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In the wake of the Tomahawk missile strike in Syria, there has been a huge outpour, positive and negative, regarding President Trump’s latest action. Proponents called it a “bold, prudential action” while the detractors are worried about yet another war in the Middle East.

missile-strike-syria

President Trump made the right call in doing this action- he enforced the red line that Barack Obama would not. Barack Obama, for eight years, was a pathetic, spineless, incompetent “leader”- and America’s enemies knew it. The real reason why the world is so messed up is because Barack Obama shrunk from adversity and destroyed America’s standing in the world. On April 6, 2017, President Trump took action to reverse that.

I’ve seen articles and blogs that suggest he did it to make it appear that he was “strong” and/or try shrug off the stigma of the Left’s garbage attacks of Trump being “Putin’s puppet”. In other words, some say Trump did it strictly for personal reasons or publicity reasons. This is nonsense. To suggest that Trump, and all of his military advisors and policy advisors, would do this out of President Trump’s personal issues is simply ludicrous.

base hit Others have stated that it’s because Trump was duped by the “deep state” or “neo-cons”. There are plenty of solid American conservatives, who are neither of those aforementioned things, who support Trump’s action. President Trump has access to top-secret intelligence that we do not. While it is undeniable that there were politicized elements within the Intelligence Community, who actively worked against Trump, there are far more patriotic intelligence agents (the ground-work guys) who simply do the job they signed on for without all the political B.S. President Trump cannot go through his presidency by second-guessing his intel at every turn. And as for this “#SyriaHoax”, I suggest this:

1) “What does Assad have to gain by doing this?” This question assumes to know Assad’s mindset and motivations. Assad might not think in the same terms you or I do. True, he may have taken the “no regime change in Syria” comment as a second-chance that he didn’t want to screw up. However, he could have taken that comment as a sign that President Trump would not do anything to stop Assad from doing whatever he wanted to do. I’ve seen too many times to count in my law enforcement career, where we give “lucky breaks” to law breakers who go right back to doing the same stupid stuff that got them in trouble in the first place. Assad, perhaps, is no different from them.

2) Many of the #SyriaHoax lot are saying that we should not believe the pictures, video, and even many reports. Yet, to prove their story, they rely on: pictures, video, and reports. I’ve yet to seen an in-depth investigation into either of this. It’s simply not honest to pass off either side of this debate as factually true, before we even have all the facts!

There has been talk about how this action should have been taken years ago by Barack Obama; and those making that point are absolutely right. We have to come to grips with the reality that “coulda, woulda, shoulda” is a moot point, because Trump was not president back then. He is now. We can’t change the past, we can only move forward.

There’s also a debate about how Trump should get congressional approval for his action in Syria, and it’s a fair point. Legally, the War Powers Act allows Trump to take this immediate action. I am absolutely of the mindset that should President Trump continue with action in Syria, he needs to get congressional approval to formally declare war (if that is the path he ultimately goes down).

Many who have expressed outrage about the attack are worried about the prospect of going to war- several of which are military veterans. I understand that – I served eight years in the U.S. Army as an officer – I deployed to Afghanistan as a platoon leader and thus was directly responsible for men’s lives in an active war zone. I don’t speak about war from a position of theory or academia – I speak from experience. As the famous American general, William T. Sherman, said, “War is Hell.” It’s never something to be taken lightly. Consider this:

1) The real target, from a global, strategic level, is Vladmir Putin. Not Assad.

2) Vladmir Putin is NOT our friend. His moves in the Middle East, to ally with Syria and Iran, are against American interests.

putin pic 3) Putin has no interest in wiping out ISIS, and neither does Assad. Do we think the Russian military is incapable of erasing ISIS from existence if they really wanted to? Why is the ISIS capital of Raqqa still standing? Why has Putin not wiped Raqqa clean and exterminated its ISIS inhabitants? Because he doesn’t care to.

4) Obama’s withdrawal from the world stage allowed Putin to step in and grab power. The Syrian government, under Assad, really IS a puppet of Vladmir Putin. Giving Assad a swift kick in the ass is exactly the message that should be sent to Putin.

5) Putin is many things, but he’s not stupid. Does anyone think Putin is stupid enough to risk open war with America, over Syria? Perhaps under Barack Obama, but I doubt he would under Trump.

We must understand that America has a clear, moral duty to be the world’s superpower. Because no one else in the West will do so. The policy of isolationist, “fortress America” sounds good on paper, but in reality it’s a mess. If America retreats as the superpower, someone else will grab the “top dog” spot from us. Anyone who thinks that won’t happen is delusional. And right now, the top two countries in position to overtake the U.S. as a next superpower are Russia and China. Is there anyone in America, nay, the West in general, who thinks that either Russia or China as the next superpower is a GOOD thing?

