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• Author: Emord, Jonathan W.
• Position: Worldview - Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's military projection

THE SHRILL CRIES that Pres. Donald Trump is a patsy for Vladimir Putin have been quelled of late as the President projects American military might into Putin's Syrian backyard. Putin proxy Bashar al-Assad has come to the startling realization, as Putin has himself, that Trump is no Barack Obama and is not about to be a pawn complicit in a Russian resurgence or in an Assad chemical war that induces more mass migrations westward.

At a time when radical Islamic terrorists successfully have insinuated themselves into migrant populations from Syria, Assad unleashed chemical weapons on his own people, effecting an even greater migration out of the country to the West. Aiming to stem the flow and the concomitant threat of terrorist attacks it brings to Europe and the U.S., Pres. Trump, together with Secretary of Defense James Mattis, executed a bold move to reverse the Assad/Putin course. By knocking out most of the air base from which Assad launched his chemical attacks, Trump revealed that he has replaced feckless leadership and ephemeral red lines with a reassertion of U.S. military might. It was a bold and necessary move.

Suddenly, the Putin calculus has changed, as has that of Communist China and North Korea and the theocratic dictatorship of Iran. They now must accept the real possibility that Trump will use American military power to retaliate for acts of aggression that threaten U.S. interests, whether that be from mass migration induced by Assad's concussive hammering of the Syrian people; through interdiction of U.S. Navy vessels or air forces by the Iranian regime in the Strait of Hormuz; through greater Russian military adventurism in the Ukraine and Eastern Europe; or through the launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea.

To hammer home the advantage, Pres. Trump advised Chinese President Xi Jinping as American Tomahawks hit the Syrian base that, if China fails to reign in North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un, the U.S. will. In other words, Pres. Trump has reestablished that the U.S. no longer will pursue an apology tour, nor withdraw or retreat from the defense of its vital national interests. The contrast with the Obama Administration's constant flogging of the American ideal and appeasement of its enemies could not be more profound. The Trump doctrine will mean a much safer America, respected by the U.S.'s allies and feared by its enemies.

The odd and hypocritical liberal hue and cry against Trump--never spoken about Barack Obama...