Donald campaigned against getting involved in foreign wars. Guess what? He lied. He won’t do it for (misguided) humanitarian reasons like Hillary, who he attacked in the campaign for being an interventionist hawk, but he will gladly do it to make himself look like a real leader and to get his Russian ties and subsequent coverups off the front pages.
This is a gift to the Putin and Assad regimes in Russia and Syria, and a distraction for the media and the public in the US. Win-win-win. It’s a trifecta of totalitarianism.
The Pentagon has said they told Russia in advance of the strike. Any minimal damage to Assad’s military will be quickly replaced with shiny new Russian hardware.
Syria and Russia will put on a good show to the media and things will go on exactly as they were before—but Putin and Assad will both be stronger at home because they can now point to the US as an out-of-control aggressor with a president who didn’t even get Congressional approval for a non-emergency act of war.
More importantly for Donald, this will distract the US media and the American people from the investigation into his corrupt, Russian-supported club of billionaires who are robbing America blind.
If I’m wrong about the blowback and it actually does drag the US into an escalating war, that will give Donald the opportunity to seize more power and take more authoritarian steps. What’s one better than a trifecta called, anyway?
Donald obviously doesn’t care about the Syrian people or he wouldn’t have blocked Syrian refugees from entering the US. In fact he has clearly and consistently demonstrated over many decades that he doesn’t care about anyone but himself, and he’s happy to walk away from his messes and leave others to pay the bill.
Oh, and keep an eye out for the kickback from Putin for this little gift.