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Has Syria’s monstrous chemical attack on its own citizens changed the trajectory of the Trump foreign policy—and was it occasioned by Trump’s announcement of an American pullout from Syria? That’s the question we ask on this podcast. Then we go into l’affaire Williamson, during which segment I curse repeatedly for the first time in public in a couple of years. Give a listen.
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Is the “I” here JPod? I look forward to finding out if this cursing can match Rob Long’s cursing on the uncensored GLoP last year.
Excellent discussion. The podcast definitely works best when all 4 of you are together.
There is already an informational ghetto. I think its mostly intentional. The media acts as a praetorian guard for the democrat party, with both a sword and shield – I know the Sword and Shield for the party, is a reference to the KGB, while a bit extreme. I think its fair.
During the primaries I had to constantly correct people I know on the actual positions of republican candidates. They would never believe me, I would end with just google it, find the direct quote in context and see whats real. It would usually calm them down. The usual smears about abortion, race and fascism where constant. One of my favorites, was that Trump was going to Sell the national parks to pay off the debt. (if only the national debt where that small!) We calculated that selling every asset the government owned – outside of the military, would barely balance the budget let alone pay down the debt.
All those communist dictators must feel so foolish. Killing all those press people – when all they had to do was learn how to throw a decent cocktail party and threaten to dis-invite the incompatible press. Dozens if not hundreds of unnecessary murders.
I dont think the founders (or anyone really) could have predicted how thoroughly corrupt the press would become.
What about Mr.Williamson’s disloyalty to National Review-it sure looks like he was ready to shaft them for a better deal. With their subscriptions down some 60% perhaps he viewed The Atlantic as the last helicopter out of Saigon. Now he’s high and dry and we’ll see who hires him next.
A leftist magazine?! But they publish David Frum!
Tucker Carlson raised the possibility that it was not Assad who launched the chemical attack. Syria is beset by any number of resistance groups, some of whom are worse than ISIS of even Assad. I think, part of Trump’s thinking in announcing a pull-out was that we don’t know who we support and fight for. Additionally, he was frustrated that the US was not getting sufficient financial and physical support from our allies. So why would Assad and/or the Russians do something that would keep him in country? There’s a real possibility that one or more of the crazy groups fighting Assad did the deed, the theory being they are not above it.
Now, however, since it’s taken for granted that Assad is the culprit, bombs away. And I think this is what’s going to happen. Not because it’s certain that Assad was behind it, but because right now Trump needs a distraction from Mueller, trade wars, Cohn and Stormy Daniels, and all the rest of the negativity surrounding his administration.
He might get lucky with a blitz in Syria, and an inter-connecting deal between China and North Korea and America. Enough to keep Mueller away for a time.
Mulling over Carlson‘s remarks, it occurred to me that within the Syrian government and military there have got to be hundreds of people who are acting as agents for Italian intelligence, French intelligence, US intelligence, Israeli intelligence, etc.; so when Trump people say they “know” Assad was behind the chemical attacks, they may know.
A mistake made by both Right and Left, looking at the Middle East: It’s not all about us. For example, when Saddam Hussein maintained the pretense that he still had WMDs, he was looking to deter Iran next door, while mostly disregarding distant rumblings in Washington and New York.
Similarly, Assad or Assad’s military used chemical weapons because they were needed in the war. From long experience, Assad knew that, whatever the Western response, it would still leave him firmly in control.
John Podhoretz muses, “If Mueller finds that there was, you know, a collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to get Trump elected, Trump has screwed the Russians the way he seems to screw everybody who does business deals with him …”
My hypothesis is, this is something Trump learned over his 50-year business career. When he realizes he is going to have to do something to harm the interests of a rival tycoon, he goes out of his way to befriend that rival, to head off or minimize any retaliation.
In other words, from Trump’s standpoint, the ideal is, he hits Russia, and Russia doesn’t hit back: “Sorry, Vlad — these damn neocons are really pushing me. I managed to nix nearly everything they wanted to do, but …”
Which repeated cursing was resplendent and entirely appropriate, for The Atlantic’s … everything is in fact [MotherToC Violationly ToC Violation]!