• Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
The Screaming Moderate

'America First' isn't very pretty right now

4/5/2017

1 Comment

 
President Trump is facing his first foreign policy crisis – the chemical bombing of his own people by Syria’s president – and is failing, miserably.

Rather than condemn President Assad’s actions and showing his sympathy and empathy for the victims, and calling for international action at least in the UN,   Trump condemned the bombing and then blamed President Obama for creating the environment for Assad to do it.

Obama deserves some blame for the environment – he did draw a red line that Assad crossed with no retribution – but for a sitting President to point a finger at his predecessor in this manner and at this time is not just bad form, it’s a reprehensible response by any president when another country’s leader is killing his own people.

I watched CBS news last night and the anchor warned viewers to move their kids away from the TV because the images they were about to show were difficult but “you need to see them”. He was right – the images – dead bodies of adults and children, and victims who were gasping for breath and foaming at the mouth – were not easy to see. But we had to see them to accept just how horrific this was. This is not a reality show, it is  reality.

I hope President Trump saw them because I don’t know how any human being can see them and not be revolted, reduced to tears and be opposed to taking some action against the bastard who did it.

There’s a time and a place for politics, and this isn’t the time or the place for Trump’s  pointing a finger at Obama. And Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first reaction was not  not comment though later his department did issue a statement in his name. Friends, this isn’t even a close call. What happened in Syria should be condemned by every normal thinking person in the world. And I chose the word "normal" carefully.

(I’d be remiss in not mentioning that at the time Obama drew the red line in the sand, four years ago, Trump tweeted this: “President Obama, do not attack Syria. There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your ‘powder’ for another (and more important) day.”

Is this not that day or at least in the running, Mr. President?

It’s one thing for Trump and his pals in the Senate to play politics and be on the precipice of the “nuclear option” to get his Supreme Court nominee through – and likely destroy any future of comity in the normally collegial Senate – but to not condemn Assad without bringing Obama into it, to not put human rights in the forefront of his foreign policy, as presidents of both parties have done for decades…well now everyone is seeing what “America first” really means.

And it ain’t pretty.
1 Comment
Larz Neilson
4/5/2017 07:11:30 am

Good column, B Jay. DT provides plenty of fodder for columnists. Very sad that this is over the corpses of gassed Syrians. Check that — fellow humans, civilians, children.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

     
    Follow @bjaycooper

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

powered by bjaycooper.com