PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s attack on President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces makes some sense as a means of rendering the use of chemical weapons counterproductive and of lending credibility to his military options against North Korea.

There are those, however, who wish to extend and exploit this.

Bizarrely, Hillary Clinton tries to suggest that the natural corollary of objecting to the poisoning of civilians is to invite hundreds of thousands of them to settle permanently in the US.

At the same time supporters of the rebels, open and covert, ask that restrictions upon Syrian government tactics to be made so comprehensive as to bring about regime change.

However black some may wish to paint the soul of Bashar Al-Assad, this does not imply that the opposition leaders who seek to replace him are virtuous or innocent men. A long civil war inevitably takes a heavy toll in human life.

Those who begin and perpetuate such a war in order to overthrow the state must bear responsibility for that. Actions taken by the state in resisting this attempt can hardly be cited in mitigation for the earlier act of rebellion.

The West arms and aids factions in the war whose leaders escape censure only because most of us don’t know their names. There is no nice option for ruling Syria; it would be criminal to prolong the war for a single day to secure a change of leader. Yet Boris Johnson seems set upon repeating the Libyan policy of William Hague.

John Riseley, Harrogate