The Syria Conflict Is Now Trump’s War Or Something

Remember the good old days of Obama’s first term when everything negative was Blamed on George Bush? Heck, even the failure of Obama’s $787 billion Stimulus was blamed on Bush. Now, though, the NY Times Editorial Board decided to spin the wheel of blame and lands on

Syria Is Now Mr. Trump’s War

As a candidate, Donald Trump warned against foreign wars, not least in Syria. A year into his presidency, he is adding Syria to a list of open-ended conflicts that already includes Afghanistan and Iraq.

We know President Trump’s plan not because he asked Congress for authorization and funding for a continuing troop presence in Syria. We know because Secretary of State Rex Tillerson explained it in a speech on Wednesday at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. “The United States will maintain a military presence in Syria focused on ensuring ISIS cannot re-emerge,” he said. “Our military mission in Syria will remain conditions-based.” In other words, without any end date or public benchmarks for success.

As of last month, there were about 2,000 American troops in Syria — up from 500 a year ago — a mix of engineering units and Special Operations units that fight and train with local militias in the battle against the Islamic State. Now that we know they will be there indefinitely, who can say the number won’t go higher and the mission won’t creep more?

So, since Obama kept Afghanistan going, and surged troops, does that make it his war as long as it goes on? Regardless, we can certainly play the blame game, putting a lot on Obama for his red lines pronouncement and failure to follow through, his wishy washyness on ISIS early on, blowing off the Arab Spring, his Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) calling Asad a “reformer”, his squishiness toward Iran and Russia, and so many other things.

Syria is a complex problem. But this plan seems poorly conceived, too dependent on military action and fueled by wishful thinking.

The United States initiated military action in Syria to confront ISIS, which overran huge areas of Syria and Iraq in 2014. Military operations under President Barack Obama and the Trump administration liberated more than 98 percent of the territory previously controlled by the Islamic State and freed over 7.5 million people from brutal rule.

You don’t defeat groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS through words. You kill them. Period. Even Obama understood that. He wanted no one in detention. He wanted terrorists dead. And good for him on this. He may have been quiet on this, but, the actions he authorized speak loudly. Again, good for him.

Anyhow, the NYTEB goes on and on, proclaiming the way Trump is going on about this won’t work, just like Obama’s method didn’t work when it came to Syria (yes, they wrote that Obama failed). What they do not offer is a better idea. We call that “complaining.”