But Trump hasn't picked up that gun. Despite his embrace of so many aspects of Netanyahu's agenda, Israelis now fear that "the American president in whom they had invested so much hope has gone wobbly." Why? Because of his "last-minute decision to abort the attack in June," which has "led to a concern among Iran hawks in both Israel and the United States: that the president ultimately might not have the resolve to confront the threat with military force."
As Haaretz reports, in a more recent editorial "Netanyahu's Iran Policy Has Collapsed": "Trump's putting up with the attack on Saudi Arabia and leaving the Kurds high and dry are warning signs to Israel, that it cannot count on Netanyahu's friend in the White House."
And the BBC: Netanyahu's "signature Iran policy " was rocked by the president's reluctance to flex US military muscle in response to an apparent Iranian attack on Saudi oil installations".[which] evinces the utter collapse of the security doctrine that has been advanced by Netanyahu, [and] has been compounded by Mr. Trump's decision to pull US troops out of north-eastern Syria." Israel is now "facing the reality of an unpredictable and transactional president who has deep reservations about using US military might, is afraid of getting involved in another Middle East conflict."
Those hawks in Israel and the United States may be giving up on Trump, but one would be a fool to think they are giving up. They're just looking for another "friend in the White House"-and right quick. The election is too far away, and its results too unpredictable.
Trump is slithering filth and dangerously mercurial and random. But the recurring liberal bashing of him for non- and reduced military intervention and for not loving bad guys like the CIA and FBI and John McCain truly is knee-jerk. https://t.co/rQT2KOj1qg
- vastleft (@vastleft) October 9, 2019
Leftists may be loath to acknowledge it, but, for whatever reasons he made it, Trump's decision on Syria-the culmination of a series of non-interventionist decisions-has "marked a major turning point in Syria's long war" and has, indeed, " upended decades " of imperialist and Zionist plans for the Middle East It deserves to be recognized and supported as such by all leftist anti-imperialists as much as it is recognized and denounced as such by the entire spectrum of US-imperialist politics and media. It's a very good thing, a positive aspect of the Trump-effect I've written about previously.
We leftists can point out that Trump's non-interventionist rhetoric, and even decisions, do not always translate into reality. All US troops have not yet been withdrawn from Syria. US troop presence in the Middle East increased by 14,000 since May. He just sent another 2,000 US troops to Saudi Arabia. His policies on Palestine, Venezuela, and even Iran are criminally aggressive, even if they have not yet involved a military attack. We know that he's impulsive and changeable, and, most importantly, weak. Even if he has a sincere desire to end ridiculous, endless, and wasteful wars, it's a shallow impulse, ungrounded in anything but self- and US-centered principle. That makes him weak, and it's why he surrounds himself with neocon deep-state actors on whom he depends and who often ignore or actively oppose him-especially when it comes to his non-interventionist instincts. He is certainly as much of, if more erratic, an imperialist/American-exceptionalist and world bully as any US politician.
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