That's all it took for the neoconservatives to regain control of the White House. It was done in three steps: first, general Mike Flynn was fired, then Stephen Bannon was pushed aside and now Donald Trump strikes Syria with Tomahawk missiles. The last move is justified on humanitarian ground.

::::::::

That's all it took for the neoconservatives to regain control of the White House. It was done in three steps: first, general Mike Flynn was fired, then Stephen Bannon was pushed aside and now Donald Trump strikes Syria with Tomahawk missiles. The last move is justified on humanitarian ground.

The strike has all the earmarks of an empire. It's a unilateral move. No evidence is provided (or obviously false ). No approval from Congress is requested. No formal accord is sought from the international community. The fact that the strike occurred while Xi Jinping was visiting Donald Trump, further emphases its imperial character. It's a neocon move, plain and simple. N.B. Syria was listed along with Iraq as a country to be destroyed in "A clean break: a new strategy for securing the kingdom".

The president's promise to promote better relations with Russia is dead in the water, so is his promise not to intervene in Syria. The neocon agenda is back on track with a vengeance. The Pentagon added a twist to it by diverting the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group headed to Australia toward the Korean Peninsula. No doubt Xi Jinping who was still with Trump when the order was given, appreciated the thought, since North Korea was on the agenda.

Democrats and Republicans applauded the president's action, praising his resolve while ignoring the thirteen people the strike killed. They are collateral damage. Their life is not valued as highly as that of those killed at Idlib. Tulsi Gabbard is the only Congress person to have had the courage to request an independent investigation. To no avail. Russian specialist, Stephen Cohen, is scared out of his wits, so is Paul Craig Roberts, Ronald Reagan's Deputy Treasury Secretary. Peter Ford, a United Kingdom's former ambassador to Syria, asks an obvious question: who benefits from the sarin gas incident? Certainly not Bashar al-Assad. So, why would he have done it?

Outside the European vassals, no one is fooled by the American propaganda. Who forgot Colin Powell shaking his little anthrax bottle at the United Nation Security Council in March 2003 to justify the invasion of Iraq? Not the Bolivian ambassador who showed Powell's picture to the members of the Council meeting on April 7 ^th .

Tension which has been rising for several years, rose another notch. Russians will no longer communicate with their American counterparts on airspace activity in Syria. Chinese will refrain from pressuring North Koreans too much. Increased tension among nuclear powers is the last thing rational people want for fear of a nuclear conflict due to a misinterpretation of radar screen signals. But are neoconservatives rational? In the past, Kissinger told Nixon to act unpredictably to disorient the Soviets. In an elevated tension environment, such a behavior is irresponsible.

The neoconservatives can claim victory. In less than three months, Donald Trump has become their puppet. He will do whatever they ask of him, as did Barack Obama. But the game of nuclear chicken they play with the Russians might be their last one. Russia will not bow to pressure from the United States. This is what scares Stephen Cohen so much. The future of mankind is at stake. If the unspeakable becomes true, neoconservatives will bear full responsibility for it.

Authors Bio:

Former Vice President Citigroup New York (retired)
Columbia University -- Business School
Princeton University -- Woodrow Wilson School