Trump should listen to his instincts and stay out of the Middle East: Neil Macdonald
1192 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.
Max Merl
After watching the video of
children being gassed and desperately trying to breath I have to shake
my head that the left wants President Trump to stay out of the Syrian
affair and do absolutely nothing.
David Raymond Amos
@Max Merl My answer to your
statement is to repeat myself and cut and past from a comment I made to a
sensible lady yesterday by simply quoting a long dead Russian dude who
was far wiser than Yankee wackos like Trump could even dream of being
“History would be a wonderful thing – if it were only true.”
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
“History would be a wonderful thing – if it were only true.”
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Tina Falco
@David Raymond Amos
That sensible lady was me!
(thanks for the vote of confidence but unfortunately now that I said that, not everyone will agree...)
That sensible lady was me!
(thanks for the vote of confidence but unfortunately now that I said that, not everyone will agree...)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/analysis-syria-us-attack-1.4059823
Missile attack on Syria a 'win-win' for Trump, say some analysts
3006 CommentsCommenting is now closed for this story.
Susan Smith
Since Donald has no knowledge
of the constitution he swore an oath to uphold and no experience
governing anything, he apparently sidestepped the necessity of
congressional approval for military action. When President Obama asked
for it, congress ignored him and refused even to vote on it. That will
have consequences of its own, apparently, since the U.S. was not under
attack. Being otherwise occupied on a busy golf weekend, Donald didn't
bother with the law. Again.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/327736-rand-paul-trump-needed-congressional-authorization-for-military
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/327736-rand-paul-trump-needed-congressional-authorization-for-military
Ron Smith
@Susan Smith
Susan, I seem to recall you predicting with near certainty that Trump would never win the White House. As such, I'm not sure if you have the credibility to make any pronouncements at this point in time.
Susan, I seem to recall you predicting with near certainty that Trump would never win the White House. As such, I'm not sure if you have the credibility to make any pronouncements at this point in time.
Igor Veselovsky
@Susan Smith
Lame Obama allowed the opportunity to punish Assad, when the latter was already using chlorine gas to kill his own people. I remember something about a red line, but I think that the wind blew it away while waiting for Obama to act.
Why the selective criticism of President Trump now?
Lame Obama allowed the opportunity to punish Assad, when the latter was already using chlorine gas to kill his own people. I remember something about a red line, but I think that the wind blew it away while waiting for Obama to act.
Why the selective criticism of President Trump now?
David Raymond Amos
@Ron Smith Even when the lady is correct?
David Raymond Amos
@John Dirlik You hit the nail on th head with this one
"The differences between our Conservatives and Liberals (especially in foreign policy) are more packaging than substance"
"The differences between our Conservatives and Liberals (especially in foreign policy) are more packaging than substance"
David Raymond Amos
@Bruce Schnobb RE
"Justification to initiate articles of impeachment" That would be hoot to
watch but methinks nobody has the nerve to do so.
David Raymond Amos
@Glenn Foster "I don't recall him declaring war on Syria."
What would you call it if any country sent 50 missiles into the USA?
What would you call it if any country sent 50 missiles into the USA?
David Raymond Amos
@Susan Smith "Unless the U.S. Is under attack, the use of military force requires congressional approval."
True
True
David Raymond Amos
@Penny Robertson "The Wall
Street cohorts are too busy with Trump's cabinet meetings to be
listening to any speeches by Clinton."
Oh So True
Oh So True
Anthony Wright
Ordered by the President without the approval of Congress.
When will Mr. Trump respect the Constitution of the United States of America?
When will Mr. Trump respect the Constitution of the United States of America?
Igor Veselovsky
@Anthony Wright
Look, if the president had done an illegal action here, he would be impeached. If his decision was not illegal, then I don't care a hoot. He did the right thing.
Look, if the president had done an illegal action here, he would be impeached. If his decision was not illegal, then I don't care a hoot. He did the right thing.
David Raymond Amos
@Anthony Wright Obviously never.
Margaret Rowe
Lets kill someone far away so
the people from home will love us, again ... also, lets name the
killing ... a humanitarian intervention ... nice times we live in
... now repeat after me 1 million times though the media ... will make the killing nicer
... now repeat after me 1 million times though the media ... will make the killing nicer
David Raymond Amos
@Margaret Rowe I find myself humming a lot old tunes from my youth. How about you?
Margaret Rowe
@David Raymond Amos
It looks like we learned ... nothing
It looks like we learned ... nothing
Algernon Chalfont
Trump is proving himself to
be just another puppet for the globalist puppet-masters. Those who
control the wealth really do control the power. Sad.
Jake Preacher
@Algernon Chalfont These
puppet masters are the ones that have started every mideast war, since
1916 after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
David Raymond Amos
@Jake Preacher I concur
Douglas McLeod
sooo, when they oust Assad, who takes his place? and the US is far from innocent of civilian blood...ask the people of Faluja...
David Raymond Amos
@Douglas McLeod Perhaps another "Donald' aka the Yankee's lucky 13th Secretary of Defense wants the job?
Joseph Cluster
Dave Lane
Tina Falco
Edward Peter
So Mr. Trump is only 70 days
in power and he says he is only going to do tings to make AMERICA GREAT,
and things that are in AMERICAS interest and he got got AMERICA killing
Arabs again, so much for what he says, Every statement has a
deterioration rate or "BEST before date" to it
Igor Veselovsky
@Charles van Duren
Assad should be punished for his international war crimes. And that punishment time is now.
Assad should be punished for his international war crimes. And that punishment time is now.
