The “Fog of War” relates to the misinformation and chaos that surrounds battle where people don’t have a true understanding of what’s going on. This is usually true in all war situations to a degree. Even those in the battle themselves have a limited perspective and remain unaware of the whole picture. When it comes to the Tump ordered attack on Syria. The fog will be thicker than usual because everyone making public statements is likely to either lie or truly doesn’t know.
We know Trump will lie to us. Why? Because he lies about everything else. He lies about crowd size, surveillance of his campaign, providing inexpensive healthcare to all, caring for the environment, his relationships with women and most of all Russia. Because Russia is involved we know he’s lying.
The Secretary of State Tillerson, makes it a point of not speaking to the American public. An occasional prepared statement, no press conferences. Nikki Haley the UN Ambassador has been a more effective Secretary of State than Tillerson who doesn’t have much to do after you subtract all the areas of the world handled by Jared Kushner. The one statement Tillerson has made was that the US didn’t notify Russia, except for the way they informed Russia to clear the area. There are news reports from admittedly questionable sources that Syria knew we were attacking. Russia and Syria tell us that 16 people wee killed including 9 civilians. Thee is little way to verify if that’s true. No report of Russian or Iranian soldiers killed who were likely at that base. America says that 58 of 59 tomahawk missiles hit their target. One might wonder what happened to the other missile? Assuming the original number was correct.
Trump tells us he had a legal right to order the strike without consulting Congress which violates our laws and without an international consensus violating International standards. Other Presidents have done similar things when attacking alleged terrorists. Only Trump has attacked a foreign army and tries to convince us it wasn’t an act of war. The Congress that should object to the usurping of their power to declare war, responds along party lines. Party before country as is far too common of late.
Trump blames Obama for inaction in 2013, forgetting that Congress failed to act on the former President’s request to approve military strikes. Republicans in Congress blame Obama ignoring their own failure to address the issue. Almost every statement issued by a politician is far more about achieving a political goal than telling truth.
Even the extent of the “formidable Strike” is in question. The runway is intact, planes still took off and landed the next day. Was it all the equivalent of a fake moon landing? Designed to distract from the ongoing Russia investigations and convince us Trump actually can stand up to Putin?
We will likely never know the whole truth. Was the attack ordered to help Trump in the polls? Why was he concerned about these “beautiful babies” while he has never mentioned the beautiful babies in Darfur that suffered attacks from chemical weapons during the height of the political campaign? It couldn’t be because they were ______?
Americans usually know little about what actually occurs during war. Much of that is by design. This time I’m pretty sure we’ll know even less.
