The Middle East is tense. The American president Donald trump has threatened a missile attack as a punishment for alleged use of chlorine gas in Syria. He has also referred to Assad as an " animal". It's all very well to issue threats but Trump is forgetting the opposing power, Russia, is equally powerful. The country has a credible nuclear deterrent and if activated, can spell doom for western civilization. Yahoo news has reported that Trump's policy on Syria is incoherent and dangerous and could lead to grave consequences.
Dangerous game
Russia is not like Japan during world war II when the American president at that time, Truman, could order the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945 without any fear of a counter-attack as Japan had no Atomic bombs.
The game in the Middle East and Syria, in particular, is different. The Russians have their footprints all over Syria and they also have nuclear-tipped missiles and strategic bombers.that can strike the American mainland. To a person with a rational mind, it looks silly that Trump is threatening to punish Assad with cruise missiles.
The Russians have warned the Americans, not to bomb Syria. They have said that they will retaliate if Trump orders the launching of a cruise missile attack. Already they have started jamming us drones operating over Syria.
One wonders if Trump is aware of what a nuclear exchange means. Is he aware of the destructive power of H bombs? One recollects a naive statement he made about nuclear weapons during the election campaign.
He said," why don't we use them if we have them".
Cruise missile attack
A cruise missile attack on Syria can easily get out of hand. There is a possibility of Russians getting killed and that could invite retaliation by Russia. It could be the match that could light World War III. Russia is a big country and will probably survive.
But the small countries of Europe acting as cheerleaders like Italy, the UK and others could just cease to exist. France and Germany could become neutral and the brunt of Russian wrath could fall on UK and USA.
Trump must not go around making threats. The earlier missile attack achieved nothing and there is every chance that such an attack could again be unproductive.
It could, however, lead to something bigger. Trump got away with the last attack but he must remember every day is not Sunday. This time he may not be lucky as Russia has promised a fitting response.
Another view
Another thought that comes to mind is what happens if the attack was not engineered by Assad but by the rebels themselves, to discredit Assad and invite the USA to attack him? This is also possible. In this light, the saber rattling by Trump looks very shortsighted.
