Rex Tillerson needs to get with the program. Or not. The Secretary of State is so far out of the loop, he couldn't locate it with a telescope- if, say, the GOP regime allowed anything indicative of science.
We read Sunday
The United States' first priority before trying to stabilize Syria is defeating the Islamic State, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday.
In a video clip released by CBS' "Face the Nation," Tillerson told host John Dickerson that defeating the terrorist group minimizes a threat not only to the United States but also to regional stability.
"It's important that we keep our priorities straight. And we believe that the first priority is the defeat of ISIS," Tillerson said in the clip. "That by defeating ISIS and removing their caliphate from their control, we've now eliminated at least or minimized a particular threat not just to the United States, but to the whole stability in the region."
Tillerson said that once the threat of the Islamic state "has been reduced or eliminated," the U.S. can focus on stabilizing Syria.
But that perspective was so March. Vox reminds us
When Donald Trump ran for president, he showed no interested in seeking the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and fantasized routinely about the idea of working with his most powerful ally and protector, Russia, to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we got together with Russia and knocked the hell out of ISIS?” he frequently asked his audience on the campaign trail.
But on Thursday Trump launched 59 tomahawk missiles at one of Assad’s airbases...
If creating a stable Syria were as easy as getting rid of Assad, as Trump seems to think now, the U.S.A. would have done so long ago.
Instead, continued strikes against the regime of the butcher of Damascus would result in either continued civil war or eventual control by "Saudi-, Qatar-, and Turkish-backed anti-government Jihadis," which would further destabilize the region and pose a security threat to the U.S.A. It is the primary reason that the Obama Administration assumed a very limited role in the ongoing civil war in Syria, an approach once supported by Donald Trump. Trump reversed course during the campaign, when he posed as ISIL's biggest condemnor.
Tillerson's remarks this weekend echo that priority. However, they stand in stark contrast to the Tomahawk missile onslaught ordered Thursday by the President. And on Sunday's Meet The Press, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley stated "In no way do we see peace in that area with Russia covering up for Assad. In no way do we see peace in that area with Assad as the head of the Syrian government. And we have to make sure that we're pushing that process."
Whatever the wisdom (or lack thereof) of Secretary Tillerson's thinking, it clearly runs contrary to that of the Trump Administration now. That is: as of this moment, because Donald Trump's child-like mentality is characterized by the impulsiveness he displayed this past week when pictures of slaughtered children awakened in him a concern about Bashir Assad that six years of war, several hundred thousand dead, and millions of refugees did not.
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