X-post:
My analysis is very simple, Trump comes out of this very well indeed and Obama very poorly.
There were two Obama-Putin agreements for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction in a third country; Syria and chemical weapons and Iran and nuclear weapons.
Assad only has two backers, Russia and Iran. Assad's used of Sarin on civilians means that the Obama-Putin agreement for the Russian supervised elimination of Syrian chemical weapons was a fraud. By using chemical weapons Assad has demonstrated that the Obama-Putin agreement was a fraud and he was able to maintain his weapons program and stockpile, despite the promised US/Russian supervision. This usage of chemical weapons means that as far as agreements between a US President and Putin, all agreements are bollocks, and somewhat to Putin's embarrassment, it has been shown that the Russian's WMD agreements are worthless.
Putin was hoping that he could negotiate with Trump for a nuclear weapons cut, in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. This would mean that Putin would not need to spend an eye-watering fortune in upgrade the SS-18 Satan's for the new Satan II, when the Russians need all the money they have got for their conventional forces.
The Iranians wanted to see what Trump would do, following the use of a WMD, in direct breach of an Internationally endorsed and supervised agreement; just like the one they have for their nuclear weapons program.
Three days before Assad murdered civilians with nerve gas Trump had delivered the message that his administration could live with Assad remaining in power in Syria.
Someone sat down with Trump and explained what the usage of chemical weapons means to societies with high population densities and mass transit systems. Quite simply, societies cannot flourish in an era of chemical weapons in the hands of terrorists.
Yesterday Trump performed a 180 on his policy on Syria, predating his Presidential Primary run and is now determined to have Assad atomized.
The Iranians now know the measure of the man. They know this is no Obama. They know, through a proxy, that using WMD gets you on the US military's hit list and the commander in chief will let slip the dogs of war.
As the US media was showing stock footage of US Navy ships firing Tomahawk cruise missiles one can only surmise that a B2 strike is on the way.