ABC’s Terry Moran: Middle East Sees Trump’s Syria Announcement as ‘Act of Weakness’

‘As bad, if not worse, than President Obama’s drawing of the red line when Syria used chemical weapons’

EXCERPT:

MORAN: “Make no mistake about it, in the Middle East, this is seen as a strategic defeat for the United States and one self-inflicted, as bad, if not worse, than President Obama’s drawing of the red line when Syria used chemical weapons and then backing away, getting U.N. inspectors in there, hoping to do the job that way. Strength counts in that part of the world, and this is seen as an act of weakness in the face of Turkey. President Erdoğan, who wanted to invade that part of Syria and the United States, was stopping him, and somehow managed get President Trump to back down and abandon our allies. More than 10,000 Syrian Kurds died fighting under the direction of the United States in putting down ISIS. Those gains are now put at risk. And as you point out, Russia and Assad in Syria and his backer, Iran, are now strengthened. However, the key line in this to me was President Trump saying, 'Let someone else fight over this long bloodstained sand.' That is the attitude, one of the reasons he got elected, these endless wars. The question is, will voters see that he's doing it the right way that keeps America's reputation in the world strong, that keeps the United States' interests safe and secure? Or is he doing it in a chaotic way that empowers our adversaries and enemies in the region and beyond?”

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