Trump Claims Responsibility for Gulf Crisis

[Bengalzona]

(06-07-2017, 11:44 AM), etc.Dill Wrote: 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.

Didn't the Qataris pay for the base?

Quote: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?

I don't think they believe they are risking the base. I don't believe that any country in the region has sufficient military strength and acumen to take the base. I don't think they are concerned about this at all.

Quote: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.

Trump has soured our relationships with England and Germany with his recent comments. You tell me. His "bull in a china shop" approach to anything involving foreign diplomacy smacks of only one thing IMO: isolationism.

Quote: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 don't believe the Saudis are capable of successfully invading Qatar, they are having enough trouble in Yemen.

A coalition including Egypt, however, is a different story. But consider this. This is supposedly concerning Qatar "supporting" the Muslim Brotherhood. Is Egypt really going to send troops against another country for this reason when the Muslim Brotherhood is so entrenched in their own country? I don't think so.

I'm betting that this chastisement is about economics, not military.

Quote: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.

I'm aware of that. And I have heard that there is a considerable number of Shi'ites, in addition to Christians, Buddhists, etc.

Quote: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.

C'mon, now. It is a Muslim country in the Middle East. Are you really that surprised that Americans don't know or care? A portion of our population believe that all Muslims are terrorists to begin with.