1hundredsixty8

The perfect solution to a bad first three months for the Trump Administration- military action. A week after seeming to assure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that the US did not intend to pursue regime change in the civil war-ravaged nation, the Administration changed course tonight and struck a Syrian air base with over fifty Tomahawk cruise missiles. The stated reason for the attack was to put the Assad government on notice that the US would not tolerate chemical weapon attacks on civilians such as the one Tuesday that reportedly killed 100 people, including twenty-five children.

Several points come to mind:

• The six-year old Syrian civil war has been characterized by extreme brutality, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Chemical weapons have been used by the regime before. Humanitarian relief convoys have been attacked, hospitals bombed. In view of this history, one has to wonder why this latest attack suddenly became the catalyst for a response from the US. Especially since Mr. Trump was outspoken in criticizing President Obama several years ago for even considering intervening in Syria.
• This would appear to be a one-off strike. While we have military assets in the region- aircraft carriers, missile cruisers and land-based aircraft in Turkey- a prolonged air campaign would be costly in light of the fact that Russia has deployed advanced air defense systems as part of their assistance to the Assad war effort. And, our armed forces are not mobilized for a major ground campaign, so it appears unlikely that we will do much more than we have tonight.
• Even now, just hours after the the Navy launched the attack, the parallels with the 1998 cruise missile attacks against al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons factory in the Sudan are striking. There was no follow-up to those attacks, ordered by President Bill Clinton in reprisal for terrorist attacks on US embassies in Africa, and, as a consequence, no long term damage to al Qaeda. The politics did not work in Clinton’s favor either, as he was accused by political opponents of ordering the attacks as a diversion from the Monica Lewinski sex scandal.

And perhaps this last point is the crucial one: Donald Trump has arguably had the worst start to a Presidency of any Chief Executive in our history. (We will make exception for  William Henry Harrison who died after only 31 days in office. Mr. Trump cannot use that excuse.) What better distraction from investigations of Russian influence, unreleased tax returns, ethical violations, the emoluments clause and the role of Steve Bannon than punching a villain in the nose? Time to get those American flag lapel pins out and wear them proudly. Remember to support our troops.

This kind of distraction works for all the other authoritarians, doesn’t it?