In the context of Syria, Donald Trump has advanced a ‘get ready’ threat to Moscow ~ a remarkable swingback from the simulated post-Cold War bonhomie during the US elections.

It would be an over-simplification to greet the latest bluster from the White House as characteristically tactless; it is, on closer reflection. dangerous and direly so.

Advertisement

After several days of studied silence over Bashar al-Assad’s chemical attack in the rebel suburb of Douma, the US President’s decidedly incendiary tweet might, on the face of it, appear to be a knee-jerk response; actually however it marks a palpable escalation of the war in Syria.

Not the least because the Kremlin has been told to get ready for incoming US missiles, which the Russian military has vowed to shoot down. It is, in a word, a signal for a clash of shields and the beating of the war drum is resonant on either side of the Atlantic.

Suffice it to register that Assad’s renewed poison gas attack is arguably the most dangerous confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers since the peak of the Cold War.

Both Heads of State have exacerbated the tension, almost war-like ~ Vladimir Putin with his consistent support for the Assad regime and Trump with his reckless, even thoughtless, diplomacy.

This time around, the latter’s language was intemperate in the extreme. Admitting that Russia has vowed to shoot down “any and all missiles fired at Syria”, Trump has asked Moscow to get ready… “because they will be coming, nice and new and smart!”.

And then the virulent swipe ~ “You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!” Factually, the US President may not be off the mark; but the conduct of diplomacy calls for a measure of grace and civility ~ scarce commodities in Mr Trump’s White House. Predictably, the Kremlin has debunked the latest exercise in what it calls “Twitter diplomacy”.

“We support serious approaches. We continue to believe that it is important not to take steps that could harm an already fragile situation,” was the immediate reaction of the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

It would be dangerous to precipitate the crisis at the present volatile juncture, and both Trump and Putin will be expected by the comity of nations to be conscious of the imperative for peace in the time of a (civil) war without end.

The waters are murky already, and neither the US nor Russia ought to add to the murk. It is a fraught battlefield, where the conflict has escalated due to rivalries between outside powers.

There is little or no room for compromise between the two sides on the central issue ~ the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The World Health Organisation is said to have received reports that 500 patients had been admitted to hospital with symptoms of a chemical attack. That attack now threatens to ignite a conflagration. And yet Mr Assad soldiers on.