Well that was interesting – and different. The President said Syria crossed a red line, “a lot of lines,” using poison gas to kill over 80 people, and then, the next day (if not the same one), he authorized a cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base. No waiting for a 100%+ report from a UN commission; no debate at the Security Council ending with a veto by one nation or another; no weighing of the pros and cons for days/weeks on end. Just: Assad did it. We attacked him.
So, on one hand, we have a president who tweets, the day after meeting the German chancellor, that “Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!” And on the other hand, when somebody uses poison gas on kids (their own kids), he says lines have been crossed and then actually does something – immediately.
It’s an interesting question: Which does the world prefer? The president described above or his predecessor?
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UPDATE (4/8/17 9:30 am): My answer: George H.W. Bush.
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