AFTER Bashar al-Assad killed over 80 Syrian civilians in a nerve-gas attack on April 4th, Donald Trump blamed his predecessor. Had Barack Obama made good on his threat to punish the Syrian dictator after his earlier use of chemical weapons, Mr Trump argued, Mr Assad would not have dared to reoffend. It followed that Mr Trump would have to do differently. Sure enough, on April 6th America fired 59 cruise missiles at the airbase in central Syria from which it claimed Mr Assad’s atrocity was launched.
Mr Trump described the attack, which was reported to have damaged or destroyed over a dozen Syrian military aircraft, as a limited measure to deter Mr Assad against any future use of chemical weapons. “Tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched,” he said, speaking from his country club in Florida, where the president was hosting his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. “Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.”
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Source: United States http://ift.tt/2oPI8tf
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