IRAN/MILITARY/RUSSIA/SENATE/SYRIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Lawmakers emerged from a classified administration briefing on Tuesday [4-17-18] expressing concern about administration policy on Syria and the legal justification for last week’s military strikes against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. ‘I am very unnerved by what I’m hearing and seeing,’ said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican… The administration is ‘going down a dangerous path’ with regards to Syria, he said, without offering details. Graham told reporters that the administration has no military strategy to counter Iranian and Russian influence and seems willing ‘to give Syria to Assad, Russia, and Iran.’ Washington, along with London and Paris, launched airstrikes in the wee hours of Syria’s Saturday [4-14-18] morning in response for an April 7 attack on the rebel stronghold of Douma that killed about 75 people, including children, and left another 500 in need of treatment for symptoms consistent with chemical weapons exposure. The strike came just 10 days after President Donald Trump had said he wanted to get out of Syria, raising confusion about administration policy.”
– Nicole Gaouette, Ted Barrett and Richard Roth, “Senators leave classified briefing on Trump’s Syria policy ‘very unnerved’,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 18, 2018 1:13 pm