Trump's Approach To The Middle East Typifies His Approach To All Politics

"Trump has changed his position on Syria twice and even reversed himself once, but he still can't find the right answer... He said he thinks the Middle East would be better off if Saddam Hussein and Moammar Qaddafi were still in charge of Iraq and Libya, and that Syria will be better off if Bashar al-Assad remains in power for the same reason... He sounds like a random guy in a bar who’s thinking out loud after reading a couple of newspaper articles that are fuzzy on the details. We all run into people like that once a while, people who don’t really know anything about the Middle East but think they’ve got it all figured out anyway. He realizes it’s hard, though, and figures, hey, let the Russians deal with it instead."

• Michael Totten, "Donald Trump Can't Get The Middle East Right," (7 October 2015), Dispatches, World Affairs Journal

Spot-On Truth-Teller Donald Trump: The Most Important Thing Said At The Republican Debate

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/12/spot-on-honest-donald-trump-most.html

TRUMP: One of the things that I'm frankly most proud of is that in 2003, 2004, I was totally against going into Iraq because you're going to destabilize the Middle East. I called it. I called it very strongly. And it was very important... In my opinion, we've spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that frankly, if they were there and if we could've spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems; our airports and all of the other problems we've had, we would've been a lot better off. I can tell you that right now. We have done a tremendous disservice, not only to the Middle East, we've done a tremendous disservice to humanity. The people that have been killed, the people that have wiped away, and for what? It's not like we had victory. It's a mess. The Middle East is totally destabilized. A total and complete mess. I wish we had the $4 trillion or $5 trillion. I wish it were spent right here in the United States, on our schools, hospitals, roads, airports, and everything else that are all falling apart... What do we have now? We have nothing. We've spent $3 trillion and probably much more - I have no idea what we've spent. Thousands and thousands of lives, we have nothing. Wounded warriors all over the place who I love, we have nothing for it. (APPLAUSE)