Letter: Syria military efforts raise questions

Some questions about our new military efforts in Syria:

1. What was the gas? Who has analyzed and identified it? What has been the assessment of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies?

2. Do any of the anti-Assad forces have prohibited chemical weapons?

3. What rebels controlled the area of the gas deaths?

4. Who did the on-site reporting?

5. Why is there not evidence made available to the U.S. and the world to substantiate the claim that the gas deaths are the responsibility of Assad?

6. Why the rush to launch 59 cruise missiles before any international investigation of the chemical death site?

7. From whence did Trump's moral outrage emanate? Has he not seen images of hundreds of civilians killed in the last month by U.S. bombs in Mosul, Yemen, and the mosque in Jinah?

8. What do the objectives of cutting funding for the state department and U.N. humanitarian efforts while greatly increasing military spending imply as to the Trump administration's and Pentagon's intentions for peace in Syria?

9. How many Syrians will be left after all the non-Syrian warriors in Syria finally leave?

Ed Flaherty

Iowa City