Striking at Assad Carries Opportunities, and Risks, for Trump

Striking at Assad Carries Opportunities, and Risks, for Trump
But the Syria action gives the Trump administration an opportunity to demand
that Mr. Putin either contain or remove Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, or else Mr. Trump will expand the limited American military action — and quickly — if the Russian president fails to do so.
The attack will also shape the meeting next week between Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson
and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — the first face-to-face encounter between the Russian leader and a member of the Trump administration.
President Trump spoke after the United States carried out a missile attack in Syria
on Thursday in response to the Syrian government’s deadly chemical weapons attack.
By DAVID E. SANGERAPRIL 7, 2017
President Trump retaliated against the Assad government for a chemical attack in Syria that killed more than 80 civilians.
WASHINGTON — In launching a military strike just 77 days into his administration, President Trump has the opportunity,
but hardly a guarantee, to change the perception of disarray in his administration.
The question now is whether his new, untested team — divided in their own definitions of how
and when to use American power — can turn the intervention in Syria into something more than a symbolic show of force.