The US foreign policy conundrum

The North Korean conundrum & the current US foreign policy offers important lessons in management. One one side ,we have a dictator hell bent on keeping testing missiles subduing the population ignorant of the world.On the other side is a business tycoon turned politician finding the going tough in passing out legislation in politics.North Korea should not be under estimated on the level of damage that it can unleash.The United States on the other hand is involved in too many wars,too many places around the world -Afghanistan,Ukraine,Japan,South Korea,Syria,Iraq,Yemen to name the obvious.With Trump realizing that legislation is a different ball game compared to running a business,the temptation to war monger with the aim of diverting attention from domestic pressures is extremely alluring and Trump seems to have fallen prey.Throughout the campaign,Trump campaigned on the promise of withdrawing the United States from never ending wars with the goal on rebuilding the economy.Many analysts around that world believed in this Trump vision and was convinced that he had the wherewithal to go against the established norms of US foreign policy,the key being remaining closely interlocked with NATO & retaining Russia as the eternal enemy .However ground realities has shifted drastically in the last decade.China and not Russia has emerged as the biggest threat to US both in terms of trade and military prowess.The world has moved on,however the Atlanticist lobby of the US lefttist media would push and haunt anyone who comes in with a different world view.Trump's administration is filled with resources subscribing to the stale Atlanticist view.HR Mcmaster & Nikki Haley are charismatic individuals but they are still stuck in time on their world views.Democrats and CNN erupted in joy at the sight of the Tomahawk missiles flying into the airbase in Syria.Fareed Zakaria went to the extent of calling Donald Trump "Presidential". But what they fail to tell the American people is that there was not a shred of evidence presented to the American public that Bashar Al Assad had orchestrated the attack.After all,there is not a single logical reason on why Assad would orchestrate a chemical attack considering the fact that Rex Tillerson went on record to say that regime change in Syria was not a priority for the administration.This is not to defend Assad,but the trust the world and the American public has on the security apparatus has reached a dead low.After all,the same security agencies had convinced the world that Saddam had indeed possessed WMD.Tulsi Gabbard has emerged as among the lone sane voice on the political arena,calling for the US to stop supporting terrorist groups around the world and to have attacked Syria only after allowing Congress to view ,debate and pass approval to attack.Let's not forget that its unconstitutional to impose war on a nation without Congressional approval.The Constitution however allows the President some leverage which Bush and now Trump has used to attack other nations citing the threat to national security.Gabbard was attacked viciously and made out to be a villain by Jake Tapper &co on CNN.Following the attack on Syria,Trump dropped the Mother of All bombs on Afghanistan.These are decisions of National security and as civilians we can only trust that the authorities in charge are doing the best they can for the nation.

The fact is that there is no debate happening in the US on various dimensions of going to war.CNN and Fox carry on with their agendas.True journalism is supposed to shed light on both sides of the argument and at the moment Trump like every other US President has decided to continue to war monger without facing any challenging questions or even having to bother to explain the consequences of the actions.Is the plan of US to remain in perpetual warfare?It's been 15 years in Afghanistan and there is no end in sight.The Western fantasy of replacing a dictator who is opposed to the US ,in the garb of installing democracy has spelled disaster in Iraq,Libya and now threatens Syria.Kim Jong Ung would surely not make the mistake of going in for a peace deal having seen the fate of Qaddafi and Saddam.The Korean peninsula could turn out to be yet another misadventure of US foreign policy if not handled with tact.China could turn out to the dark horse as North Korea's primary trade is with that country.However Trump would be naive to think that China is going to help the US beyond a point.China wouldn't want North Korea to fail as that would mean hundreds of thousands of refugees on its border.At the same time,it would like to keep the US off balance by keeping the North Korea plate in perpetual boil just like how it uses Pakistan to keep India off balance.After all the anti China rant during the campaign ,Trump has sucked up to Xi Jin Ping.Chinese seem to have reversed the art of deal on Trump for now.

With the 180 that Trump has carried out in foreign policy,a coterie of his support base has deserted him.Trump claims that being flexible and unpredictable is a key weapon in his arsenal.However,flexibility without consistency can be a disaster.The days ahead promise a lot of action.

