Trump: Yoo-hoo, Syria, we’re going to bomb you
PRESIDENT TRUMP — despite his stated opposition to telegraphing his military intentions — put Syria on notice on Wednesday, promising that missiles “will be coming.”
Trump’s Twitter warning of an imminent air strike in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack contradicted statements made by U.S. military leaders, and rankled Russia.
Defense Secretary James Mattis (photo right) said Wednesday that the U.S. is “still assessing the intelligence” on whether Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime is to blame for the chemical attack.
“We stand ready to provide military options if they’re appropriate, as the President determined,” he said.
Trump referred to Assad as a “Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!”
Mattis ignored a question about whether he was concerned by Trump showing the military’s hand to the enemy by tweeting.
The social media warning from Trump was notable as he has criticized his predecessors in the past for stating their intentions publicly before taking military action.
“Why do we keep broadcasting when we are going to attack Syria. Why can’t we just be quiet and, if we attack at all, catch them by surprise?” he tweeted in 2013.
“I would not go into Syria, but if I did it would be by surprise and not blurted all over the media like fools,” he wrote in another. Trump repeatedly blistered former President Barack Obama during the 2016 campaign for warning of attacks. “We must as a nation be more unpredictable,” Trump said in one campaign speech. “We are totally predictable. We tell everything.” Syria’s Foreign Ministry said it was not surprised by the “reckless escalation” via Trump’s tweets, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in televised remarks that “we don’t participate in Twitter diplomacy,” adding that “it’s important not to make any steps that could further destabilize the already fragile situation.”
Trump — who only a week ago said he wanted to pull the remaining U.S. troops fighting ISIS out of Syria —did not provide any details about what a strike would look like.
“The President has not laid out a timetable and is still leaving a number of other options on the table,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Trump’s national security team, led by Vice President Pence, met Wednesday afternoon, Sanders said.
She repeated that the U.S. is in communication with allies about the response and “all options are on the table.”
Last year, Trump ordered a missile strike on a Syrian airbase following a similar chemical atrocity believed to have been committed by the Assad regime.
Syria has been embroiled in a devastating civil war since 2011 that has left more than half a million people dead and displaced more than 5.5 million refugees.