Tensions Rise between the US and Russia

While tensions between North Korea and the United States have been getting better, President Trump has been taking aim at a new target over Twitter: Russia and Syria. 

Rising tensions appear to be the cause of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s backing of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria following an alleged chemical attack. The chemical attack, which took place April 7, 2018, struck Douma, a city controlled by anti-Assad rebels, and killed at least 40 and at least 500 showed some symptoms of being affected by the attack. Opposition to the Assad regime has claimed that the Syrian government itself carried out the attack; while the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia, have strongly denied the accusations.  

The White Helmets are a search-and-rescue organization that attempts to rescue victims of bombings and other attacks. They are originally the ones who broke the story about the attack on Douma, however, their reports have been uncorroborated, and no independent organization such as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have been able to confirm that an attack even took place, let alone if the Assad regime carried it out. In fact, the White Helmets have been caught staging attacks in a video. In said video, 2 members of the White Helmets stand over a motionless body covered in rubble. After several seconds suddenly everything springs into action and the previously motionless body starts screaming and is carried away.

Russia has invited the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate the incident, and Yevgeny Serberennikov, a member of the defense counsel for the Russian government told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that Russia is anxious for the OPCW to “finally start carrying out the functions it was created for.” However, the U.N. Security Council rejected a Russian resolution that would have created a new body in the U.N. to determine who was responsible for chemical weapons attacks in Syria. The resolution needed at least nine “yes” votes from the fifteen-member council, but only six countries voted in favor. 

Following the attack former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev says that Russia and the United States are on the verge of a confrontation and that if a confrontation were to occur, it would quickly escalate beyond the region. Tension continued to rise when a Russian envoy to Lebanon said that any US missiles fired at Syria will be shot down. Trump followed up with a tweet: 

  

Despite literally threatening Russia, Trump then blamed the bad blood with Russia on Democrats and Special Council Robert Mueller. He said in another tweet, “Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all-Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy.” 

Trump’s current rhetoric on the topic of Syria has also shifted significantly since he was elected. In 2013, Trump criticized then-President Obama by tweeting the following:  

Even on the campaign trail, Trump advocated an anti-interventionist position on Syria, “What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria… You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton… You’re not fighting Syria anymore, you’re fighting Syria, Russia, and Iran, all right? Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work…” This apparent reversal of policy has led many to look at who contributed to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. In 2016 Donald Trump received $361,938 from defense contractors, and defense contractors stand to make a profit off of war since their products are used in warfare. 

The Guardian spoke with Bruce Blair, former nuclear missile launch officer and Princeton University scholar, he said, “Without clear goals and a strategy for Syria, striking its airbases and other military facilities is pointless and risks escalating to direct conflict with Russia.” 

Now, all anybody can do is hope that tensions deescalate, and that the world does not end in nuclear hellfire. 

Update: The United States, Britain, and France launched over 100 missiles at the Syrian capital of Damascus the night of April 13, 2018. The US claimed that there were 3 targets, each connected to Syria’s suspected chemical weapons program. Syrian and Russian officials claim that Syrian air defenses shot down 71 of the 103 missiles fired at the capital. However, the US and its allies claim that no missiles were shot down and that the attack was “precise and overwhelming.” The Russians have already responded to the attack; Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said in a tweet, “We are being threatened. We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences.”

This attack came before there could be an investigation into the alleged chemical attack on Douma. That means that no organization has even confirmed that the attack actually took place yet.