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One of my first thoughts was “Well, with one simple action Trump crushed the ignorant notion that he is a Russian agent.”

I still am concerned about jumping the gun though. I trust his judgement, but I can’t dismiss the idea the chemical attack story was a false flag...or that there are NO good guys in Syria.

The Arab Spring is under new management that’s about the best argument he can make but look at the mess created so far with what Libya and Egypt went through and Syria’s six years of suffering......

“Earlier on Friday, Damascus denied using chemical weapons, saying that its jets targeted an arms depot where chemical weapons stockpiles were stored by Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front militants. Later in the day, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that account of events.

The strike, which was launched midday Tuesday, targeted a major rebel ammunition depot east of the town of Khan Sheikhoun, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. According to Konashenkov, the warehouse was used to both produce and store shells containing toxic gas. The shells were delivered to Iraq and repeatedly used there, said the spokesman, pointing out that both Iraq and international organizations have confirmed the use of such weapons by militants.”

The False Flag scenario is the only thing about this mess that bothers me. It bothers me a lot. I am clear that Assad is a dictator who has got to go. There are a few others around the world, some marginally better, some a lot worse. They have got to go as well.
ISIS has got to go. It is every bit as likely that ISIS deliberately killed these people with poison as it is that Assad did it with an air strike. Tactically we get more bang by destroying an airfield than by bombing some more terrorist supply dumps complete with kidnapped civilians.
Nothing about this is simple except that Trump has threaded the needle with a strong act of defiance against Putin that cannot easily be gainsaid. He has changed the conversation again, this time with Tomahawks.

The fact that this now largely wrecked air base was specifically cited as the launch point for the chemical weapons attack might indicate that intelligence (including, one would hope, from Mossad and the IDF since they have a far better sources and understanding of what's going on than anyone) wholly confirmed Assad's government was responsible. False Flag operations can work both ways and killing off a few hundred of his own people and blaming the opposition wouldn't be beneath Assad any more than it is for them. All the actors in this are very bad people.

And then there's the timing and political collateral effects. This cuts the legs out from under Democrats' pathetically inane story that Trump is a tool of the Russians. And Premier Xi, having a friendly sumptuous dinner across the table from a relaxed and smiling Donald Trump as almost five dozen cruise missiles rained down on and destroyed a large air force base should make him want to check a Chinese-French dictionary for the word sangfroid.

That's all the glass-half-full version I can come up with and I hope it's accurate.