Day 454: Even After Strike, Trump Has No Plan for Syria
Donald Trump very much lives a day-to-day existence. There appears to be little long-term planning or continuity on anything: politics, his personal life or his general thoughts on the world.
As we detailed less than two weeks ago, Trump had no real plan for what to do in Syria. After a hypocritical Trump dropped bombs in Syria as a response to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s apparent use of chemical weapons on civilians, many pundits assumed that there was now a definitive plan in the region. Others fell into the, ‘Donald Trump is now presidential’ trap for seemingly the 1,000th time.
Turns out — as revealed in a briefing with senators on Tuesday — there’s bipartisan consensus that Trump still has no plan.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware left the meeting and told reporters, “The only thing worse than a bad plan on Syria is no plan on Syria, and the President and his administration have failed to deliver a coherent plan on the path forward.”
“I think it’s important for us to remain engaged in Syria and to pursue a diplomatic resolution,” Coons said. “If we completely withdraw, our leverage in any diplomatic resolution or reconstruction or any hope for a post-Assad Syria goes away.”
Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who has sparred with Trump over foreign policy issues, exited the briefing and told reporters, “I think the administration’s plans are to complete the efforts against ISIS and (then) not be involved.”
Corker went on to say that, “Syria is Russia and Iran’s now. They will be determining the future. We may be at the table, but when you’re just talking and have nothing to do with shaping what’s happening on the ground, you’re just talking.”
As usual, Trump’s plan is, ‘How can we win today and get headlines?’ But diplomacy must be a much longer lens. By executing targeted strikes for a single day but willingly ceding influence after that to Iran and Russia, the U.S. is punting on the ability to reshape a broken country to two dangerous geopolitical rivals who have consistently backed Assad. That strategy is overwhelmingly likely to harm American interests at some point in the future and is a far more substantial development than a Fox News host telling viewers that Trump became presidential on a random day in April 2018.
Whether there should be more American troops on the ground or additional strikes carried out requires fundamental pro-con decision-making. But Trump’s strategy appears to be to have no strategy.
454 days in, 1008 to go
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