AllTop Viral!

ISIS is on the rise in Syria and Iraq, and according to a recent Pentagon report, it is President Trump’s fault. The so-called Islamic State has somewhere between 14,000 and 18,000 fighters in those countries now, largely because of Trump’s decision to rapidly withdraw troops.

The president’s primary job is to be the commander in chief of the American armed forces. That’s literally the most important thing the president does, and unfortunately our commander in chief is not doing a great job.

Trump recently pardoned former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, who was charged with war crimes for shooting an unarmed, captured man suspected of engineering an IED attack. The Week argues that this pardon is an implicit approval of war crimes.

The Washington Post similarly points out that Trump’s recent reversal on Venezuela is evidence of Trump’s terrible patience and lack of strategic thinking, as well as further evidence of Putin’s sway over Trump.

Furthermore, Trump has opted to spend $20 billion over the next two decades in order to keep the USS Harry S. Truman operating, reversing his February decision to retire it. Here’s the problem: the Navy didn’t want that carrier still running. They planned to use that money on more advanced technologies and preparing for cyber warfare.

This is a terrible decision on Trump’s part, one that comes out of his tendency to appeal to hyper-masculine displays of aggression. The only problem is that wars are no longer won through the kind of aggression the aircraft carrier represents. Wars are now fought in a variety of different ways, from the streets of Afghani villages to cyberspace. Trump’s inability to see that is doubly dangerous because the two biggest threats to the United States––China and Russia––fully understand this fact.

More news.