David Raymond Amos
@Igor Veselovsky What planet
are you from? The same should be said of your beloved president Georgey
Boy Bush. Way back in 2003 evil Yankees had no problem whatsoever
getting their buddy Assad to torture Canadians. Remember the term
extra-ordinary rendition or the Arar Inquiry?
Keith Warren
This should make the neocon warmongers like McInsane really happy. This fits right in to their perpetual war ideology.
Jimmy Jack
@Keith Warren ...So you think
those childrens lives (you know, the ones that were gassed while they
played outside) are not worth anything, I guess?
Andrew fleischer
@Jimmy Jack
Since when does it matter to Trump or his supporters who were against bringing in any Syrian refugees now that 70 died by gas attack? Over the last 5 years over 250k died and he or his supporters never cared? Now he all holier than now and a humanitarian?
If he announces today they are bringing in Syrian refugees then he cares, otherwise the article is spot on
Since when does it matter to Trump or his supporters who were against bringing in any Syrian refugees now that 70 died by gas attack? Over the last 5 years over 250k died and he or his supporters never cared? Now he all holier than now and a humanitarian?
If he announces today they are bringing in Syrian refugees then he cares, otherwise the article is spot on
David Raymond Amos
@Andrew fleischer Good point sir
Joseph Cluster
The way to deflect attention
just do something that will grab the attention of everyone around the
world, perfect timing for Trump.
Scott Brown
@Joseph Cluster,
After failed health care bill and failed tax reform that was his only choice to distract people's attention.
After failed health care bill and failed tax reform that was his only choice to distract people's attention.
David Raymond Amos
@Joseph Cluster Perfect is
the last description of Trump's actions that crosses my mind. What he
did flies in the face of the Constitution he swore to uphold.
Lawrence Aaluuluuq (RedWhite)
@David Raymond Amos
But the media has pretty much collectively stopped talking about the failed health care reform, or the failed tax reform.
This is pretty typical of Trump's style:
Don't let anything stick, and do something ridiculous and bombastic so we'll stop talking about the -last- ridiculous thing he did.
Rinse, lather, repeat, until people have outrage-fatigue.
But the media has pretty much collectively stopped talking about the failed health care reform, or the failed tax reform.
This is pretty typical of Trump's style:
Don't let anything stick, and do something ridiculous and bombastic so we'll stop talking about the -last- ridiculous thing he did.
Rinse, lather, repeat, until people have outrage-fatigue.
Ken MacDonald
Holy crap, it's the Iraq WMDs all over again. You want WWIII? This is how you get WWIII.
Alex Aghajanian
@Ken MacDonald
This is exactly it. The US is launching attacks based on, at best, lacking information. This is the same US that supposedly oversaw the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, but here they are saying Assad did it and launching attacks against him.
In this entire situation, there is only one winner, the weapons makers. They saw that Assad was finally gaining the upper hand in a civil war that the East and West have been fueling. They saw a potential end to the weapons sales, that's been fixed now. The civil war will continue. Or the US will officially invade Syria, either way weapons makers keep making more money while civilians continue to die.
This isn't about humanity, this isn't about saving civilians from Assad, it's all about money.
Even if the US invaded and deposed Assad, what do you think would happen next? Many of those rebel groups hate other rebel groups, the civil war would then go from Rebels VS Assad, to Rebels Vs Other Rebels, and some of those groups are perfect candidates for future terrorist groups.
Nothing is being resolved today, just setting the framework for continued insecurity and civilian casualties.
This is exactly it. The US is launching attacks based on, at best, lacking information. This is the same US that supposedly oversaw the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, but here they are saying Assad did it and launching attacks against him.
In this entire situation, there is only one winner, the weapons makers. They saw that Assad was finally gaining the upper hand in a civil war that the East and West have been fueling. They saw a potential end to the weapons sales, that's been fixed now. The civil war will continue. Or the US will officially invade Syria, either way weapons makers keep making more money while civilians continue to die.
This isn't about humanity, this isn't about saving civilians from Assad, it's all about money.
Even if the US invaded and deposed Assad, what do you think would happen next? Many of those rebel groups hate other rebel groups, the civil war would then go from Rebels VS Assad, to Rebels Vs Other Rebels, and some of those groups are perfect candidates for future terrorist groups.
Nothing is being resolved today, just setting the framework for continued insecurity and civilian casualties.
David Raymond Amos
@Alex Aghajanian The weapons
makers are already making out like the bandits they truly are. For
instance how much will more than 50 Tomahawk missiles cost to replace
the ones Trump used today?
Dave Lane
Foreign policy with Trump at the helm of the US is like being stuck in a speeding car with a drunk driver at the wheel.
Walter Winchell
@Dave Lane
Better than the village idiot.
Better than the village idiot.
David Raymond Amos
@Walter Winchell What if the village idiot IS the drunk driver?.
Fake news is a known fact, when will the truth be told?
This is just more of the same false flags to wage more war for the sake of greed, corruption and global hegemony.
The US has caused so much death and destruction in the world...will the media ever be on the side of innocent civilians?
Enough already!
This is just more of the same false flags to wage more war for the sake of greed, corruption and global hegemony.
The US has caused so much death and destruction in the world...will the media ever be on the side of innocent civilians?
Enough already!
David Raymond Amos
@Tina Falco The answer to your query is Never will the truth be told.
I will quote long dead Russian dude who was far wiser than Yankee wackos like Trump could even dream of being
“History would be a wonderful thing – if it were only true.”
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
I will quote long dead Russian dude who was far wiser than Yankee wackos like Trump could even dream of being
“History would be a wonderful thing – if it were only true.”
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Tina Falco
@Greg Gore
No I'm not ok with Assad using nerve gas on civilians.
