My fellow Americans, on Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians.
Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children.
It was a slow and brutal death for so many -- even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack.
No child of God should ever suffer such horror.
Tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched.
It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.
There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the chemical weapons convention and ignored the urging of the U.N. Security Council.
Years of previous attempts at changing Assad's behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically.
As a result the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.
Tonight, I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.
We ask for God's wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world. We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed. And we hope that as long as America stands for justice, then peace and harmony will -- in the end -- prevail.
Goodnight, and God Bless America and the entire world.
Bold is mine to highlight the American interests
Emotions do not make a military action constitutional.
Trumps statement was an appeal to emotion and not an appeal to a constitutional provision that allowed him to unilaterally send missiles directed at a Sovereign Nation that posed no threat to the security or vital interests of the United States.
If Assad used poison gas on his own citizens, that is terrible. It is not, however, a valid excuse for the United States to launch a Missile attack.
If we launched missile attacks at every dictator who abused his citizens, we be out of missiles before we got to 1/10th of them.