Cumhuriyet newspaper columnist Aslı Aydıntaşbaş has assessed for cumhuriyet.com.tr the early morning airstrike that the US, UK and France staged today against Syria.

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş's assessment is as follows:

Following the show he has staged for days on Twitter, the sending of missiles to Syria by US President Donald Trump, beyond being a ploy to court media attention, will neither alter the course of the war in Syria, nor does it portend a new Syria strategy on the part of the US.

Trump, who looks at wars in Arabian climes saying, “Let them eat one another,” has long since been prepared to gift Syria to Russia.

For this reason, the operation was limited to three military bases that had been emptied days before and Russia was given prior notice of the targets. This is completely a staged fight. A show for the media. The US president, under intense pressure at home thanks to the FBI’s Russia investigation, wants to create the impression of being a “statesman” by sending a hundred Tomahawks to Syria. Neither the American stock exchange nor media are showing much interest in the affair. For, Trump has no intention of either altering the course of events in Syria, or intervening.

Consequently, I expect no response from Russia apart from one or two objections. There may be a bit of a hue and cry, but this will be for show. There is absolutely no reason to warrant a huge Russian reaction on the night of the Tomahawks.

Nothing like World War Three is starting. We can disperse.

Half a million people have died in the Syrian civil war and only 1900 of them fell victim to chemical weapons. How sad that the world’s “red line” is chlorine gas and not slaughter and human death. The message given to Syria is abundantly clear: “Do what you like as long as you don’t use chemical weapons. We’re not looking.”

Bashar Assad calmly posted on Twitter the moment he got to his workplace in the morning. He is calm because he thinks the Syrian civil war has entered its final phase. With Russian and Iranian assistance, he has also established rule over Eastern Ghouta, deemed the opposition’s final stronghold of resistance. The opposition group named the “Army of Islam” that was resisting there surrendered its arms under an agreement in which Turkey was also involved. Thirteen thousand fighters and their families boarded buses and came to the north, to our border. One contingent was accommodated in that famous Al-Bab, and one contingent in tent camps or in other towns in the Euphrates Shield area. The Russians have thus, once more with Turkey’s assistance, put an end to the “Sunni opposition” that was nurtured by Turkey. The regime wants those people never to come back. They are now under our protection.

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş Suriye saldırısını değerlendirdi: Tam bir danışıklı dövüş