Trump Shocks World in Direct U.S. Strike on Syrian Airbase That Could Violate International Law

Without congressional approval, on Thursday night the United States attacked a Syrian airfield, marking the first military action by the U.S. against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces since the Syrian war began over six years ago. The move comes after the U.S. accused Assad’s forces of using the air base to carry out a chemical weapons attack that killed 86 people, including at least 30 children. Syria denies carrying out the attack. "After six years of watching genocide, … today I am very happy that there is one less airfield," says Lina Sergie Attar, a Syrian-American writer from Aleppo, in the first part of our roundtable discussion. We also speak with Alia Malek, journalist and former human rights lawyer, and Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. "The hypocrisy of it from the vantage point of the Trump administration is staggering," Bennis says, calling the strike an act of war and arguing all sides in Syria have violated international law.