The media's all out attack on Trump

The US left wing media (CNN, NBC ,NY Times ,Vox , Slate and other's )have launched a vicious assault on the Trump administration from day one.The poorly drafted "refugee ban" by the government provided the fodder to set the house on fire.The 9th circuit of judges overruled the blanket ban from the seven countries.In its new found enthusiasm ,Trump & co committed a colossal blunder by not taking time to loop the DHS ( Dept of Homeland Security ) and other stake holders before issuing out the executive order.The initial version of the executive order did not exempt green card holders from the order.Trump also took it a step further by going on record to say that his administration would give priority to Christian refugees out of these predominantly Muslim countries.The US Constitution clearly debars discrimination on religion.It looked as if the Trump administration believed in the over arching power in Section 1182(f) of federal immigration law, which authorizes the president “by proclamation” to exclude classes of aliens.The 9th circuit clearly did not go with the argument that the government can issue blanket orders which can be exempted from judicial review.

By now the Trump administration has realized that its walking on a thin line with an aggressive unfriendly media conspiring to target every member of Trump's core team.The Left wing media twisted the "refugee ban" as a "Muslim ban".Clearly the leftist media believes that it has to be in bed with the Islamist's propagating this strategy to be idealism & liberalism.Bernie Sanders and Noam Chomsky has led the Left Wing on turning a blind eye to radical Islam with the left wingers happy to join in.

In between Trump had passed an executive order banning member of government from lobbying for at least 5 years after stepping out of Washington.This news found rare mention on the left wing media.Instead they targeted Michael Flynn,National Security Adviser of the Trump government leading him to him finally stepping down.The charge was that Flynn had failed to mention discussing sanctions with the Russian Ambassador.The bigger conspiracy in this case , who in the government had access to the transcripts and who released it to the media.Clearly ,there are pro-Democrat officials lying around in Washington who are willing to throw the government under the bus.The media has also been on a constant war path with Kelly Ann Conway and Steve Bannon. Flynn was the appetizer , the real target is Trump.

Trump has chosen to fight back hard with constantly tweeting labeling the left wing media as FAKE NEWS. In the last press conference,Trump went a step further and told a CNN reporter that they are "very fake news" which led to laughter.But the point was not missed.In the Florida rally , Trump reached out directly to the public and criticizing the media for setting their agenda.

This battle is going to turn ugly in the coming days.The very fact that Trump got elected despite the constant slander has proved that the vast majority of public care two hoots for the liberal media.The media is supposed to be a watchdog of society and government and throw light in a bipartisan manner.However , at the moment ,the media shows no sing of relenting.

Democrats have to INTROSPECT instead of sticking to CONSPIRACY theories

It's high time the Dem's realized that Hillary Clinton completely ignored the Rust Belt in the campaigning.She did not have a clean image unlike Obama who despite being criticized on several policy failures did not have a stain on personal integrity and corruption.The Dem's might also want to introspect if the results would have turned out differently if Bernie Sanders was the Dem nominee.

The well oiled Clinton machinery which included the so called "liberal & progressive" media was in for a rude shock on Election night.Russian hacks into the DNC is the latest excuse of the Dems.Even if the Russian's managed to hack into the DNC, the Russians did not install Trump in Washington.They DEM's and the liberal media keep saying that the Russians hacked the election.Read b/w the lines and you realize that the alleged hack was on the DNC and not on the actual outcome of the election.

After November 8th,the DEM reactions have varied from street protests to arguing on scrapping the Electoral College.Hillary went onto say that the FBI re-opening the investigation into her email prior to the election hurt her prospects badly.

The Russian obsession is a clear strategy of the Clinton machinery ,which wants to keep projecting Russia as the enemy.Its clear that Putin outsmarted Obama in Syria.Despite all the US efforts in keeping Assad out ,Russia prevailed with its clearly stated objective of keeping Assad in power.Trump has clearly taken a diabolical view to the Clinton machinery & has openly praised Putin on twitter.Trump considers China a bigger threat to the US rather than Russia.The drastic change in his views have again come out as a jolt to the Clinton News Network and other liberal(?) media network who have been chanting "Russia..Russia" over several weeks.Trump has decided to take to social media to vent out his thoughts thereby bypassing the media giants and their established views.

The DEMS would do well to introspect and look forward.There is no sign of that atleast for now...