(Photo: CGTN)
US Vice President Mike Pence proclaimed in Lima on Saturday that the US is "ready to take additional action in a sustained way" on Syria, a day after the country was pounded by Washington in alliance with London and Paris with "precision airstrikes." The almost 12-hour strike left several civilians injured and, also, the tattered nation reeling from incessant miseries.
Pence's announcement entirely overturned some analysts' predictions that the airstrikes would be a one-time thing, leading many to worry that the ancient civilization that has already been exposed to seven years of brutality is still a long way from peace.
Donald Trump hailed the "Mission Accomplished!" on Twitter after joint Western forces launched over 100 missiles over Syria. "We believe that it has significantly eroded and crippled the ability of the regime to produce chemicals," said Pence. According to him, the strikes will not cease until Damascus "understands that there will be a price to pay if they ever use chemical weapons again."
US Vice President Mike Pence listens during a plenary session at the CEO Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, on Saturday, April 14, 2018.(Photo: VCG)
In the name of exercising "righteous power" against suspected chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government, the Trump administration has sent tensions in the Middle East spiraling.
In a way, the US provocation of continued strikes is partly due to Trump pandering to his members of Congress, the majority of whom are tough neo-conservatives, for the upcoming mid-term elections. These hawkish senators and representatives have been anxious over Russia's influence in Syria. Trump is eager to garner leverage in Middle East geopolitics through the US-Russia seesaw war; plus, he has Israel as an intimate ally to help him.
By empowering the opposition and the Kurds in Syria, Trump can create an illusion that the US has not relented in the effort to project its power in the Middle East.
James Comey, the former FBI director who was fired by Trump over the probe into his alleged collusion with Russia during the campaign, likens the president to a mafia boss in his new book entitled A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership. The book could have sent Trump rushing to the Syrian battlefield in order to distract people from the media circus that the publication is bound to attract.
A more controversial theory is that Western forces have waged wars every few years because they deem it necessary to test their new armament and munitions in real battlefields rather than just during military drills.
A dazzling array of state-of-the-art cruisers, bombers, destroyers and submarines were all employed this time. It’s reported that the American air-launched JASSM missiles and the French MdCN cruise missile made their debut in the airstrikes. The three sides fully tested their advanced weapons.
Smoke rises from a scientific research facility in Barzeh, a suburb of Damascus, on April 14, 2018, following US-led strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.(Photo: VCG)
Regardless, launching one strike requires a massive rally of armed forces and is costly, so it's near impossible that the US, the UK and France will stop here. They may launch scattershot strikes on Syria anytime in the coming months, or even years, but it’s hard to predict exactly when.
Russia has remained restrained so far and together with Damascus, has announced that Syria's air defense had intercepted 71 missiles, which was denied by the US and its two allies. However, it is unlikely that Russia and the US will have a direct confrontation. After all, Russia's ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia condemned the US for jeopardizing international peace. "The immediate priority is to avert the danger of war," he said.
Therefore, the Vladimir Putin administration is unlikely to make a reckless decision, at least for now.
Nonetheless, given Putin's "tough man" front, he may choose to directly involve Russia in the escalated tensions with the US some day.