The entrenched left really is remarkable. They condemned Trump as a Russian puppet, lauded Obama as a bringer of peace and demonized Bashar al-Assad as the modern-day Hitler. In short order, all of this was turned on its head.
Despite the impossible contradictions of their rhetoric, they stand behind their statements, and Trump’s air strike on Syria is clearly evil. While it sometimes seems like a lost cause, let’s go ahead and compare Obama and Trump’s actions in the Middle East to see what truth we can reveal.
The Obama Methods
Here’s an abridged review of Obama’s interference in Syria and the Middle East. He inherited the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. He accelerated our withdrawal from Iraq (against the advice of every military expert at his disposal) and contributed to instability that we are still combatting today.
Despite his proclaimed commitment to reduce our intervention in the Middle East, he opened up three new fronts, none of which saw resolution before he left office. Overall, his policy was one of underhanded tactics that enabled him to save public face while completely contradicting all of his promises.
This was most pronounced in Syria. One of several war fronts that Obama exposed to the American military, he tried to oppose Assad’s war by training and equipping rebel factions. While you probably don’t need reminding, those factions abandoned the civil war in Syria and instead invaded Iraq under ISIS banners.
While that tactic failed, Obama was indefinitely stumped for a way to put pressure on Syria in the face of Russian support. So, he turned to sanctions and negotiations, and even after his presidency ended he proudly claimed that convincing Syria to give up their chemical weapons was one of his proudest moments.
In fact, he and his administration went on record numerous times to tell us all that Assad no longer had chemical weapons. That makes Assad’s recent use of Sarin gas substantially more embarrassing for the former president.
Worse than the lies and failures that came from Obama was the extent of resources he committed with no success. Throughout his presidency, the Nobel Peace Prize winner dropped a bomb every 20 minutes. That is more than a 100-percent increase over George W. Bush, and it represents overwhelming costs, both in terms of finances and lives lost.
For all of this effort, situations on all of Obama’s fronts were worse for his involvement. Allies were lost in Egypt and Libya, the rebels lost Aleppo and Iraq is far worse off than at any point during Bush’s tenure. In short, Obama’s legacy is basically a treatise on how to fail at all aspects of foreign policy.
Changes under Trump
The first two months of Trump’s presidency were still largely influenced by provisions left in place by Obama. Trump hit the ground running, but it takes time to undo the culmination of mistakes made over the last eight years. Despite the challenge, Trump was able to reduce America’s bombing rates by 10 to 15 percent, even when we include the recent Tomahawk strike.
It will be interesting to see just how efficiently Trump can de-escalate the bulk of Obama initiated offensives, but one thing is for certain. The left’s cries of Republican warmongering just aren’t supported by the facts.
The most important thing we’ve seen from Trump so far is how he responded to Assad’s Sarin gas attack. While you know the end result — cruise missile strikes against Syria’s air force — you may not know some of the finer details.
First, it was Obama’s policy that obligated Trump to strike. Obama drew the “red line” that was crossed, and according to provisions that have not yet been repealed, America had little choice but to take military action against the war crime. Let’s not forget that this chemical attack was performed with weapons Obama assured us did not exist.
Second, this strike was strategic to a degree that has been poorly reported. Trump managed to walk an extremely fine line between appropriate retaliation and avoiding all-out war with Syria and Russia. In the attack, roughly 20 percent of Syria’s air force was destroyed.
It sent a clear message that Assad cannot afford to cross the “red line” again, but it left enough intact that Russia could justify limiting their reaction to words.
Let’s recap. Obama dropped three bombs an hour for eight years. If anything change can be measured, Obama’s influence in the Middle East can only be seen as negative. In a very short time, Trump has significantly scaled down Obama’s lingering military efforts. He has ordered one new strike, and so far it has had the exact desired impact.
There is still plenty of time to judge Trump, and he will certainly be imperfect, but so far he has proven to be many times the leader and strategist that Obama ever was.
~ American Liberty Report
