I thought of Michael Corleone when I listened to Donald Trump pledging to act to stop Syria’s “beautiful babies” from being gassed. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,” he must have been thinking last week, much like the quote from The Godfather Part III. Sure enough, even as pundits enumerated the many times Trump had previously railed against intervening in Syria, and reminded him of his “America first” doctrine, US missiles were raining on a Syrian air base.

President Trump restored the red line on the use of chemical weapons that his predecessor, Barack Obama, had ignored, sending his cheerleaders into frenzied criticism and his detractors into bemused approval. In several corners of the Middle East, his missile strike was met, above all, with relief. The US, many reckoned, was back in the game.

It is apparently the inevitable fate of US presidents to be dragged into the swamp of Middle Eastern conflicts, no matter how resistant they start out. Some are lured by dreams of peacemaking greatness; others are forced into rescuing allies and reminding enemies of American leadership.