Syria - what is to be done?

I think the action that Trump took was well balanced, not designed to deal out mass death, but destruction of property which Assad needed ( airfield and all that went with it.)A blow to say 'we will not have this!' And it isn't simply Trump, it's his military top people and advisors working with him.
The time to do nothing, and allow Assad and others to continue with deadly chemical weapons on the Syrian people has now gone.It was a well timed well aimed warning.

RAR, I remember growing up and war in the middle east was a single paragraph in the Sunday paper. That's all we ever heard. Yet the murder of civilians still happened. We just couldn't see it.
Today, the news streaming is 24/7 and it's designed to hurt us.
I think we have to turn it off.

I think that the truth is that most thinking people will be devastated when watching those children. However, if you are leader of the Western World you simply cannot under any circumstances allow your heart rule your head.

You must be fulling informed, of the results of any of your action, and what may/will happen. No military action should be taken without an end plan. I am certain that Trump does not have one. Indeed I am certain that given the hideously complication that is the Middle East no one has an end plan.

That said I am not arguing for no action, just a plan that gives the peaceful end everyone wants with the least deaths along the way. Probably extreme diplomacy and excellent leadership -Hmm well that's in very short supply for a start.

I think, fortunately for all us, this early random intervention reveals the loose cannon in Trump. I hope it shows that he will have to be taken very seriously as the same kind of wild card that currently presides over North Korea. If he's seen this way, as equally volatile and unpredictable as any other on the edge leader, maybe, just maybe things may stay tense but go no further.
On the other hand.....................

Seeing screaming children and babies rolling about in agony while being frantically hosed with water can change all sorts of perceptions.

nina

I thought Trump said when he took office that the US wasn't going to be involved in any further war and I thought we agreed.

I don't know what will happen now and I don't suppose anyone else does. Chemical weapons have been used in many wars even though they have been outlawed-in Vietnam by the Americans, in the Iran -Iraq war by Saddam Hussein and now in Syria by Assad. The missiles may have taken them out but equally they may not. There will however be a back lash from those who resent any US involvement in the Middle East. Radical Muslim factions will attract new recruits and the danger to the wider world will increase.
Of course that may be what Trump wants, justification of his banning people from entering the US

The Middle East has always been in conflict. Even during Roman occupation they fought each other tribally. They have never known peace.
Each time the West has intervened in any of the countries in conflict, they have unleashed anarchy and the reason Putin wnats to keep Assad in power is because it's clear what happens when you forcibly remove a dictator.

Having said this I think Trump has shown muscle in expressing what the rest of the world means when it says NO to chemical warfare being used. He's pointed us all in a new direction. Now we'll have to wait and see.

However Luckygirl Obama, having said it was a red line ( chemical weapons) then did nothing when they were used.They have been used again, and would have been used again, maybe next week or next month.By knocking out this airfield ( newly refurbished by the Russians) there will be no use of it to deliver ever more chemical weapons or anything else, for some considerable time.Since these awful nerve gasses are outlawed internationally, it was time that somebody stepped in, and should have stepped in a few years ago.
I don't think ( listening to radio) that it means a huge escalation of anything, and Putin is bound to huff and puff and show outrage as is Assad, but it will mean an end to the ghastliness of chemical weapons for a while, hopefully for good.

Trump seems to have acted from pure emotion - I am not sure that this is a good path for him to be following. He needs to act with temperance and consideration and in consultation with the elected representatives. He has just taken a major action that could have far-reaching consequences for us all apparently in the basis of his personal feelings, which it seems can change very speedily. Russia will not take this lying down.

The situation in Syria is complex and impossible for people to understand. Of course we are all appalled by the suffering of the people there; but we gain nothing for them or anyone else if this situation escalates.

I'm like you, whitewave. Grade f in O level chemistry.
However, it's my granddaughter's favourite subject, along with anthropology, so there's hope for a scientist in the family yet.

Didn't mean to lecture WW

It's a gamble though ninny - my own gut reaction is that someone needs to stand up to Russia, as Putin has been testing and pushing the boundaries (in Ukraine, Syria and our air space for example). Hope it's just sabre rattling, but who knows how these egotistical men might react?

And what about that fat idiot in North Korea?

Oh thanks anya for that bit of enlightenment, in my none chemically /forgotten all I'd ever been taught ignorance

WW when some chemicals are blown up/ignited they can interact with the component chemicals in the bomb and/or the oxygen in the surrounding air and form new, less dangerous compounds. That's basic chemistry.

But if the shelling fractured the casings and simply realised the raw chemicals into the surroundings that could be a different matter, depending on how close you were to them before they were dispersed into the air (and therefore diluted and rendered harmless)

Well done America and Donald Trump for stepping up to the mark and taking action against Assad, about time

I think the real worry is what will happen now. I would be utterly amazed if has any sort of plan in place whatsoever. Just like Iraq. What a blighted area the Middle East is.

Wishful thinking there, whitewave.
I was listening to his speech on the radio, and wondering how Americans can take him seriously. He talks to them as if they are all toddlers.

Wonder if Trump will change his intention towards Syrian refugees now?

Saddam forgot to tell the hostages that, whitewave. They would have been dead anyway if the barrels had been hit.

Report I've read said that the warehouse suspected of harbouring the chemicals was deliberately avoided. I don't have much confidence in the US's ability to target do accurately but oh! the irony if the military personnel who dropped the chemicals had been poisoned by their own chemicals in a misfire

dj yesterday there was a British military bod on the radio, saying that the chemicals don't work if they are blown up. I haven't a clue if that is correct. I must admit it doesn't sound right.

In the first Iraq war, someone I knew was one of Saddam Hussein's human shields.
The hostages were tied to barrels of oil and weapons, so that if they were hit, the hostages would be the first to die.
Not sure about the ethics of firing rockets at a place where you think there are definitely chemical weapons.

I'm holding my breath to see what the reaction is from Russia and Iran. If it's just angry words then fine...