President 'The Donald' Trump and Surprising Consequences - Mod warning in OP

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

We always ask why the enemy of the day like Saddam as in power to begin with. A lot of them were supported by the West at one point. We tried to actually fix the problem in Syria by not backing the dictator and civil war is the result.

Well the first thing Trump did was back the dictator in Syria. That draws the battle lines in Syria so they can actually defeat Isis. Isis will be like the other terrorist groups with carbombs and suicide bombs and the like -which is kicking the problem 20 years down the road and is a massive improvement on the state of Syria today.

He'll take credit for defeating Isis and will become a hugely popular President.

Then he'll call home the US multinationals based in Ireland.

Basically he'll be a hero in 4 years and walk to a second term.

When one looks at it, the world is full of dictators. They exist in many African and Middle Eastern states, as well as some in the Far East, Pacific and former USSR. The vast majority of them most people will never even have heard of. Of course, some of these are much worse than others and some pose a threat outside their borders. America's opinions of them vary wildly.

For those in poor countries sub-Saharan Africa, they can do as they please. Some are US allies, some ain't but no one in the US admin cares about what they do. Those with oil like Equatorial Guinea are cosied up to of course.

No one in America cares much about North Korea either. As long as there is an army to deter them from launching attacks on US allies Japan and South Korea, they are unlikely to do anything and the US is not going to waste resources to change the regime there unless that regime was foolish enough to turn rhetoric into action (which is unlikely). Other Far East and Pacific dictators are less hostile and even less known so no one will care.

The Middle East is a different story. We need do introduction to these countries and we constantly hear about all of them. Each country has complex relations with America and what you see is not always what really happens:

Israel: US's biggest ally in the region. Policeman to do the dirty work America may not always want to do.
Iraq: Saddam and his predecessor Ba'athists were at first enemies of America, then friends and then enemies again. Even after they became enemies, America for years contained rather than removed Saddam for fear of exactly what has happened in recent times after Saddam was removed. Valuable lesson learned! Or maybe not!
Saudi Arabia: America continues to unconditionally support the most repressive, negative and fanatic state on earth that is also the number one sponsor of terrorism. Why? Oil and the opposition to its rulers are even worse!
Syria: For years, Assad and his father (also Assad) were largely ignored. As long as they feared Israel, all was okay. Then, the Arab spring came about and the West saw their opportunity to replace Assad with rebels. They probably saw Syria as a largely moderate and secular country that could not let in ISIS and al Qaeda. How wrong was this.
Jordan: US ally.
Lebanon: A place where proxy wars get fought.
Turkey: One of the comparatively more decent and democratic states in the region. The Erdogan situation may undermine this though now and in the future. Still and all, it is not a perfect state: ask a lot of Kurds.
Azerbaijan: Secular dictator, corruption, oil. Yes, the envy of most countries to the South of it.
Afghanistan: The US helped rebels against its communist USSR backed government and then ignored it and let it fall into civil war. The communists were overthrown by the Mujaheddin who were overthrown by the Taliban. The US did not care until 9/11 and then toppled the Taliban and replaced them with ex-Mujaheddin people and to this day, the country is still unstable.
Iran: America backed its monarchy but allowed it to be toppled. It was replaced by an officially anti-US regime though the US (and Israel) gave it backing in the Iran-Iraq war (America also gave Iraq backing) to stem the tide of Arab nationalism. The regime has been allowed in power by the US and the US has poor relations with the Iranian Mujaheddin, the main opposition and a Saddam ally. America under Obama improved official relations. The government is split between moderate democratic forces and unelected clerical and military dictators.
The so-called 'Gulf States': Collectively, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait. These are on paper the pinup boys for Arab moderation for the US but some of these have given ISIS money and have recognised the Taliban regime in the past. None of them are democratic by any means. The US tends to turn a blind eye.
Middle Eastern Russia, Georgia, Armenia: Instability and rivalry along with racial tensions within and with neighbours has created some dictatorial traits in these areas. Chechnya in particular has seen excess violence erupt. A blind eye for the most part is turned to all this area, even when the US and Russia are in poor relations.
Yemen: the poor relation of the Arab world. The US delegates responsibility of it to Saudi Arabia.
Libya: 30 years ago, Qaddafi/Gaddafi was the main 'villain' for the US. He was the very face of terrorism for many, despite most of it being propaganda. Yet for years, he was left in power by the US. The US once bombed him to get him to tone down whatever it was they accused him of. But it was decided he was the best on offer from 1969 to 2011. By the 2000s, he even did a deal with the West and became an ally. The West turned on him in 2011 because they endorsed the Arab spring and we know it was a poor decision now.
Egypt: Nasser was the original Arab nationalist, the original Qaddafi or Saddam. Poor relations existed between him and the West but his 2 successors improved relations drastically. Mubarak was a US ally up until 2011 when again the Arab Spring was backed by the West. A seemingly moderate Islamic regime (we will never know what their intentions were longterm) took over then but the military retook control.

Clinton, Bush 2 and Obama wanted to change regimes. Trump seems to want to revert to the old practice of supporting dictators as the lesser of 2 evils. With chaos everywhere in the Arab spring countries, there is a case more than ever for this. These people one does not have to like but the sad fact is there is no real alternative in many of these countries. In some of them like Iran, the existing system could change for the better (and is changing for the better) if encouraged to.

The greater Middle East region (Central Asia, India, Pakistan, Northeast Africa, other parts of North Africa) is looking on and hoping the chaos does not spread further. Many failed or fascist states exist in these areas too like Somalia, South Sudan, Mali and Eritrea. Regions in India and Pakistan too have shown worrying signs of trouble.