CBS News and MSNBC are both spouting a new Trump Doctrine for the Middle East: an Israeli-Sunni Arab alliance against Iran. It is being implied that this new idea is coming from Trump himself, and a Israeli-Sunni alliance will help broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Huh?
From what I can tell, all the Sunni nations are to join with Israel in some grand alliance against Iran. And this grand alliance will isolate Iran and somehow deal a blow to terrorism. Next, the grand alliance will work out a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
What about ISIS? Last time I checked, Iran was fighting against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria. And wasn’t ISIS the YUGE threat to the U.S.?
And a little reminder to the genius behind this doctrine: ISIS is a political extremist group that is using Sunni Islam as a cover for their violence. They are Sunnis, not Shia. Are we going to invite ISIS into this grand alliance?
And isolating or maybe even attacking Iran does exactly what for the Palestinians? To the Palestinians, Israel is an occupying force on the West Bank. Are the Palestinians to forget their animosity toward Israel and go off on a tear against Iran?
As for dealing with terrorism, while Iran supports terrorist groups, one of the major sponsors of terrorism is Saudi Arabia. Oh, the Saudis will say that they do not directly support terrorism, and it is an outrage to say so. While the Saudi government claims it has not funded terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, many of its prominent citizens have given money to terrorists or supported madrassas in Pakistan that helped the Taliban.
Given Trump’s rampaging ignorance on anything, I do not believe the Trump Doctrine originated with him. This sounds like it was cooked up by the Saudis and some neocons. The neocons really hate trying to fight non-state actors. They prefer hitting nation states.
And this Trump Doctrine benefits the Saudis. Iran is a neighbor and full of Shiites and Persians. The Saudis see Iran as bigger and more direct threat than ISIS. Besides, all those arms we sell to the Saudi government can be used against any type of revolt by their own people.
This is a turd of an idea, but, as I said, I do not believe that Trump shat this one out himself.