it is when he orders the use of force that his judgment needs to be questioned more than ever. One reason that the U.S. can so easily and frequently resort to the use of force overseas is that the people that should be the first to question a president’s decision are instead among the first to cheer and celebrate it.
.. Zakaria’s statement is ridiculous, but unfortunately reflects a common assumption about what being the president means. For Zakaria and quite a few others, a willingness to deal out death and destruction to other parts of the world is what makes someone seem “presidential.” Worse still, they are most inclined to defer to the president when he is using (or abusing) military power, so that they are at their most credulous and indulgent when the president is at his most dangerous. That is all the more worrisome when we remember how obsessed this president is with how he is portrayed in the media, since it will probably encourage him to order other hasty attacks in the hopes of receiving more adoring coverage.
This Isn’t the Foreign Policy Trump Campaigned On
He is proving more aggressive and adventuresome than Obama was.
He said that, if Assad were deposed, the country likely would fall to unsavory elements that hate the West—in other words, some of our worst enemies. He touted his oft-expressed desire to develop better relations with Russia, an Assad ally, and said he would work with Russia toward an end to the horrendous Syrian bloodshed.
.. many Americans interpreted that campaign rhetoric as signifying that this was one politician who would buck the conventional wisdom of the elites, that he would resist the call to flex American muscle wherever tragedy stalked the globe.
.. most Americans agreed with Trump’s harsh judgment on George W. Bush’s Iraq War, though some may have been uncomfortable with the billionaire’s characteristic allegation that our national leaders actually lied to the American people in taking America to war (as opposed to having been tragically mistaken about whether Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was consorting with anti-Western terrorist organizations).
Warplanes return to Syrian town devastated by chemical attack
Residents of the Syrian town devastated by a chemical-weapons attack earlier this week said that warplanes had returned to bomb them Saturday as Turkey described a retaliatory U.S. assault as “cosmetic” unless President Bashar al-Assad is removed from power.
The media loved Trump’s show of military might. Are we really doing this again?
The cruise missiles struck, and many in the mainstream media fawned.
“I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night,” declared Fareed Zakaria on CNN
.. Brian Williams, on MSNBC, seemed mesmerized by the images of the strikes provided by the Pentagon. He used the word “beautiful” three times and alluded to a Leonard Cohen lyric — “I am guided by the beauty of our weapons” — without apparent irony.
.. Why do so many in the news media love a show of force?
.. “There is no faster way to bring public support than to pursue military action,” said Ken Paulson, head of the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center.
.. News organizations that are fearful of looking partisan can fall into the trap of failing to provide context.”
.. News organizations that are fearful of looking partisan can fall into the trap of failing to provide context.”