***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
In the wake of the U.S. missile strikes against Syrian military targets late Thursday, speculation swirled about what the next step was and what the country’s Syria policy would be going forward. One such speculator was CNN’s resident plagiarist Fareed Zakaria who had a plethora of questions for President Trump. He warned that the strikes could be aiding ISIS. “Are we now saying we’re against Assad? Do we want to strengthen ISIS? Do we want the Assad regime to fall,” he wondered.
“If so, are we willing to commit ourselves to that goal,” he continued to ask, “If not, we've just thrown bombs in the middle of one of the most complex civil wars in the country and now we're going to step back and say, ‘Well that's it, we're done.’”
Zakaria agreed on a base level with the strikes saying, “there is a kind of morally affirming element to this act—this military act.” But he couldn’t figure out if the Trump administration had a long-term political strategy he was trying to achieve:
But you know military strategist Samuel Huntington used to say “military force is not a good instrument of communication, it is an instrument of compelance.” You have to have something you are trying to get the other side to do. A political strategy that you’re using the force for. What is our political strategy?
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But what is the political strategy behind it? Are we now going to try and topple the Assad government? If so, that means tens of thousands of troops on the ground. If not, what exactly have we active?
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