Donnie and the muddle east

As everyone is aware, Donnie had sort of and Epiphany last week. He's suddenly and mysteriously became aware that Asaad was a really bad dude and was killing innocent people including very very little babies. In response, he ordered the military to make a limited strike on one of Assad's airbases. This method with mixed reaction from all elements of our body politic. Many of his core supporters we're terribly upset that he was abandoning his "American only" policy. Both Democrats and Republicans had members criticizing him for not seeking congressional approval prior to this strike. Some thought the strike was too small. Some nonpartisans we're just made simply on the grounds that they wanted no more foreign incursions. On the other hand, he had quite a lot of positive reaction friendly cross-section of US citizens. It was pretty easy to see that what Donnie took from the experience was that it showed him as a swift decisive tough leader. And thereby lies the problem. There have been hilarious roundtable discussions among the TV pundits about whether Donnie has a new comprehensive strategy for the Middle East or whether it was just an impulsive act. Are you kidding? Donnie could have a well thought out coherent strategy? The one thing that is apparent is that Donnie really likes how he now thinks about himself and believes others do too. He is even more dangerous now. He can swiftly and decisively do something really stupid.

On the bright side, in today's New York Times opinion section Thomas Friedman was the first  as far as I know to question the incessant babbling about how our most important concern is to defeat Isis in Syria. His central point is that for the US, the major concern about Isis is not Isis in Syria but the virtual Isis worldwide. Let Asaad and Russia and Iran lead the attack on Isis in Syria. What we should be doing is establishing a no fly zone over the moderate insurgents, the refugees the Kurdish forces etc. If the US spends time and resources fighting Isis in Syria, we are primarily helping Asaad maintain control of Syria. Defeating Isis in Syria is not a big concern of the US and does very little to protect the US from the world wide salafist network. Our goal should be to support those moderates contesting against Assad and work towards forcing Asaad himself but not necessarily the government infrastructure out. If our putative allies in the region–Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt–with the Kurds and the moderate Syrian insurgents work together, Asaad and Isis will eventually fall, notwithstanding support from Iran and Russia. Meanwhile, the US needs to concentrate its concern on the global, salafist terror network as well as worry about our biggest problem, North Korea.