The lunatic anti-war fringe’s fake news machine is going into overdrive now that the Trump administration is seriously considering military options in response to the Assad regime’s chemical weapons massacre in Khan Sheikhoun. One of the central myths they are pushing to scare the public into siding with them is that anything the U.S. military does against Assad’s forces will lead to World War 3 or some kind of apocalyptic confrontation with Russia.

Like their claims that Assad did nothing wrong in Khan Sheikhoun (or anywhere else), this is bullshit.

Israel has attacked regime targets no less than seven times since Russia sent its troops and air force to prop up Assad’s decrepit regime in fall of 2015.

What did Russia do in response? Nothing.

The U.S. accidentally bombed and killed Assad’s troops in Deir Ezzor last year right under Russia’s nose.

What did Russia do in response? Nothing — except complain loudly.

Russian imperialism in Syria is largely a paper tiger after having repeatedly demonstrated that it will not retaliate militarily to any and all attacks on Assad’s forces. Just as Obama had plenty of military options in Syria far short of an Iraq 2003-style invasion, Trump has plenty of military options that fall far short of Russia’s red line (“regime change”) such as hitting regime installations where no Russians are present (as Israel does) or shooting down Assad’s jets or helicopters on a case-by-case basis.

Anti-war loons are going to be very disappointed when World War 3 fails to materialize in Syria while Syrians on the receiving end of Assad’s brutality will be overjoyed if Trump forces him to pay a military price for slaughtering civilians.