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Sunday, April 7, 2019

Now The Decision Was Made Too Quickly

Yahoo News came up with a new criticism of the President.  He acted too quickly with regard to the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.  It's a bizarre criticism.

Let's go back to a bit of history:  the administration of Barack Obama.  Obama never made a quick decision on anything having to do with foreign policy.  He agonized over each thing he did.  As a result, he did very little and was extremely slow to react.  For example, when ISIS rose up and started beating the Iraqi Army all across northern Iraq, Obama did nothing.  The US had no troops there, because, after a very long bout of dithering, Obama decided to pull all of America's armed forces out of that country.  Nevertheless, it was apparent from day one that ISIS was a group of terrorist thugs who were killing and enslaving hundreds of thousands of people as they were conquered.  The ISIS force basically consisted of men attacking in pickup trucks with machine guns mounted on the deck.  They could have been obliterated by a quick air campaign by the US air forces in the Persian Gulf.  But Obama did nothing, and he told America that ISIS was just the jayvee team of terrorism.  His dithering led to a four year battle to oust ISIS from the regions it conquered, a battle that was just won under the leadership of President Trump.  So, in summary, when it comes to foreign affairs, speed is not a bad thing or a good thing.  A good decision (like Trump's) taken quickly is much better than a bad decision (like Obama's) made slowly and deliberatively.

I've written previously about the merits of Trump's decision on the Golan Heights, and won't repeat all that here.  I just think it is worth noting that criticizing Trump for the speed at which he purportedly made this decision is nonsensical.  If you don't agree, remember for a moment all the times that the same media gurus criticized the President for acting too slowly.  The media follows a simple rule of thumb.  "If Trump acts quickly, it's bad.  If Trump acts slowly, it's bad.  If Trump doesn't act at all, it's bad.  No matter what Trump does or doesn't do, it's bad."  I think they must have posters in the news rooms that say this.

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