TRUMP: I’D HIT ASSAD AGAIN
DONALD Trump last night warned he would do it again after unleashing a surprise attack on the Syrian regime.
In the first direct American raid on Bashar al Assad’s forces, the US President authorised the firing of 59 cruise missiles at a military airfield.
Officials said it was retaliation for Assad’s use of chemical weapons and would ‘prevent and deter’ further atrocities.
The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said her country had taken ‘a very measured step’. She added: ‘We are prepared to do more but we hope that will not be necessary.’ In other political developments last night: Moscow said the US was now on the verge of a clash with Russian forces in Syria; The dramatic U-turn by Mr Trump, who had condemned military interventions in the Middle East, caused anger from his supporters; Nigel Farage said Trump voters would be
‘scratching their heads’ at his move;
The UK Government backed the ‘entirely appropriate’ missile blitz;
Labour was in chaos as Jeremy Corbyn issued a condemnation.
The American action drew a furious response from the Kremlin, which accused the US of violating international law.
The former Cold War superpowers clashed at the UN Security Council where a Russian envoy claimed US aggression had strengthened terrorism.
Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, said on Facebook that the airstrikes put the US ‘ on the verge’ of clashing with Russia’s military. He added: ‘This military action is a clear indication of the US President’s extreme dependency on the views of the Washington establishment, the one that the new President strongly criticised in his inauguration speech.
‘ Soon after his victory, I noted that everything would depend on how soon Trump’s election promises would be broken by the existing power machine. It took only two and a half months.’
Mrs Haley told the UN that the Russian government held ‘considerable responsibility’ for Assad’s use of chemical weapons. ‘ Every time Assad has crossed the line of human decency, Russia has stood beside him,’ she said.
He had terrorised his country and shocked the conscience of the world, Mrs Haley added. ‘ He murdered hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.’
On Tuesday Assad launched ‘yet another chemical attack, murdering men, women and children in the most gruesome way’, Mrs Haley said.
‘Assad did this because he thought he could get away with it. He thought he knew Russia would have his back.’
Mrs Haley said that changed with the American strike: ‘When the international community fails in its duty to act collectively there are times when states are compelled to take their own action.’
The attack marked a dramatic U-turn from the new US administration. In the final days of last year’s election campaign, Mr Trump warned a ‘shooting war in Syria’ could bring the US into a conflict with Russia that could ‘very well lead to World War III’.
But in an emotive broadcast in the early hours of yesterday morning, Mr Trump said he was responding to the Syrian regime’s attack – believed to have involved sarin nerve agents – on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun that left at least 72 people dead, including 20 children.
‘Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many,’ he said.
‘Beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.’
Downing Street was swift to back the action. At the UN, Britain came out in strong support of its ally ‘because war crimes have consequences and the greatest war criminal of all, Bashar al Assad, has now been put on notice,’ said UK ambassador Matthew Rycroft.
‘The US strike was a proportionate response to unspeakable acts that gave rise to overwhelming humanitarian distress,’ he added. ‘It was also a strong effort to save lives, by ensuring such acts never happen again.’
Moscow compared the US action with the invasion of Iraq by American and British forces in 2003.
Russia’s envoy to the UN called the attack a ‘flagrant violation of international law and an act of aggression’.
‘We strongly condemn the illegitimate action by the US,’ said deputy ambassador Vladimir Safronkov. ‘The consequences of this for regional and international stability could be extremely serious.’
Russia won support from some quarters other than Syria. Bolivian ambassador Sacha Sergio Llorenti accused the US of being the ‘prosecutor, judge and jury’ in Syria.
Meanwhile, US officials are investigating whether Russia colluded in Assad’s gas attack and in the subsequent bombing of a field hospital treating victims.
American media has reported that Russian aircraft might have been deployed to monitor the surviving victims of the initial attack.
‘A slow and brutal death’
WHATEVER else may be said about Donald Trump’s cruise missile strike against al-Shayrat airfield in Syria, it sends a potent signal that the civilised world will not tolerate the obscenity of chemical warfare.
Indeed, it shows that America, for the first time in many a year, has a president who is not afraid to deploy the immense firepower at his command in defence of the West’s fundamental values.
It was his much vaunted predecessor Barack Obama – whose soaring rhetoric was rarely matched by decisive action – who laid down a ‘red line’ against chemical weapons but did nothing about it when the line was crossed. This left him and his country looking weak and foolish.
Mr Trump’s message will not have been lost, either, on rogue states such as North Korea which wish the US ill: they provoke this president at their peril.
It should also be noted that hours before the attack, Hillary Clinton urged that America should ‘take out Assad’s airfields’. So Democrats who accuse Mr Trump of behaving like a trigger-happy lunatic would do well to reflect that their own candidate would have done the same.
Yes, the President is an untested novice, whose judgment remains deeply questionable, to say the least. But it is fair to assume that he listened to the advice of the many seasoned generals and other wise heads in his administration.
His action is all the more remarkable in that for months he has been talking up his relationship with Vladimir Putin, but when push came to shove he was prepared to defy Russia and act on principle.
As for Downing Street’s swiftness to support Mr Trump – along with France, Germany, Australia, Nato and others – we have difficulty in disagreeing with it. At a frightening time like this, it would be the height of folly for the West to present a disunited front to our common enemies.
And yet this paper cannot help feeling distinctly queasy about the President’s decision to toss another burning match into the tinderbox of the Middle East.
The fact is that every western intervention in the region for the past 15 years, from Iraq to Libya, has caused infinitely more suffering than it has spared. Add the mind- boggling network of alliances and warring factions in Syria – with no clear forces for good on either side – and the risk of making this hellish war bloodier still could hardly be more stark.
Indeed, throw in the presence of Russian troops, taking orders from a president just as unpredictable as Mr Trump, and it’s no exaggeration to call this a terrifying threat to world peace.
And the chilling truth is we simply don’t know who or what to believe about the Syrian war, with both sides spreading black propaganda and falsifying news.
Is Mr Trump 100 per cent sure that the Syrian air force was responsible for the atrocity that provoked this punishment raid? If it was to blame, this was an almost inexplicable act of strategic folly by president Bashar al-Assad.
Why on Earth would he use sarin, letting the world see harrowing photographs of poisoned children, just as Syria’s Russian allies were winning grudging plaudits for offering the first glimmer of hope that order might one day be restored?
As for America’s strike, isn’t there a risk Assad’s enemies will now launch a poison attack and try to pin the blame on him, in the hope of provoking more of the same?
If the best comes of Mr Trump’s action, the world will get the message that anyone who deploys a chemical weapon will suffer instant punishment from the mightiest military power on Earth.
As for the worst… all this paper will say is that it’s utter madness – at such a perilous moment – for Britain to be cutting back our defences while increasing spending on foreign aid.