We don’t have to look into ancient history to see what happens when America retreats from the world- the last eight years of Barack Obama show us what happens. The expansion of Russia under the dictator Putin, the debacle in the Ukraine, the Syrian civil war, the rise of ISIS, communist China illegally seizing control over international waters (which it has no right to claim), North Korea becoming more emboldened, and Iran more emboldened (and thanks to Obama, is guaranteed to get a nuclear weapon in the near future). Obama was the weakling that our enemies walked all over, and HIS inaction allowed for America’s enemies to grab power.

There’s an important lesson from history to note here- about how to respond to aggressors. Russia IS that aggressor. Prior to WWII, the “superpower” of the West was, in many senses, Great Britain. America at the time was still isolationist. And of course, Nazi Germany was the aggressor. When the Nazis rebuilt the military, violating provisions of the Versailles Treaty… the West did nothing. When Nazi Germany retook the Rhineland… the West did nothing. When Nazi Germany made an alliance with fascist Italy, establishing the Axis… the West did nothing. When Nazi Germany marched into Austria, welcomed by the Austrian people with open arms… the West did nothing. When Nazi Germany got together with the Soviet Union and signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreement, because, as Hitler said, the Soviets were Germany’s “socialist brethren in the east”… the West did nothing. And then, in 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union launched a two-pronged invasion of Poland. Only then, did Great Britain and France declare war.

And by that point, it was too late. The aggressor had grown too powerful, and the result of 1940 was France being overrun in a little over a month and British soldiers barely escaping out of Dunkirk. For the next three years, Britain was in the fight for its life against the onslaught of the German Luftwaffe. Only after a horrendous cost to human life, the bloodiest war in human history, was Nazi Germany finally defeated.

The lesson here is simple: if you do nothing and allow the aggressor to go unchecked, sooner or later that aggressor gets powerful and emboldened enough to attack you. Had Great Britain and France intervened well before Germany decided to invade Poland, things may have turned out quite differently.

Since WWII, America has been THE superpower, the world’s moral authority. To abandon that for the sake of isolationist, “fortress America” would be suicide. The world would be much worse off, not just for us but for our allies as well. The whole point of America engaging our enemies overseas is to not have to fight them at home.

This conflict in Syria is not about Assad, or Syria. It’s about Vladmir Putin. It’s about showing Russia that we’re not being pushed around. To those worried about antagonizing Russia, I would remind them that President Ronald Reagan directly challenged the Soviet Union, and no war happened there. And the challenge from Reagan did not push the Soviets to go on the offensive – rather, the Soviets capitulated to US. Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms, perestroika and glasnost, and his reforms opened a path for the succession of former Soviet satellite states and the dissolution of the U.S.S.R.

For those concerned about Russia, and their reactions to Trump’s move, I pose this question: Is basing America’s foreign policy off of what Russia thinks, or what they may do, a sign of American strength, or American weakness? I think the answer here is obvious.

Putting America first is more than just domestic issues. It is also being brave, stalwart, and determined to see victory. Being American is about never being beholden to the wishes and whims of foreign leaders, in particular foreign DICTATORS. That was one of the primary reasons why America’s founders told King George III to shove it in the first place!

I am not advocating for nation-building in Syria, or anywhere else for that matter. I see this through the lens of the big picture, the global strategy – to push back Vladmir Putin, to get Russia to retreat. To get America’s enemies back in line and afraid of us again. Perhaps Trump wants to remove Assad from power, but perhaps not. It would be foolish of Trump to advertise his exact intentions ahead of time, which of course was the exact mistake Obama always made.

obama pic Think of it this way – if Obama were playing a game of poker, he would be the guy who lays all his cards on the table and shows his full hand well before the game is up. He did that all the time, and it only demonstrated to our enemies how pathetic he was. Trump is likely not doing that, and it’s a smart move.

I don’t know if Trump will completely outmaneuver Putin, I don’t know if he’ll depose Assad, and I don’t even know what he’s going to do going forward from this first strike. I’m not Nostradamus. But I have to believe that Trump’s advisors, in particular his senior military advisors who have spent decades defending America and pledging their lives to her, would not be advising him into making stupid, irrational decisions that are detrimental to America’s interests.

You can be against this action in Syria; that’s fine. I’m not, and I’m not an isolationist. Because in today’s world, with America being a long-time superpower, it’s not realistically possible to be “fortress America”. And on the flip side, it’s not realistically possible to go around to every corner of the world and save every little kid on the face of the planet. We don’t have the time or resources to accomplish that. It doesn’t have to be that way, and it shouldn’t.

There are many Americans who fall in between that. I’m one of them. I’m not a “world’s police” guy, not a neo-con, and not an isolationist. It’s important to take a stand as the world’s moral superpower and stand against Russia, and China, and Syria, and Iran, and all the despots of the world. America has been absent a leader willing to do that for far too long, and the world has suffered for it. The honest, crappy truth is that Barack Obama left one HELL of a mess, particularly in the Middle East, and any successor of his would face the daunting task of having to clean it up.