Trump Foreign Policy
October 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I noted that as a result of President Trump’s decision to pull back U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, raids against ISIS in other parts of Syria have been curtailed. Today comes word of other adverse consequences. One is Turkish atrocities and, perhaps, war crimes. Allahpundit at Hot Air has the relevant links for those with the stomach to check them out. In the age of “America First,” we’re no
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October 13, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I have found Michael Doran to be one of our most insightful analysts of American foreign policy in the Middle East. See, for example, his 2015 Mosaic essay “Obama’s secret Iran strategy” or any of his many other Mosaic essays posted here. Doran does not find the choices available to President Trump in Syria as simple as does the chorus from whom we have heard over the past week. Perhaps
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October 12, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that the Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria has forced the U.S. military and its Kurdish allies to curtail significantly their shared military operations against ISIS. The Kurds, under attack by their deadly enemy, have turned their attention to defending themselves from the Turks. Reportedly, hundreds of Kurdish-led fighters with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have relocated to the front lines of the fight with Turkey, and
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October 12, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Defenders of President Trump’s decision to remove U.S. troops from a portion of Syria, thereby enabling Turkey to have at the Kurds, make a number of arguments in favor of that move. I don’t find any of them persuasive, but some are better than others. The worst argument I know of comes from Trump himself. He points out that the Kurds didn’t help us at Normandy. He’s right, they didn’t.
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October 12, 2019 — John Hinderaker
What the Democrats fear most is happening: President Trump and his negotiating team are reaching wide-ranging agreements with China that will be a huge boon to the United States. In an Oval Office press conference yesterday, President Trump and China’s Vice Premier announced a Phase 1 set of agreements that will be documented over the next several weeks. The video of the press conference is embedded below; Trump’s performance was
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October 11, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Liberals’ foreign policy views are inconsistent, but entirely predictable: whatever a Republican president does, they oppose. Thus, Democrats applauded when President Obama prematurely withdrew American troops from Iraq, enabling the rise of ISIS. But when President Trump pulled a few hundred out of Syria, it was: OMG! The Kurds! James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation and the Institute of World Politics gave an interview to the Daily Signal that gives
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October 7, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Late yesterday, the White House announced that U.S. forces in northeastern Syria will stand down. This clears the way for Turkey to attack the Kurdish forces who fought alongside American troops in defeating ISIS (for the moment). Turkish President Erdogan, no friend of the U.S. and certainly no reliable partner, says that American troops have already started moving out of the area. Approximately 1,000 of them have been stationed there.
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October 6, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Paul wrote here about a selection of text exchanges among American diplomats that Adam Schiff released on Thursday. Politico, a reliable narrator of the Democratic Party line, termed the texts “explosive.” Politico highlights this one, from then-Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, dated July 25, the day when President Trump spoke on the phone with President Zelensky: Politico tells us that “This is a key exchange that Democrats are likely
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September 28, 2019 — John Hinderaker
It is not news to anyone who reads this site that the Democrats have gone around the bend. But their latest attack on the Trump administration, based on the fact that transcripts of Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders have been kept on a secure server, is perhaps the most insane yet. Conversations between our president and foreign heads of state on a secure server? I should hope so! Where else
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September 21, 2019 — John Hinderaker
My view of the “whistle blower scandal,” as the press has dubbed it, is a little more benign than Paul’s. The story begins with the fact that the Biden family took advantage of Joe’s status as vice president to get rich through foreign connections, principally China and Ukraine. This is a common phenomenon–a Democratic politician labors away for years at a modest salary, then retires a rich man. How does
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September 21, 2019 — Scott Johnson
If you want to understand the current state of play with Iran, there is nothing better to read than Lee Smith’s “Team Iran. This long Tablet column extricates us from the fog of stupidity that permeates the subject among Democrats and their mainstream media adjunct. I would only add this note. Lee credits Obama with decent motives for realigning our foreign policy consistent with Iranian interests. Michael Doran’s 2015 analysis
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September 20, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
It has become a standard talking point among leftists and Democrats to blame President Trump for Iran’s attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities. This Washington Post column by David Ignatius provides a good example of the genre. In his opening sentence, Igantius claims that Trump “start[ed] the fight” with Iran. We shouldn’t be surprised by this line of argument. As Jeane Kirkpatrick observed decades ago, the left always blames America
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September 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Voting in the Israeli election has been completed, and exit poll results have been released. The polls appear to range from giving the edge to Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents to showing essentially a dead-even race. It’s important to note that this was roughly true of the exit polling in April of this year. Back then, some exit polls were favorable enough to the opposition that its leader, Benny Gantz, declared victory.
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September 16, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Assuming Iran is indeed behind the attack on Saudi Arabia’s major oil refining facility, it represents a step-increase in Iranian-backed aggression in the region. The Wall Street Journal‘s Spencer Jakab says this attack is “the big one“: Saturday’s attack on a critical Saudi oil facility will almost certainly rock the world energy market in the short term, but it also carries disturbing long-term implications. Ever since the dual 1970s oil
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September 10, 2019 — Scott Johnson
This morning came word that President Trump has fired National Security Advisor John Bolton. Did he jump or was he pushed? Bolton states that he offered his resignation last night. Bloomberg has a good account here. I celebrated Bolton’s arrival on the job and am sorry to see him go. He is an exemplary public official and a great patriot. I wish President Trump had gelled with him, but I
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September 8, 2019 — John Hinderaker
The New York Times may say that America is the land of “land grabs, enslavement, rape and genocide,” but oppressed people around the world know better. Earlier today in Hong Kong, demonstrators marched to the American embassy, waving American flags and calling on President Trump to support them in their fight for the freedoms that were promised when China reclaimed possession of the territory: Sunday’s crowd waved US flags and
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September 7, 2019 — John Hinderaker
For the last three years, Democrats have obsessed over Russia’s relatively trivial participation in the 2016 election. But if they have any concern about China’s reported interest in 2020, they haven’t shown it. Why? Because China’s leaders want to get rid of Donald Trump and replace him with a Democrat who will be more compliant. Bill Gertz’s piece in the Free Beacon is titled “China Trying to Stop Trump Reelection,
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