But since he didn't (why would he, he was winning the war after all), I am not ok with who ever did - to continue this toppling of the man.
No I'm not ok with Assad using nerve gas on civilians.
But since he didn't (why would he, he was winning the war after all), I am not ok with who ever did - to continue this toppling of the man.
Tina Falco
@David Raymond Amos
Thanks for that...it's a keeper.
Thanks for that...it's a keeper.
Cyrus Manz
Watch the new
Commander-In-Chief end the carnage that our NOBEL peace laureate started
in Syria and the rest of the middle east .
Igor Veselovsky
@Cyrus Manz
President Trump may get the Nobel War prize from Oslo.
President Trump may get the Nobel War prize from Oslo.
David Raymond Amos
@Cyrus Manz I sincerely hope that you are joking
Kevin Delaney
@Cyrus Manz
Up early this morning Cyrus. Did something happen last night to stir you from your rest?? This may shock you, I am not a fan of The Donald. I have posted the occasional comment against him for a host of reasons.
However, I will give him this... Donald said many lines were crossed in the gassing attack and unlike Obama, he authorized a strike. Good.
Sadly The Donald will continue with a host of other flawed decisions & comments that will result in people continuing to wonder about him & his ability to have sustained rational thoughts.
Up early this morning Cyrus. Did something happen last night to stir you from your rest?? This may shock you, I am not a fan of The Donald. I have posted the occasional comment against him for a host of reasons.
However, I will give him this... Donald said many lines were crossed in the gassing attack and unlike Obama, he authorized a strike. Good.
Sadly The Donald will continue with a host of other flawed decisions & comments that will result in people continuing to wonder about him & his ability to have sustained rational thoughts.
Mark Wood
@Cyrus Manz
Trump supporters sure do get up early. Well at 1st I thought well this might be good news, after Tillerson unwittingly greenlighted the attack by saying Assad can stay and it was not the U.S.'s business.
But then they started telegraphing that this was a one and done and that they has informed the Russians beforehand.
Syria did not lose a plane or a soldier. It was an expensive way to tear down a few hangars. So no chemical attacks but bombing is OK.
Trump supporters sure do get up early. Well at 1st I thought well this might be good news, after Tillerson unwittingly greenlighted the attack by saying Assad can stay and it was not the U.S.'s business.
But then they started telegraphing that this was a one and done and that they has informed the Russians beforehand.
Syria did not lose a plane or a soldier. It was an expensive way to tear down a few hangars. So no chemical attacks but bombing is OK.
Ryan Tasker
@Cyrus Manz
You don't end what's happening with more violence. Welcome to WW3.
You don't end what's happening with more violence. Welcome to WW3.
David Raymond Amos
@Ryan Tasker I agree
Cyrus Manz
One wonders how the FAKESTREAM "Trump-Russia Illusionists" are going to spin this one:-)
David Raymond Amos
@Cyrus Manz The answer would be LEGIONS
Sam Montana
A surreal development after 6 long years when Obama's INCOMPETENCE in foreign policy started it all.
What struck me was that as the President finished reading his China's dictator's marching orders, hell(fire) started to rain down on another.
I am willing to bet that Xi regrets his opportunistic actions of late already.
What struck me was that as the President finished reading his China's dictator's marching orders, hell(fire) started to rain down on another.
I am willing to bet that Xi regrets his opportunistic actions of late already.
Charles van Duren
@Sam Montana
"as the President finished reading his China's dictator's marching orders"
You have to be joking.
"as the President finished reading his China's dictator's marching orders"
You have to be joking.
Lee Hall
@Sam Montana <---- am="" br="" comments:="" his="" how="" i="" like="" sometimes="" starts="" yrus="">
" As a woman.... ".
" As a woman.... ".
David Raymond Amos
@Charles van Duren I thought it was pretty funny
Eric Tripp
Especially after Obama's "red
line" hiccup, the retaliatory action for gas attacks with civilian
casualties was inevitable. US couldn't afford to look weak again.
Which raises the question, why would Assad do it? His regime is gaining significant ground against the rebels and just recently US announced his removal is not a priority anymore. It just doesn't make sense...
Which raises the question, why would Assad do it? His regime is gaining significant ground against the rebels and just recently US announced his removal is not a priority anymore. It just doesn't make sense...
David Raymond Amos
@Eric Tripp "Which raises the
question, why would Assad do it? His regime is gaining significant
ground against the rebels and just recently US announced his removal is
not a priority anymore. It just doesn't make sense..."
Exactly It doesn't.
So draw the obvious conclusion
Exactly It doesn't.
So draw the obvious conclusion
Trump haters see kids dying of sarin gas: Somebody better do something!
Trump: Send in the missiles
Trump haters: BOOOOO TRUMP!
The rest of us: Give it a rest, he's actually doing something.
Trump: Send in the missiles
Trump haters: BOOOOO TRUMP!
The rest of us: Give it a rest, he's actually doing something.
Alex Matheson
@Candice Brown
He was against bombing Syria in 2013. They were using gas then too. The only reason he bombed them now is because it is in his best interest. Trump cares about Trump.
He was against bombing Syria in 2013. They were using gas then too. The only reason he bombed them now is because it is in his best interest. Trump cares about Trump.
David Raymond Amos
@Alex Matheson "Trump cares about Trump"
Truer words were never published by CBC. within a comment section. Go Figure why they block so many of mine
Truer words were never published by CBC. within a comment section. Go Figure why they block so many of mine
Richard Bailey
CNN Reporter: But, but, but ... can't we just get back to the Russia dossier. Aren't we supposed to be getting Trump impeached?
