Wednesday 21 February 2018

Does Trump have a red line in Syria?

Obama had a red line in Syria but let it be crossed without doing anything. On the question of Bashar Assad using chemical weapons against his people, Obama was saved by the Russians who came up with their idea of persuading Assad to give up his chemical and biological weapons. Thinking back, especially with the current antagonism between the US and Russia, it is quite bizarre that it was Russia that came to Obama's rescue. But does Trump have a red line for Syria? Does he really care that the Syrians and Russians are currently bombing the rebel-held Damascus suburban enclave of eastern Ghouta to a pile of rubbish and killing hundreds of civilians? Does Trump feel any sense of outrage? The only red line that Trump has shown interest in is to stop North Korea from acquiring a long-enough range missile with a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the US. But even that red line seems somewhat uncertain. The CIA director Mike Pompeo has said that North Korea is just a handful of months away from achieving this "dream". So the red line will come this year. Will Trump act or prevaricate? And will Trump do anything about Syria? No one is stopping the Syrian regime and its Russian backers from slaughtering men, women and children on a daily basis. The UN pleads for the killing to stop but no one is listening. When this sort of rampant murder is going on, it needs a western leader of exceptional quality to intervene. Trump has so far shown no interest in stopping the bombing. He has no red line. It would be highly dangerous but if Obama considered bombing the Syrian airbase from where chemical weapons were stored, why should not Trump tell Assad: "If you don't stop bombing Ghouta I'm going to take out your airbases." Of course the risks are huge. What would Russia do? But the United States needs to become once again the leader of the western world. Trump's America First policy is a disaster because it has given the impression to the rest of the world that he doesn't care about standing up for human values elsewhere. So Putin gets away literally with murder. It's time for Trump to speak out for the women and children being killed and wounded in Ghouta. And to act!

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