Helping refugees fleeing Syria would be a Trump move

Donald Trump’s declaration that action would be taken over the latest deadly chemical attacks in Syria has to be commended.

The US leader was unequivocal in his condemnation of despot Bashar al-assad’s actions calling them “atrocious” and “barbaric”.

But after having promised Syria will pay a “big price”, the president is in danger of leaving America open to fresh criticism if he does not follow through. We can but hope he has learnt from the latest heinous act of “animal Assad”.

Throughout this year the president has failed to respond to seven smaller chemical attacks before only last week announcing he intended to pull out US forces and “let the other people take care of ” the problem.

It should not have come as a shock that Assad’s regime responded by dumping toxic chemicals on Douma.

The town, a suburb of Damascus, saw more than 500, mostly women and children, affected with at least 70 dying a torturous death.

Trump, who criticised predecessor Barack Obama for allowing red lines in Syria to be crossed, ought now to recognise the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies are as happy to take advantage of any fecklessness as they did in the past.

Last year’s air strikes by Trump following a similar attack by Assad proved the despot, and his enablers, have not been deterred.

Vladimir Putin and the ayatollahs came to believe they could do what they wanted in Syria backed up recently by Trump’s plans to call for an early withdrawal of 2,000 troops.

The US president further reinforced a sense of impunity every time he exempted Putin from criticism for Russia’s disgraceful actions.

So this week was a major step forward when Trump finally drew a line, saying in a tweet: “President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad.”

The question is what comes next as a few cruise missiles won’t change anything in the war-torn country.

As welcome as military action against the despot and his regime will be, there’s no guarantee it will alleviate a single Syrian’s suffering.

An easier non-military step would pay larger dividends in that respect but it is one Trump is loath to take.

Since 2012, as a savage civil war has left more than 500,000 Syrians dead, two US presidents have toyed with using the military to punish the Assad regime for chemical attacks.

Both came to nothing only strengthening Assad’s resolve, however, with Trump’s now professed concern for the victims of chemical brutality hopefully it may bring about a swift change in US policy.

The cruel refusal to accept more than a trickle of refugees fleeing the civil war is at odds with the president’s supposed compassion.

More than five million Syrians are registered as refugees but in the face of this exodus, Trump has capped his resettlement quota at 45,000, the lowest in history.

What’s more, America has resettled fewer than 11,000 asylum seekers, just 44 of those are from Syria.

In an attempt to justify the low numbers let in, Trump continues to vilify refugees as immediate security threats. It is beyond ridiculous.

By all means send a message to Assad with air strikes and missiles but, more importantly, as the world grows ever more numb to the slaughter of civilians in Syria, open the doors to those in need.

This week was a major step forward when Trump drew a line