Trump’s Idlib Story: Another “What’s Aleppo?”-Or What?


by Jerry Alatalo

hile running for U.S. president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2016, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson suffered wide public embarrassment and criticism for answering a question on national television about Aleppo, Syria with: “What’s Aleppo?”

Aleppo is Syria’s 2nd largest city, and at the moment of Governor Johnson’s political blunder its citizenry was heavily involved in fighting for survival against a variety of ruthless-killer terrorists.

Did Donald Trump display a “Gary Johnson moment” a week ago during his press conference at the United Nations in New York City? If he did, or did not … it seems Reuters was one of the few world media organizations to even report on Trump’s very puzzling, questions-raising Idlib statements.

***

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-syria/trump-says-learned-about-syrias-idlib-from-supporter-at-recent-rally-idUSKCN1M638H

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday he had never heard of the rebel-held Syrian region of Idlib under threat from Syrian government and Russian forces until a supporter brought it up at a recent rally about a month ago.

….Speaking at a news conference in New York, Trump took credit for convincing Russia, Iran and Syria to hold off on the attack after he warned them in a Sept. 4 Twitter post that they would be making a “grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy.”

“Syria’s a mess and I was responsible (for stopping the offensive) and I hope it stays that way,” he said. “When I put out on social media a few weeks ago about Idlib province, I said, ‘Don’t do it’.”

Trump went on to explain that he had just learned about the situation in Idlib after a woman in the crowd at a rally brought it up.

“I was at a meeting with lots of supporters and a woman stood up and she said there is a province in Syria with 3 million people right now. The Iranians, Russians and Syrians are surrounding that province and they are going to kill my sister and kill millions of people in order to get rid of 25,000 or 30,000 terrorists.

“I said that’s not going to happen. I didn’t hear of Idlib province. I came back and picked up the Failing New York Times and opened it up … not the front page, but there was a very big story and I said wow that’s the same story the woman told me and I found hard to believe and I said how, why would anyone do that?”

Trump said the story had indicated the offensive could start the next day and so he wrote his Twitter post and gave orders to his team, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton, to “not let it happen.”

“That doesn’t mean they can’t be selective, but don’t kill millions of people, and it stopped. Nobody is going to give me credit but that’s OK because the people know, but I’ve had more Syrians thank me for that. … This was about four weeks ago I put that out,” Trump said.

***

It is uncertain whether Trump’s statements as reported by Reuters indicate he had never heard of Idlib … or he was unaware that Syrian military forces, with help from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, were about to take the city back from terrorists.

If this was the 1st time Trump became aware of Idlib, then he distressingly repeats the embarrassing experience of Gary Johnson in 2016 when Johnson asked “What’s Aleppo?”. That seems an absolute impossibility for the man who’s been president of the United States for some 20 months.

On the other hand, and nearly equally as concerning if the case, Trump might know about Idlib, but have been actually unaware that Syrians and their allies were intending to retake the city of Idlib with its population of approximately 3 million from terrorists.

For the President of the United States to have become informed of a major anti-terrorist military situation in Syria from a supporter at one of his rallies, which then was confirmed by Trump by reading the New York Times, has one asking the obvious: “What kind of National Security, State Department and Defense Department advice is the leader of the free world receiving?”

This seems as impossible as the theory he’s repeating the embarrassment of Gary Johnson and Aleppo.

Is there another explanation, such as Trump’s sharing a story about Idlib which is completely fictional … and if so, why? Could Trump be telling what really happened, and his advisers are keeping him completely out of the loop? Is Trump trying to give the public the impression his advisers are intentionally keeping him in the dark, as part of some covert psychological operation?

Given the propensity of Trump to go on Twitter and convey oft-controversial messages about hugely consequential matters concerning international relations, – especially situations of war and peace … literal life and death, this event is enormously disturbing in light of its potential negative outcomes if left unresolved.

Whatever the explanation for his “Idlib moment”, from any perspective there is a clear, unbelievably important, profoundly dangerous problem of communications inside the administration of Donald Trump.

***  

14 thoughts on “Trump’s Idlib Story: Another “What’s Aleppo?”-Or What?

  1. Trump did say he knew more than the Generals but it appears the Generals now own him. Giving $60 BILLION more to the Military-Industrial Complex over last year is not insignificant. With the tax breaks for the rich, getting more TAX CASH BACK the richer you are, the poor and Middle Class will have to pay

    Who knows what Trump will do in the next 2 years if he’s not impeached by a Democratic House?

    If he is impeached, I think it will be worse than what happened in Ukraine, when the US orchestrated a Coup d’Etat replacing the Russian friendly government the Russian speaking majorities in Crimea and Donbass voted for, with a Neo-Nazi anti-Russian government on Russia’s border. The Trump people will not stand for it, and will rebel like the Russians in Ukraine.

    I sent this message to President Obama spelling out what I see possibly shaping up on the horizon, observing from CanaDa.

