Trump wants 'military options' if Assad uses chemical weapons again, general says

Members of Russian and Syrian forces stand guard near posters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Syria.
(Image credit: George Ourfalian/Getty Images)

The Pentagon has prepared options for a military response should Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime again deploy chemical weapons, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Saturday.

"We are in a dialogue, a routine dialogue, with the president to make sure he knows where we are with regard to planning in the event that chemical weapons are used," Dunford said, adding that President Trump "expects us to have military options."

Meanwhile, in southern Syria, U.S. troops conducted a live-fire aerial assault exercise on Friday, using the practice bombing to warn away Assad regime forces and their Russian allies from an American base near the Syria-Iraq border.

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"The United States does not seek to fight the Russians, the government of Syria, or any groups that may be providing support to Syria in the Syrian civil war," said Lt. Col. Earl Brown of the exercises on behalf of U.S. Central Command. "However, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend U.S., coalition, or partner forces."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.