A Syrian government soldier flashes the sign for victory as people walk along a destroyed street in Douma on the outskirts of Damascus on April 16, 2018. (Photo: LOUAI BESHARA / AFP / Getty Images)
After a weeklong Twitter storm of threats from Donald Trump, the US government, in alliance with Britain and France, launched air strikes against Syria late on April 13.
This mainly symbolic display of military might will intensify geopolitical conflicts in the region and internationally, bringing the world closer to a wider war — and it sets the stage for Trump and his war cabinet to ramp up hostilities with Iran and North Korea in the weeks and months to come.
The US-led attack reportedly targeted three sites in Damascus and Homs where the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is accused of developing, manufacturing and storing chemical weapons.
This was in response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against rebel forces and the civilian population in the town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta. In an act of state terrorism, the regime killed over 70 and injured close to 1,000, mainly women and children. The poison gas attack succeeded in compelling the withdrawal of the Islamic fundamentalist militia Jaish al-Islam within days.
British Prime Minister Theresa May justified the attack as a “humanitarian intervention” designed to save Syrian lives. In reality, the US, Britain and France don’t care about Syrian civilians. They have stood by while Assad laid waste to the country and massacred Syrians with “conventional” weapons.
For a second time, Trump has launched a military strike on Syria over the regime’s use of chlorine or sarin gas. He wants to deter the regime from using such weapons again, as well as demonstrate US military power. Any pretense of humanitarian concern from May or Trump is rank hypocrisy, rivaled only by the propaganda churned out by Assad, Russia and Iran in defense of their ongoing war of terror on the Syrian people.
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The US, in particular, is in no…