David Raymond Amos
@Richard Bailey As the dumb Fake Left Yankee spin doctors within CNN say But, but, but....
Folks with two clues between their ears are saying Tut, Tut, Tut towards the evil nonsense of it all
Folks with two clues between their ears are saying Tut, Tut, Tut towards the evil nonsense of it all
Neil Austen
Big surprise. Trump starts a
new war. Yippee for arms dealers and military contractors. Boo hoo for
taxpayers and hello big balloon national debt!
Leopold Stotch
@Neil Austen
A new war? Have you not read the news for the last six years, or the particular details of this event.
I get it, you hate Trump, but keep in mind the previous president wanted to do the same thing and was thwarted by a Republican congress.
Your knee jerk reaction is ill advised and uninformed.
A new war? Have you not read the news for the last six years, or the particular details of this event.
I get it, you hate Trump, but keep in mind the previous president wanted to do the same thing and was thwarted by a Republican congress.
Your knee jerk reaction is ill advised and uninformed.
Content disabled.
David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Leopold Stotch Naw Methinks
it is you who may be ill advised and uninformed or quite possibly one
of the ones who are ill advising and misinforming N'esy Pas?.
Alice P Lynne
Can ANYONE say Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Can ANYONE day 9/11?
Can ANYONE say PNAC?
Can ANYONE say torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin?
Can ANYONE day 9/11?
Can ANYONE say PNAC?
Can ANYONE say torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin?
David Raymond Amos
@Alice P Lynne FYI long ago
I said what of Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction?
I said what of 9/11?
I said to Hell with PNAC
I wondered about torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin
Do you even know who I am?
I said what of Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction?
I said what of 9/11?
I said to Hell with PNAC
I wondered about torpedoes in the Gulf of Tonkin
Do you even know who I am?
Karen King
@David Raymond Amos
She's a con
She's a con
http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/trump-middle-east-policy-1.4061371
Trump should listen to his instincts and stay out of the Middle East: Neil Macdonald
Yes, people would die if the U.S. departed. But people will die if the U.S. remains, arguably even more people
By Neil Macdonald, CBC News
Posted: Apr 08, 2017 5:00 AM ET
The dismal fact is that America has a deadly, incompetent,
destructive track record in the Middle East. (Alex Brandon/Associated
Press)
President Donald Trump's decision to bomb a Syrian air base (after warning the Russians to get out of the way) was inevitable, and perfectly, utterly American.
Trump invoked images of suffering babies, something that always stirs a goodhearted American desire to step in and do something. He also invoked God, the Christian God Americans believe has invested them alone with a duty to protect the world from evil.
The use of chemical weapons this week in Idlib province, declared Trump, was a slaughter of innocents:
"Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror."
Well. Apart from the fact that striking one airbase is unlikely to make Bashar al-Assad any less vicious, the fact is that children of God suffer such horrors every day in Syria. They have for years.
Syrian civil war
The Syrian rebellion, in fact, began when al-Assad's agents kidnapped and tortured some schoolboys for daubing anti-regime graffiti in Daraa six years ago. And there is ample evidence the regime's torturers have enthusiastically practised their craft on many other innocents, children included, in the years since.
Exactly how is killing children with chlorine or phosgene or sarin materially different from torturing them to death, or shattering their bodies with crude barrel bombs, or laying siege to and starving them, or bombing a hospital to ensure they can find no treatment for their wounds, while Donald Trump's press secretary shrugs and declares that the U.S. "understands the political reality" of Assad's leadership?
Children suffer horribly all over the Middle East, every day. (Rami Zayat/Reuters)
Egypt's leader, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, used murder, imprisonment and torture to eliminate the Muslim Brotherhood and thwart the democratic wishes of the Egyptian electorate in muscling his own way to power. He killed innocents and children of God. For years, he was unwelcome at the Obama White House.
But there he was a few days ago in the Oval Office, grinning widely as Donald Trump congratulated him for doing "a fantastic job."
When the Shia population of Bahrain, during the faux-joie of the Arab Spring, rose up in 2011 and demanded equal rights, the emirate crushed, imprisoned and tortured those children of God, with Saudi help.
Barack Obama responded weakly, making future arms sales to Bahrain conditional on respect for human rights.
But the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet is based in Manama, and the United States wants to sell the Bahrainis some expensive fighter jets, so the Trump White House just this past week eliminated the human rights rider. Sometimes you have to overlook children of God for the greater good.
American supplies
In Yemen, where the Saudis have intervened in a civil war, American-supplied weaponry and ordnance (and, almost certainly, Canadian-supplied warfighting vehicles) are being used to inflict horrors on Houthi civilians, also children of God.
And then there's Iraq, a country the United States invaded and shattered, killing tens of thousands and triggering the deaths of hundreds of thousands, including children of God, all based on Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction – an assumption based either on a lie or massive incompetence, or both. A side effect was the creation of ISIS, which in turn provided the justification for more American militarism.
Americans tend to filter and rationalize all this through the lens of American exceptionalism, but the dismal fact is that America has a deadly, incompetent, destructive track record in the Middle East.
- False hopes? U.S. attack on Syrian airbase raises expectations
- Key moments in the Syrian conflict that has killed over 400,000
At best, America has been a bumbling supporter of despots, intervening incompetently in tribal cultures it has never comprehended. At worse, it has been a malicious, powerful, self-interested imperial power, indifferent to the suffering of God's children.
The Ayatollahs and the Shah might never have afflicted Iranians had the Americans, greedy for exclusive access to Iranian oil, not forcibly deposed that peaceful country's democratically elected leader in 1953.
