Story highlights Ivan Eland: Trump's missile attack on Syrian air base could result in Syria or Russia taking retaliatory measures

He says Trump should stop with the counterproductive showmanship and get back to the grinding fight against ISIS

Ivan Eland is a senior fellow and director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute. The views expressed are his own.

(CNN) What's the White House's next move when it comes to Syria? Let's hope nothing.

President Donald Trump's salvo of cruise missiles against a military airfield in Syria last week brought bipartisan acclaim, and that's a major cause for concern.

In a partisan age, the American media likes to report on any seemingly bipartisan agreement, and has an interest in subtly cheering any US military campaign, despite its size or scope, because it almost always leads to increased ratings. Yet in their fervor, sometimes the media, Democrats and Republicans can all be wrong simultaneously.

Retired Col. Andrew Bacevich has written cogently about just how militaristic American culture has become, much to the detriment of the US military itself. And this militarism, when it is taken up by politicians and the American public -- in contrast to the anti-militaristic patriotism of the nation's founders -- regularly sends US military personnel into harm's way for less than optimal reasons.

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Trump's cruise missile attack on the Syrian air base may not have resulted in any American military casualties, but the action could very well result in Syrians or Russians taking surreptitious retaliatory measures against US forces on the ground in Syria -- or to secret attempts to shoot down American aircraft.

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