Trump This!
Nicholas Kristof, writing his column this week on "Donald the Dangerous" (NYT, March 5, 2016), recalls something Trump said last year that I missed at the time:
Asked about Syria, Trump said last year that he would unleash ISIS to destroy Syria's government. That is insane: ISIS is already murdering or enslaving Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities; executing gays; destroying antiquities; oppressing women. And Trump wants ISIS to capture Damascus?Trump apparently didn't realize that ISIS is another name for Islamic State. I'm assuming Trump at least knows of the Islamic State and wouldn't want to give it Damascus. But I might be wrong. Possibly, Trump's ignorance is deeply, profoundly, abyssmally, boundlessly, bottomlessly, even toplessly unlimited.
However, I do wish Kristof had supplied a citation, for I should have remembered such a statement by Trump, so I'd like to see exactly what the man said.
Labels: Politics
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 4:23 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Kristof refers to a 60 Minutes interview conducted by Scott Pelley. This is the relevant part:
"Scott Pelley: We're at war with ISIS as we sit here. How do you end it?
Donald Trump: I would end ISIS forcefully. I think ISIS, what they did, was unbelievable what they did with James Foley and with the cutting off of heads of everybody, I mean these people are totally a disaster. Now, let me just say this, ISIS in Syria, Assad in Syria, Assad and ISIS are mortal enemies. We go in to fight ISIS. Why aren't we letting ISIS go and fight Assad and then we pick up the remnants? Why are we doing this? We're fighting ISIS and Assad has to be saying to himself, "They have the nicest or dumbest people that I've ever imagined."
Scott Pelley: Let me get this right, so we lay off ISIS for now?
Donald Trump: Excuse me, let --
Scott Pelley: Lay off in Syria, let them destroy Assad. And then we go in behind that?
Donald Trump: --that's what I would say. Yes, that's what I would say.
Or, he had another idea, leave it to an old adversary.
Donald Trump: If you look at Syria. Russia wants to get rid of ISIS. We want to get rid of ISIS. Maybe let Russia do it. Let 'em get rid of ISIS. What the hell do we care?"
Thanks, Michael. Trump's point about letting our enemies fight each other to each other's destruction is in principle an elegant way of dealing with enemies.
But this tactic is a very bad idea if one of the two enemies dreams of a genocidal war to kill all unbelievers. Trump doesn't seem to realize that ISIS would kill Alawites, Christians, Shi'ites, Druze, and all other non-Sunnis.
Also, the migration of people from Syria would spike up into the millions, dwarfing the migration we've seen so far.
Jeffery Hodges
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Trump is a bully, albeit a very rich bully, who thinks his bluster and pontificating will erase all issues in front of him. He has no plan for this or any other international issue, nor any substantial plan for domestic issues. He is playing the game well though. My hope is people will start realizing the depth of that well is very shallow and start climbing out. One problem is the Republicans do not have a very strong group running this year. Cruz is so far to the right that he barely stays on the page and Rubio to simply too naive. The Democrats are not much more attractive, but either of them tops what the Republicans are offering so far.
Just my opinion of course!
Jay
A well-expressed opinion, though.
Jeffery Hodges
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