Coordinated military strikes by the US, France and the UK against Syrian government installations as punishment for President Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons have deepened the quagmire instead of deterring war crimes. US President Donald Trump’s claims that the Western attacks represent “righteous power against barbarism and brutality” of the Assad regime, and that he is prepared to “sustain this response” until Assad stops gassing his own people, shroud the strategic and geopolitical calculations driving the Western agenda in the long-drawn-out Syrian war.