April 16, 2018
Trump Was Right to Hit Syria. But He Should Stop There.
Thank goodness: President Donald Trump’s decision to launch limited missile strikes against chemical weapons facilities in Syria was an appropriate use of force—and a relief after a week when it appeared the White House was considering a much bigger attack.
As a former Pentagon and State Department official, and as someone who has long advocated for greater American military involvement in Syria, I believe a significant intervention now would be a huge mistake that would only harm the United States and the Syrian people. Trump should continue to show restraint.
I served in the Obama administration and supported most of his policies, but I always disagreed with his approach to Syria and believed that if the United States had aggressively armed a moderate opposition early on in the conflict, while it still existed, and combined it with missile strikes, a no-fly zone or the establishment of safe zones, we could have overthrown Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and ended the war sooner.
Read the full article at Politico
More from CNAS
-
‘U.S. War on Iran Tactically Very Successful: Strategic Success Will Be ‘Elusive’, Warns Schneiderman
Video
Genie Godula welcomes Daniel Schneiderman, CNAS adjunct senior fellow and Director of Global Policy Programs at Penn Washington. He argues that while the US has achieved signi...
By Daniel Schneiderman
-
The Curse of Middle-Sized Wars
Commentary
This article was originally published in Foreign Affairs. In 1988, the military historian James Stokesbury observed that democracies are best at fighting either little wars, w...
By Robert D. Kaplan
-
Podcast
Middle East Security / Energy, Economics & Security
Will Trump’s Shipping Insurance Plan Work?CNAS adjunct senior fellow Rachel Ziemba joined NPR's Planet Money to discuss the traffic jam of shipping vessels outside the Strait of Hormuz, political risk insurance, and m...
By Rachel Ziemba
-
Podcast
Middle East Security / National Security Law
Is the U.S. Fighting a War Without Rules?Military rules of engagement exist to specify 'who' and 'what' can be attacked. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. is fighting Iran without "stupid" rules of eng...
By Mark Nevitt
