15 April 2018
Criminal investigations start with questions. Who could do this? Who would do this? Who profits most from this? Who profits least from this?
If I were Bashir Assad I would NOT want to unnecessarily annoy the US Government immediately after their President just pledged to withdraw his occupation from my country.
If I were selling missiles to FedGov I would want them to blow them up frequently and replace them from my stock. If I were an amoral politician receiving hefty campaign contributions from MissileCorp I would be eager to talk up reasons to blow things up in foreign lands. If I were an idealistic black operative I should be willing to sacrifice a few dozens for the “greater good.”
Do I believe that Bashir Assad would “gas his own people?” Yes. In Assad’s efforts to Preserve His Union, the body count is approaching Lincolnian Levels. He’s not apt to blanch at another few score corpses. Do I believe Assad did “gas his own people?” No. He has the most to lose from using poison gas in so public an arena.
Do I believe, as Mr Putin has suggested, that British Black Ops engineered the latest event at the behest of the US? No, but that doesn’t stop me from suspecting it. I don’t have access to sufficient evidence to conclude anything, but I believe least the occupation’s official line.
When a Secretary of State blithely opines that a half a million dead children is “worth it” in pursuit of foreign entanglements, when a President topples an oasis of secular stability in pursuit of phantom terrors, and when another Secretary of State cackles over a former client’s agonizing death, a hypothetical “Operation Northwoods Middle East” is not inconceivable.