On Friday, two U.S. warships launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base from where allegedly chemical weapons had been used on April 4 in Khan Sheikhoun that killed scores of people. Donald Trump, the first U.S. president with no previous political or military leadership, has restored assertive U.S. global leadership with the airstrikes.
No tears need be shed at the pain inflicted on Syrian President Bashar Assad nor at Russia's humiliation. Yet there is cause to worry at the continuing descent into lawlessness in both the use of chemical weapons and the unilateral strikes. Moreover, as Trump's action remains unpredictable rather than informed by a coherent strategic purpose, how and when this will end is also deeply concerning.
To America's numerous admirers and supporters, the strikes were swift, decisive, proportionate, precisely targeted and justified. They put all baddies on notice that a new sheriff is patrolling the global beat. To critics, they were impetuous, unilateral, yet another in a long line of acts of aggression, and will add to the growing list of threats to world peace. They validate U.S. President Barack Obama's complaint about the militarized first response in the Washington playbook and resurrect the discredited neocon agenda of imposing U.S. will on the rest of the world: anyone who refuses to pay the respect due to America can expect to pay for the lack of respect.
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