Just when you think the best you can expect from our President is that he get through the day without mistaking the Queen of England for the Dalai Lama, Trump hits a policy bullseye.
Specifically, on December 19, 2018, out of the blue, Trump announces the transfer of 2,000 American troops out of Syria. I love the move. I know it’s a fabulous idea because “the let’s fight one more war for Israel” crowd is apoplectic. Anything that causes them heartburn gives me the warm fuzzies.
What we’re talking about is Iran, or Persia, as it has been known for millennia, and its position in the mideast vis-a-vis Israel. The Persians in Iran and the Jews in Israel represent two of the great cultures and contributors to civilization in world history. They have one thing in common… each of these peoples wants at least 200% per cent of what they are justly entitled to. Ergo, enmity and conflict between them.
The winning political formula in Israeli politics is to magnify the threat from outside actors and promise to hit “preemptively” any threat real or imagined. At the same time, keep the US suffocatingly (for US) close by having American friends of Israel throw massive resources into the American political process earmarked to insure that the US finishes problems that Israel starts.
Pretty cool gig if you can pull it off. Israel gets massive US Aid and points us in the direction of countries they would like us to fight. They got their way with the war with Iraq in 2003. Check out Benjamin Netanyahu’s Testimony before a US House Committee September 12, 2002, one year after 9/11. Netanyahu was more than willing to hold our coat while the USA gave Saddam a good thrashing. The fact that there were no “weapons of mass destruction” as Netanyahu promised… well, details, details. C’est la vie. Nobody’s perfect.
Trump’s move to pull troops out of Syria was a not so subtle message to Netanyahu and Adelson and their indentured servants in the US like Bolton, Pompeo, Rubio, Cruz, Graham, and Cotton that he’s hip to the scam. Having our troops operating in Syria where they were likely to encounter Iranian forces who were there by invitation of the Syrian Government ran the risk of giving the “let’s fight one more war for Israel” crowd something to pitch a bitch about. As soon as there was a US casualty…allegedly at the hands of Iran…well, you can imagine the indignant speeches on the floor of the US Senate from Joe Lieberman wannabes.
Trump sniffed it out. He decided, at least for now, he’s not going to allow Adelson loyalists to “manage and process” him into a war. He’s pulling our people out of an area where nothing good can happen to them or the USA.
CONCLUSION
Trump doesn’t like to be managed. I don’t know how he can stand having Bolton and/or Pompeo around him. Talk about a couple of suck ups. If the Iranians had any sense, they’d seek a back channel to Trump. Trump loves that stuff. Off the books. Nobody knows. Freedom of movement. Don’t tell anybody. There must be somebody in Iran who is capable of smiling.
Maybe Bannon’s working on it.
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