Trump’s Forceful Syrian Gambit

The Syrian government launched a chemical weapons attack against the town of Khan Sheikhoun earlier this month, killing more than 80 people, many of them children, and leaving hundreds more injured and in distress. Most people expected the United States to sit idly by, but that expectation was upended with President Donald Trump’s decision to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles into Syria. The attack caused some Syrian casualties, took out Syrian installations and aircraft, and provoked a stern response—and a disinformation campaign—by Russia and Syria. Little more than a week later, the United States dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb, the Massive Ordinance Air Blast weapon—or MOAB, also known as the “Mother of all Bombs”—in Afghanistan, reportedly killing at least 94 ISIS fighters hidden in caves and tunnels.