Fox News didn’t waste much time last night getting out the pompoms for Donald Trump’s military strike on Syria, even as a bout of collective amnesia regarding his huge flip-flop on the subject took hold.
On the Hannity show last night, retired Army General Jack Keane, a Fox News military analyst, served as the head cheerleader with host Sean Hannity’s obvious approval.
Keane is not a Trump shill but he has said he declined an offer to serve as Trump’s defense secretary (for personal reasons).
But Keane certainly warmed Hannity’s (and Trump’s) heart last night:
Up front, Keane lauded the strikes as “a major setback for Russia.” Surely, looking like he's not a Putin puppet was one of Trump's goals.
Keane went on to suggest that Trump secured a place for himself as the most awesome, decisive - leaderly, not like that weak Obama! - president in recent history:
KEANE: President Trump has absolutely revitalized the historical and traditional relationship that the United States has had from President Roosevelt up until President Obama [with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan]. He has revitalized that relationship and I am convinced now that he will get incredible cooperation out of the Sunni Arabs.
The other thing, he sent a loud message to the Iranians in the first month of his administration that I am not gonna tolerate your trampling on the interests of the Middle East and taking advantage of using your proxies to do that and also to developing ballistic missiles. I’m gonna stand in your way from accomplishing that. This is an incredible message that should have been sent many years ago by the Obama administration.
Hannity wanted more, more, more. And Keane obliged.
HANNITY: General, let’s get your thoughts on the world reaction tonight. North Korea is watching tonight. The Iranians are watching tonight. The Russians … they’re watching tonight. What is the message? How is this going to be received? That America’s back after seven years of war crimes and death and misery and the use of these weapons, that it will no longer be tolerated? That this, the goal of this is to prevent any further mass casualty of civilians, that that will now be non-negotiable with the United States of America?
KEANE: I think the president has been sending some messages since his inauguration and I think the way the world reads him is - certainly, there’s all the campaign rhetoric to be sure and some of it was not predictable in terms of what his actions would be as president. But I think when they look at him, they see a strong, decisive leader who has had success in leadership and he sort of does what he says.
Well, except for when Trump thought bombing Syria was a terrible strategy, one that required Congressional approval (which Trump did not bother to seek, much less receive). In fact, Trump reportedly notified Russia of the strike plans before he told Congress. And there was this, too, from our historically unpopular president:
Neither Keane nor Hannity brought up any of those pesky details that might make Trump look a little less gloriously un-Obama. But there was more gushing:
KEANE: And now we see this act taking place where he said, "This is a heinous act and I’m not gonna tolerate it, I’m gonna act on behalf of humankind and do something about it.” He’s sending a message to the Chinese. He’s telling the Chinese that, “Listen, the North Koreans are trying to weaponize intercontinental ballistic missiles and the rhetoric is, they will use ‘em against my country and my people. Don’t push me into a corner where I have to use a military option to deal with them. That would be horrific. That would mean war on the Korean peninsula. But in the same time, I cannot permit them to launch a missile against the United States. I think he’ll get the Chinese attention for sure as a result of that.
HANNITY: Good point.
KEANE: It’s not rhetoric. We’ve had rhetoric for eight years with passivity and no action. Now, he’s taken a very limited action but it sends an incredibly strong message to our adversaries in the world who are paying attention. Believe me, Iran, China, Russia paying attention … and certainly the rogue state of North Korea. They are all paying attention to this.
Listen, it’s not a panacea for all of our problems, to be sure. Not one military strike on one evening is going to change the world. But it is going to tell the world that we have a decisive president who is going to act on behalf of U.S. national interests and the interests of our allies when he believes that’s at stake and that is an unequivocally loud, clear message.
Watch it above, from the April 6, 2017 Hannity.
Originally published at Newshounds.us
