Assad mistakenly believed that Trump would not hold him accountable. And Assad wants and needs to break the will of the Syrian people. To do so, he wants to begin shifting to a war of annihilation. The purpose would be to convince the opposition that he, Assad, is immune to retribution and can strike them with anything and with impunity. Nearly a half million Syrians have died in the Civil War. Assad, like his father (see how his father dealt with Homs), will use genocide if he can escape the consequences. The fact that some will believe Assad would not have a reason to do this and that he didn’t do it even when we have forensic and Signal Intelligence proving he did means he has supporters on his side even though he’s a mass murderer who kills without discriminating combatants from non-combatants.
It’s amazing that you put that whole thing together without a single element of it being true.
Do you get your news anywhere except CNN, NYT, WashPost?