Lacking Clear Syria Plan, US Threatens More Strikes

White House Refuses to Discuss Goals in Syria Intervention

Last night, the United States attacked Syria, launching 59 Tomahawk missiles against a Syrian air base in a move that marked a dramatic reverse in Trump Administration policy toward Syria. What that policy actually is, however, is totally unclear.

Reporters unsurprisingly had a lot of questions, and the White House, also unsurprisingly, had no answers, dodging all questions about the goals of the new US intervention in Syria, and what the overall strategy or even next steps either militarily or diplomatically is.

All the White House would say is that the US attacks were “very decisive,” even if they aren’t all that clear what decision they even made. Beyond that, administration officials were talking up the idea that the US might launch more attacks in the near future.

Some officials were trying to downplay last night’s attacks as a one-off deal. Yet with no clear story on what the point of those strikes was, except for being “decisive,” there’s really no way of knowing when the next impulse to launch an attack will strike the leadership.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.