It can be reasonably argued that the absolute support and tens of billions of dollars America has provided Israel over the decades has encouraged that country to seek permanent dominance over the people it occupies, rather than a negotiated peace.
And, it seems, wherever a missile creates a smoking crater filled with corpses — in places like Gaza or Iraq or South Lebanon — bomb fragments with American markings are scattered about, fuelling hatred, germinating what the U.S. will eventually denounce as terrorism.
Which is why President Trump should listen to his instincts, and let other countries deal with their own problems. He actually ran on that promise.
As Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs argued recently:
"It's time to end US military engagements in the Middle East. Drones, special operations, CIA arms supplies, military advisers, aerial bombings — the whole nine yards. Over and done with."
"The Turks, Arabs, and Persians have lived together as organized states for around 2,500 years. The United States has meddled unsuccessfully in the region for 65 years. It's time to let the locals sort out their problems."
00:00
00:44
Cellphone video captures U.S. missile strikes in Syria0:44
It would, of course, be hard for America to let go of its belief in manifest destiny and Wilsonian principles. And harder still to abandon the idea that God wants America to act.
Just a week or so ago, U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley declared in a speech that "The United States is the moral conscience of the world."
To anyone who's studied Middle Eastern history, that statement is almost funny. But to the Sunnis of Iraq, the Shia of Bahrain, the Houthis of Yemen, the Palestinians, the Shia of South Lebanon, ordinary Iranians, or all those Egyptians who wanted democracy, it must be beyond frightening.
This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-syria-alt-right-friends-enemies-1.4061862
'Friends become enemies': Trump's Syria strike stirs up alt-right outrage as lawmakers praise him
'I was very proud of him,' senator says of Trump after missile attack, while alt-right complains of 'betrayal'
By Matt Kwong, CBC News Posted: Apr 08, 2017 5:00 AM ET
U.S. President Donald Trump has received praise from some
foes and criticism from some supporters for his missile attack on a
Syrian airbase. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
To understand how the political sands have shifted since U.S.
President Donald Trump ordered Thursday's military strike in Syria,
don't just pay attention to the rare praise he's getting from Capitol
Hill.
Watch the outrage he's stirring up among his former fans in the alt-right, the anti-immigrant fringe movement that embraces white supremacy and isolationism.
While lawmakers best known for challenging the president gushed about his decision-making, prominent white nationalist Kevin MacDonald was at home fuming.
"It's a betrayal," the editor of the "white identity" journal The Occidental Observer said from California on the morning after Trump's decision to launch dozens of Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase.
The alt-right has been alienated, MacDonald said in a phone interview.
"I'm concerned now this whole administration is going the way of the neocons. The whole nine yards," he said. "I'm very disappointed; very agitated."
The swift American military offensive was intended to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime for unleashing deadly chemical weapons on scores of women and children earlier in the week. But the U.S. attack offended the anti-globalist principles of the far-right elements drawn to Trump's "America First" rhetoric.
Some of Trump's staunchest anti-war allies in the libertarian and far-right communities have now spurned him. They say the military intervention in Syria showed Trump was never the true isolationist they hoped he'd be.
As some alt-right online commentators saw it, their anti-establishment candidate caved to status-quo political pressures.
"That's it. I'm done. Trump is a cuckservative now," wrote one user on the 4chan "Politically incorrect" message board, using the derogatory alt-right epithet for an effete, moderate conservative.
"Trump is a puppet now," another 4chan user wrote on the same thread discussing the missile strike. "Swamp drowned him."
As with MacDonald, who has been described by the Southern Poverty Law
Center as "the neo-Nazi movement's favourite academic," some of Trump's
most dedicated admirers in the alt-right were stunned by the news.
Trump's missile strike aligned with what his former Democratic rival for
president, Hillary Clinton, had suggested Thursday, when she told a
women's forum she would "take out" Assad's airfields.
The president, MacDonald thought, was supposed to be an "America First" leader focused on a non-interventionist foreign policy.
"That was one of the things we in the alt-right liked," he said.
Richard Spencer, who coined the "alt-right" term, expressed his displeasure in a video he titled "The Trump Betrayal." Alex Jones, the conspiracy theory pedlar and host of InfoWars, said on his show Trump was "disintegrating in my eyes."
And Milo Yiannopoulos, the former Breitbart editor and political agitator who once co-authored a manifesto on the alt-right, wrote on Facebook: "There comes a day in every child's life when his Daddy bitterly disappoints him."
MacDonald said he would consider "jumping off the Trump train," but plans to hang on despite his "faith being on shaky ground."
Beyond the Syrian intervention, MacDonald said the past week has troubled him because of reports about former Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon being booted from Trump's National Security Council. It sounded to him like a demotion for Bannon, an alt-right godfather of sorts, in favour of Trump's more moderate-leaning son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
"Bannon's being pushed aside a little bit [by] Jared Kushner," MacDonald said, slamming Kushner as "a globalist."
"Meanwhile, Trump kept the neocons out of this administration, but he's being applauded now by the neocons for what he's doing in Syria."
Matthew Lyons, who has researched the origins of the alt-right and co-authored the book Ctrl-Alt-Delete: An Antifascist Report on the Alternative Right, said far-right groups will see Trump's Syria strike as a "dramatic abandonment" of his stated foreign policy doctrine.
"If Trump continues in the same vein, I think it probably will mean a pretty definitive break," Lyons said.
Whatever divisions the Syria development has caused may also just be temporary, suggested Julian Zelizer, a professor of American political history at Princeton University. Military conflict often has the potential "of shaking up entrenched political alignment and alliances," he said.
