Yesterday President Trump announced via Twitter, to the shock of his own Pentagon, that he was going to bring all American military personnel home from the fight against ISIS in Syria.
There’s plenty of room to debate the American military in Syria, but it’s clear that that final debate was never held within the administration. The question is whether the real conversation was had with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As one anonymous Pentagon official responded to Jake Tapper, “so when does Russia announce their victory?”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been a key ally and client for Putin, and so withdrawing the American presence without even trying to establish a lasting peace settlement essentially cedes the country to Assad and Putin.
And Trump’s rationale that ISIS has been defeated in Syria? Flatly contradicted by his own envoy to the region.
American foreign policy around the world has fallen into line with Putin’s interests, and against the interests of the American people. Putin has been elevated; NATO denigrated; Russia attacks on the Ukraine, Britain, Western democracies and our own elections have been forgiven; and our oldest alliances that have held Putin in check have been tossed aside.
Now the question is whether policy regarding Syria and ISIS, as core to our national security as any issue, is being made on Putin’s advice while our own military doesn’t even get a heads up.
Trump tweeted this morning that Russia is “not happy” about our decision. Here’s what Putin says: “American troops should not be in Syria and have been there illegally…If the decision to withdraw them was taken, that’s the right decision.” Why is Trump lying, and what is he hiding?
TAKING FOOD FROM STRUGGLING FAMILIES FOR CHRISTMAS
Today the Trump administration announced that for families struggling to put presents under the tree this Holiday season, they can now worry about putting food on the table too.
Congress just passed the farm bill with overwhelming bipartisan margins, rejecting Trump’s attempts to slash and sabotage the Supplemental and Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food assistance for struggling workers and families. But Trump decided he would go ahead and do it himself.
This comes just before Trump heads back to Mar-a-Lago for his real job of resort-owner and profiting on the taxpayer dime, and marks the one year anniversary of Trump signed into law tax giveaways for the big corporations and the top one percent. In fact the tax cuts given to the richest 1 percent alone are more than what the entire SNAP program costs.
This is nothing more than cruelty and contempt. Making someone hungrier won’t help them find work any faster. This won’t happen without a fight and we need your help to stop him. In January, be on the look out for an easy-to-use tool to submit a public comment telling the administration that taking food from people will not help anyone find a job.