U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Saturday said that “the time for talk ended last night” at a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council, and that “the United States is locked and loaded” if “the Syrian regime is foolish enough to test our will.”
The special meeting took place less than 12 hours after the United States, the U.K. and France conducted a missile strike on three targets in Syria to cripple its chemical weapons program in response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gassing and killing his own people, including women and children, a week ago.
Haley emphasized that “we are prepared to sustain this pressure” on Syria if they continue to use chemical weapons.
“When our President draws a red line, our President enforces a red line,” Haley said, drawing contrast between President Trump who acted when he said he would, and former President Obama’s infamous “red line” he drew, and said that Syria would face military action if they used chemical weapons.
After Obama drew his infamous “red line,” Assad killed nearly 1,500 civilians, including more than 400 children, with chemical weapons in August 2013. Obama didn’t act.
Obama drew ire as the world grew irate with Assad, as viral videos of hundreds of children withering and dying in pain from the weapons circled the world.
President Trump tweeted Saturday morning about the strike and the Pentagon held a rare Saturday morning press conference.
Russia and Syria have blasted the United States with everything from statements condemning the Coalition military strike to spreading propaganda by falsely claiming that Syrian air defenses shot down 71 of 103 missiles.
Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White called out Russia in a press conference Saturday morning and said that Russia’s disinformation campaign has increased and that there had been a 2,000-percent increase in online Russian trolls in the last 24 hours.
Director of the Joint Chiefs Lt. Gen. McKenzie said at the same Pentagon press conference that “no Syrian weapon had any effect on anything we did,” and that the U.S. “successfully hit every target.”
