If there was a Hollywood for real-life action it would be the Middle East, the mother of all civil and uncivil wars, a region that cannot be left out in an electoral debate, such as the one between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump.
The Middle East made its entrance on the debate’s stage when Trump mentioned how the US economy has been wasted on overseas adventures, like Iraq for example. “The worst of all things has happened,” Trump said. “We owe $20 trillion, and we’re a mess. We haven’t even started. And we’ve spent $6 trillion in the Middle East, according to a report that I just saw. Whether it’s 6 or 5, but it looks like it’s 6, $6 trillion in the Middle East, we could have rebuilt our country twice.”
Clinton (or as I like to call her Queen of Sass) on the other hand boasted about her master-plan to kick Daesh right in its behind. “I have put forth a plan to defeat ISIS. It does involve going after them online. I think we need to do much more with our tech companies to prevent ISIS and their operatives from being able to use the Internet to radicalize, even direct people in our country and Europe and elsewhere. But we also have to intensify our air strikes against ISIS and eventually support our Arab and Kurdish partners to be able to actually take out ISIS in Raqqa, end their claim of being a caliphate.”
Returning to Trump’s point, Clinton proceeded to boast about Obama’s “success” in this field precisely; “We’re making progress. Our military is assisting in Iraq. And we’re hoping that within the year we’ll be able to push ISIS out of Iraq and then, you know, really squeeze them in Syria.”
Trump, of course, wasn’t going to let this statement just pass. That was his queue to lash back; “Secretary Clinton is talking about taking out ISIS. ‘We will take out ISIS.’ Well, president Obama and secretary Clinton created a vacuum the way they got out of Iraq, because they got out – what, they shouldn’t have been in, but once they got in, the way they got out was a disaster. And ISIS was formed. So she talks about taking them out. She’s been doing it a long time. She’s been trying to take them out for a long time. But they wouldn’t have even been formed if they left some troops behind, like 10,000 or maybe something more than that. And then you wouldn’t have had them.”
And there they were, taking a step in and out like they were playing a game chess – the chessboard in that case being the beloved region we live in.
WE SAID THIS: Ah yaana.