By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island

April 17, 2018, 12:00 pm

Donald Trump’s Twitter message announcing success of the missile attack on Syria by the US, the UK and France last Saturday (April 14) has revived memories of a similar message by former president George W Bush, at the height of the war against Iraq, which certainly haunted him in the later years of his presidency.

Trump tweeted: A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!

The US and other media question whether this phrase may come back to haunt him, too. It would appear that far from Syria, the mission accomplishments were in the US, the UK and France, where the missile attacks on Syria for “alleged” use of chemical weapons, had much to do with domestic political issues faced by President Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May and President Macron.

President Trump is in the midst of a huge political turmoil over emerging details of his alleged sexual involvement with Porn or Adult film star Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) , to whom his lawyer paid US$ 130,000 just before the Presidential Election of 2016, reportedly to keep her silent about her intimate relations with presidential candidate Trump.

The situation worsened when the lawyer Michael Cohen’s hotel room and offices were raided by the FBI on a judicial order, seizing documents and digital material, which may include recordings of discussions Cohen had with Donald Trump, said to have been Cohen’s practice.

This is in addition to the probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, said to be supportive of candidate Donald Trump. President Trump has recently made several statements about his right and interest in firing Mr. Mueller, which is largely opposed as a violation of democratic principles, and could lead to his impeachment.

Trump’s problems have worsened with former FBI Director James Comey, sacked by him early in the presidency due to suspicions of investigations about the alleged Russian involvement with the 2016 presidential poll, coming out with his book, A Higher Loyalty, where Trump is described as ‘unethical’ and ‘untethered to truth” and also recalls Trump’s alleged association with Russian prostitutes.

All of this shows Donald Trump has much more reason to carry out this missile attack, than any interest the nearly 80 Syrians, including children, killed and others affected by the “alleged” chemical attack by the Assad regime, which denies such attack and alleges it was carried out by anti-Syrian terrorist forces active in the Douma a region, where it took place, and is now reportedly cleared of enemy forces.

British problems

The ally of the US and Donald Trump – UK Prime Minister Theresa May – must know by now that only a quarter of Britons backed the US decision to carry out missile strikes to punish the Syrian regime for allegedly using chemical weapons.

The Independent reports that Theresa May told a press conference at Downing Street yesterday (Saturday): “While the full assessment of the strike is ongoing, we are confident of its success.” But the new polling will be a blow for the Prime Minister, who threatened further strikes and prepared to justify the attack to MPs, whom she has so far denied a vote on the matter.

Asked to what extent people would back “UK forces conducting targeted air or missile strikes on Syrian government military targets”, just 28 per cent supported them, while 36 per cent opposed, 26 per cent neither opposed nor supported the strikes and 11 per cent did not know.

May would have had more interest in the missile attack on Syria, to move the public interest away from her increasing failures and difficulties over Brexit, far from being an ‘Easy Brexit’ she offered but a very ‘Hard Brexit’. She sees increased concerns about the continuance of peace in Northern Ireland, with the likelihood of a Custom’s checkpoint between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the threat of a breakdown of her alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) whose 10 seats in the Commons props up her minority government.

She clearly avoided seeking the opinion of the House of Commons on carrying out the missile attack on Syria, knowing her weakness in the Commons, and recalling how her predecessor, David Cameron’s proposal to carry out similar attacks on Syria in 2013, was rejected by the Commons. The Labour and Opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has stated Theresa May was wrong in carrying out the attack of Syria without the consent of the Commons.

May is also losing much of the impact gained by allegations against Russia for allegedly using nerve agent Novichok, on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, at Salisbury in April this year, because neither the UK investigating agent on chemical weapons nor the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) who identified the nerve agent used as the Russian originated Novichok, have identified a Russia as the source of the agent in the Salisbury attacks.

In a situation where an alleged nerve agent chemical attack by Russia remains is part of the political debate in the UK, Theresa May, with her limited control in the Commons, certainly has much cause to support Trump in carrying out this missile attack on Syria, while claiming it is not for ‘regime change’.

