Trump’s Foreign Policy? Launches A Strike Against Syria, Refuses To Take In Refugees From The Same

Trump’s Foreign Policy? Launches A Strike Against Syria, Refuses To Take In Refugees From The Same
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In retaliation to the ‘chemical attack’ on civilians in Syria earlier this week, President Donald Trump ordered a Tomahawk missile air strike on the location, Al-Shayrat Air base. Trump has been in office less than four months, and his administration’s foreign policy has already seen a horrible chemical attack on civilians, causing a reaction with force. Based on the evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are to blame for the chemical attack, which was unleashed in the Syrian city of Khan Sheikhoun and killed at least 85 people and injuring nearly 400, Trump threw the next punch causing for the U.S. to once again be at war.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), an Iraq War Veteran, hit President Trump after he authorized this strike on Syria, saying that Trump appeared to care enough to launch a strike, but not to allow victims from the country to come to the U.S. as refugees. "So @POTUS cares enough about the Syrian people to launch 50 Tomahawks but not enough to let the victims of Assad find refuge & freedom here," Moulton tweeted following reports of the strike.

Plain and simple, I couldn’t agree more with Congressman Moulton. For months, Democrats have been pushing to allow a greater number of Syrian refugees to be allowed to migrate to The United States and escape the horrible violence that is happening in their country.

The recent chemical attack perpetrated by the Syrian regime comes one week after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson indicated that the United States was no longer invested in Assad’s ouster, as was former President Barack Obama. While Obama’s legacy in Syria wasn’t as effective as we all hoped for, his administration never went so far as to give the Syrian dictatorship, supported by Russia, free reign in its campaign of violence against its own people.

The ongoing investigation into likely connections between Trump, his associates, and Russia provide a clear backdrop for this latest development. Russia’s long-term and enthusiastic backing of the Assad regime, and the United States’s demand for Assad removal, was once thought to be the match that could set off a military conflict between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. After Obama failed to hold up his “red line in the sand” standard for Assad’s use of chemical weapons, Putin stepped in to fill the vacuum Obama seemed reticent to claim. Since then, Syrian government forces have grown bolder and the Free Syrian Army’s early successes have been negated.

At the time, Trump’s Twitter page was filled with scores of assaults on President Obama’s focus on Syria, with statements such as, “Syria is NOT our problem.” Following Wednesday’s chemical attacks, Trump blamed “the past administration’s weakness and irresolution.” How he can reconcile that claim with his past positions is a mystery, but trudging through hypocrisy does seem to be his foray.

However, now that so much evidence of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Putin has surfaced, Trump’s hesitation to condemn Russian support of Syria’s dictatorship makes much more sense. Instead of blaming Putin, and alienating possibly his closest foreign ally, Trump lashes out at his favorite scapegoat in President Obama. Trump’s allegation that Obama’s failure in Syria lead to the chemical attack ignores the statements he himself has made, as well as those of his Secretary of State. It is simply another deflection from a president who can’t seem to make up his mind, and who actively seeks to avoid blame. Trump narcissism is literally killing people around the world.

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