On Friday, April 13th, 2018, President Donald Trump authorized the use of missile strikes alongside our allies Great Britain and France against Syria following a series of chemical weapons attacks on the Syrian people.  Trump announced that the goal of this precision strike was to deter the future use of chemical weapons which proved to be so chaotic during the first world war and continue to be chaotic to this day.

While this proved to be a reversal of Trump’s policy to withdraw forces from Syria, it does send a powerful message to Syria and her allies Russia and Iran.  Russia, in particular, has consistently backed Syria militarily which makes the Middle East even more volatile than it already is.  In addition, Syria’s formidable ally Russia makes a precision strike like this much riskier in terms of diplomacy and future hostilities.  As of now, what these strikes will bring is unknown, but Donald Trump is meeting with people such as the French President in order to devise a stronger approach to the turmoil in the Middle East.