Eisenhower, Bush, Trump ... more ignorant policy

Submitted by Jason Pappas (United States), Apr 9, 2017 at 08:31

Trump made a major blunder, perhaps on the order of Eisenhower's 1956 intervention in the Suez Crisis, which led to the withdrawal and humiliation of the colonial powers—Britain and France—from the Middle East. This led to greater and greater intervention culminating in the Iraqi nations-building debacle.

Syria was in Russia's sphere of influence. Let them own it. Russia has the longest border with the Islamic world and can't avoid the fight with Sunni jihadi. Assad is a secular dictator and of little threat to us. It was in Russia's interest to join with him to fight Sunni jihadi. It will be ugly but so was Russia's fight against the jihadi in Chechnya. Russia may be a rival but she is an enemy of our enemy.

Iran is a separate problem and fighting Assad is a poor way to deal with Iranian fundamentalism. If Trump regards the strike as aimed at a tactic, chemical weapons, and not Assad, we can still pull out of Syria, while focusing on Iran.

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