In his new book "Fear," Bob Woodward recounts that in April 2017, after President Trump saw images of dead Syrian children with their mouths foaming from a sarin attack, he called Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and issued an order: Get me a plan for a military strike to take out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "Let's f--ing kill him!" Trump told Mattis, according to the book.
"Let's go in. Let's kill the f--ing lot of them." Mattis, Woodward writes, assured the president that "He would get right on it." But as soon as Mattis hung up the phone, he told a senior aide: "We're not going to do any of that." Instead, Woodward says, the defense secretary gave Trump options for more-limited strikes.
Trump has pursued a foreign policy that is not only not isolationist but also a significant improvement over his predecessor's.
In Syria, while Trump did not eliminate Assad, he did enforce President Barack Obama's red line against the use of chemical weapons, punishing violations not once but twice - and restoring America's credibility on the world stage.
In Turkey, Trump is taking a hard line with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime, imposing tariffs as the Turkish lira has gone into free fall.
Trump's policies more than make up for his disastrous Helsinki news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July.
There may be chaos in the Trump White House, but so far at least the chaos is producing pretty good results.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/chaos-or-not-trump-is-racking-up-a-record-of-foreign-policy-success/2018/09/18/97cf611a-bb59-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d0dfab782bda
"Let's go in. Let's kill the f--ing lot of them." Mattis, Woodward writes, assured the president that "He would get right on it." But as soon as Mattis hung up the phone, he told a senior aide: "We're not going to do any of that." Instead, Woodward says, the defense secretary gave Trump options for more-limited strikes.
Trump has pursued a foreign policy that is not only not isolationist but also a significant improvement over his predecessor's.
In Syria, while Trump did not eliminate Assad, he did enforce President Barack Obama's red line against the use of chemical weapons, punishing violations not once but twice - and restoring America's credibility on the world stage.
In Turkey, Trump is taking a hard line with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime, imposing tariffs as the Turkish lira has gone into free fall.
Trump's policies more than make up for his disastrous Helsinki news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July.
There may be chaos in the Trump White House, but so far at least the chaos is producing pretty good results.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/chaos-or-not-trump-is-racking-up-a-record-of-foreign-policy-success/2018/09/18/97cf611a-bb59-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d0dfab782bda
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