Trump Claims Responsibility for Gulf Crisis

[Dill]

(06-07-2017, 10:43 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: Apparently, the administration is willing to risk letting Al Udeid Base go, something the Qataris could ill afford.

I doubt Tillerson, Mattis and McMaster are so willing. That base was a tremendous investment and so strategically important to US Foreign policy in the region.

Is it possible the Trump really had no clue he was risking that base, and possibly drawing Iran into Qatar as their next big brother?

Could he have been, or be, fine with blowing up years of US diplomacy in the region?  I do not see how this conflict will help US efforts to combat ISIL and monitor Iran.

My fear is that he told the Saudis he was going to back off, strengthen them with arms deals (creating jobs back in the US), and let them "lead" the region in combating Iran fighting ISIL. The Saudis saw this then as a chance to chastise Qatar. Could they even go so far as to grab the country as Saddam did Kuwait? As you know, the Saudis are reckless as Trump, and their actions could prompt Iran to blow off the Iran deal, thereby angering China, France, and the UK, possibly even Russia. Bannon and the Trump base might find this a good outcome.

I should add that 86% of Qatar's 2.3 million people are foreign nationals. I will be traveling the next two days, but I would sure like to be able to monitor what is going on in India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Great Britain right now. Also I am thinking that some 10,000 American families are concerned about this too.

Also worrisome is the fact that so few Americans know or care about this conflict at the moment. Though I understand that this is in part Trump's self-inflicted US crisis overshadowing his self-inflicted foreign policy crisis.