Donald Trump, while campaigning for the Presidency, admonished then-President Obama to stay the Hell out of the mess in Syria. When he actually became President, Mr. Trump came up with the idea that the Syrian dictator Assad (supported by Vladimir Putin) was an integral part of the “plan” for stability in the region.
A week later, President Trump pulverized one of Assad’s air bases with 59 Tomahawk missiles because the Syrians had bombed one of their own communities with sarin gas. (Of course, President Assad was infamous in international circles for previously gassing his own citizens on many occasions.)
Then, it came out that the Russians and Syrians were given advance notice of the Tomahawk barrage…so that none of their troops would be hurt. It also became known that the Syrians were using the air base again within a few days. So, what was the point of sending 59 missiles, which cost $1 million apiece, to Syria? Other than a photo op of the President appearing presidential…
…and deflecting attention from the President’s “Russiagate” problems?
Is it just possible that the President was trying to show just how far he has distanced himself from his buddy, President Putin? (The White House and its minions quickly released sound bites alleging that U.S.-Russian relations were at their “lowest point of all time”…forgetting, of course, the Cuban Missile Crisis.)
The ruse worked so well that it was used again, within a week, when the U.S. dropped the “Mother of All Bombs” upon some ISIS caves in Afghanistan.
That worked so well that the new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson began to talk some heavy smack in the direction of the tinpot North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, who then doubled-down on his usual threats to send nuclear missiles down upon the American bullies. As the week ended, each side was practically daring the other to push the “red button”.
It appears that we have elected a Super Hawk, a guy who likes to “Speak loudly and threaten with a big stick”. This is quite a turn-around for a guy who was too chickenshit to serve his country’s military…does anyone recall the stories about how he cleverly, and proudly, escaped the Draft during his college years? It’s the stuff of legend. Anyway, now he has no problem with other folks fighting and dying for their country.
President Trump’s latest imbroglio is his response to thousands of Tax Day protests…bringing up the fact that Donald Trump has never released his Tax Returns for public scrutiny. It was something that he promised to do during his campaign (“after the audit”), but later declared that the public had no right to see them. Of course, he would be the first President in the last 4 decades to withhold such information. And, with all the relatives and lobbyists that he has hired, and all the government business being conducted at Trump hotels, there is a high probability of self-dealing and self-enrichment. Not to mention any deals that he might have cut with his Russian friends in exchange for help getting elected.
Trump’s response to the protests was pure Trump…”Isn’t the election over?”, and “Who hired these protesters?”
I was afraid that this might be the outcome, that America might have elected a President whose imagination is severely limited by his own greed and inexperience. It brings to mind the old saying that “If the only thing in your toolbox is a hammer, then all problems begin to look like a nail.” Diplomacy doesn’t appear to be something that our new President is much interested in. His own immature temperament and business experience is heavily-laden with bombast, threats, bullying, and using lawsuits to bulldoze people out of the way.
As President, he’s got some new tools to play with: Tomahawk and GBU-43/B ordinance, dropped from the sky.
Let’s hope that the Tweeter-In-Chief doesn’t play around with the Nuclear stuff.