Putin and May. Image, Kremlin.ru
Moscow’s warning that any Trump-led coalition which launches air strikes on Syria could escalate to all-out war, should bring the playbook drawn up by Sir John Chilcot into service. After seven years examining the run-in and fall-out from the 2003 Iraq invasion, one of Chilcot’s Inquiry conclusions specified that the peaceful alternatives to war had not been exhausted before Tony Blair’s decision to unconditionally side with George W Bush against Saddam Hussein.
Without knowing the full strategic details of what the United States is planning – as most of Congress, the State Department and even the US Defence Secretary don’t know either and can’t predict what Donald Trump will do next – the UK cabinet has unanimously agreed “on the need to take action” against the Assad regime. They also agreed that the use of chemical weapons could not go “unchallenged”.
