Kuleana,
Please explain how what the U.S. did is illegal in the context of the doctrine of responsibility to protect (R2P) which is part of international law? Please do not keep repeating what the U.S. did is illegal. What I am asking you for is how the U.S. violated this particular R2P doctrine of international law. Thanks!
First of all, the US prior to their missile attack did not conduct any investigation or chemical analysis in Douma to determine whether a gas attack did occur and, if their was, who was responsible. All that was shared by the White House and the US military was the same anti-Assad rhetoric that he is an evil man and he did it. As in any court case, to determine guilt of a crime, it must be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the alleged perpetrator had to have the means and the motive to do so.
Using this standard, did Assad have the means to conduct an attack?
Possibly, as he could have some chemical weapons hidden somewhere.
However, does Assad have a motive to gas attack civilians?
Not really. What would he have to gain by gassing civilians, when there are still many ISIS combatants still running around in his country that would be better strategic targets?
Furthermore, could it be possible that ISIS conducted the alleged gas attack in order to blame Assad, knowing the US would use that attack to further move forward to their ultimate goal of regime change in Syria, as the US did in Iraq and Libya?
The bottom line is the assertion that Assad gas attacked civilians in Douma was speculative at best and with the US, UK, and France moving forward to missile attack Syria, without investigating whether ISIS or some other group was the responsible party, is a violation of responsibility to protect doctrine in international law and a war crime.