Former US Assistant Secretary of State P.J Crowley says President Trump will be content to count the strikes as a victory and move on, but it's unclear if Syria, Russia and Iran will let him:
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump pledged: "If I draw a line in the sand, I will enforce that line in the sand. Believe me."
A year ago, as president, Mr Trump ordered a military strike involving 58 cruise missiles in response to a deadly sarin gas attack on civilians, and he essentially redeemed the red line that his predecessor, Barack Obama, drew in 2013.
While Mr Trump received plaudits for his willingness to employ military force, if he expected that show of force to deter the further use of chemical weapons by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in this brutal civil war, he was wrong.
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Secretary of Defence James Mattis acknowledged as much Friday night, that despite last year's strike Syria has continued to employ chemical weapons, most recently against an opposition stronghold outside Damascus.
Mr Assad, he said, "did not get the message last year".
So Mr Trump, together with British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron, launched coordinated military strikes against Syria's chemical weapons infrastructure, including a research centre, storage facility and command post.
There is a new red line, but what is the message behind it? What are the odds that Syria, and its key international backers Russia and Iran, will heed it? And what are the consequences if they don't?
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