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by markoman 1799 days ago
Please fill us in on what war Obama started? Trump didn't do much for peace in the middle east when he moved the Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
2 comments

Wars Obama gets to own (100%) (that is wars that would not have occurred without the Obama's administration encouragement, logistical support, and military intervention):

Lybia - (the US went in, as HRC infamously crudely paraphrased Ceser) Yemen - massive logistical support (stat and intel) and sale of weapons. Probably foreign mercenaries (unconfirmed) Syria - weapons and US boots on the ground (there still there). Probably funded and aided groups that became ISIS (relax, I don't think he did it on purpose. It was the same DC hubris that made Taliban out of Mujahadeen).

You can also add Honduras into the list of Obama's "Hope" and "Change" hypocrisy. You can't pin any of that on Trump, since these are conflicts he inherited.

As to Trump's 55 tomahawk missiles, taken out of context, is that the worse of it? Then Trump is the most benign (!!) president since at least Carter [1]. When you consider context, specifically that Trump called the Russians to make sure that the 55 pencils didn't start anything (they were launched to placate calls on CNN), then Trump comes out more favorably still.

As to Jerusalem, that was stupid and an unforced error. However, the ME didn't blow up as expected (unless you consider Lebanon self-destructing a consequence of that?). Also, he was executing the decades old bipartisan desire of Congress that previous presidents had, un-democratically, ignored. Stupid decision, for sure, but Congress gets most of the blame there.

Finally, you can't ignore that every time Trump tried to pull out of the ME, the military stymied him. They even directly disobeyed orders and they are on record as saying that they would misinform the president to keep the troops in.

[1] Carter, like Trump, didn't start a major war. However, his Iran intervention was much worse than anything Trump did (troops on the ground). Therefore, Trump might have been the most benign president for foreign countries since WW2 (when you consider colonialism, possibly far before that).

He got involved in Syria.
And Trump didn't get involved in Syria? The 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched on 04/07/2017 don't constitute involvement to you?
1. He inherited that conflict

2. He called the Russians to make sure the missiles didn't do anything

3. Do you remember the context of those missiles? A possibly fake flag chemical attack (tactically the official story makes zero sense) used to goad him into intervening.