Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Domestic Politics Drive Donald Trump’s Military Action in Syria
The former chief of staff to Colin Powell believes the Syrian government may not be responsible for last week's chemical attack and that the president's response violated international law .
Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. (The Real News Network)
Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to then-national security adviser Colin Powell, does not believe the official U.S. government narrative on Syria. During an interview on The Real News Network (TRNN) with TRNN CEO and senior editor Paul Jay on Friday, Wilkerson said that the Syrian government may not be responsible for last week’s chemical attack and thinks that Donald Trump’s response was a violation of international law.
READ: The Pandora’s Box of War
READ: Donald Trump’s ‘Wag the Dog’ Moment in Syria
“We made it a Tonkin Gulf. We made it an Iraq WMD [weapons of mass destruction],” Wilkerson said. “So that we could make our strike.”
Another retired colonel, W. Patrick Lang, who served in the Defense Intelligence Agency, agrees with Wilkerson’s assessment. In a column titled “Donald Trump Is an International Law Breaker” on Lang’s site, Sic Semper Tyrannis (a Latin phrase meaning “Thus Always to Tyrants”), he wrote:
This is Gulf of Tonkin 2. How ironic. Donald Trump correctly castigated George W. Bush for launching an unprovoked, unjustified attack on Iraq in 2003. Now we have President Donald Trump doing the same damn thing. Worse in fact. Because the intelligence community had information showing that there was no chemical weapon launched by the Syrian Air Force.
Here’s the good news. The Russians and Syrians were informed, or at least were aware, that the attack was coming. They were able to remove a large number of their assets. The base the United States hit was something of a backwater. Donald Trump gets to pretend that he is a tough guy. He is not. He is a fool.
This attack was violation of international law. Donald Trump authorized an unjustified attack on a sovereign country. What is even more disturbing is that people like Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and NSA Director General McMaster went along with this charade. Front line troops know the truth. These facts will eventually come out. Donald Trump will most likely not finish his term as President. He will be impeached, I believe, once Congress is presented with irrefutable proof that he ignored and rejected intelligence that did not support the myth that Syria attacked with chemical weapons.
Watch the full interview with Wilkerson below.
For more from Wilkerson, click here.
—Posted by Eric Ortiz
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