World War III?

World War I was set off by the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. World War II was started by the German invasion of Poland.

Will World War III be started by the American attack on Syria?

So far, that is a stretch. Russia only seems interested in whining to the United Nations and ending joint operations with the US in Syria. However, if the US accelerates military operations in Syria, it could force a serious response from Russia.

For now, nothing to see here folks. move along.

But there were some intriguing aspects to President Trump's statement last night about the Syrian attack:

"It is in this vital national security of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons."

While nobody can argue with that assessment, this doesn't necessarily lead to the declaring of war on sovereign nations, especially ones allied with Russia. Are you prepared to go to war with Russia, Mr. Trump?

One other thing Trump said:

"There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council."

(hat tip to the New York Times for the pic from the alleged Syrian gas attack)

Actually, it can be disputed. Scott Adams laid out the case for disputing it yesterday:

According to the mainstream media – that has been wrong about almost everything for a solid 18 months in a row – the Syrian government allegedly bombed its own people with a nerve agent.

The reason the Assad government would bomb its own people with a nerve agent right now is obvious. Syrian President Assad – who has been fighting for his life for several years, and is only lately feeling safer – suddenly decided to commit suicide-by-Trump. Because the best way to make that happen is to commit a war crime against your own people in exactly the way that would force President Trump to respond or else suffer humiliation at the hands of the mainstream media.

And how about those pictures coming in about the tragedy. Lots of visual imagery. Dead babies. It is almost as if someone designed this “tragedy” to be camera-ready for President Trump’s consumption. It pushed every one of his buttons. Hard. And right when things in Syria were heading in a positive direction.

• Interesting timing.
• Super-powerful visual persuasion designed for Trump in particular.
• Suspiciously well-documented event for a place with no real press.
• No motive for Assad to use gas to kill a few dozen people at the cost of his entire regime. It wouldn’t be a popular move with Putin either.
• The type of attack no U.S. president can ignore and come away intact.
• A setup that looks suspiciously similar to the false WMD stories that sparked the Iraq war.

Let us hope the attack on Syria was the end of this American tantrum (Dare I call it a "tan-Trump"?). If Trump continues with it, he could be leading us into World War III, and on questionable causes.