    ———- Original Message ———-
    From: ray032 ray032
    To: Elizabeth Warren
    Date: September 19, 2018 at 2:26 PM
    Subject: Fwd: The Camp David Accord- The Deal of the Century

    Good Day Senator Warren,

    As you prepare to do battle for the Mid-terms and 2020, I would hope you have the Political Courage to raise the issues brought to the attention of Presidents Carter and Obama in the message below.

    Peace

    Ray Joseph Cormier,

    Ottawa-Hull, CanaDa

    ———- Original Message ———-
    From: ray032 ray032
    To: info
    Date: September 17, 2018 at 10:55 AM
    Subject: The Camp David Accord- The Deal of the Century

    Dear President Carter,

    I was so pleased to hear you on Morning Joe Today. As I live my 75th year, it was an inspiration to me, to hear you speak so coherently on the Subject, and at your advanced age, have the presence of mind to remember the Palestinians in the brief Time the MSM gave you.

    I would have liked to know your thoughts on the Trump Peace Plan, cutting off all financial aid to Palestinians, including financial support to the 3 Hospitals in East Jerusalem serving Palestinians? So much for the Trump Administration previously saying a Peace deal cannot be imposed from the outside. That brings Armageddon closer, Revelation 16:13-16 tells us is the Devil’s work, not God’s Will.

    I can only hope your reflections, both the good, and mistakes that taught you a lesson, are being filmed for posterity.

    In these critical Times, God willing and giving you the strength, I would like to see you having more Public exposure than MSNBC gave you, on what you see unfolding in the US and the World these Days, whether in person, or in many interviews that get air Time.

    Peace. God Bless you. Live Long and Prosper!

    Ray Joseph Cormier

    Ottawa-Hull, CanaDa.

    p.s. I sent this message to President Obama last Monday. I hope you can see what I see possible.

    President Obama.

    As a Canadian, I was very happy when you were elected President. I saw that as a hopeful Sign for America and the World.

    You didn’t campaign to inherit the Global Financial Meltdown-Economic Pearl Harbour that happened even before you were elected, in the last months of 8 years of Republicanomics of more to the rich, and fighting Foreign Wars on Credit.
    The Trump Republican Tax Bill they spin as ‘Reform’ is the continuation of those Bush Policies on steroids.

    Watching from CanaDa, the real danger I see, is IF there is another Global Financial Collapse due to more US Economic War on more perceived enemies simultaneously than ever before in US history, complemented by tariffs on more US Allies than ever before, Americans will have to pay for all that.

    Removing the few Regulations put in place after the 2008 Global Financial Meltdown-Economic Pearl Harbour to prevent a re-recurrence, the worst possible aspects I would expect you were briefed on at the Time, increases the likelihood what has already happened, could happen again?

    Watching these things, I have to wonder if there is a method to Trump’s madness?

    IF there is a sudden, unexpected Global Financial Meltdown-Economic Pearl Harbour like the last one, in the face of the Social Chaos you were warned in 2008 would happen unless you signed onto TARP, it is President Trump who could invoke the use of the worst provisions in the 2012 National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) you signed into Law.

    That would make Trump, with 2 years to go, the 1st to use the Legal Authority in that 2012 NDAA to have his Bureaucracy/Military get rid of his ‘opposition’ indefinitely, detaining them in some Gitmo/Gulag, by accusing them of being vaguely associated with terrorism as determined by the Trump bureaucracy, in a Time of Social disorder.
    The right to challenge the government’s ‘suspicion’ in a Court of Law is removed.
    That’s a very real possibility with Trump’s temperament he has already displayed.

    I always admired the High Ideals in your speeches, hoping and praying Americans would take them to heart. But I also saw you didn’t always practice what you preached. On that score, the whole human Race without exception, is guilty.

    I appreciated your Grace in dealing with a Congress whose Republican Leaders Declared, even before you were sworn in, their sole goal was to destroy your Presidency, and I saw they did everything within their power to do that.
    I hate seeing the Republican hypocrisy/duplicity now that the Pendulum has swung to the other side.

    My deepest personal disappointment in you is, as a Constitutional Scholar, you did not VETO the 2012 NDAA even in the face of the overwhelming VETO-proof majorities in both Houses of Congress.
    At least, you would have started the Real Debate on American Democracy.
    Russians didn’t pass the 2012 NDAA, American Leaders did, long before Trump appeared on the scene.

    Now that you have entered the Current Political debate, you can still redeem yourself, admitting you made a mistake signing the 2012 NDAA.

    Peace and God Bless you!

