French were 'hours' from military strikes on
Syria before phone call from Obama
Fighter jets were preparing for scheduled take off when President Hollande took 'stunning' call from US telling him to hold fire
Anne Penketh
29 September 2013
French President Francois Hollande called off military strikes against Syria on 31 August following a phone call from the US President only hours before fighter jets were set to take off, a French weekly magazine has revealed.
The report in the Nouvel Observateur shows how close the West came to launching a war on Syria over the Syrian regime’s presumed use of chemical weapons in a Damascus suburb, before Washington backed down. President Obama announced in a televised speech on 31 August, after informing a “stunned” Mr Hollande, that he would seek a Congressional vote, effectively lifting the military threat.
Rafale aircraft were readied that Saturday for take-off and official statements prepared in anticipation of the strikes, according to the Nouvel Observateur. “Everything made us think that D-Day had arrived,” a French official is quoted as saying. The magazine said that “this incredible misunderstanding lasted until the end of the afternoon,” at 6.15pm, when President Obama telephoned Mr Hollande, who was expecting to confirm the military orders just after the phone call. The strikes had been intended to start at 3am later that night, targeting missile batteries and command centres of the 4th Armoured Division in charge of chemical weapons. More...
And to think that there are still silly people on the Left that think Obama has a policy of "regime change" in Syria just because, like full employment, he has declared that to be his policy.
Like I've been saying:
The Courtship Continues: Obama's New Gift to Assad
How Obama Helped Assad Kill with Poison Gas in Syria
Win-Win for Assad as Obama Response to CW Mass Murder Put on Hold
Obama Denied Gas Masks to Assad's Victims
Obama's Dilemma and Assad's Opportunity
Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad
Obama Denied Gas Masks to Assad's Victims
Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad Exposed!
Obama "green lights" Assad's slaughter in Syria
Assad's Redline and Obama's Greenlight!
Chemical weapons use in Syria, Has Obama's red-line has been crossed?
AP weighs in on Obama's Green Light for Assad's slaughter in Syria
Syria: Obama's moves Assad's "red line" back as SOHR reports 42,000 dead!
SecState John Kerry and his "dear friend" Bashar al-Assad
How Obama's 'No MANPADS for you' policy in Syria is backfiring
More thoughts on Obama's 'No MANPADS for you!' policy
Obama: Did the CIA betray Assad's opposition in Syria?
Seek help for your brain injury immediately. Of course you totally ignore the shrieking pandering lying fools on TV blathering on about a "War" and an "Invasion" and "body bags" and MSNBC's infamous "Drums of War" theme behind Chris Matthew's spittle.
ReplyDeleteTrue that the nearly immediately banishing of the horrific images and video of the choking paralyzed foaming dying children did serve to aid Obama in calling off a strike, because:
The American public were having none of the imagined Invasion following the imagined Bombing campaign. (9:1 swamping of Congressional phone lines on average).
They were LIED to and it worked fabulously.
Your TARGET should be who now owns the MSM news channels.
Comcast bought MSNBC - NBC - now owns it outright.
2014 Olympics revenue threatened by a messy confrontation in Syria, with Assad backer Putin surely enraged by 45 Tomahawk missiles blasting the Russian supplied ammo dumps of Damascus and Latakia into orbit, leaving 200 foot deep holes in the ground, and the French fighters blasting the Air Defenses into rubble, infuriating the seller, Russia, possibly retaliating leading to a standoff, mere months before the Olympics - no way would Comcast allow that.