Or pictures of the damage from 59 missiles - did 59 missiles even hit the air base?

Like the way they show the pictures - move the bar from before to after!

I still do not see how this is $100,000,000 worth of damage!

Think of it as the price tag to make Herr Trump "look presidential."

Each of those costs tens of millions of dollars. Munitions, radar, hangers, etc. have similarly non-zero price tags.

It's a near certainty that the strike cost them far more than the cost of the missiles.

Reportedly they had several delivered a year or two ago.

Gee thats....funny....huh?

Its like Assad knew it was coming. Weird huh? He must be psychic.

many of them probably bounced the rubble.

(Possibly making it easier to remove!)

We don't have any proof that there were aircraft in any of those bunkers! For all we know the Syrians could have parked fuel trucks in them, that would result in the same explosion pattern we see in the photos!

If this is Trump's idea of a military operation, it was a total failure.
No real damage was done. The base was operational the next day,
and Assam rubbed Trump's nose in it by attacking the same village
from that airfield. The only real damage was to the msm, who are
fawning over Trump's new manliness.

Sure they can land and take off there, but are the radars, tank farms, munitions and control towers destroyed?
And I think the raid was meant as a warning to Syria and as such I imagine it was effective.
I think doing nothing after a country gasses their own people would be a mistake.

rescinding the Muslim ban and allow those people into our country
after the US completely destabilized the Middle East.
Humanitarian aid instead of bombs would have been so much better.
And cheaper.

The Middle East has been destabilized for decades. Technically sense WW1. I'm not opposed to letting refugees in but I'm also all for a veting process.

I had a terp in Iraq who was an older gentleman. According to him the worst time to live in the Middle East was the 1980s.

Of course he said before 2001 you could leave your door unlocked at night because if anyone broke in that crime was punishable by public death. As almost any crime to include premarital sex was punishable by death. Sooo I guess you take the good with the bad?

I never said there wasn't one...

So a dictator uses poison gas on his own people again, after being warned the 1st time and you think the proper response is humanitarian aid?
How exactly does that deter him from doing it again?

The bombing was set up with Russian (and probably Syrian) assistance.
Please understand, this was not a big bad flexing of American military might.
It's theater, and damned expensive theater at that.
If this kind of dumb act turns you on, well, go for it.
In my opinion, it was not a smart move, accomplished nothing, not even as a "warning"
since the Russians and Syrians were warned in advance.
The air base is fully operational. No chemical weapons stockpiles were touched.

Taking the Syrians and Russians word on that? lol
The post strike pictures posted in this thread in post #7 say otherwise.
Just because some planes landed there and took off does not mean that the base is undamaged.

Capt Davis said they targeted "aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defence systems, and radars", describing them as "things that made the airfield operate".
"We are assessing the results of the strike," he added. "Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat airfield, reducing the Syrian government's ability to deliver chemical weapons."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39531045

.....easy propaganda move for Syria.
Unlikely the base is very usable after 50+ 1,000lbs warheads went off. From the post strike pictures in post #7 looks like they hit most everything.

.....so a destroyed air base with intact runways you can land and take off too, makes for great propaganda.
Did they re-arm or refuel or get maintenance there is what makes it a operational airfield.

refugees into this country.

every time it's explained cruise missiles are not going to seriously damage a runway the next person says 'but they didn't take out the runways'.

An Airfield was a poor choice IMO. It is a very dispersed installation with many of the prime targets hardened against such an attack. Striking a command and control center would have had a greater impact.

The airfield was a reasonable choice as a show target that didn't risk Russian casualties. If we'd hit a command and control center, it's much more likely that the Russians would have made a more active attempt to stop the attack with air defenses, and I suspect that the command and control centers have tech in them that the Russians would rather not lose. They don't really care about aging MiG's.

Or done a better job at destroying all the aircraft.

Although it's all irrelevant. It was a political fireworks display. Ooohhh. Aaahhhhh. Pick up your blankets and head home. Meaningless.

....putting US pilots and 100 million dollars jets at risk.
Plus you'd need Wild Weasels doing SAM suppression and jamming and fighters for air defense and para-rescue on standby for pilot rescue + gunships or spookies for ground fire suppression if a pilot does go down.
The strike package gets a lot bigger and riskier that way. I read they destroyed 20 or so Syrian Air Force jets, considering how many they have left that's a big hit.

Last edited Sun Apr 9, 2017, 07:12 AM - Edit history (1)

I understand why they warned the Russians, better that then accidentally starting WWIII.

they actually believed all the Russians had doctors appointments that day.

I certainly don't have all the facts, but if the Russians were warned to get their stuff and clear out I can't imagine they said nothing to the Syrians. Also, since this mission seems to have cost somewhere over 100 million dollars, I wonder what it will cost to repair the damage. I have no idea but I'd like to know. 100+ million is a lot of money. Well over a ton of hundred dollar bills. Aside from the whole sending a message thing, I'm wondering if it was worth it. I don't know.

... move operational equipment.

No, this was a sham

only old decrepit planes...either way...pointless since didn't get the gas and they were back in the air within 24 hours. We told the Russians who told Assad...that is like telling Hitler...hey we are going to bomb Rome during WWII. I guess Trump need permission from Putin but not congress of course.

The JASSM cruise missile has a 1000 lb penetrating warhead. The only thing a penetrator needs is speed and a cruise missile is just as capable as a bomber in generating that.

That said, "taking out" a runway is difficult. There are special weapons for that and even then, a runway is "easy" to "fix" enough to get it back in operation. They will be high maintenance, but they can be used.

i got a number of streets that are ripe for cruise missile attacks it that would mean the gop would get off their collective fat ass and order some work to be done

I had a terrible thought...I bet little Donnie got a boner from blowing up stuff. He's such a shitbag.

However the Tomahawk can make a nice mess of a runway with a scattering of 166 bomblets.

《just kidding 》

brilliant!

....many here do not seem to however.

that the Syrian AAF struck the chemical attack neighborhood again a day later, presumably with conventional weapons.

But since the children and women were killed by conventional bombs that time, no one cares...

Unless we're going in there to put his head on a pike its all pretty pointless