Trump Wishy-Washy Foreign Policy: Pulling It From His Behind and Always Shakey

Half-Ass & Half-Baked Policy Fits this Perfect Image

Def: FALSE FLAG and TRUMP’S WISHY-WASHY POLICIES (good examples).

More recent: On the surface, President Trump's decision to order the killing of Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani would seem to conflict with his rhetoric about ending “endless wars.” But in practice, it may be the best example to date of the Trump Doctrine in practice.

With a single strike, Trump delivered a major blow to a leading enemy of America. But he did so without launching large scale attacks or committing to any sort of major invasion. Trump’s foreign policy approach is often misunderstood.

Despite at times sounding like Ron Paul in attacking costly foreign entanglements, Trump has never been a principled or consistent non-interventionist. Sure, his transactional nature made him conclude that the U.S. isn't getting good bang for the buck when it comes to protracted large-scale military engagements.

But his impulse against major interventions has always been balanced by a desire to project an image of strength abroad, to signal to the world that nobody should mess with the U.S.

These dueling sentiments, at times in conflict, served him well when seeking the Republican nomination. Primary voters were torn between weariness from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and feeling that President Obama had made America look weak on the world stage, alienating friends and emboldening enemies. 

When running for president, Trump’s blend of foreign policy statements -- bashing the war in Iraq while promising to “bomb the shït.” out of ISIS -- confounded experts but seemed to hit the sweet spot with the electorate.

As president, Trump has been pulled in different directions on foreign policy. In addition to his conflicting impulses, Trump has taken advice from traditional Washington foreign policy types and those who want to smash conventional thinking.

He hired uber-hawk John Bolton and informally consulted with non-interventionist Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). This has made things seem incoherent at times. In Syria, he’s been talking about withdrawing, yet troops remain there. He stepped aside so Turkey could invade Northern Syria, only to try and stop the invasion after Turkey had achieved its objective of creating a buffer zone cleared of Kurds. In Afghanistan, we’ve seen Trump cycle through the options of fully withdrawing, negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban, and maintaining a residual force in the country.

Up until the hit on Soleimani, it wasn’t clear where Trump was heading to with Iran:

•  He blew up the Iran nuclear deal and, once liberated, ratcheted up sanctions. But he stopped short of re-imposing all of them. 

•  He flirted with retaliating militarily after Iran downed a U.S. drone before backing off. 

•  He has consistently expressed a desire to meet with Iran and negotiate. So it was unclear until now where he would end up.

In recent months, Iran, desperate to get the Trump administration to relent and deliver relief from crippling sanctions, has attempted to bring the U.S. to its knees. Iran has orchestrated relentless rocket attacks against the U.S. in Iraq, targeted drones and tankers in the Arabian Sea, and attacked oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. More broadly, Iran has propped up the brutal regime of Bashar Assad in Syria, supported the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon, and flamed the civil war in Yemen by supporting the radical Houthi movement. And the architect of this strategy to establish Iranian dominance of the Middle East from Tehran to the Mediterranean Sea was none other than Soleimani.

More recently, under Iran’s direction, Kataib Hezbollah launched an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. In response, Trump warned: “Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities.” 

He predicted Iran would pay a “big price” and declared, “This is not a warning, it is a threat.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei taunted Trump back by saying, “You can’t do anything.” Yet it turned out that Trump was not bluffing. Within 48 hours, Khamenei was mourning the loss of his most important military commander.

Some analysts are comparing the killing of Soleimani to the capture and execution of Saddam Hussein, which did not end the Iraq War. But an important distinction is that he was killed after a massive invasion of Iraq by U.S. and its allies. The Soleimani hit was a precision targeted operation.

Iran's public reaction to the drone killing of Soleimani

Critics of Trump argue that he took this action rashly, without consideration of the blowback against the U.S. In June, Trump backed off planned airstrikes on Iran, concerned about the potential casualties and consequences.

False Flag (def): “Something that is said or done and disguised in such a way as to make it seem like it is affiliated with a group OTHER THAN you and yours – the one it really is affiliated with. Simple tactic of deflecting something away from yourself or group to someone else for them to take the heat and focus and blame off of you and your group to them. And then your sides runs with 24/7.”

Best example: We hear this constantly from Trump loyalists their“... visceral disdain and hatred from those obsessed with Trump about losing the 2016 election or about how successful he has been in office.”

FYI: All that has been brought to light front and center and mostly caused by Trump himself or by those close to him and nearly 24/7.

His statements, his harsh demeaning policies, his put-down of people of color and women and the disabled and immigrants (of which his family has plenty), and raw name calling it’s shocking for any president – a first in my lifetime. Sadly Trump loyalists just can't see it due to, now wait for it: their visceral disdain and hatred for DEMS up and down the line.

My 2 cents: A brand new year, yet nothing seems to be changing for the betterment of civil discourse or the country’s divisions as a whole.

They will never admit it but it's around us 24/7 in his ugly nasty tweets and rally speeches full of now over 15,000 lies and that are picked and spewed over right wing outlets or from them back to him as ammo for his next round of garbage… that is for anyone who pays close attention – and then the Trump types respond: “Hey, that’s not us.”

I am sad to see what has happened to our country and civil posture in the under Trump – who seems to get worse with each passing day a shotgun decision he makes.

I fear things will get worse. In fact I’d bet on it. Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by.