Syria: Cool heads needed - Tweeting the way to war

As recently as 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump reacted with a tweet to the news that the US and Iraqi governments were preparing for the battle to reclaim Mosul from IS. “Why,” he spluttered, “do they have to announce this? Makes mission much harder!”

Well, that was then, when in fact it was a fair point, albeit inelegantly expressed. Mr Trump is now in the White House where, having seen television coverage of the aftermath of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria, assumes that once again the Assad regime has used nerve gas, with Moscow’s approval, and splutters: “Get ready Russia, because they [missiles] will be coming, nice and new and smart!” Why, we wonder, does he have to announce this since, surely, it makes the mission much harder? Unsurprisingly, it’s been reported that Syria’s air force has been moving its planes and, probably Russian ones, away from their bases. Someone in Damascus must have read that tweet.