Presidential adviser Dr. Sebastian Gorka discussed Syria and Middle East policy with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Friday’s Breitbart News Daily.
Marlow noted that recent statements by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Syria suggested a dramatic shift in U.S. policy, which under President Obama made the overthrow of dictator Bashar al-Assad a priority. Tillerson said Assad’s fate should be left to the Syrian people.
Gorka described Syria as one of the “biggest problems” left to Trump’s team by the Obama administration, along with the Islamic State, which Obama famously dismissed as the “jayvee team” of terrorism at the beginning of its rise to power.
“There was literally an article of faith that ‘Assad must go,’” he said. “Remember, the Obama White House said whatever else happens, this man must be removed from office. That’s all well and good, but we’re talking about an individual who had, and continues to enjoy, the support of not only Iran but Russia, and also China to a certain degree. That is something you can’t just sweep under the carpet. You have to deal with it.”
“Remember, it’s not just politics that is the art of the possible, it is strategy that is the art of the possible. You have to deal with the world as it is, not as you would wish it to be. The last eight years, it was dealt with in the way the Obama administration would like it to be. We, having a Commander-in-Chief who is the ultimate pragmatist, we look at the world as it is, not as we would like it to be,” he said.
Gorka said the agenda for President Trump’s upcoming meetings with the leaders of Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority would be “a continuation of what we’ve been talking about since the beginning of the administration.”
“This isn’t a Bush administration. It’s very different from the last 16 years, not just differentiated from the Obama administration,” he said. “We will lead from the front. MAGA really means America first. As such, we are not going to invade other people’s countries to occupy them and try to turn them into ourselves. We’re going to help those nations fight their own wars for themselves.”
“Right now, with the visit of President Sisi occurring imminently, with the various events that are going to happen in the next few weeks and months, we are rebuilding our relationships with the Sunni nations of the region that really were left in the wilderness by the Obama White House, because they have to be the key elements to any solution in the region. With our support, they have to take the fight to ISIS. We have to rebuild those relationships first before they can do that,” he said.
Dr. Sebastian Gorka is a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, former National Security editor for Breitbart News, and author of books such as Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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