Bolton and Mattis clash on Syria strikes

13 Apr 2018

Discussions between the Pentagon leadership and President Trump's National Security Council continue today over a possible military response to the alleged chemical weapons attack late last week in the formerly rebel-held Douma suburb of Damascus.

The quick take, according to Just Security's Kate Brannen, citing two sources with knowledge of the talks: "There remains tension between what President Trump and National Security Adviser [John] Bolton want and what the Pentagon is advocating. Defense Secretary [James] Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Gen. Joseph] Dunford are concerned with managing escalation and preventing blow back on U.S. troops."

The New York Times echoes that take, reporting from Capitol Hill earlier on Thursday: "Mattis pushed for more evidence of President Bashar al-Assad's role in the suspected chemical attack" on April 7, "telling the House Armed Services Committee that retaliation must be balanced against the threat of a wider war."

Said Mattis to lawmakers: "We're looking for the actual evidence," said Mattis, noting that UN inspectors would arrive in the country "probably by the end of the week."

Mattis's fine line: "We are trying to stop the murder of innocent people... But on a strategic level, it's how do we keep this from escalating out of control — if you get my drift on that."

This hesitation, a senior defense official told the Times, "was an acknowledgment of a lesson from the Iraq war about what can go wrong after a military assault without a plan... It also sought to ensure that the United States and European allies could justify the strike to the world in the face of withering criticism by Russia — Mr. Assad's most powerful partner."

FWIW, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley said Thursday: "We definitely have enough proof... now, we just have to be thoughtful in our action," she told Andrea Mitchell of NBC News.

Speaking of proof: U.S. officials say blood and urine samples show a nerve agent was used in Saturday's alleged chemical weapons attack outside of Damascus, Syria, NBC News reported Thursday.

Discovery and caveat: "The samples suggested the presence of both chlorine gas and an unnamed nerve agent, two officials said," adding "they were 'confident' in the intelligence, though not 100 percent sure."

What's more, "Officials also said that the U.S. has compiled intelligence from the U.S. and other countries, including images, that indicate the Syrian government was behind the weekend attack."

Russia, on the other hand, seems quite comfortable in conspiracy land. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says this morning that Moscow has "irrefutable evidence" that the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma last Saturday was "staged with the help of a foreign secret service," AFP reports from Moscow.

Lavrov: "We have irrefutable evidence that this was another staged event, and that the secret services of a certain state that is now at the forefront of a Russophobic campaign was involved in this staged event."

Worth noting: The last time Russia claimed "irrefutable evidence" from Syria, it used pics from a computer game and year-old footage, the UK Press Association's Alastair Reid wrote this morning on Twitter, linking to the relevant faked imagery.

The latest rumors suggest the U.S. is reportedly considering eight potential targets inside Syria, NBC News reported Thursday citing "a source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity."

Those include "two Syrian airfields, a research center and a chemical weapons facility," which leaves four targets unstated. More background than news to the rest of that story,

here. https://cnb.cx/2Hwcpac