The U.S. has been Warned

From a Reuters story, "U.S. warns it may act on Syria as onslaught against Ghouta grinds on," by
Michelle Nichols and Suleiman Al-Khalidi:

The Observatory, said on Monday the death toll in the civil war had passed half a million people.

It has confirmed the deaths of 511,000 people, it said, and has the names of more than 350,000 of them. About 85 percent were killed by government forces and their allies, it said. [Putting to one side the veracity of the 85% claim, how many would have died if the former colonial powers along with their allies in the GCC hadn't underwritten one of the largest covert wars in history?]

Eastern Ghouta has been besieged for years after many of its residents joined the initial protests against Assad’s rule in 2011 that triggered the slide into civil war. The United Nations says 400,000 people live in the enclave, already suffering shortages of food and medicine even before the massive assault began in mid-February.

Assad says the assault on eastern Ghouta is needed to end the rule of Islamist insurgents over the civilian population and to stop mortar fire on nearby Damascus. [Perfectly reasonable. Any head of state would take the same position.]

The United Nations has warned of dire shortages of food and medicine, where international deliveries have long been erratic and often obstructed before they could reach the enclave.

The expulsion of the rebels from eastern Ghouta would represent their biggest defeat since they lost their enclave in Aleppo in December 2016. They still control large areas in the northwest and southwest and a few scattered pockets elsewhere but have been driven from most major population centers.

From a CNBC story, "Russian military threatens action against the US in Syria," by Holly Ellyatt:

The Russian military has threatened action against the U.S. if it strikes Syria's capital city of Damascus, according to multiple news reports.

The threat, by Chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov, was widely reported by Russia media sites such as state news agency RIA and Tass. It said Gerasimov said Russia had "reliable information" about militants preparing to falsify a government chemical attack against civilians.

He continued by saying the U.S. would then use this attack to accuse Syrian government troops of using chemical weapons. He added that the U.S. would then plan to launch a missile strike on government districts in Damascus.

"In several districts of Eastern Ghouta, a crowd was assembled with women, children and old people, brought from other regions, who were to represent the victims of the chemical incident, " Gerasimov said, according to RIA.

Gerasimov said Russia would respond to a U.S. strike on Syria if the lives of Russian servicemen were threatened, targeting any missiles and launchers involved.

"In case there is a threat to the lives of our military, the Russian Armed Force will take retaliatory measures both over the missiles and carriers that will use them," he said. [About as clear a warning as you can get.]

The U.S. Department of Defense urged Russia to "stop creating distractions" and "enabling the Assad regime's brutality" in a statement sent to CNBC responding to the allegations. [When has the brutality of an allied regime ever distracted the United States?]

The chemical weapons canard has lost all bearing to reality. Official organs of the prestige press like Reuters, The New York Times and the Washington Post don't even try to make sense of why the Syrian government would use a weapon that would invite an attack from the U.S. given that as, the NYT reports in its Tuesday briefing,

The Syrian government and its allies managed to split the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, into three blocs, each surrounded and besieged.

The fracturing of one of the last major rebel-controlled areas could be a turning point in a relentless scorched-earth campaign that had been backed by Russian airstrikes.

Some residents are demanding that rebels leave, hoping that their departure would eliminate the main reason for the bombings.

Chemical weapons are the agreed casus belli. All that's needed is a fiction, a concoction of some sort, and the Tomahawks will fly. That's why Gerasimov's statement is so significant. He is stating categorically that U.S. carriers will be hit if there is another Khan Sheikhoun.

My guess is Trump is smart enough not to start a shooting war with Russia. Let the Tories try that one on for size.