PD Editorial: No mystery to Syria missile strike. But what now?

Despite the protestations of antiwar progressives to the left and isolationists to the far right, Donald Trump’s first action as commander in chief - the launching of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base Friday - was defensible and proportional.

Its purpose was also clear. This was less an act of war against Syria as it was a strike against the use of chemical weapons by a Bashar al-Assad government that knows no limits to the brutality it is willing to show its own people.

The missile launch from two destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean came two days after a chemical attack in a rebel-held area in northern Syria that left more than 80 civilians, including many children, dead. Witnesses said dozens of people were left choking and gasping are a result of breathing in the poison gas in one of the worst chemical bombings in Syria in its six-year war.

As United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council, “It was time to say ‘enough,’ but not only say it – it was time to act.” She added, “Bashar al-Assad must never use chemical weapons again. Ever.”

As Yale law professor Stephen Carter points out on today’s opinion page, it also was an action that, by practice and historic precedent, did not require congressional approval.

But it is an action that requires explanation - particularly in the context of this president’s promises to hold fast to an “America First” foreign policy, to bolster relations with Russia and, more specifically, to not get involved in the war in Syria. Thursday’s strike represents a sharp departure from all of these pledges.

Although Russian forces were notified of the attack in advance, President Vladimir Putin’s office has said the missile strike was a “significant blow” to Russian-American relations and, in response, the government has said it has suspended an agreement to share information about air operations.

Trump owes no further explanation to the Russians and Assad. But he does owe it to the American public to better articulate his strategy for the war in Syria and for the Middle East as a whole. As this episode shows, an America First policy sounds good, until it doesn’t.

On a final note, we’re gratified that the president has shown genuine concern for the welfare of civilians caught in the barbarism of this war. We can only hope this translates into showing greater compassion for those who have been forced to flee it.