Did the images on social media justify airstrikes in Syria? (Colum Lynch, Elias Groll)

In 2017, when President Trump authorized the firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base in retaliation for its alleged role in a sarin gas attack both British and French government agencies reportedly had soil samples confirming that chemical weapons had been used, violating international law. Yet, when US forces launched coordinated airstrikes with the UK and France on Friday to take out three facilities in Syria believed to be researching, developing and  storing chemical weapons, the proof was a lot less solid. On this week’s TrumpWatch, Colum Lynch and Elias Groll, co-authors of the Foreign Policy article “How Social Media Built the Case for Trump’s Strike on Syria,” examine the evidence used to justify this new round of air attacks by the US and its allies.