It is certainly a good political mission accomplishment for Theresa May.

France

As France 24 reports, critics have swiftly accused France and Britain of playing loyal deputies to an unpredictable American leader, viewed by many in Europe with suspicion or outright scorn. Some worried it could further antagonize Europe’s unpredictable neighbour Russia at an already tense time.

French President Emmanuel Macron is accused of compromising the independence of a country that famously stayed out of former US President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. It is expected that the missile attack on Syria will be the topic of strong debate at the French National Assembly this week.

What is of special interest is that President Macron is facing the worst labour unrest of his presidency so far, with strikes that halted two-thirds of French trains on Saturday and weeks more of walkouts to come, in a strike campaign planned to go on till June this year. His popularity rates are far below when he was elected last year, as the youngest President of France.

Macron has drawn criticism from the far-left to the far-right. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen tweeted the strikes expose France to “unpredictable and potentially dramatic consequences,” criticizing Macron for not taking an “independent” stance.

Florian Philippot, President of the new political party Les Patriotes, said: “President Macron is reducing our country to the role of subordinate partner to the Americans… The French people must rise up against this belligerent action by President Macron, who is becoming more and more to Donald Trump what Tony Blair was to George W. Bush.”

Far left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon also denounced France’s participation on the missile attack, calling it an “irresponsible escalation” without European or French parliament support.

Macron would certainly have liked the missile attacks on Syria, on his claimed concern against chemical attacks, to be a means of drawing public attention away from the political problems he is facing, especially the huge strikes, and growing lack of support for his political party.

As France 24 states, in nine days, Macron goes to Washington for the first state visit under Trump’s presidency   and the French leader can’t be seen as Trump’s lapdog. He also needs to distance himself from comparisons to the 2003 Iraq invasion, which was motivated by suspicions that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that never materialized.

What Mission Accomplished?

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Sunday 15th that “Donald Trump’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ tweet about Syria may come back to haunt him … just like George W. Bush’s premature declaration”.

“Mission Accomplished” were the words on the banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln when President George W Bush spoke in 2003, stating that ‘major combat operations in Iraq have ended”. They certainly had not. The vast majority of the combat deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom occurred after Bush made that speech. Millions of Iraqis were also killed, injured and driven out of their country after this Mission Accomplishment. In fact ‘Mission Accomplished’ is now very much a code word for missions not particularly accomplished, despite politician’s claims to the contrary, stated the SCMP. It is also necessary to look at the claim of the western powers who refer to the ban on chemical weapons after the large tragedies of World War I. It is certainly a good thought, especially after the deaths of so many from Chlorine and other chemical attacks, remembered in places such as Flanders to this day.

But, was it not the United States that carried out the two nuclear bomb attacks on civilian populations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, when it was known that Japan was about to call off its war? Is it satisfying to know that ‘Nuclear Bombing’ is not a chemical attack? Who carried out the Napalm attacks on the people and nature in Vietnam – leading to so much of death and suffering? The US isn’t it?

Was it not the West, particularly the UK and the US that supplied chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein, to carry out attacks killing thousands in the Iraq-Iraq War? Was that not after the ban of use of chemical weapons?

In that other huge military fraud, was it not the US and the UK that carried out attacks on Iraq, leading to the Iraqi War, killing millions, on a false claim that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction? Has anyone in the UK been punished on the findings of the Chilcot Report on that hugely fraudulent war and its massive and tragic destructions?

There is certainly the need to prevent the use of chemical weapons. Those who carried out the missile attacks on ‘chemical weapon locations’ in Syria last Saturday, could certainly have brought these matters, which they supposedly knew, to the United Nations and the OPCW, and prevented their use by anyone – the regime or others?

Also, why could not the anti-chemical weapon allies – the US, the UK and France, wait at least till the OPCW, which arrived in Syria last Friday, completed its investigation, and announced the truth about the use of chemical weapons, before deciding to launch their very “humane attacks”? There are so many Missions Unaccomplished in this crooked diplomacy and militarism of the West.