With his surprise, 180 degree decision to avenge innocents in Syria, President Trump entered the particle accelerator that is foreign affairs.\u00a0 The barrage of urgencies – inhumanity, chemical weapons, Syrian civil war, North Korean missiles, Russian warships, truck bombings, ISIS \u2013 has streamed his focus into a statesmanship that impresses even his detractors.\u00a0 This reminds us of Trump\u2019s speech to Congress in February where he grew visibly into his presidential shoes.<\/p>\n
Taking decisive action in Syria indeed was in the US national interest, not only an understandable human response to a human atrocity.\u00a0 How is it in the national interest?\u00a0 Chemical weapons cannot be tolerated a bit.\u00a0 No excuse exists.\u00a0 Any shadow of their acceptability would quickly become a black cloud over a world cowed into suspicion and fear.\u00a0 Our national interest depends upon a world open to itself and to the future.<\/p>\n
How else was this in the US national interest?\u00a0 It re-establishes US credibility abroad.\u00a0 For friends and foes alike the bombing is a north star reference point to White House foreign policies still in formulation. And certainly, that point is not a line, red or other.\u00a0 That point?\u00a0 No more \u201cleading from behind\u201d.<\/p>\n
From military giants to lone wolves, today\u2019s range of actors has expanded up, down, and sideways.\u00a0 And with their real-time access to global affairs, they are weaponizing most anything, be it information, chemicals, national debt, online data, or delivery trucks.<\/p>\n
By his action in Syria, President Trump chose to weaponize leadership.\u00a0 And he showed that the United States will use it to its best effect.<\/p>\n
By Hugh Dugan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With his surprise, 180 degree decision to avenge innocents in Syria, President Trump entered the particle accelerator that is foreign affairs.\u00a0 The barrage of urgencies…<\/p>\n