Will Trump get suckered into a Middle East war of his own?
Someone with the ego of Donald Trump should be more careful about letting people make him look like a moron, but that's exactly what's happening with Syria right now. After putting a plan in place to get U.S. troops out of Syria sooner rather than later, news broke of a possible chemical weapons attack in the Syrian city of Douma. The media and establishment politicians are blaming Bashar al-Assad for the attack despite the fact that there's no evidence to support that argument, and some, like Senator John McCain, are blaming Trump saying he emboldened Assad by planning to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.
Rather than defend his policy by pointing out the disastrous results of previous interventions or how illogical it would be for Assad to use chemical weapons, Trump uncritically accepted the narrative that Assad was responsible for the attacks.
Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018
….to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018
Never mind the fact that Assad had exactly zero incentive to use chemical weapons as he was already winning militarily against the terrorist organizations trying to overthrow him and that using chemical weapons would only serve to guarantee that the U.S. would remove him from power. It makes far more sense that the "rebels," read: ISIS, in Douma would use chemical weapons and blame it on Assad so that the U.S. would continue to back them in their war against Assad, and possibly increase the American military role in Syria by coming in and removing Assad from power themselves. Assad gassing his own people is simply too convenient a story for his opposition and for their American cheerleaders like John McCain who want the U.S. to increase its military presence in the country, especially given the timing.
This is further proved by the fact that this exact narrative has already played out the last time the Trump regime announced a Syria policy that could be described as favorable towards Assad. The Moon of Alabama blog has posted an important timeline showing how almost exactly a year ago claims that Assad used chemical weapons began right after Trump announced that regime change in Syria was no longer a goal.
An alleged new 'chemical incident' in Syria reminds of a similar series of events we saw last year. We are told to believe that each time the U.S. pulls back from the war on Syria the Syrian government is responding with a 'chemical attack' that pulls the U.S. back in.
Why would Assad continually celebrate good news for the survival of his government by engaging in an act that would not only nullify that good news but increase the risk that the U.S. would remove him from power, especially when using chemical weapons gives him no military edge over the rebels?
The sad part is that Trump has shown common sense on this issue in the past, as you can see in his tweet from before he was president.
AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER, DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA – IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2013
Unfortunately Trump has now surrounded himself with warmongers like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, so the only thing he's hearing from his advisers is war propaganda, and it appears as if this time he's planning to escalate much further than a single airstrike against the Syrian regime. This will cause problems with the Iranians and the Russians, both of whom are backing Assad over ISIS and other terrorist organizations who are backed by the U.S., potentially causing a much bigger disaster than either Iraq or Libya.