Blame-happy Trump should look in the mirror,
Donald Trump had a remarkable first reaction to the horrifying chemical gas attack that killed some 72 Syrian civilians this week: he blamed Barack Obama.
The government of Bashar Assad stands accused of gassing scores of its own people. Yet Trump focused his outrage not on the Syrian dictator but on his own predecessor for supposedly showing “weakness and irresolution” in the face of Assad’s terror against civilians back in 2013.
In fact, if Trump wanted to blame an American president for this week’s atrocity, he would have done better to look in the mirror. For months, even years, he has sent a clear, unmistakable message to Assad that a Trump administration had no interest in getting involved in Syria.
As long ago as 2013, he tweeted that “Syria is not our problem.” He advised Obama “do NOT attack Syria” since “there is no upside and tremendous downside.” In a television interview last year, he repeated that the United States had “bigger problems than Assad” and said his priority was defeating Daesh (a.k.a. ISIS or ISIL).
How much clearer could he be? And how else could Assad, newly emboldened by military support from Russia, interpret the president’s words other than: Go ahead, do what you want, we won’t get in your way.
Obama may have been weak in dealing with Assad, as many have charged. But at least he did not overtly embolden the dictator and flash him the green light for whatever action he chose to take against rebel forces and innocent civilians.
It’s impossible not to conclude that there was a direct line between this week’s atrocity, the worst chemical attack in years, and Trump’s repeated declarations of non-interest and non-involvement in the Syrian conflict.
On Wednesday, as international outrage at the attack grew, the president seemed to change his tune.
He said the images of death from the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun “crosses many lines,” and the death of “innocent children, innocent babies, little babies” made him rethink the situation in Syria and how to deal with Assad himself. “My attitude,” he said, “has changed very much.”
That at least brings him closer in line with other U.S. officials, who have condemned the chemical attack in no uncertain terms and blamed Russia for blocking a robust response by the United Nations Security Council.
But Trump has only replaced callousness with incoherence. He refused to spell out what his new “attitude” amounts to or what the United States might be prepared to do in the face of Assad’s actions. At the same time, his ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned that if the UN cannot act collectively then the United States may be “compelled to take our own action.”
What does that mean? U.S. allies are understandably confused. And in the meantime, Assad has a free hand to inflict terror on unprotected civilians.
The primary blame for this horror, of course, lies with Assad’s government, which has shown it will stop at nothing to keep power. Close behind are his regime’s direct supporters in Moscow and Tehran.
But there’s another type of culpability that falls on those whose words and actions lead the dictator to conclude that he is free to act with impunity. Trump cannot escape a full share of that responsibility.
If Donald Trump wanted to blame an American president for this week’s atrocity in Syria, he would have done better to look in the mirror