Monday, April 10, 2017

As Charles Krauthammer noted: there's not a NEW sheriff in town; now there is A Sheriff in town. Period.

Tool

Russia, Syria, and Iran warn US about another Syria strike  "Things just got a lot dicier in Syria as the military forces of Russia, Syria, and Iran warned the United States that any further military action would cross "a red line" and be met with a military response.
"Somehow, I think when these guys talk about a "red line," they're being a helluva lot more serious than Obama was." . . .

Morning Joe: Syria was Obama’s ‘Defining Moment’ and ‘History Going to be Rough’
"When even Obama fan Mike Barnicle admits that Obama’s inaction on Syria was a “serious mistake”
"Surprising consensus on today’s Morning Joe that Barack Obama blew it bigly in Syria by punting on his redline. Even Obama fan Mike Barnicle admitted, “Syria was a serious mistake that the Obama administration made.” Foreign policy honcho Richard Haass said “history’s going to be rough on this. This is going to be the defining moment for the Obama presidency.”

"It wasn’t just the panel that trashed Obama’s mishandling of Syria. Joe Scarborough noted that not only did leading Dems like John Kerry and Hillary quickly come out in support of Trump’s strikes, but that Dems were saying things that were “almost disloyal to Barack Obama, saying we could have never moved this quickly.' ”
Trump’s Syria Strike Altered Perceptions of His Presidency — and Highlighted the Failures of Obama’s  "With a forceful response to Assad’s chemical-weapons attack, Trump surprised the world and reminded us of his predecessor’s disastrous Middle East policies. 

"Donald Trump’s many detractors tend to forget something important: The power of his office is such that simply by deploying the military might of the United States, he can change the national conversation in an instant. By ordering a missile strike on the Syrian airfield from which the Assad government — and, perhaps, its Russian enablers — attacked civilians with chemical weapons, Trump did just that. It isn’t clear yet whether this is the beginning of a more muscular, sensible approach to foreign policy in general and to Syria, Russia, and Iran in particular. But what we do know is that Trump has just demonstrated a capacity to rethink his previously held positions and to act decisively in response to an outrageous crime — in other words, the capacity to act like a commander-in-chief. This is something few of his critics thought he possessed.

" Last night’s strike forced Trump’s media tormentors to stop speculating for the moment about unproven collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. It might also have begun the process of changing the way we think about Trump. We’ve lived through two months of what looked like a presidency in crisis, replete with West Wing palace intrigue and a disastrously failed effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. Trump’s trademark lack of discipline and belligerent disregard for the truth had cratered his favorability ratings, and his failure to break through Washington’s gridlock had created a narrative of incompetence.

" Yet in less than a week, Trump just proved that he is capable of reacting to unforeseen events, evaluating the options, and then making what appears to be exactly the right move at exactly the right time." . . .

Political Cartoons by Jerry Holbert

No comments: