WASHINGTON: The Trump administration opened a new military front Thursday when it ordered dozens of cruise missiles against a Syrian air base, adding to a growing list of recent US military forays. A look at where the United States has fought in the 21st century:
AFGHANISTAN
After Al-Qaeda attacked the US on Sept. 11, 2001, the US led an invasion of Afghanistan that ousted the Taliban. Though the US and NATO formally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, the war — now in its 16th year — drags on.
Some 8,400 American troops are deployed in Afghanistan, where they train the country’s military and perform counterterrorism operations.
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IRAQ
Under President George W. Bush, the US invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein. Bush’s successor, President Barack Obama, pulled US troops out of Iraq in 2011 after failing to reach an agreement with Baghdad to leave a residual US force behind.
But the US sent troops back three years later after the Daesh group, a successor to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, seized Iraqi territory and sought to declare an Islamic caliphate.
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DRONE WARS
Under Obama, the US dramatically increased the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones, to launch counterterrorism strikes without the need for a large US military presence on the ground. The CIA and Defense Department have launched strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, some of them covert.
Intense criticism from civil liberties advocates led Obama to create legal parameters for drone use that he hoped future presidents would respect. At least 117 civilians were killed from 2009 to 2016 by drone strikes outside of traditional warzones, the US intelligence community has said. Other estimates place the toll higher.
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LIBYA
The US and European allies launched an air campaign in Libya in 2011, aiming to prevent atrocities by strongman Muammar Qaddafi against Arab Spring-inspired opponents. The bombing campaign toppled Qaddafi, but Libya slid into chaos and infighting. The Daesh group later gained a foothold.
The US has continued to carry out airstrikes in Libya that Washington says has diminished the number of IS extremists operating there.
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ISLAMIC STATE GROUP IN IRAQ AND SYRIA
After IS captured a wide swath of Iraq and Syria in 2014, Obama announced the US could target the group “wherever they are.”
The US started sending small numbers of military advisers to help Iraq’s weakened military fight IS. The number has crept up to around 7,500 US troops. IS has lost much of its former territory.
In Syria, the US has conducted airstrikes against IS since 2014. More recently, the US has dispatched growing numbers of special operations forces to assist Kurdish and Arab forces fighting IS. Roughly 500 US fighters are in Syria, plus additional, “temporary” forces that rotate through.
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SYRIA
Even while fighting IS in Syria, the US has avoided wading into Syria’s civil war by directly confronting Syrian President Bashar Assad — until now. On Thursday night, US warships in the Mediterranean Sea launched some 60 Tomahawk missiles at an air base in response to a chemical weapons attack blamed on Assad’s forces.
The strikes mark the first direct US attack on Syria’s government, which has waged a six-year civil war against opposition groups. It also puts the US into a de facto proxy battle with Russia’s military, which is on the ground in Syria and has propped up Assad.
Syria strikes add to list of 21st century US military forays
Syria strikes add to list of 21st century US military forays
Trump pivots to new 10 percent global tariff, new probes after Supreme Court setback
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump moved swiftly on Friday to replace tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court with a temporary 10 percent global import duty for 150 days while opening investigations under other laws that could allow him to re-impose the tariffs.
Trump told a briefing he was ordering new tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, duties that would go on top of surviving tariffs. These would partly replace tariffs of 10 percent to 50 percent under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act that the top court declared illegal.
Trump said later on Truth Social that he had signed an order for the tariffs on all countries “which will be effective almost immediately.”
A spokesperson for the US Customs and Border Protection agency declined comment when asked when collections of the illegal IEEPA tariffs would halt at ports of entry.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said the new 10 percent duties and potentially enhanced tariffs under the Section 301 unfair practices statute and the Section 232 national security statute would result in virtually unchanged tariff revenue in 2026.
“We will get back to the same tariff level for the countries. It will just be in a less direct and slightly more convoluted manner,” Bessent told Fox News, adding that the Supreme Court decision had reduced Trump’s negotiating leverage with trading partners.
The never-used Section 122 authority allows the president to impose duties of up to 15 percent for up to 150 days on any and all countries to address “large and serious” balance of payments issues. It does not require investigations or impose other procedural limits. After 150 days, Congress would need to approve their extension.
“We have alternatives, great alternatives,” Trump said. “Could be more money. We’ll take in more money and we’ll be a lot stronger for it,” Trump said of the alternative tools.
While the administration will likely face legal challenges, the Section 122 tariffs would lapse before any final ruling could be made, said Josh Lipsky, international economics chair at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington.
Trump said his administration also was initiating several new country-specific investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 “to protect our country from unfair trading practices of other countries and companies.”
Trump’s shift to other statutes, including Section 122, while initiating new investigations under Section 301 had been widely anticipated, but these have often taken a year to complete.
The 10 percent tariffs only last five months, but Trump said that would allow his administration to complete investigations to enhance tariffs.
Asked if rates would ultimately end up being higher after more probes, Trump said: “Potentially higher. It depends. Whatever we want them to be.”
He said some countries “that have treated us really badly for years” could see higher tariffs, whereas for others, “it’s going to be very reasonable for them.”
The fate of dozens of trade deals to cut IEEPA-based duties and negotiations with major US trading partners remained unclear in the wake of the ruling, though Trump said he expected many of them to continue. He said deals that are abandoned “will be replaced with the other tariffs.”
“This is unlikely to affect reciprocal trade negotiations with our trading partners,” said Tim Brightbill, trade partner with the law firm Wiley Rein in Washington. “Most countries would prefer the certainty of a trade deal to the chaos of last year.”
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said details on new Section 301 investigations would be revealed in coming days, adding these are “incredibly legally durable.” Trump relied on Section 301 to impose broad tariffs on Chinese imports during his first term.
The Supreme Court’s ruling puts about $175 billion in tariff revenue collected over the past year subject to potential refunds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by Penn-Wharton Budget Model economists.
Asked if he would refund the IEEPA duties, Trump said, “I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years,” a response indicating that a quick, automatic refund process was unlikely.
Speaking in Dallas, Bessent told business leaders that since the Supreme Court did not provide any instructions on refunds, those were “in dispute,” adding: “My sense is that could be dragged out for weeks, months, years.”
Part of the reason why Trump opted for IEEPA to impose tariffs last year was because the 1977 sanctions statute allowed fast and broad action with almost no constraints. Until Friday, he had also used it as a cudgel to swiftly punish countries over non-trade disputes, such as Brazil’s prosecution of former president and Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro.
While Trump’s new investigations will prolong tariff uncertainty, they could inject more order into his tariff policy by forcing him to rely on trade laws that have well-understood procedures, research and public comment requirements, and longer timelines, said Janet Whittaker, senior counsel with Clifford Chance in Washington.
“The administration will need to follow these set processes, conduct the investigations, and so for businesses, that means more visibility into the process,” Whittaker said.
Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s trade chief during his first term, said on Fox News that he hoped Congress would revise decades-old trade laws to give Trump new tariff tools.
“I think there’s consensus in this Congress that we have to change the old system, and I hope that they will take this as an opportunity to do that,” Lighthizer said.
