Monday, April 16, 2018

The Swamp: Undrainable. Especially if You Don't Try

So, one Donald Trump got elected president a year and a half ago, claiming he'd try to do a couple of things.  Get control of the southern US border, and get out of Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama's stupid and catastrophic Middle East wars.  He's pretty well demonstrated that he wasn't serious about the border.  How about the war thing?


Here's Trump when campaigning for president:

On October 26, 2016, while campaigning against Hillary Clinton in the general election, Trump spoke at length about not intervening in Syria. "What we should do is focus on ISIS. We should not be focusing on Syria," said Trump as he dined on fried eggs and sausage at his Trump National Doral golf resort, as Reuters reported.
        "You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton,” he
         blasted.

"You’re not fighting Syria any more, you’re fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right? Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk," he continued.

And now, after his second missile-launching spasm in Syria:

I also have a message tonight for the two governments most responsible for supporting, equipping and financing the criminal Assad regime.

To Iran and to Russia, I ask: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children?

The nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep. No nation can succeed in the long run by promoting rogue states, brutal tyrants and murderous dictators.
 Campaigning in '16, Trump said we'd find ourselves in World War III, starting in Syria, if we listened to noted female impersonator Hillary Clinton.  This reminds me of the guy who said (and I know this dates me), "They told me in 1964 that if I voted for Goldwater, we'd be in a war.  And they were right.  I voted for Goldwater, and sure enough, we were in a war."

Of course, the WW III thing doesn't seem to have kicked off quite yet.  Trump's cruise-missile temper tantrum may not have killed any Russians.  But it's quite the sobering thought, that if a catastrophic nuclear war is avoided, that will be due to the stability and restraint of the Russian government.

And Trump asks: What kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women, and children?  Hey, Donny, remember Iraq?  Remember Saddam Hussein, who used to be our great ally against Iran?  Remember how we knew he had chem weapons?  Of course he had them; the Pentagon still had the shipping records.  Yes, sir, back when Saddam was our boy, using gas against those devil Iranians, we were good with that.  Every shell had American ink stamping on it.

How about your good friends in the Saudi regime, Donny?  "Mass murder of innocent men, women, and children?"  Ever hear of Yemen, Donny?  Hey, that isn't even ancient history from the 1980s.  That's still going on this week, with the active help of the You Ess Ay.

Maybe this is just Stormy Daniels wag-the-dog stuff.  Maybe it's just Trump's craving for the approval of those who will never give it; maybe it's just his complete inability to pay attention to any one thing for more than ten minutes at a time.  I don't really care.  I just hope the world doesn't pay an astronomical price for the orange-hair's folly.