The Syria Strike Was International Security Theater
We are all familiar with the phrase “security theater.” Those people-scanning machines at airports that work less than half of the time but cost local airports millions, not to mention waste everyone’s time at the airport? A border wall that will do nothing to lower crime, or bring back jobs to the U.S. working class? Both are examples of security theater: actions designed to look as if they will keep us safer, while actually doing nothing of the sort.
We are seeing the same thing now in Syria, only on a wider scale. U.S. President Donald Trump’s snap decision to bomb a Syrian airfield with cruise missiles — in the wake of an alleged (although not internationally verified) chemical attack by Syrian government forces on the town of Khan Sheikhoun — is nothing more than “international security theater.” The bombing raid did nothing to stop the long-running Syrian civil war; nor to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; nor to persuade Moscow to reduce its support for him.
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