PAREDES
As CNN broke the news of Tomahawk cruise missiles raining down on an air base in Syria last Friday as part of Donald Trump’s punitive actions for Bashar al-Assad’s recent chemical attack on civilians there, it makes me wonder whether we are once again on the brink of a world war, one that would finally end in a nuclear Armageddon.
Of course, the missile strike did not just provoke Syria, it also threatened Russia, which has maintained fighter planes, air defense systems and ground troops there in support of her ally, the Assad regime. So far, Russia responded with just condemnation of the United States’ unilateral action, calling it an act of aggression and a breach of international law. Yet Russia also threatened to boost even more Syria’s air defense capability with the latest of Russia’s surface-to-air missiles.
So, the world waits for what Trump will do next. Will he push for a ground war aimed at regime change in Syria?
That looks easy, with US troops and arsenal already poised for quick attack anywhere in the Middle East. Two of US aircraft carrier fleets are already in the Persian Gulf. Several more planes and ground troops are stationed in air bases in Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other allies surrounding Syria.
All it takes is for Trump to give the order and the entire military might of the US in the Middle East will be deployed against the Assad regime.
But the presence of Russian troops in Syrian military camps makes it complicated and actually dangerous. How will Russia respond if a missile strike will kill one of their troops? Will Russian President Vladimir Putin take that sitting down? That doesn’t look like good publicity for Moscow.
If the US will invade Syria, then it will also be tantamount to a declaration of war against Russia. We might see the turning of what has been called a Second Cold War into a hot war, and it may not be just between Putin and Trump hysterically pushing buttons.
Meanwhile, the missile attack on Syria came just few weeks after the US sent missile defense equipment to South Korea in response to North Korea’s series of missile tests. This angered not just North Korea but also China, which calls the deployment a threat against their national security.
China, of course, has been busy making her own provocative military moves. There have been reports of movement of military vehicles, including mobile missile launchers in several places, particularly in the southern regions facing the South China Sea and the Pacific. China has also just tested her latest stealth fighter-bomber and cruise missiles that are too fast to be intercepted.
And, recently, it was reported that China has completed its military installations in the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea, giving the People’s Liberation Army the capability to quickly launch missiles, both defensive or offensive, or to fly fighter and bomber jets to nearby targets.
Close targets include the Philippines, of course. No, President Rodrigo Duterte’s sweet words for China had little effect on minimizing her intention to occupy our islands and to build military installations there. In fact, Digong’s defeatist pronouncements that the Philippines could not stop such aggressions has encouraged China even more.
So, we wait for the next development. There will be consequences of this preemptive strike, of course. The attack, which was justified by Trump apologists not only as an act of retribution for the victims of Assad’s chemical warfare but also as necessary to secure America’s national security, sets another dangerous precedence for preemptive unilateral military action.
Now, anyone can order a missile strike against anyone. And the thing with wars is that they are not usually announced. Trump did not tweet about sending Tomahawks to Assad. He was busy having dinner with the visiting Chinese president.
As it was in Pearl Harbor, in Poland during the Nazi blitzkrieg or in the sudden bombing of US bases in the Philippines by Japanese planes in World War II, the Third World War will just happen when we least expect it.
The exchange of nuclear missiles will be too fast for CNN to break the news.