In One Day: The Yin and the Yang of the Trump Administration
As I watch today's newscasts, I am seeing the Yin and the Yang of Donald Trump and his policies. On a single day, the President is able to do two things, one that will more than likely be praised by the world at large, and both democrats and republicans here at home; the other an action that will likely be met with disdain by the world at large and will further separate the democrats and republicans here at home.
Let's start with what I see as one of the most positive movements in the fifteen months of the Trump administration. Yes, I am going to praise Trump and his administration for this one. Unfortunately, the actions had to be precipitated by a tragedy. The chemical attacks launched by Syria with their tacit or active assistance of their Russian allies was a mockery of all that is accepted by the world community. This is a case in which the President's response has been point on. Trump has rejoined the world community in attempting to form a alliance to respond to the attack. He has been speaking with President Macron of France to develop a strategy. He approved an Israeli strike on Syria. He has made the correct public statements, calling the attack an atrocity and pointing out the complicity of Russia and President Putin in the action.
I am almost always opposed to the actions of this administration, but the President does deserve praise when that praise is due him. This is a human atrocity with innocent men, women, and children being killed and maimed. This is what America is, a moral compass to the world.
But with the Yin comes the Yang. We are going to attempt to save as many of these Syrian innocents as possible, but, at the same time, we have deployed troops at locations along our southern border to, in theory, prevent a caravan of potential terrorists from crossing over into America. If these were terrorists, this might be a realistic strategy. What is coming out, however, is far from this caravan containing terrorists. The embedded journalists inside the caravan are finding that there are a predominance of women, young girls, and children in the group. They are fleeing the rape, torture, and murder against innocent civilians in the Honduras/Guatemala area. These are victims of terrorism, not terrorists. They are the mirror of the people in Syria. The world is watching our callous behavior in this instance and will question the sincerity of our intent for applying moral leadership in Syria and our insistence on moral cowardice on our own borders.
We can only hope that the President and Homeland Security look carefully at the individuals in the southern caravan and consider the possibility of political or humanitarian asylum in this case. That with, a continued positive response in Syria would go a long way to restoring America's moral leadership in the world.
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Good observations Doc.