USS Porter launches Tomahawk cruise missiles at Shayrat airbase in the Mediterranean Sea. Picture by MCS 3rd Class Ford Williams/Zuma Press/PA Images. All rights reserved. When I sent off my piece three weeks ago for Latterly’s Spring issue on the narrative war around Syria, Trump’s position on the conflict seemed like an embrace of that war’s weary status quo. Bashar Al-Assad was set to stay, a partner in the tacit alliance against ISIS and terrorism struck by the Obama administration.
But within forty-eight hours of the chemical weapons attack on the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017, Trump abruptly reversed U.S. policy, launching the first military strike against the Assad regime since the war’s start. He did so without seeking congressional approval for the use of force or entertaining diplomatic options, sidestepping procedural and legal constraints, in order to flex U.S. military muscle.
The air strike was welcomed by the activist and political quarters of the Syrian opposition. Understandably, the symbolism of such a clear rebuke offered the first dose of hope for Syrians who have lost their country to Assad. It also revived long-simmering debates, particularly within the Left, over U.S. intervention on the side of the Syrian opposition.