"So friends become enemies, and vice versa. That's what you're seeing with the far-right getting angry with Trump."
There was certainly some jarring messaging coming from ordinarily cantankerous senators who have made a habit of criticizing the president. There was a new tone, for instance, from Republican senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain following the strike against Assad's regime.
"I was very proud of him," Graham said, before reportedly comparing Trump to a conservative presidential icon.
"I think there's a side to President Trump that's very much like Ronald Reagan," Graham said, according to the Washington Post's Dave Weigel.
Trump "took action" by striking Assad's airfield, McCain said. "For that, he deserves the support of the American people."
Bill Kristol, the conservative editor of The Weekly Standard and an avowed #NeverTrumper, joined the Trump love-in, tweeting that "a growth spurt" in the president's leadership appeared to be underway.
Democrats also endorsed the attack. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi did so publicly but with a caveat: the use of military force, she argued, should have been authorized first by Congress.
"I'm supportive of the Trump administration's decision to launch airstrikes in response to Assad's assault on his own people," wrote Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, described the action as "the right thing to do" in his written statement.
As for Trump's base?
"Wait for the polls. My instincts say they will be delighted," said congressional expert Ilona Nickels. She said more moderate Trump conservatives may view him as a "man of action" versus "the cerebral paralysis of Obama," who was criticized in 2013 for apparently pulling back on a decision to launch a military strike against Syria.
Zelizer, the Princeton professor, expects traditional partisan divisions to settle once the battle lines are no longer fresh. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, for example, a period of goodwill and bipartisanship lasted about a month.
"As Congress started to think of key issues and people started thinking about elections, the divisions re-emerged," he said. "The question now is will these divisions continue? For how long? And do people go back to where they were before the missile strike?"
Watch the outrage he's stirring up among his former fans in the alt-right, the anti-immigrant fringe movement that embraces white supremacy and isolationism.
While lawmakers best known for challenging the president gushed about his decision-making, prominent white nationalist Kevin MacDonald was at home fuming.
"It's a betrayal," the editor of the "white identity" journal The Occidental Observer said from California on the morning after Trump's decision to launch dozens of Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase.
The alt-right has been alienated, MacDonald said in a phone interview.
"I'm concerned now this whole administration is going the way of the neocons. The whole nine yards," he said. "I'm very disappointed; very agitated."
The swift American military offensive was intended to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime for unleashing deadly chemical weapons on scores of women and children earlier in the week. But the U.S. attack offended the anti-globalist principles of the far-right elements drawn to Trump's "America First" rhetoric.
'That's it. I'm done'
Some of Trump's staunchest anti-war allies in the libertarian and far-right communities have now spurned him. They say the military intervention in Syria showed Trump was never the true isolationist they hoped he'd be.
As some alt-right online commentators saw it, their anti-establishment candidate caved to status-quo political pressures.
"That's it. I'm done. Trump is a cuckservative now," wrote one user on the 4chan "Politically incorrect" message board, using the derogatory alt-right epithet for an effete, moderate conservative.
- Q&A | CBC answers your questions on chemical attack and aftermath
- TRANSCRIPT | Read 1st statements by Trump, Tillerson after missile strike
"Trump is a puppet now," another 4chan user wrote on the same thread discussing the missile strike. "Swamp drowned him."
A screengrab from the 4Chan message board's 'Politically Incorrect' forum shows users complaining about Trump's missile strike.
The president, MacDonald thought, was supposed to be an "America First" leader focused on a non-interventionist foreign policy.
"That was one of the things we in the alt-right liked," he said.
Richard Spencer, who coined the "alt-right" term, expressed his displeasure in a video he titled "The Trump Betrayal." Alex Jones, the conspiracy theory pedlar and host of InfoWars, said on his show Trump was "disintegrating in my eyes."
And Milo Yiannopoulos, the former Breitbart editor and political agitator who once co-authored a manifesto on the alt-right, wrote on Facebook: "There comes a day in every child's life when his Daddy bitterly disappoints him."
- ANALYSIS | Missiles provoke bluster but Syria solution requires U.S. and Russia at the table
- Russian supporters of Trump disappointed by missile strike on Syria
MacDonald said he would consider "jumping off the Trump train," but plans to hang on despite his "faith being on shaky ground."
Beyond the Syrian intervention, MacDonald said the past week has troubled him because of reports about former Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon being booted from Trump's National Security Council. It sounded to him like a demotion for Bannon, an alt-right godfather of sorts, in favour of Trump's more moderate-leaning son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
"Bannon's being pushed aside a little bit [by] Jared Kushner," MacDonald said, slamming Kushner as "a globalist."
"Meanwhile, Trump kept the neocons out of this administration, but he's being applauded now by the neocons for what he's doing in Syria."
A Syrian child receives treatment at a small
hospital in the town of Maaret al-Noman following a suspected toxic gas
attack in Khan Sheikhun, a nearby rebel-held town in Syria's
northwestern Idlib province, on April 4. (Mohamed Al-Bakour/AFP/Getty
Images)
"If Trump continues in the same vein, I think it probably will mean a pretty definitive break," Lyons said.
Shaking up alliances
Whatever divisions the Syria development has caused may also just be temporary, suggested Julian Zelizer, a professor of American political history at Princeton University. Military conflict often has the potential "of shaking up entrenched political alignment and alliances," he said.
"So friends become enemies, and vice versa. That's what you're seeing with the far-right getting angry with Trump."
- ANALYSIS | U.S. attack on Syrian airbase raises expectations
- OPINION | Trump should listen to his instincts and stay out of the Middle East
There was certainly some jarring messaging coming from ordinarily cantankerous senators who have made a habit of criticizing the president. There was a new tone, for instance, from Republican senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain following the strike against Assad's regime.
