In the wake of airstrikes against the Syrian regime carried out by the U.S., Britain, and France, pundits critical of President Trump took to their columns and social media accounts to lament a military action carried out by an administration in turmoil.
Tweeting on Friday, anti-Trump Republican Ana Navarro wrote: “It is true Trump may have ordered strikes against Syria to distract attention from Comey book & Cohen investigation.”
It is true Trump may have ordered strikes against Syria to distract attention from Comey book & Cohen investigation
It is true Assad is committing genocide. The international community cannot, must not allow him to kill Syrians ppl w/impunity
The two, are not mutually exclusive
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) April 14, 2018
Another target was Trump’s use of the words “mission accomplished,” which harkened many back to the George W. Bush years and the disastrous foreign policy he headed after declaring “mission accomplished” in Iraq.
“Oh man. ‘Mission accomplished.’ A phrase George W. Bush used in 2003, and later came to regret because it conveyed the wrong message, that the Iraq war was over,” White House reporter Kaitlan Collins tweeted.
Oh man. "Mission accomplished." A phrase George W. Bush used in 2003, and later came to regret because it conveyed the wrong message, that the Iraq war was over. https://t.co/GSHzRQbtbA
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 14, 2018
A notable critic of Trump is senior editor of The Atlantic David Frum. As someone who was a proponent of the Iraq War, Frum has been labeled a “neocon” by many on the left. But in later years, he seemed to take a step back from his ideas about foreign policy and called for a “reckoning” from those who pushed to topple Saddam Hussein. In the era of Trump, Frum sees the current state of foreign policy more fraught as it’s in the hands of someone he considers to be a lunatic.
“I’d personally like more certainty whether the president and his team have massively lied about their obligations to a hostile foreign power before accepting their leadership of a major military action,” he tweeted on Friday.
But one of his most engaged tweets from Friday was the following:
“The lives of Americans and the peace of the world are in hands you wouldn’t trust with your beer money.”
The lives of Americans and the peace of the world are in hands you wouldn't trust with your beer money.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 14, 2018
If only he’d spoke up the same way in 2002.
Featured image via screen grab/MSNBC
