John Bolton Announces The US Will Not Withdraw From Syria Quickly

H_Arendt · 2019-01-07T02:33:16.828Z

Bolton Puts Conditions on Syria Withdrawal, Suggesting a Delay of Months or...

John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, said troops would remain until the Islamic State was completely defeated and Turkey guaranteed it would not strike Kurdish forces.

Today, John Bolton appeared to reverse President Trump’s decision to rapidly withdraw the American forces in Syria, by stating the US would remain until the Islamic State is defeated and the Turkish regime guarantees the safety of the Kurds.

The upshot is that the US military presence in Syria will continue, possibly for years.

Apparently, President Trump’s announcement that ISIS was defeated was an alternative fact.

Given that we are back in Syria this week, a few questions to discuss:

Question 1: Do you think Bolton has actually made policy or will this get reversed again?

Question 2: Who’s running US foreign policy at present?

Question 3: (For Trump supporters). Most of you were delighted when Trump announced the withdrawal. Given that US troops are staying are you:

A: More delighted

B: Delighted just the same

C: Less delighted

D: All of the above

Question 4: How would you evaluate US handling of Syria in the past few weeks

A: Brilliantly professional

B: A group working hard out figure out a tough situation

C: Amateurish

D: All of the above

GrandWazoo · 2019-01-07T02:41:40.373Z

Almost everything Trump has done lately is a deversion to change the narrative. He has no interest in foreign policy or how his actions impact current events.

SeamanPride · 2019-01-07T02:42:35.811Z

Does Bolton speak on behalf of the president, or is this his own opinion?

Orygun · 2019-01-07T02:44:23.974Z

So stupid. Yet another example of Trumps impulsive recklessness. He literally caused his SecDef to resign in protest in large part due to this. Maybe he can beg Mattis to return now.

DOLOOP · 2019-01-07T02:51:50.435Z

It’s not fair to ask us to answer question 4 if there is not a “Clownshow-on-top-of-a-dumpsterfire” option.

H_Arendt · 2019-01-07T03:00:32.312Z

A very good question.

This is why I gleaned from the Times’ article

Bolton was speaking to reporters in Israel where he had met with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel had not been pleased with the US rapid withdrawal plan.

Asked for a response in Camp David, the President said he had never said that US troops would be withdrawn rapidly. This contradicts the President’s previous statements.

Blackwolf · 2019-01-07T03:07:19.712Z

I suspect that yet again cooler heads talked Donald off the ledge.

We’ll just have to wait for the next person to come along and induce a hissy fit in him and see what happens then.

H_Arendt · 2019-01-07T03:11:57.383Z

I hear your complaint but I am compelled to operate within the constraints of an A+ Presidency.

No one ever complained when Gale Sayers ran right, then ran left and then ran right again. So what’s your problem this time?

BigBear · 2019-01-07T03:59:41.105Z

H_Arendt:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/world/middleeast/bolton-syria-pullout.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Today, John Bolton appeared to reverse President Trump’s decision to rapidly withdraw the American forces in Syria, by stating the US would remain until the Islamic State is defeated and the Turkish regime guarantees the safety of the Kurds.

The upshot is that the US military presence in Syria will continue, possibly for years.

Apparently, President Trump’s announcement that ISIS was defeated was an alternative fact.

Given that we are back in Syria this week, a few questions to discuss:

Question 1: Do you think Bolton has actually made policy or will this get reversed again?

Question 2: Who’s running US foreign policy at present?

Question 3: (For Trump supporters). Most of you were delighted when Trump announced the withdrawal. Given that US troops are staying are you:

A: More delighted

B: Delighted just the same

C: Less delighted

D: All of the above

Question 4: How would you evaluate US handling of Syria in the past few weeks

A: Brilliantly professional

B: A group working hard out figure out a tough situation

C: Amateurish

D: All of the above

That’s a brilliant post, especially the set of questions. I’m looking forward to reading replies from slack-jawed Trumpster nitwits.

BigBear · 2019-01-07T04:09:59.966Z

SeamanPride:

Does Bolton speak on behalf of the president, or is this his own opinion?

That’s an excellent question, getting to the heart of the matter.

History of Trump says that Sean Hannity and Fox & Friends speak for President Trump: what they say on TV becomes what the president says later.

Advisors like Bolton try to steer Trump by making their views known on TV, hoping that Trump will think they make more sense to Trump than Steve Doocy or Sean Hannity, who’ve made their pitches on TV.

Throw in a few Bugs Bunny cartoons and some new crazy Geico commercials, and you have the Trump policy setting mechanism distilled.

H_Arendt · 2019-01-07T11:00:17.921Z

I am more interested in replies from people who are serious supporters of either the populist agenda that Trump ran on or the whatever’s-good-for-the-oil-industry agenda that Trump has governed under.

What has been missing are any of the people who celebrated that it was a good thing to get our army out of Syria. Where are they?

SimplyTrying · 2019-01-07T11:04:02.990Z

Blackwolf:

I suspect that yet again cooler heads talked Donald off the ledge.

We’ll just have to wait for the next person to come along and induce a hissy fit in him and see what happens then.

Lol. I would have been whistling a Van Halen tune.

Ex-Pat · 2019-01-07T12:00:47.196Z

This is why people say Trump is the worst president of all time. It’s not that he’s doing truly evil things like Andrew Jackson or leaving the nation in diaster like Buchanan, he’s just fundamentaly terrible at doing the necessary jobs of the president.

CaughtInTheMiddle · 2019-01-07T13:52:32.420Z

It’s becoming very apparent that Donald Trump was the worst administrator of all the candidates that ran for president.

Heck, even Carly Fiorina would have put together a solid team and let the talented people do their jobs.

H_Arendt · 2019-01-07T14:13:06.476Z

Donald Trump had a media presence – both on TV and books that gave him the reputation of being a great businessman. The reality of Trump’s business work was rather different; which is why US banks stopped loaning him money early in this century.

Carly Fiorina also had great press. I am curious whether you experienced her leadership first hand either at Bell Labs/Lucent or at HP. I was a consultant at HP during the Compaq merger and she was an imperious leader; not one who listened to her team. Do have a different view?

We all know how successful the HP/Compaq merger was.

ComfortablyNumb · 2019-01-07T14:21:19.852Z

H_Arendt:

What has been missing are any of the people who celebrated that it was a good thing to get our army out of Syria. Where are they?

That really is the question, isn’t it.

CaughtInTheMiddle · 2019-01-07T14:24:32.813Z

Yeah, you know when the banks in the US stop loaning a guy money it’s probably not a good idea to elect that same guy to be president.

SeaManatee · 2019-01-07T14:46:02.415Z

Orygun:

So stupid. Yet another example of Trumps impulsive recklessness. He literally caused his SecDef to resign in protest in large part due to this. Maybe he can beg Mattis to return now.

But on the positive side he got the media talking, right?

Riggggggght?

H_Arendt · 2019-01-07T14:48:11.328Z

Hey ComfortablyNumb. Maybe they all have bone spurs in their feet which keep them from posting.

ComfortablyNumb · 2019-01-07T14:51:06.138Z

H_Arendt:

Hey ComfortablyNumb. Maybe they all have bone spurs in their feet which keep them from posting.

Could be. Or a serious case of carpel tunnel perhaps. A more likely answer is that they have not yet been told what to think or how to react by the Ministers of Propaganda that do their thinking for them.