While the Syrian regime said that Trump's attack left substantial damage, Russian officials slammed the operation as "extremely ineffective" militarily, noting that Syria has five additional airstrips beyond the site at Shayrat.Moscow responded angrily on Friday morning by suspending a channel of "deconfliction" between US and Russian air assets, increasing Syria's air defenses and warning the Trump administration against further attacks."This move by Washington has dealt a serious blow to Russian-US relations, which are already in a poor state," the Kremlin said in an official statement. "The Syrian Army has no chemical weapons."Yet the Pentagon said its operation on al-Shayrat airbase required precision because the base had been used to warehouse weaponized sarin– a chemical toxin that Moscow had promised to remove from Syria in 2013, in a deal brokered by the Obama administration.Then-president Barack Obama came close to striking Assad at that time, sending five destroyers and an aircraft carrier to the Syrian coast after a chemical attack killed 1,400 people in a Damascus suburb. But he ultimately stood down after Russia offered to broker a deal ridding Assad of the largest chemical weapons stockpile in the Middle East.Moscow said it would work with the Assad government to ensure the agreement was upheld. Yet Tuesday's attack showed the Trump administration that the 2013 deal was flawed, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday night in Florida."Either Russia has been complicit, or Russia has been incompetent," Tillerson said. "Clearly Russia has failed in its responsibility."The Russians were operating out of Shayrat, raising questions over how much they knew about Assad's stockpile and use of the chemicals."Numerous previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all found 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," Trump added. "Tonight I call on all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syrian and also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types. We asked for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world."Trump consulted America's allies before conducting the strike, according to senior administration officials, who said the White House also gave Moscow advanced notice of an attack.This morning's stunning development changes the dynamics of the war, raising the specter of wide-scale escalation and increased US involvement. Should Trump proceed with future strikes, he would be challenging both the Syrian regime as well as the government in Moscow, which has invested significant resources in propping up Damascus.Trump is not only reversing former president Barack Obama’s policy against direct involvement in the conflict, but his own stated positions as a private citizen and a presidential candidate. Trump long cautioned against getting mired in Syria, and publicly warned Obama against taking military action after the 2013 attack.Trump may choose to proceed with additional attacks targeting more Syrian airfields, or may alternatively choose to escalate the conflict, targeting Syria's broader military infrastructure."The United States should lead an international coalition to ground Assad’s air force," Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said on Thursday. "This capability provides Assad a strategic advantage in his brutal slaughter of innocent civilians, both through the use of chemical weapons as well as barrel bombs, which kill far more men, women and children on a daily basis.""Ultimately, the grounding of Assad’s air force can and should be part of a new comprehensive strategy to end the conflict in Syria," they added.Trump's attack against the Assad regime came 77 days into his presidency."The most significant implication of tonight’s attack is that it signals a fundamental shift in US policy from the Obama to the Trump administration, the first major demonstration of a shift since inauguration," Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told the Post. "The White House did not seem interested in reaching some diplomatic resolution of this incident even using the threat of force to elicit some political gain but rather appeared committed to sending a message that such heinous behavior will be punished— unilaterally by US action, if necessary.""This marks a huge course correction for US policy toward Russia under the Trump administration," Satloff added, "and in terms of Iran, marks the first substantive example of the US pushing back at Iran’s long reach for influence throughout the Middle East."Tweets by mawilner"There's nothing small about what we did tonight. Nothing," says @johnfkirby63, formerly of DoD & State under Obama. "We're in now." #Syria
— Michael Wilner (@mawilner) April 7, 2017