John McCain, a Republican senator who is
often critical of Trump, spoke out in support of his missile strikes
against Syria. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
"I think there's a side to President Trump that's very much like Ronald Reagan," Graham said, according to the Washington Post's Dave Weigel.
Trump "took action" by striking Assad's airfield, McCain said. "For that, he deserves the support of the American people."
Bill Kristol, the conservative editor of The Weekly Standard and an avowed #NeverTrumper, joined the Trump love-in, tweeting that "a growth spurt" in the president's leadership appeared to be underway.
Democrats also endorsed the attack. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi did so publicly but with a caveat: the use of military force, she argued, should have been authorized first by Congress.
"I'm supportive of the Trump administration's decision to launch airstrikes in response to Assad's assault on his own people," wrote Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, described the action as "the right thing to do" in his written statement.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said the U.S. attack was 'the right thing to do.' (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
"Wait for the polls. My instincts say they will be delighted," said congressional expert Ilona Nickels. She said more moderate Trump conservatives may view him as a "man of action" versus "the cerebral paralysis of Obama," who was criticized in 2013 for apparently pulling back on a decision to launch a military strike against Syria.
Zelizer, the Princeton professor, expects traditional partisan divisions to settle once the battle lines are no longer fresh. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, for example, a period of goodwill and bipartisanship lasted about a month.
"As Congress started to think of key issues and people started thinking about elections, the divisions re-emerged," he said. "The question now is will these divisions continue? For how long? And do people go back to where they were before the missile strike?"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/analysis-syria-us-attack-1.4059823
Missile attack on Syria a 'win-win' for Trump, say some analysts
Strike will allow U.S. president to deflect attention from domestic crises and regain moral high ground
By Matt Kwong, CBC News Posted: Apr 07, 2017 2:37 AM ET
U.S. President Donald Trump, known for advocating an
isolationist 'America first,' policy, seemed to reverse himself Thursday
when he ordered a missile strike against a Syrian airbase in
retaliation for this week's chemical weapons attack against civilians
that most attributed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. (Alex
Brandon/Associated Press)
The impact globally likely won't be known for hours or days. Not until the sun comes up and the dust lifts near the Shayrat airbase in the civil war-scarred country's west, where more than 50 Tomahawk missiles struck Thursday night at the directive of U.S. President Donald Trump.
For now, Mideast and security experts say, it appears the tactical retaliatory strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — the first direct American military assault on Assad since the civil war began in 2011 — was a one-time attack, ordered a day after Assad unleashed a suspected sarin gas attack that killed an estimated 70 people and was denounced as a war crime by human rights groups.
But even in the fog of war, it could be a clarifying moment for Trump, a president who has over the course of the last two days reversed the non-interventionist doctrine that has been a hallmark of his foreign policy position since his campaign for president.
Trump's action stands in opposition to Obama
The president, who spoke of being moved by images of dying children, accused Assad of having "choked the lives of helpless" Syrians.
"No child of God should ever suffer such harms," Trump told reporters in a statement from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. "Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched."
It was a sobering declaration from the president, even if it was politically self-serving one, said Henri Barkey, director of the Middle East program at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG
78) launches a Tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea.
(Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ford Williams/U.S.
Navy/Associated Press)
Not only will the aggressive gunboat diplomacy rattle Assad, the Mideast specialist said, but it will intimidate the Syrian government against the further use of chemical weapons and possibly enable Trump to reclaim the moral high ground on the world stage, all the while allowing him to show that his actions are not dictated by the interests of the Russians, who have militarily supported Assad's war against opponents of his regime.
00:00
02:51
Donald Trump on airstrikes against Syria2:50
Obama, Trump's predecessor, declared in 2012 that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime would cross a "red line" warranting military force. But when the time came to turn moral outrage into action, Obama said he would seek approval from a skeptical Congress for a military strike in Syria.
That didn't come to pass as the Assad regime agreed to give up its stockpile of chemical weapons. (Whether that was ever true is now in question.)
Trump, who was at the time toying with the idea of running for president, posted several Tweets objecting to a strike in Syria in 2013.
Strike deflects attention from domestic crises
On Thursday, President Trump authorized the use of force without seeking congressional approval. He may have to answer for that later in Washington, but he will reap some short-term benefits.Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, vocal critics of the president, lauded him in a statement on Thursday, saying it was time to expand the war to support Syria's rebel fighters against Assad's forces.
Trump, right, was meeting with Chinese
President Xi Jinping at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, shortly before
he ordered the attack. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)
- The recusal of House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes from the investigation into the Trump administration's ties to Russia on account of ethics concerns;
- Infighting between the president's top White House advisers Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law;
- And the ejection of Bannon from the National Security Council.
'You cannot argue that the timing of this action, while having dinner with Xi, was quite smart.' - Henri Barkey, director, Middle East program, Wilson Center
Then there's the matter of whom Trump was meeting with shortly before the missile strike was launched. On Thursday, he was hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida on the first day of a two-day summit. Xi's visit at the time of the missile strike created a diplomatic situation that "boxed in" the Chinese, Barkey said, preventing a potentially public and personal diplomatic spat at the high-stakes meeting.
"The Chinese are not going to come out then and condemn the U.S. action," Barkey said. "So you cannot argue that the timing of this action, while having dinner with Xi, was quite smart."
Syria may wage propaganda war
The question of whether or not this action will cause escalation depends on the response of the Russians and Iranians, who have supported Assad's regime militarily.
