The USS Ross firing a Tomahawk missile in response to the Syrian chemical weapon attack. Photograph by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Price.
President Donald J. Trump’s decision to respond to the chemical weapons attack in Syria with a bombardment of 59 Tomahawk missiles was the most presidential thing he has done so far. He’s not the first president to use an air strike as a form of gesture politics and, sadly, he won’t be the last.
But it had to be done. It’s what a President Hillary Clinton would’ve done. It’s what President Barack Obama should’ve done. What does it accomplish? Maybe nothing. But you cannot let chemical weapons go unnoticed. This year marks the centennial of the United States’ entry into World War I, the Great War, in which millions were gassed. The response was “Never again.” And yet it has happened, again and again.
You can’t respond to chemical weapons with diplomacy.
And yet…. And yet, you can’t give up on diplomacy. And you can’t bury your head in the sand: This was a violent response to a horrendous act. People continue to suffer, die and flee. And this will continue as long as we are willing to play footsie with the Russians, who are playing footsie with Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad.
Last week was a bad one for frenemies as the Russkies didn’t take kindly to the bombing, even though we warned them as per our special arrangement with them that makes Syria seem like a horrific game men play. The Russkies cut off the “deconfliction line” of communication that keeps Trumpet and former BFF Vladimir “Rootin’ Tootin’” Putin from falling all over one another in the region. This is basically the geopolitical equivalent of picking up your marbles and going home. The childishness and churlishness among certain of the world leaders is astonishing. But then, who are we Americans to talk?
Speaking of Trumpet, we have to acknowledge it was a good week for him. He was 0 for, well, everything. The court-nixed Muslim bans, the repeal and replace fiasco and Russkie-gate have all demonstrated once again that it’s easier to campaign than it is to govern. Then Trump got Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the Supreme Court, though he further alienated Democrats whom he’ll need on the domestic agenda, now that it’s clear that the No, No Nanettes of the Freedom Caucus are going to be thorns in his side. (Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.) And now, Trumpet sounds the alarm on a chemical attack, earning bipartisan and global praise that has the added benefit of making him look not only like a strongman – the image he admires most – but one willing to go toe-to-toe with Putie at precisely the moment when the Russian hackers investigation is heating up. Is that convenient or what?
If Trump won this week, those of us in the loyal opposition didn’t exactly lose. For the man who ran on “America First” was forced to acknowledge that while you run on a domestic agenda, you govern on an international one. When 350 million souls are in your care, all bets are off. And you understand that it doesn’t matter how wealthy America is if she and the allies who stand with her – and the downtrodden who still look to her – are unsafe.
The only way to keep America first is for her to lead from the front – by serving others abroad as well as at home.