At best, the U.S.-led attack may deter Assad from using chemical weapons against refugees and rebels who, defeated elsewhere, have been driven north to Idlib province.
At worst, it shows Assad and his patrons that the Trump administration has no stomach for regime change or a confrontation with Iran, or much less Russia, and has no strategy that might actually bring the war to an end.
It is altogether possible that, having flexed American military muscle, Trump will return to the position he took earlier this month, that it’s time for U.S. troops to get out of Syria. It’s a battlefield that’s just too complicated, too dangerous. And as long as Assad doesn’t use chemicals to kill dozens, he can go on killing his people on the battlefield, in their homes, and in his prisons by the tens of thousands.
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