I was a bit surprised to read this morning that John McCain, often the target of Trump's nasty wit (such as it is), has come out saying that Trump should consider this a chance to reboot with the American people.
If you're completely Machiavellian, then yes, he's probably right, at least for the short term. Let Syria be the bogeyman that the Americans need to unite to defeat, and Americans will, probably unite. Strange thing, though...this is not a new situation. It's been going on literally for decades, and it's largely been fueled by previous Administration's rhetoric and actions. That part always gets left out when saying "let's unite". In trying to meddle only a little bit at a time (with 'little' being a relative term), America has prolonged a civil war that would probably not have lasted very long (look at all the other Arab Spring conflicts). America pushed hard enough to fan the flames of the conflict, but didn't push hard enough to help put them out once burning...after all, America's resources were already stretched trying to deal with Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia has stepped into Syria with a huge bellows, and blown those flames white-hot. Assad's a bad man, no doubt, but I wonder if the hundreds of thousands that Assad has killed in the last 5 years of the 6 year war would have appreciated America sticking its nose in in the first place. Now that Russia has stepped in and bought regional influence relatively cheaply, the situation has gotten more complex still...there are up to 11 countries involved in this war, depending on how you count. With Russia switching off the hotline meant to prevent conflicts from arising, one could be forgiven thinking that their plan is to fan the flames even higher, perhaps directly into a war. After all, Russia, too, needs an 'evil enemy' to unite against. We're not just wondering how deep a rabbit hole goes here. We're staring into an abyss.
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AuthorEngineer, Dad, Concerned Citizen. Watching the America I love fading and eroding before my eyes. Archives
November 2018
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