Lesser Men Step Across a Line

    On the first of April I posted an essay titled, " Step Across This Line".  I'll wait for a moment while you read it.
    In that essay I recounted the understanding of diplomacy and the understanding of the responsibilities of American power that Barack Obama possessed and employed.  I also recounted how that understanding had been misstated for what I assumed were purely political reasons by lesser men.
    Subsequent events are convincing me these lesser men may actually have only a juvenile understanding of diplomatic issues and American power.  That can be very dangerous.  For some it has already become fatal.
    On the surface this seems to be what happened. The Trump abrogation of our international commitments emboldened the Syrians/Russians. That called for a strong response to put them in their place. Maybe so.
    On the other hand. Trump had admitted pretty clearly he was a Putin puppet.  His mindless strategy of blaming the messenger was being met with peals of laughter and quickly eroding support. Nunes was forced to step aside. In the first 100 days of an administration,  that's getting to be a surprisingly frequent occurrence.  It was getting to the point if Trump said the sky was blue the entire country would only see the clouds.  He was getting into Nixon territory.  Nixon without the class.  There's an image.
    Has anyone thought about why Assad would make one, isolated poison gas attack when it could accomplish nothing but more international condemnation?  Has anyone thought about why Trump's response was a very expensive fireworks display with no practical effect?  A few days later the Syrians flew from the same airbase and attacked the same town.
    Does anyone really believe the Syrian air force operates with anything but Russian command and control?
    It's hard to imagine this is anything but an orchestrated distraction.  However, if it is, it's awfully juvenile.  Oh wait....