Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman gave his thoughts on how to handle Syria in the wake of last week’s strike on a Syrian airbase by the United States.
Friedman called on Trump to publicly criticize Russia and Iran for possibly enabling Syria to use chemical weapons, asking where Trump’s Twitter feed was when you needed.
“[I]n fairness, Syria is the problem from hell. And, you know, it’s such a fragmented situation on the ground right now, you know, what I saw in Secretary Tillerson there talking about it is, you know, why didn’t I raise my hand to be Secretary of Agriculture, not Secretary of State Because, it’s really a difficult, difficult situation,” he said. “So the real question is, I think, is two things, George. One is can we increase our leverage there without putting American troops on the ground, by maybe giving more aid to the opposition forces there, considering a no-fly zone? I mean that’s a big NATO-wide question.”
“You know, one thing I’m asking myself today is where are Trump’s — where is Trump’s Twitter feed when we need it?” Friedman continued. “You know, if I were Trump right now, I’d be hammering Putin on the fact — and the Iranians. You are a protector of someone using poison gas. Putin, you were either feckless and didn’t know your ally was doing this, or you’re complicit. And I don’t think these guys like to be, actually, called protectors of someone using poison gas. So I would be doing everything I could on every front to increase our leverage, because in the Middle East, if you’re trying to do diplomacy without leverage, you’re playing baseball without a bat.”
(h/t RCP Video)
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