Letting a moron like Trump loose with the US's nuclear arsenal always had the potential to lead to the end of the world. His actions since he has taken office have emphasised how close we are to that possibility. Ronnie Raygun might not have been the sharpest tool in the box, but even he had read a book, and had some political nouse. Trump has none of that, even. He is likely to simply propel the world into extinction on the back of his own ignorance, bravado, and emotional instability.
His threats to Russia, again using tweets, rather than diplomatic channels, emphasise that risk. He is daring Russia to respond, and if they do, what then? In actual fact, the US is likely to attack using missiles, whereas if May and Macron are stupid enough to join in with him, they are likely to use strike aircraft carrying missiles. It will be British and french pilots that are likely to be shot down, by Russian defence systems, it is British and French airbases in the area that are likely to be targeted in response, if Russians are killed in any US/UK/French attack.
If, and at the moment it is still an if, the Syrian regime is guilty of a chemical weapons attack, then it should be held to account for that. It is an horrendous crime, but it is not such an horrendous crime that it is worth risking the end of humanity in order to inflict punishment for. Moreover, who gives the US,UK, or France or any other external power the right to punish Assad for such a crime. It is such external interference (by jihadists funded and supplied by the Gulf States, and their US and UK backers) which led to this civil war being escalated, and the further external intervention by Russian, Turkish and Iranian forces in the first place. Dealing with any war crimes or any other dealing with the Assad regime is the responsibility of the Syrian people themselves, and preferably by the Syrian working-class. Attacks by the US/UK/France will only legitimise the position of Assad for many Syrians, along with the support he obtains from Russia and Iran.
Similarly, if a chemical weapons attack was undertaken by Assad, and has been supported by Russia, it is not the responsibility of the US/UK/France to attack Russia for that. If such an attack occurred, then Assad and the Russians should be held responsible for that by the Syrian and Russian people, both of whom have good reason to look to deal with their own regimes. The more the US/UK.France is seen to be assigning its position as judge and jury of global affairs, the more its attacks on Assad, on Putin are likely instead only to enable those regimes to rally support around them from their own people. After all, its only necessary to look at what happened in Russia itself, with the fall of the USSR at the instigation of the West, or of the fall of Saddam in Iraq, or of Gaddafi in Libya.
The imperialist powers have a long history of invoking chaos and destruction in order to bring down existing regimes of which they disapprove, but then of seeing the consequence of their destruction being not some pleasant liberal democracy, but only a descent into even greater chaos, destruction and the establishment of an even greater hell-hole, from which it takes many years for society to recover.
As socialists, and as workers we have no reason to sit idly by whilst these imperialist powers risk the future of humanity in their strategic power games, or to allow them to claim that they have a monopoly over determining the course of history. Far from it. It is up to us, as workers and as socialists across the globe, to demand that these imperialist powers butt out, and stand down, before they destroy us all. It is up to us as workers and socialists to come together, across the globe to call our respective leaders to account.
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