Get ready for a right turn on foreign policy. Days after Sec. of State Rex Tillerson suggested the Trump administration would simply leave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to his own devices, Tillerson reversed course Thursday, responding to a question about whether Assad would "have to go" this way:
“With the acts he has taken, it would seem that there would be no role for him to govern the Syrian people.”
During the press conference, Tillerson called Assad’s future “uncertain” and urged the Russian government to rethink its "continued support” for his regime. Tillerson will be meeting with Russian officials next week.
His comments follow Donald Trump's seeming change in heart on intervening in Syria, something he repeatedly urged President Obama not to do. A U.S. attack on Syria seems ever more likely with reports surfacing Thursday afternoon that the Pentagon is "developing options for a military strike" following Tuesday's deadly chemical attack.
Several Republican senators were sharply critical of Tillerson's comments from last week, which seemed to signal that Assad had a blank check to do what he wanted in Syria. Sen. Marco Rubio was one of them:
"In essence, [Tillerson was] almost nodding to the idea that Assad was gonna get to stay in some capacity."
"I don't think it's a coincidence that a few days later we see this," Rubio added during the interview, which was first reported by CNN.
It turns out diplomacy—or a lack thereof—has consequences. In this case, clumsy diplomacy and a lack of regional awareness may have opened the door to a horrific chemical attack that left innocent civilians, including small children, writhing as they gasped for breath.
Until now, team Trump has been chipping away at the State Department in terms of both knowledgable personnel and a bare-bones budget while simultaneously working to beef up Pentagon resources. Tillerson has also practically been running a shadow agency. With the exception of a smattering of press conferences, he and State Department officials have been nearly mute on what they're doing on a daily basis.
This may be the first of many instances where totally inept diplomacy creates an opportunity for the Pentagon to put some of its new resources to work.
Nobody knew diplomacy could be so complicated. Or at least nobody leading this administration.
