It’s disconcerting to watch as the White House begins to engage in martial decisions. Donald Trump took his first international action last week and bombed a Syrian airstrip – a retaliatory move made in the wake of Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Homs, Syria. The airstrike targeted the landing strip and adjoining airbase that Assad’s chemical attack was launched from.
Response to the airstrike has been mixed. Some supported the attack, but many are condemning Donald Trump for it because he refused to take Syrian refugees but didn’t hesitate to drop bombs on an already terrorized people. Surprisingly, even Trump’s supporters are condemning him for getting the US involved with Syria, because during the campaign he repeatedly vowed he would leave the Middle East alone. Republicans in congress are split on the move. And Russia was very unhappy, as Putin has backed Assad and supplied the dictator with weapons and munitions throughout the country’s civil war. US-Russia relations have sunk to a new low in the days since the airstrike, escalating tension between Moscow and DC.
Despite the deep Russian ire, yesterday, the US dropped the largest non-nuclear weapon in its arsenal on Afghanistan. The bomb killed 36 ISIS militants reportedly hiding in tunnels throughout the region. This move has caused even more backlash against Trump, who is clearly flexing his presidential muscles. According to Afghan and US officials, no civilians were killed in this massive explosion. But that isn’t the reason for public outcry – the reason is, that within a week of attacking Syria, Trump has attacked Afghanistan. That is grounds to start military campaigns in two separate countries at once.
At the same time, US and South Korean Naval ships are positioning themselves outside of North Korea. The “Hermit Kingdom” has been excessively aggressive lately, and because of the annual war exercises that US and South Korean forces always practice in the Sea of Japan, tensions are rising on this front too. If action is taken against North Korea that will be three separate countries that Donald Trump has engaged in military conflict within the first 100 days in office. It almost seems like the man is trying to start a global military conflict – but that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. We all saw this coming – we all knew Trump couldn’t handle the power of the Presidency, we all knew he was going to act irrationally and lash out with the US military, we all knew that something very bad was going to come from the Trump presidency. It just so happens that something might just be World War III.