Trump Foreign Policy

[zoogs]

Have we bombed Assad to date?

[knapplc]

With Assad in power, Russia will always have the greater influence in Syria. Russia is also allied with Iran, and has decades-long ties in Iraq, although Iraq has been recently kind of an American region.

 

America has greater influence in Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Afghanistan & Pakistan.

 

We're probably doing well enough in the Middle East if we don't get more engaged in Syria.

[GM_Tood]

Have we bombed Assad to date?

Last Sept one of our Airstrikes killed ~60 Syrian military personnel by mistake. Other than that, we have not attacked any non-ISIS targets in Syria.

[Lil' Red]

[knapplc]

Now Tillerson & Trump are both saying Assad "may have to go." How are they going to enforce that? They aren't going to put troops on the ground, and Russia doesn't want to lose their ally.

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

I'm trying to figure out Al-Assad's motive to do this when he did.

 

Is it tied to Trump? Let me throw out a totally unsubstantiated theory.

 

What it Assad really doesn't want to be "friends" with the US due to people who support him don't like us? Trump comes out and says things that makes people think he wants to start cozying up to him like the Russians have. He needs to do something to turn Trump into an enemy and he knows the vast majority of Americans are not going to support troops in Syria.

 

So...let's do something that forces Trump's hand to openly condemn Assad.

 

Again...totally unsubstantiated and a wild ass guess.

 

One thing about this I do agree with is that at best Assad doesn't give a flying rip if the US supports him or not.

[ZRod]

Now Tillerson & Trump are both saying Assad "may have to go." How are they going to enforce that? They aren't going to put troops on the ground, and Russia doesn't want to lose their ally.https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/850066106937098240https://twitter.com/MiamiHerald/status/850066770773893124

Extremly strick sanctions? Hit military installations? Anything we do may empower ISIS though, this is a quagmire we need to stay far away from. Get our allies in the region to step it up.

[Moiraine]

That's another huge issue. If we take out Assad, who fills the vacuum?

[GM_Tood]

That's another huge issue. If we take out Assad, who fills the vacuum?

 

Manaf Tlass

[Danny Bateman]

Now Tillerson & Trump are both saying Assad "may have to go." How are they going to enforce that? They aren't going to put troops on the ground, and Russia doesn't want to lose their ally.

 

 

 

Ripped straight from Trump's foreign policy speech during the campaign:

 

 

Finally, America no longer has a clear understanding of our foreign policy goals. Since the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union, we’ve lacked a coherent foreign policy. One day, we’re bombing Libya and getting rid of a dictator to foster democracy for civilians. The next day, we’re watching the same civilians suffer while that country falls and absolutely falls apart. Lives lost, massive moneys lost. The world is a different place.

We’re a humanitarian nation, but the legacy of the Obama-Clinton interventions will be weakness, confusion and disarray, a mess. We’ve made the Middle East more unstable and chaotic than ever before. We left Christians subject to intense persecution and even genocide.

(APPLAUSE)

We have done nothing to help the Christians, nothing, and we should always be ashamed for that, for that lack of action. Our actions in Iraq, Libya and Syria have helped unleash ISIS, and we’re in a war against radical Islam, but President Obama won’t even name the enemy, and unless you name the enemy, you will never ever solve the problem.

(APPLAUSE)

 

Hillary Clinton also refuses to say the words radical Islam, even as she pushes for a massive increase in refugees coming into our country. After Secretary Clinton’s failed intervention in Libya, Islamic terrorists in Benghazi took down our consulate and killed our ambassador and three brave Americans. Then, instead of taking charge that night, Hillary Clinton decided to go home and sleep. Incredible.

...

 

I will not hesitate to deploy military force when there is no alternative. But if America fights, it must only fight to win.

 

(APPLAUSE)

I will never sent our finest into battle unless necessary, and I mean absolutely necessary, and will only do so if we have a plan for victory with a capital V.

(APPLAUSE)

Our goal is peace and prosperity, not war and destruction. The best way to achieve those goals is through a disciplined, deliberate and consistent foreign policy. With President Obama and Secretary Clinton we’ve had the exact opposite — a reckless, rudderless and aimless foreign policy, one that has blazed the path of destruction in its wake.

 

Clinton blames it all on a video, an excuse that was a total lie, proven to be absolutely a total lie. Our ambassador was murdered and our secretary of state misled the nation. And, by the way, she was not awake to take that call at 3 o’clock in the morning. And now ISIS is making millions and millions of dollars a week selling Libya oil. And you know what? We don’t blockade, we don’t bomb, we don’t do anything about it. It’s almost as if our country doesn’t even know what’s happening, which could be a fact and could be true. This will all change when I become president.

To our friends and allies, I say America is going to be strong again. America is going to be reliable again. It’s going to be a great and reliable ally again. It’s going to be a friend again. We’re going to finally have a coherent foreign policy based upon American interests and the shared interests of our allies.

 

The bolded is funny because his foreign policy as a whole so far can only be described as unorthodox and incoherent.

 

Trump put off a strong non-interventionist vibe during the campaign, saying we only fight to lose. Now it appears they're readying bombs for Assad at the first true test of his foreign policy. Or, perhaps that could be the situation with North Korea, where we've heard murmurs of intervention as well.

 

These guys can bomb Assad if they want, but how exactly do they plan on removing him from power? Just ringing him up on the phone and saying, "Hey, Bashar, we're going to need you to resign. Thanks, bud" ?

 

Trump also ripped on Obama for regime change in the name of democracy in that speech.

 

Maybe I'm just cynical and this is all going to go great under Trump, Tillerson and military leadership. But it sure is interesting now to see Trump's true colors come out as he has to make critical foreign policy decisions instead of just criticize those of others.

[knapplc]

 

That's another huge issue. If we take out Assad, who fills the vacuum?

Manaf Tlass

 

Are you sure that isn't the Mak'tar Chant of Strength?

[commando]

this russian newspaper seems to know what russia and iran think of the U.S. policy

 

[Danny Bateman]

If Trump really cared about the atrocities Assad was inflicting on his own people, if he really wanted to help them, he would open up our borders for those fleeing those atrocities.

[zoogs]

If Trump really cared about the atrocities Assad was inflicting on his own people, if he really wanted to help them, he would open up our borders for those fleeing those atrocities.

He absolutely doesn't care. If he had ever cared, he never would have had such consistent, strongly pro-Assad rhetoric in the first place.

 

But now he's flailing domestically and he needs a war.

[Lil' Red]