Trump and the Middle East

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/4968
Date Written:  2017-05-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21588

Trump tweets about keeping refugees out of the United States, and zeroes out the grossly inadequate U.S. humanitarian aid budget. It all poses the question: Which is the real "failed state"?

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Suddenly Donald Trump's image became so very seriously "presidential." Overshadowed at least for the moment were the Republicans' internal civil war over health care, infighting between the Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner power centers in the West Wing, Trump's "budget blueprint" wiping out every government program that actually helps people, and "tax reform" to stuff the pockets of the rich and super-rich at the expense of everyone else.

Many peace activists, understandably, were horrified by Trump's twin display of military muscle in Syria and Afghanistan. Republicans, with the exceptions of Rand Paul and a few hardline "America First" nationalists, are generally thrilled. John McCain, along with quite a few Democrats, immediately urged that the hit on the Syrian airbase should be "only the first step." A first step toward exactly what? Not clear, to say the least.

There's little doubt that in Trump's mind at least, dropping the huge tunnel-busting bomb on ISIS in Afghanistan is supposed to send a warning, notably to North Korea and Iran. One suspects that the military chiefs know better: ISIS has no anti-aircraft capacity to bring down the giant transport plane that delivers the MOAB, but significant "enemy states" most certainly do.