Qatar is a serious Crisis

[karynnj]

6. Scary times - Thanks for your post that concisely captures so many factors so clearly

It is also mindblowing that the President undercut Tillerson's effort to try to calm things. That Trump has claimed credit for the mess shows that he completely does not get how complicated the relationships are there.

In the Obama administration, we saw how this complexity meant that our President, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense had to very carefully balance positions to push for the least bad alternatives. This sometimes meant that they had to soft pedal our values on many issues to deal with the most disruptive issues.

It is terrifying that Trump is all in for Saudi Arabia - just because it treated him like a king, let him play with a sword, and touch a giant lighted orb ... and donated money to Ivanka's foundation. (No conflict of interest there!) That this happens after Obama stepped back on supporting SA because of their actions in Yemen shows that he could be putting the US in positions completely against both our interests and our values.

With our having a huge base there and Turkey saying that they will support Qatar, the GCC invading would be a nightmare. Trump is really playing with fire here -- and the world as a whole could get burned.