Originally Posted by Joe Obenberger

I wondered the same thing - and considered if cruise missiles were steered on a different course - and that held until I saw the launch videos, which show ballistic missiles. CNN is now reporting that both Iraq and Iran approved the overflights.

The material coming out of the US government during the past several days seems to lack credibility and defy logic. All of it looks like an emotional outburst against the Russians. It's a tough thing for this veteran of overseas service during the Cold War to say this, but it really has the palpable feel of propaganda. I get the strong sense that the US administration's agenda in Syria and what we are really tactically doing has not been even approximately given to the American public. We've gotten into bed with some nasty bedfellows, people who murder Christians for sport. Just as in the case of the Doctors Without Borders incident, I think we will get several versions of our government's propaganda as situations force its story to change, and we may really never know how and why our tax dollars have been spent in Syria. The most important point is that the Russian intelligence services - and probably all of the others - do know what we've been up to - it's only the US public paying for all the napalm that's been left in the dark. The administration's strategy seems to be nonstop discrediting of the Russians, fair or foul, so that when and if some embarrassing disclosures come out, the American public will be conditioned to disbelieve it. As more of the truth comes out, CNN and the others may not even run it.