decision to put the family's priceless crown jewel, The Blue Water sapphire, up for sale.  

One night the jewel disappears and the evidence points to the brothers as the culprits.

That night Beau Geste slips away leaving a note that he's joined the French Foreign Legion; and his brothers Digby and John decide to follow him and join him.

All three end up stationed at a remote desert fort run by the ruthless Sergeant Markoff played brilliantly by Brian Donlevy where they defend the fort against an army of attacking Arab warriors with a ragtag group of Legionnaires.

While Beau Geste is a classic Hollywood mix of mystery, romance and adventure, the Americans interviewed by Jennifer Percy for her New York Times Magazine article (click the link above) discovered no romance or adventure when they arrived in Syria to fight ISIS.

Their lack of professional training, combat experience and the infighting that takes place amongst the stressed-out Americans illustrates why war is best left to professional armies.

War may be Hell but it's best left to those trained for the task.

Until the US-led coalition, the United Nations and the other leading powers in the mid-east get serious about coming up with a comprehensive plan to take on ISIS on the ground, it's the Syrian civilians who will be stuck in the middle; or risking their lives to escape the carnage.

Under threat from the forces loyal to their own leader Bashar Al-Assad, ISIS fighters seeking to turn Syria into an Islamic state governed by primitive Sharia law - and now (as evidenced by the aforementioned air strikes) by both coalition and Russian forces as well.

The Syrian people deserve better, and the world has a collective moral responsibility to respond to this worsening humanitarian crisis with a cooperative large-scale effort.

Air strikes alone ain't cutting it - nor are a group of American civilians who think taking on ISIS is like an adventure movie.