Decision to strikemade over 3 days
Images of chemical attack’s victims shook up president
PALM BEACH, FLA. It didn’t take long for President Trump to reach for the military option, mostly for one reason: gruesome photos of victims of a chemical weapons attack in Syria.
Though he had criticized U. S. military action in Libya and Iraq during his presidential campaign, Trump decided to strike Syria less than 72 hours after receiving horrifying reports of women, young children and babies choked to death by deadly sarin gas. Before Tuesday, Trump had argued that Syria could be an ally in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group, which occupies part of eastern Syria.
Facing the first major foreign policy test of his presidency, Trump said he ordered a limited and targeted missile strike on a Syrian airfield from which the chemical attacks were launched. Trump said years of attempts to change the behavior of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad “have all failed and failed very dramatically.”
U. S. intelligence agencies quickly identified the source of the chemical attack and the agent used. “That confidence level has just continued to grow in the hours and days since the attack,” national security adviserH. R. McMaster said. TUESDAY At the president’s daily intelligence briefing at 10: 30 a. m., White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, national security aides described the chemical attack in Syria. Trump asked for more information, and briefers outlined military options at a meeting of the National Security Council’s deputies committee at 8 p. m. WEDNESDAY The principals committee of the National Security Council met at 3 p. m. and discussed options.
Trump discussed Syria during an Oval Office meeting Wednesday with King Abdullah of Jordan, which has borne the brunt of its exodus of refugees. Trump said at a news conference that day that the chemical attack was “unacceptable to me,” and he stressed the deaths of “innocent people, including women, small children and even beautiful little babies.”
The president spoke by phone Wednesday with at least two key allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. THURSDAY At 1: 30 p. m., Trump convened a national security team meeting aboard Air Force One, en route to his Mar- a- Lago estate in Palm Beach for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Officials on the ground weighed in by teleconference.
After landing in Florida, Trump held a meeting at 4 p. m. with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and McMaster, and he gave the goahead for the operation in Syria.
The missiles launched at 7: 40 p. m., Spicer said, and “hit their target” between 8: 30 and 8: 40 p. m. ET.
The order was set in motion while Trump sat down for dinner with the Chinese president. Administration officials began to notify Congress and foreign leaders.
The national security team provided a “battle impact assessment” at 9: 15 p. m., Spicer said, a little less than half- an- hour before Trump addressed the nation from Mar- a- Lago.
Trump and aides kept allies in the loop.