Following the suspected chemical attacks on the suburb of Douma by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on April 7, the United States, along with Britain and France, bombed Syria the following Friday, April 13.

It is presumed that the Syrian president issued the chemical attacks because Dourma, a rebel-held area, agreed to hand over the area to the Syrian government on April 8. The attack killed at least 42 adults and children.

According to Alex Ward from The Vox, the bombing hit three sites that were central to Syria’s chemical weapons program - a research center, a storage facility, and an equipment facility and command post.

These bombings led to the rise of several different opinions on these violent responses from the American public. Some believe that the strikes are merely a result of President Trump acting rashly from the pressure he is faced with in the case of an attack in Syria.

On April 6, 2017, President Trump authorized military action to punish Assad when his forces killed more than 80 people in Khan Sheikhoun. Some argue that Trump’s responses are useless because they do not affect or change the course of the Syrian civil war, but rather serve to reprimand one specific action taken by Assad.

Another negative response of the American public stems from the innocent civilians living in the sites of these bombings whose safety is put on the line. Not only are the lives of the civilians jeopardized, this can lead to others developing sympathy for the extremist cause and hatred towards the people responsible for their endangerment.

Due to the use of force by President Trump without congressional authorization in the airstrikes, some came to conclude that supporting these attacks equate to supporting the allowance of the president to use air power whenever he sees fit.

Others oppose the bombings because of the possibility of sparking a bigger conflict with Russia or Iran. Some believe that if the airstrikes hit Russian or Iranian military forces working closely with Assad, it could turn a one-front war between Syria and the U.S. into a three-front war- the U.S. against Syria, Russia, and Iran.

Although the responses from the American public regarding the recent bombing in Syria by the U.S. all differ in their reasons, most took a negative stance that can be summed up by Jack Goldsmith of The Lawfare- “