The top-level consultations about military options involve Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as military officers at the United States Central Command.
Mr. Mattis is traveling to Florida, where he is expected to discuss the crisis in Syria with President Trump. Officials said no decisions had been made.
Saber-rattling? I understand that to some extent "developing options" is in itself a form of proportional response. But the thought of Trump getting played into a confrontation in Syria with Russia... gives me heeby-fucking-jeebies. kleinbl00
August 2016 - US contractors in Syria
March 2017 - 400 more troops US Troops to Syria
October 2016 - What US Special Forces are doing in Syria
Remember - (1) We've had troops in Syria for years (2) Tillerson didn't rule out a military response to North Korea, either. "We're weighing all options" is basically Rex's version of "no comment."
Just as a gentle reminder, back when your dad and I were kids? The Soviets blew fuckin' airliners out of the sky. Had a rep from Georgia on it and everything. They did this because we - "allegedly" - had a bunch of spy gear on it (flight 007 indeed). Wasn't even the first time. Hell, the Turks blew a Sukhoi out of the sky not 18 months ago.
You give the average angry man on the street an option right now and he'll say "we gotta do something!" Give that guy half an hour with Wikipedia first, on the other hand, and "something" becomes "uhmmmmumblemumblemumble" because there are no easy options in Syria. That's one reason it's such a pigfuck.
Does Trump have half an hour's worth of attention span for Wikipedia? Prolly not. But there's a long list of people under him that know shit Wikipedia doesn't.
Syria has every possibility of being the downer Iraq was only without that awesome "Mission Accomplished" photo op. Trump may not realize that but everyone else does. The successful playbook is to dump shit-tons of guns'n'money on the Kurds, bait the Russians into playing in Syria and let them send in troops. Doing something active with the uniformed military? No upside. None.