The US missile strike a couple of days ago has complicated an already complicated situation.
The Syrian government is backed by both Iran and Russia while a number of rebel groups are backed by the United States. Some of these groups are fighting each other and a couple thousand US Marines are shooting up the remnants of ISIS. There is the real potential for the US to be pulled into another Middle Eastern war.
This is the last thing America needs. Afghanistan has been a live item since 2001, Iraq has been an ongoing problem since 2003 and Arab Spring has yielded a fractured Libya and a bloody civil war in Syria that is grinding into its seventh year and has featured the use of chemical weapons.
In 2013, then President Obama threatened to hit Syria with cruise missiles if Damascus used chemical weapons on its own people. Assad did and Obama did nothing. In 2017, the Syrians again employed such weaponry and President Trump hit 59 Syrian air force planes. A year later, the same story unfolded.
Fortunately, the Russians had some warning before the missiles came down so we could avoid World War Three. Supposedly the Syrian anti-aircraft defense system, modeled on the Soviet Interrogated Air Defense System (IADS), knocked down 70% of the incoming US missiles. I have the feeling that the Russians were at the controls.
It is hard to predict what will happen, but the US is broke, both financially and emotionally. Too many wars with no point. It appears that Washington is looking for a middle ground, hitting Syrian chemical weapons facilities from a distance with cruise missiles while warning the Russians.
It is about as well as you can do in the Middle East.
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