The Patriot Post Digest 10-18-2019

________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 10-18-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
_______________________________

The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Oct. 18, 2019

https://patriotpost.us/digests/66215-mid-day-digest-2019-10-18

THE FOUNDATION

“History and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government.” —George Washington (1796)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/66214-founders-quote-daily-2019-10-18

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Did Mulvaney just give the game away? Not so fast.1
Trump’s moves in Syria are way more complicated than media reports.2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.

IN BRIEF

Spinning Mulvaney’s ‘Quid Pro Quo’10

We’ve seen this movie before: Members of the Leftmedia are breathlessly asserting that they’ve finally uncovered the “smoking gun” that will prove President Donald Trump’s guilt. “Mulvaney brashly admits quid pro quo,” CNN’s headline blared. The rest of the Leftmedia dutifully declared that White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had just undercut Trump’s denial of a quid pro quo with Ukraine11. However, as with the story of the boy who cried wolf, few are taking the Leftmedia seriously, nor should they, as this is yet another instance of fake news.

So, what did Mulvaney actually say? During a press briefing on Thursday, Mulvaney explained that the foreign-aid package for Ukraine had been held up due to concerns over possible corruption. Mulvaney stated, “Did [Trump] also mention to me in the past the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. No question about that. But that’s it and that’s why we held up the money.”

Aha! Democrats were quick to assert. Rep. Adam Schiff vacuously claimed, “I think Mr. Mulvaney’s acknowledgment means that things have gone very, very bad to much, much worse.” However, such sentiments only appear to be the case in Schiff’s dream world.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Mulvaney’s statements actually comport with what Trump and the White House have been saying ever since the “whistleblower” complaint arose. As the New York Post observes, “All Mulvaney did was repeat yet again that Trump ‘was worried about corruption with that nation’ — and specifically say those worries extended to cooperation in ‘the look-back to what happened in 2016.’” When pressed by a reporter that withholding the aid package amounted to a quid pro quo, Mulvaney responded, “We do that all the time with foreign policy. … We were holding up aid [to] the Northern Triangle countries [Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador] … so that they would change their policies on immigration.”

And once again Mulvaney reiterated that the temporary withholding of military aid for Ukraine had nothing to do with Trump’s request that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky look into Joe Biden’s publicly admitted quid pro quo or Hunter Biden’s corrupt dealings12 in Ukraine.

The reality is that all U.S. presidents have engaged in foreign-policy deals that can be termed “quid pro quo,” as Mulvaney correctly asserts. The only question is whether Trump’s dealing with Ukraine was done solely and primarily for his own political benefit by seeking to take out a political opponent. And there is thus far no evidence supporting such a claim, irrespective of how loudly the Democrats and Leftmedia insist there is. In fact, if there were such damning evidence, Nancy Pelosi and company would have already voted on articles of impeachment. Instead, the fact that House Democrats are holding this not-yet-voted-on impeachment “inquiry” entirely behind closed doors demonstrates that they have nothing. It’s all a game of political smoke and mirrors, which the Leftmedia seeks to convince the American people is real.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/66210-spinning-mulvaneys-quid-pro-quo

Talking Turkey With Trump13

“President [Donald] Trump declared Thursday ‘a great day for civilization’ as Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced terms of a cease-fire agreement that would end violence between Turkey and Kurds in Syria, following a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara,” reports Fox News.

But, the Associated Press reports, “Fighting continued Friday in and around a northeast Syrian border town at the center of the fight between Turkey and Kurdish forces, despite a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that went into effect overnight.” Yet the ceasefire lasts for all of five days — long enough for the Kurds to evacuate “or else” — and there was only fighting because Trump allowed it in the first place.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-NeverTrump) declared Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds “a bloodstain on the annals of American history.” He accused Trump of caving to Turkey. “Are we so weak and inept diplomatically that Turkey forced the hand of the United States of America? Turkey!?”

Given how this has all played out so far, the on-its-face analysis is that Trump botched this one badly, just as Romney and countless others have said. But is that all there is to it?

There are a lot more U.S. troops moving around the Middle East than the relative handful Trump pulled from northeastern Syria. In fact, at the same time we were withdrawing those advisers, the Pentagon was moving 3,000 more American troops to Saudi Arabia. And we’ve increased our overall military presence in the Middle East by 14,000 troops since May.

So what’s going on? Well, Iran is the elephant in the room these days. With Trump’s withdrawal14 from Barack Obama’s foolish nuke deal followed by increased sanctions, Tehran is behaving as a cornered and wounded animal.

Why did Trump downplay the Saudis’ cold-blooded murder15 of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi? Because Saudi Arabia is a key piece16 on the Middle East chess board.

Why did Trump seemingly give a tyrant like Erdogan everything he wanted? Because Turkey is a (shaky) NATO ally and is currently home to dozens of American nuclear weapons, as well as U.S. military personnel at a couple of air bases. Trump has to prevent Ankara from going to Iran or Russia for any more help and alliance than it already is.

Why did Trump abandon the Kurds? Because brutal Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has clearly won that nation’s civil war, and the more he solidifies power — including now allying with the Kurds who were just a few years ago trying to oust him — “the less he’s going to need Russian or Iranian support,” argues Stephen Walt, a Harvard scholar.

In short, it’s not exactly like the Middle East has ever been a peaceful or America-friendly region. Trump’s tactics — and especially his appalling rhetoric — are as far from the status quo as you can get. Plenty of knowledgeable and upright people disagree with his moves, but that doesn’t mean they’re impetuous or indefensible moves. At the same time, whatever Trump’s future chess moves are, we’re left to hope that they play out in a way that is beneficial to the U.S. And that’s not very clear at the moment.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/66213-talking-turkey-with-trump