Some Early Reactions to the Reactions to President Trump ' s Syria Announcement

PresidentTrump ’s Syria announcement yesterday has sent the foreign policy community into orbit. The distress is mostly bipartisan, although the real vitriol seems to be coming more from Republicans than Democrats. See, for example, the stories of Vice PresidentPence ’s meeting with GOP senators, and Rep. AdamKinzinger ’s meltdown on CNN.A few, however, appreciated the president ’s decision. See especially, Cato’s John Glaser (here andhere),Defense Priorities ’ Benjamin Friedman,Win without War ’s Stephen Miles, and timely tweets from Democrat  Ted Lieu and RepublicansRand Paul andJustin Amash.Rather than simply rehash these statements, here are a  few brief observations related to the president’s decision:It should not be a surprise to anyone. Donald Trump has been railing against U.S. entanglement in Middle Eastern civil wars for years – as he noted this morning on Twitter. The only real surprise is that it took so long for him to overrule his foreign policy advisers who were dead set against withdrawal. (It does raise the question: Does he have the right foreign policy advisers?) As recently as this September, JohnBolton explained publicly that U.S. forces would remain in Syria as long as Iranian forces were there – effectively signaling a willingness to leave U.S troops there forever. Wednesday’s announcement is merely the latest reminder that the president sets policy.I ’m particularly interested – and moderately concerned – by an apparent...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs