Syrian Opposition Now Hails Trump: "Abu Ivanka al-Amriki" (Father of Ivanka the American)

Some social media users in the Arab world praised Donald Trump for his missile strike on the Syrian government military airfield Friday, even giving him a new nickname, reports The Telegraph.

The users have started referring to President Trump as "Abu Ivanka" - meaning father of Ivanka.

Others used the name "Abu Ivanka al-Amriki" - Father of Ivanka the American.

Of course, it is not clear that Assad did order a chemical attack and Trump did not wait for an investigation to determine who was responsible. But these appear to be minor details for the anti-Assad factions---and there are many factions.

ISIS was certainly one anti-Assad faction that benefitted from Trump's attack.

Al-Masdar reports:

Capitalizing on the U.S. missile strikes, the Islamic State stormed the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) checkpoints near the strategic town of Al-Furqalas.

According to local sources, the Islamic State has yet to make any gains near Al-Fuqalas, but without necessary air support, the situation could worsen in the coming hours.

The Shayrat Military Airport is one of the Syrian Air Force’s most important installations in the fight against the Islamic State due to its proximity to the Palmyra and Deir Ezzor fronts.

And after a bit of early confusion last night, in America, CNN went anti-Assad.

During an early analysis last night of the attack, CNN's Fareed Zakaria, apparently confused as to whether he should be praising Trump or attacking him said quite accurately:

 Are we now saying we’re against Assad? Do we want to strengthen ISIS? Do we want the Assad regime to fall?...If so, are we willing to commit ourselves to that goal? If not, we've just thrown bombs in the middle of one of the most complex civil wars in the country. I don't know what the US goal is.

But then apparently getting the signal that when it comes to the use of military force Trump is to be supported (even on CNN), he flipped and said:

I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night. I think this was actually a big moment...President Trump recognized that the president of the United States does have to act to enforce international norms.

And there you have it, A president launching an attack in a far off land on questionable grounds and he is "Father of Ivanka the American," both for many Arabs and sadly many Americans who get juiced at the news of American missile launched.

If this would be the only military action by Trump in his years as president, it could be written off as an outlier but he has surrounded himself with war hawks, who will want to see more than an airfield destroyed. In the future, they will want to see blood, based on the insane idea that the United States should be policeman to the world--and see the world made into their vision. And Trump is naive enough to give them just the global brutality they desire. How this will all play out no one knows, but the idea that Trump will be the peace president is absurd. He is, indeed, the father of the Social Justice Warrior and war hawk Ivanka. More blood is coming.

And Eric Margolis comments:

So we just saw the US launch 59 or 60 $1.5million apiece cruise missiles at a western Syrian airfield to express President Trump’s outrage caused by seeing injured children allegedly caused by a Syrian government toxic gas attack.

But what, Mr. President, about all those Iraqi, Syrian and Afghan babies killed by US B-52 and B-1 heavy bombers?  Or the destruction of the defiant Iraqi city of Fallujah where the US used forbidden white phosphorus that burns right to the bone?

And this from Margolis:

The cruise missile strike was planned well in advance and the missiles programmed accordingly.  This was likely done before the alleged chemical attack.  What a hell of a rude act to launch the attack just before China’s leader, Xi Jinping, sat down to dinner with Trump in Palm Beach.  This was the most important China-US meeting since President Richard Nixon went to meet Chairman Mao in 1972.  What a monumental loss of face for Xi and for China.  He was made to look small and irrelevant.  Was this planned in advance?  Xi should have walked out, gotten onto his plane and returned to China.

Couldn’t Trump have waited till Xi’s visit was over, a mere additional day?   What was so urgent about bombing a Syrian air base?  

-RW 

(ht Daniel McAdams and Ilana Mercer)