The Wrong Lesson Learned

So.. yesterday I wrote that I thought Donald Trump had a reasonable response (a limited missile strike) to inform Syria that Chemical Weapons were not an option (link).  My opinion on that has not changed.

However...

There is a secondary lesson that I am afraid the President will learn, which is just as true but much more insidious: that is, that the strike blew away his bad news cycle and he doesn't have to return to it if he doesn't want to.

Before the strike he and his team were doubling and tripling down that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, despite the statements from the FBI, Justice Department, CIA and NSA.

Two days before the strike he had a discussion with the New York Times, ostensibly about the Infrastructure Bill, but he spoke, from the very start, about Susan Rice (Obama's Security Advisor) "breaking the law" by unmasked names in reviewing security files. She did not break the law, she was - in fact - doing her job with checks and balances, but whatever.

Before the strike the news cycle was dominated by Jeff Sessions and Devin Nunes recusing themselves from the Russian Investigations because they had lied about their contacts.

Before the strike the news was that son-in-law, point man on remaking government in the mold of business, middle east expert and Israeli / Palestinian negotiator Jared Kushner "omitted" his foreign contacts on his security clearance request. Including, you know, the Russian Ambassador and the head of a Russian Bank that was prohibited from doing business in the US due to laws put in place when Russia invaded another sovereign nation that we had both pledged to respect.  I like "omitted". It's the moral equivalent to nolo contendre. It's means, "I lied", without having to actually say it. Years from now, when he is trying to rehabilitate his image (you know, in the bunker while we all wait out nuclear winter) he can weasel out and say, "I meant I forgot, not I lied!"

Now, none of that baggage.

Now we have Brian Williams popping a boner on Cable TV watching US rain death like it was some cheap ass porn.  and that is a bad lesson to learn.

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