During an interview on ABC’s This Week, Trump Sec. of State Rex Tillerson admitted that the US missile strike on Syria wasn’t intended to damage Assad because the Trump administration is actually working with Assad to defeat ISIS, so the US missile strike was an empty charade.
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STEPHANOPOULOS: On Thursday night, President Trump called on all civilized nations to end the slaughter in Syria and you said the United States has begun to organize a coalition to remove Assad, so in the wake of Thursday’s strike, can you explain the United States’ strategy to remove Assad?
TILLERSON: Well, George, I think our strategy in Syria, as you know, our priority is first the defeat of ISIS, remove them from access to the Khalifade (phonetic) because that’s where the threat to the homeland and to so many other homelands of our coalition partners is emanating from. Once we can eliminate the battle against ISIS, conclude that and it is going quite well, then we hope to turn our attention to cease fire agreements between the regime and opposition forces. In that regard, we are hopeful that we can work with Russia and use their influence to achieve areas of stabilization throughout Syria and create the conditions for a political process through Geneva in which we can engage all of the parties on the way forward and it is through that political process that we believe the Syrian people will awfully be able to decide the fate of Bashar al-Assad.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But is that political process — is that diplomatic process now going to require greater military force to increase your leverage. You’ve seen Senators McCain and Graham call for taking out the Syrian air force, call for creating safe zones in Syria.
TILLERSON: Well as you know George the situation in Syria relative to the battlefield is quite complex because there are multiple engagements under way. As I said, we have the war to defeat ISIS in which many of those battle plans are being coordinated between the US, its coalition agreements, Turkey, some of the Syrian opposition and others and it is being coordinated somewhat with the Syrian regime and the Russian forces to put pressure on ISIS to eliminate them.
Tillerson was asked about removing Assad, and he gave an answer that could have been written by Putin. The Trump administration is working with Assad on combating ISIS. They never had any intention of taking action that would damage Assad. The missile strike was a charade. It was intended to make Trump look strong while accomplishing nothing.
The idea that a brutal dictator like Assad will ever voluntarily step aside and allow free and fair elections is a fantasy, and the Trump administration knows that it is never going to happen.
The American people were duped a president who has no Middle Eastern policy and seems more than happy to bow down to Putin.
The Syria missile strike was an empty gimmick carried out by a puppet president who believes that the American people are too stupid or distracted to see through his fiction.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
