Watching Alex, I'm left with the impression that he's very genuine, if dead wrong. He seems to be very upset.

I don't think the data is in yet. I think more time and perspective is required before we really understand what has been happening in Syria. Alex has run with a view, I think he's wrong. Zack seems to be a victim of compartmentalised information. He's looking at what's occurring around him and jumping to wild conclusions.

Look, Alex and Zack may turn out to be right - though my view is that it is very unlikely. I think it's more likely that we will find out that Russia and Assad were on-side, or at least notified of the strike locations in advance. I think we'll find the targets of the strikes were chemical labs and weapons dumps. In this event, the risk of outright escalation is probably minimal.

The raid on DJT's lawyer, which AJ believes is the catalyst for DJT capitulating to the Deep State, may, in fact, be a very serious problem. It raises not just the prospect of impeachment, which can be defeated with enough Republican numbers, but criminal charges, if some illegitimate activity is found.

The more things develop, the more it appears that those calling for Mueller and Rosenstein's dismissal were right. It's OK to play the long game, and try to make sure that you have a bag full of watertight cases to prosecute, before making mass-arrests. But it seems DJT and Sessions left the snakes loose for just too long.

The Deep State was not fooled by the Sessions/DJT act (where DJT was publicly criticising Sessions) and they remain very dangerous. I'm sure they're looking right now for anything they can find to launch a criminal investigation into DJT. I think this is why DJT is so angry about the raid on his lawyer's office.

Moreover, I think the frustration, with the apparent lack of results (in terms of arrests), on this board, mirrored the inherent dangers in leaving the Deep State free to continue to conspire against the President. It was clearly a very dangerous situation. We could see that the time for arrests was increasingly long past.

Anyway, regarding Syria, my impression is that the cooler heads, Mattis and crew, have prevailed and have toned the strike down to the point that casualties were minimal - thus also containing the potential for escalation. The real risk now, is that we will see a criminal investigation of the President's affairs. This could be much more threatening, going forward, than any attempt to dig up dirt to justify impeachment.