Striking Syria’s Shayrat air base near Homs April 6 with 59 Cruise missles, 70-year-old Donald Trump threw the liberal media for a loop, after spending months calling the New York real estate tycoon a “Putin puppet.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton did her best scaring voters into believing Trump had close ties to Moscow and could not be trusted. Trump’s Cruise missile attack on the Syrian air base from which Sarin nerve gas was dropped on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib Province silences his liberal critics, winning praise from practically everyone on Capitol Hill except Hillary’s former running mate Sen. Tim Caine (D-Va.). Caine sounded off-the-wall, insisting Trump must get Congressional approval for any military action. Under Article 2, Trump has the war-making power as commander-in-chief to protect U.S. national security.
Trump emphatically stated April 6 that he ordered the strike to deal with al-Assad’s weapons of mass destruction, a threat to U.S. troops and its allies. Caine’s critique fell on deaf ears in Congress and in the media, knowing the extreme partisan manner of his attack. When it comes to protecting U.S. national security, Trump was well within his rights as commander-in-chief. Trump’s Cruise missile strike brought temporary praise from his most vociferous detractor on Capitol Hill, Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), hoping the surgical strike was Trump’s commitment to continue the six-year-old Saudi proxy war started March 15, 2011 that’s killed over 300,000 Syrians, displaced millions more to neighboring countries and Europe, drove the U.K. out of the European Union and created the worst refugee crisis since WWII. McCain urged Trump to escalate U.S. military involvement in Syria.
Saying that Trump showed “strength” striking Syria, McCain urged Trump to follow up his pinpoint strikes with wider military intervention. “But I would hope that we would reinvigorate our support for the Free Syrian Army, establishment of a no-fly zone, and move forward.” Hillary echoed McCain’s sentiments. “I really believe we should have and still should take out his air fields and prevent him [Bashar al-Assad] from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop Sarin gas on them,” Hillary told Women in the World Summit in Washington, D.C. Hillary’s comments about setting up no-fly zones in Syria prompted former German Foreign Minister Frank Walter-Steinmeir to warn the world of possible WWIII. Hillary’s remarks show her war-mongering tendencies would have pushed the U.S. and Russian closer to the brink of nuclear war.
Clarifying the U.S. position on Syria, 65-year-old Secretary of State Rex Tillerson set the record straight on Trump’s Syria policy after Congress and the media jumped the gun. “It’s important that we keep our priorities straight. An we believe that the first priority is the defeat of ISIS,” Tillerson told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” tossing cold water on war hawks seeking to escalate the Syrian War. Calling for “the whole stability in the region,” Tillerson telegraphed to McCain that Trump was not changing his Syrian policy. Trump campaigned on defeating ISIS, telling voters that dealing with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must come later. “Once the ISIS threat has been reduced or eliminated, I think we can turn our attention directly to stabilizing the situation in Syria,” said Tillerson, clarifying that the April 6 surgical strike was a message to al-Assad to stop using poison gas.
Russian president Vladimir Putin rebuked Trump’s use of lethal force in Syria, denying that Syrian warplanes dropped Sarin nerve gas on Khan Sheikhoun. “Putin views the U.S. strikes on Syria aggression against a sovereign state in violation of norms of international law and on a made up pretext. Washington’s step will inflict major damage on U.S.-Russia ties,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Peskov knows that Trump deliberately avoided any strike on Russian targets, simply responding to al-Assad’s use of poised gas. When the U.S. and Moscow dealt with al-Assad’s Aug. 21, 2013 poison gas attack in Ghouta, Syria, killing 281, injuring 3,600, Putin promised to remove all of al-Assad’s poison gas. If al-Assad kept Sarin nerve gas or got it from Iran or some other third party, then Putin remains liable. Kremlin officials know Trump responded only to al-Assad’s April 4 poison gas attack.
Tillerson sent a clear message to Capitol Hill war hawks and the media that the White House has no plans to change its Syrian policy. U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley said the White House is prepared to do more but only if al-Assad uses more poised gas. Trump’s content to let al-Assad prosecute his fight against Syrian rebels as long as he avoids using chemical weapons or any weapons of mass destruction. “Were hopeful that Russia will choose to play a constructive role in supporting ceasefires through their own Astana talks, but also, ultimately through Geneva,” Tillerson told Face the Nation. Trump, Tillerson and 66-year-old Defense Secretary Gen James Mattis have their eyes on ISIS, not removing al-Assad from Damascus. Whatever praise Trump got on Capitol Hill for his pinpoint Cruise missile strike, it’s bound to end once war hawks like McCain know Trump won’t back Syrian rebel groups.
