Is Trump being duped — again — over Syria?

about provocations involving chemical warfare agents,” Yevtushenko said. “The provocations aim to put the blame for the use of chemical weapons in eastern Ghouta on the government forces. That is why the action is being prepared close to the contact line with the Syrian army. The civilian victims will be used by the West as a pretext for accusing the Syrian leadership of the use of chemical weapons against its people.”

The mysterious Syrian Civil Defense “White Helmets,” who seem to be the only filmmakers in the world capable of shooting full-length documentaries inside zones controlled by terrorists, provided the images that provoked an angry response from the White House.

And just like that, Trump was pulled back into the Syrian conflict.

“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria,” Trump tweeted. “Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price...”

Mr. President, Russia warned that this would happen in an attempt to provoke you. What you should be doing instead of spouting off knee-jerk reactions on social media is gathering intelligence on the “incident” and on the credibility of the sources that reported it.

When a sarin gas attack was attributed to Assad in April 2017, you blew your stack over some images, Mr. President, and launched a few dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles (estimated price tag: $1.87 million each) at a mostly empty airbase. Neocon warmongers cheered for about 15 seconds before resuming their opposition to you. After the dust had settled, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis admitted that America had no evidence sarin gas had been used.

“We have other reports from the battlefield from people who claim it’s been used,” Mattis said. “We do not have evidence of it.”

How about calmly collecting the evidence first, without bias as to where it might lead?