    Maybe Obama is mulling over the letter? He hasn’t been reported doing anything in Public that I have seen since my message via the embedded email on his Website https://barackobama.com/contact/

    https://ray032.com/2012/01/11/end-of-freedom-and-democracy/

    Like

    1. Thanks for all the efforts to reach out and communicate (to the top, for sure with those names) you’ve engaged in, Ray. What’s your intuition tell you on Trump’s seeming to have no other option but to get information about Idlib from a woman attending a rally then the New York Times in early September, instead of his advisers? Leaning heavily toward the psychological operation, bogus story theory from here. What a mess…

      Like

      1. With Trump it’s entirely plausible he 1st heard of Idlib from a Syrian supporter. And yes, you have to wonder what kind of information he is given or hidden by his staff?

        The MSM and Alternate media never mention the real threat to American Democracy in the 2012 NDAA as outlined in the message to Obama. I wrote the article within 2 weeks of reading about it.

        With all the flash and distraction, people don’t see he really is a Nihilist, destroying the system with nothing in place to replace it.

        There can be no doubt under Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency is being transformed into the Environmental Pollution Agency but that’s not drummed into the American People like the anti-Russia/Putin propaganda every Day, over and over again.for the last 2 years.

        Like

        1. What’s most worrying is that the Russia-Putin, Iran, China, Venezuela, etc. propaganda isn’t diminishing but growing, making one feel these crazy warmonger billionaires are going to bring about world war. Of course, their family and friends won’t come anywhere near the bloody fighting and dying.

          Like

  2. p.s. Jerry, would you please edit my comment and change this, “The Trump people will not stand for and rebel like the Russians in Ukraine.” to this, The Trump people will not stand for it, and will rebel like the Russians in Ukraine.

    Thanks, Ray

    Like

    1. Ray,

      Well, you never know if someone after receiving a message might come to speak and act differently, but for Obama, Trump, Bush, Clinton to do so means they are putting their lives at serious risk. Take Brett Kavanaugh for example, seeing the massiveness of the current story, and his part in the coverup of Vince Foster’s murder. Kavanaugh was part of the Ken Starr team and 28-year old prosecutor in Foster case, later George W. Bush’s right hand man and appointed judge in Washington’s federal court of appeals, and now Trump’s appointment to Supreme Court.

      Everybody in Washington, GOP and Dem, knows Foster was murdered, and they (all on Judiciary Committee) know that Kavanaugh helped cover it up, but certain things – see 9/11 – you simply don’t talk about. Ed Opperman YouTube channel just posted an interview with Patrick Knowlton, whose witness testimony from the park the day Foster was murdered there contradicts the coverup story of suicide.

      At those levels of power, only those willing to sacrifice life itself will bring forward the horrific truths, and that applies to Obama.

      But still … The odds are highly stacked against one attempting to encourage corrupt powerful people to do the right thing, yet … you never know. There’s no harm in trying, and often when enough people become aware of and upset over various problems change indeed happens.

      Like

      1. Jerry, as to your last 2 paragraphs, many of the powerful types you cite fail the 2nd temptation of Christ test…..
        And the devil, taking him up to an high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
        And the devil said to him, All this power will I give you, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
        If you therefore will worship me, all shall be yours.
        And Jesus answered and said to him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

        I should have been clearer in the question to you. It wasn’t about Obama’s reaction. It was about what you think about the legal provisions in the 2012 NDAA that under the appropriate circumstances, could turn the USA into a Dictatorship almost overnight? I’m Canadian. You’re American. You’ll have to deal with it, if what I see possible turns out that way. It’s already on the Books, and the MSM, Alternate Media and the People aren’t talking about it?

        I’ve posted the letter in The Washington Post and other places so it’s now in the Public Domain.

        Like

        1. Ray,

          OK … the NDAA provisions making it possible for the government to sweep up any citizens Hitler-style in total contravention of the Constitution. It’s initial goal was probably about striking fear of being “disappeared” and deterring another Occupy movement around the country from occurring, as the threatening laws were passed shortly after crowds of Occupy protesters gathered in cities nationwide. Given the psychopathic words and actions of the Trump administration, people in America might want to up their levels of vigilance with respect to their actually using the damn laws in a wide scale Nazi roundup.

          Like

          1. And don’t forget, the Republican ‘obstructionists’ stalled every Obama appointment to the Supreme and Federal Appeal Courts so now they’ll be stacked with Trump appointees.

            Like

      1. Jerry, between email alerts to read this or that, my FaceBook Wall, and Twitter notices, I have to delete most of 100+ notices I get Daily based only on the headlines.
        Being one of your followers, not knowing who “We’re” are, I open and read every one of your email alerts.

        I did a Google search for “Brett’s Brown Car” and nothing came up?

        Like

        1. Ray,

          Visit the FBICover-up.com website and the meaning behind “Brett’s Brown Car” will become painfully clear, especially illustrated in the 20-page addendum to Ken Starr’s report demanded by Patrick Knowlton’s attorney, showing all the world the coverup of Vince Foster’s murder by Kavanaugh/Starr, and where the 20 page truth addition was fought vigorously by Starr. We’re is me, as we’ve gotten into the intended habit of not using “I”, “my”, “me”, etc.. 🙂

          Like

Comments are closed.