The murders of innocent children in Syria have been going on since the Syrian people rose up against Assad more than 5 years ago. The Syrian conflict was the Obama administration’s biggest failure. If you recall, Obama drew a red line after a similar chemical attack then opted to negotiate a deal brokered by Putin, who promised to pressure Assad to give up and destroy his chemical weapons stockpile. I guess Assad and Putin lied.
In 2003 Bush promised to bring democracy to the Middle East by intervening to remove another mass murderer Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. He failed miserably to bring democracy, even to Iraq let alone the Middle East at great cost in both American lives and money. In fact, the U.S. failure in Iraq had the complete opposite effect. It destabilized the entire region, thereby ushering in a period of great turmoil that contributed indirectly to the creation of ISIS.
It appears red lines drawn on the sands of the Middle East get blown away very quickly.
Now comes Trump with his faux compassion stating that Assad (but not Putin) has crossed multiple red lines by suffocating to death scores of innocent men, women and children with Sarin gas. This, of course, after trying very hard to block men, women and children escaping Syria from seeking refuge in the United States. And after making it all too clear to Assad (and Putin) that the Trump Administration would allow the Syrian people to decide his fate. This was perhaps the most absurd and cowardly abdication of responsibility in the face of ongoing war crimes since President Roosevelt denied entry to refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.
Despite the many past failures the U.S. has had in this region I am particularly appalled by Trump’s duplicity towards the Syrian people and his refusal to denounce Putin. In my view, the missile attack on an empty military base in Syria without a clearly enunciated long-term strategy to confront Putin who is the 800 lb. gorilla in the room is merely a self-serving effort to draw attention from an administration that is not only failing but under criminal investigation.