In a Pentagon statement, defence officials stressed that Russians fighter jets were forewarned via an "established deconfliction" hotline to evacuate the strike zone.
- Read the latest developments in U.S. missile attack on Syria
- U.S. targets Syrian airbase with dozens of missiles
"Whatever you do," Barkey said, "you don't want to kill Russians."
He noted that the likelihood of collateral damage from Tomahawk missiles is fairly small because of their sophisticated guidance systems. But just because civilians aren't likely to be near the Shayrat airfield doesn't mean a propaganda war won't be waged through Syrian state TV, Barkey said.
00:00
00:45
Tomahawk missiles fired from U.S. warship in the Mediterranean Sea0:45
"It's very possible in the morning we're going to see pictures of dead or injured children, and they might say, 'See what the Americans did?'" he said.
One retaliatory option the Assad government has is to target some of the more than 1,000 American troops expected to be deployed in Syria, mainly near Raqqa, where they are to assist Syrian rebels fighting ISIS.
Attack might deter 'bad actors'
Regardless, the launching of "fire-and-forget-it" Tomahawk missiles was a raw display of American military might that can't be discounted for the deterring message it sends, said Jonathan Schanzer, a former counter-terrorism analyst with the U.S. Department of Treasury who now directs research at Washington think tank Foundation for Defence of Democracy.A "proportional" U.S. military response in Syria was "long overdue" after six years of protracted civil war, he said.
'Bad actors have had free rein in terms of regional actions, war crimes and such, so this might have had the effect of freezing them in their tracks.' - Jonathan Schanzer, Foundation for Defence of Democracy
"Bad actors have had free rein in terms of regional actions, war crimes and such, so this might have had the effect of freezing them in their tracks … and that would be a welcome development," he said.
Though Schanzer said "it's not just early days, it's early hours," the attack signalled a major foreign-policy sea change from a presidency that indicated only a week earlier it had little interest in unseating the Syrian dictator.
- Attack was 'proportional,' 'appropriate,' says U.S. secretary of state
- Read the transcript of Trump's statement on attack
"I don't believe Trump thought for a moment that the carnage in Syria, and war crimes by Assad, would prod him to action," he said.
"Will this be one of those defining moments that could alter the course of his presidency? It will be interesting to find out."
The airstrike early Friday local time in Syria targeted the Shayrat military airbase in Homs. (CBC)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/syria-trump-refugees-new-brunswick-1.4061431
'I don't trust Donald Trump:' Syrian newcomers in N.B. concerned about U.S. attack
Some believe airstrike was more for show than about ending 6-year Syrian war
By Catherine Harrop, CBC News
Posted: Apr 07, 2017 7:00 PM AT
Mohammad Al khateeb (left) and Mohammad Bakhash (right)
both arrived in Canada in 2016 and live in Fredericton. (CBC)
Reaction to the U.S. missile strike against a Syrian airbase has some Syrian newcomers in New Brunswick looking with a wary eye.
Though they welcome anything that helps end the six-year war, they don't think that is what the airstrike was about.
Mohammad Al-Khateeb says that initially, he was happy with the news.
"At first time I thought it's good for us, but when I was thinking, I thought, it's just a message for world," said Al-Khateeb, who has been in Canada for 14 months.
Mohammad Bakhash has been in the country since 2016 and works at the Multicultural Centre in Fredericton.
"For me, I don't trust Donald Trump," he said. "This attack is just
for a media show. He just wants to show that we are here, and we are
most strong force in the world, but it's not to stop the killing."
Bakhash said he can't reconcile Trump's words of caring for the victims of this week's chemical weapons attack in Syria with his unwillingness to welcome refugees.
"How can we accept the idea that Donald Trump is thinking about people there, while he is banning people from entering his state, to enter his country?" said Bakhash.
He said it's hard to forget Trump also wants to build a wall and prevent people from some countries, including Syria, from getting into the U.S.
"How could we forget all that and believe that he is going to protect the people there?"
Bakhash doesn't believe the U.S. is going to get involved enough to end the war.
But Al-Khateeb said the mood of the texts on his phone are in support of the bombings.
"For Syrian people, I think it's 'yes', because we need help from anyone to finish our war," he said.
Al-Khateeb and Bakhash still have family in Syria.
Though they welcome anything that helps end the six-year war, they don't think that is what the airstrike was about.
- Russia says U.S. strikes in Syria an 'illegitimate' attempt to distract from Iraq
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Mohammad Al-Khateeb says that initially, he was happy with the news.
"At first time I thought it's good for us, but when I was thinking, I thought, it's just a message for world," said Al-Khateeb, who has been in Canada for 14 months.
Mohammad Bakhash has been in the country since 2016 and works at the Multicultural Centre in Fredericton.
Mohammad Bakhash says he can't reconcile
President Trump's words of caring for the victims of this week's
chemical attack with his unwillingness to welcome refugees. (CBC)
Bakhash said he can't reconcile Trump's words of caring for the victims of this week's chemical weapons attack in Syria with his unwillingness to welcome refugees.
"How can we accept the idea that Donald Trump is thinking about people there, while he is banning people from entering his state, to enter his country?" said Bakhash.
He said it's hard to forget Trump also wants to build a wall and prevent people from some countries, including Syria, from getting into the U.S.
"How could we forget all that and believe that he is going to protect the people there?"
Thinks U.S. won't do enough
Bakhash doesn't believe the U.S. is going to get involved enough to end the war.
But Al-Khateeb said the mood of the texts on his phone are in support of the bombings.
"For Syrian people, I think it's 'yes', because we need help from anyone to finish our war," he said.
Al-Khateeb and Bakhash still have family in Syria.
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