Attack: The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter launches a Tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea. Photo/AP
Attack: The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter launches a Tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea. Photo/AP
TODAY'S column was originally intended as an expression of gratitude for our good luck in missing the tail effects of Cyclone Debbie, for the preparedness of our official responders, and for the community volunteers who were in evidence had things gone the other way.
Perhaps I'll save it for another rainy day, as events of another cyclonic character -- big wind, that is -- have overtaken it.
United States President Donald Trump ordered the firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles on Syria's Al Shayrat airfield, and one week after his declaration -- via United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley -- that the removal of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad from power was no longer the policy of the US, Trump now declared that it was.
In that week's interval, on April 4, there had been an attack by Syrian jets on a "rebel-held" town, Khan Sheikhoun, during which chemical weapons were dispersed, killing as many as 100 people including several children.
Some are encouraging deeper American involvement in Syria though that appears unlikely.
There's little support for involving more troops, as America already has at least five wars ongoing.
It would be an unwelcome surprise were Trump to broaden the US involvement in the uncivil, civil war that Syria has become for the past six years, although Trump apparently has few qualms about changing course abruptly.
Jay Kuten
When President Barack Obama, in a policy misstep, declared a red line after a similar gas attack in 2013, then private citizen Trump pleaded by tweet his opposition to bombing Syria.
"President Obama, do not attack Syria. There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save our 'powder' for another (and more important) day!" said Trump.
The importance of this new day was Trump's own emotional response to those horrific pictures of the effect of Sarin on children -- "I will tell you that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me ... big impact," he said.
As horrific as those photos were, they testify to one terrible event, one where responsibility remains disputed, one that remains just a small part of a civil war in which 400,000 Syrians have been killed.
The notion that major shifts in US policy, including an attack by the US Navy on a sovereign nation without congressional approval or UN consultation, occurred because of an emotional response by a sitting president gives this observer no comfort.
Rather it brings to mind the days of Trump's Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, who prided himself on shooting from the hip, and relied, as Trump does, on "instincts" or his "gut" in decision-making.
We should not forget, as Trump does, that Bush's instinct-driven decisions led the US, the Middle East, and the world to the present mess we're in.
Giving the lie to this sentimentality of children killed by Sarin is the absence of similar concerns about the many children and women killed by American bombs in Mosul or Yemen or Somalia.
Those 59 missiles seem to have bought Trump distraction from the investigations of collusion with Russia to undermine the US election. Or the attention of the voters from the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch in a manner that undermines the rules of the Senate.
It also seems to have brought him the temporary approval of top Congressional Democratic leaders. Even Hillary Clinton chimed in with her approval -- the notion of Trump and Clinton, both generally distrusted, agreeing on a military attack does little to decrease my scepticism. That scepticism is rooted first in the ineffectual nature of the bombing -- Syrian jets took off from that airfield and bombed Khan Sheikhoun the next day; there is no plan B, no follow-up.
Were the Assad regime to fall, despite Russia's tight embrace, we are likely to see a replay of Iraq and Libya with the field ripe for a brutal Islamist takeover. The Trump administration has no peace plan for Syria.
After the cheering of his adversaries stops, they may figure out that Trump has just "wagged the dog".
Jay Kuten is an American-trained forensic psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand for the fly fishing. He spent 40 years comforting the afflicted and intends to spend the rest afflicting the comfortable.
