For the past several decades, America has been heavily involved in the conflicts in the Middle East. Both major political parties have held pretty consistent stances on this topic, but many stances have unexpectedly shifted since the recent election. Recent democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was criticized for being a ‘war hawk’ by many, but she ultimately had the support of most democratic voters. She even recommended sending over 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, but most democrats supported her ideas. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was praised by many republicans for his apparent views on noninterventionism. These are not the most typical views for conservative republicans, but the right has seen a recent shift in opinion due to President Donald Trump.
Last week, Assad’s regime in Syria used chemical weapons in vicious attacks on their own citizens. The use of chemical weapons is heinous and condemned by the majority of the world, so there was a plethora of backlash from many other nations. Americans in particular were disgusted by these actions. Donald Trump took extreme action and sent 50 tomahawk missiles to the Syrian airbase that was responsible for the chemical attacks. This action was in stark contrast to many of his claims of noninterventionism during the election cycle. While many of the republican voters had conformed to Trump’s prior views, they quickly switched back to their conflictual opinions of old. Donald Trump said that the images of the children hit by the chemical weapons changed his stance on the issue. However, many democrats are criticizing his shift in opinion, and they are calling for him to stay out of the Middle Eastern conflicts. After all, he was quoted just a month ago saying that “we will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with.” At the time, most of his constituents agreed. He said this at one of his post-election rallies, and the statement was met with loud cheers from the voters. Now that his position has changed, however, his constituents do not seem to mind.
Many democrats fiercely oppose Trump’s intervention in Syria, but these views do not align with those of their most recent presidential candidate. Although most democratic voters were aware of her militaristic views towards the Middle East, they largely supported her and voted for her. Michael Crowley from Times Magazine stated that “As Secretary of State, Clinton backed a bold escalation of the Afghanistan war. She pressed Obama to arm the Syrian rebels, and later endorsed airstrikes against the Assad regime. She backed intervention in Libya, and her State Department helped enable Obama’s expansion of lethal drone strikes. In fact, Clinton may have been the administration’s most reliable advocate for military action. On at least three crucial issues—Afghanistan, Libya, and the bin Laden raid—Clinton took a more aggressive line than [Secretary of Defense Robert] Gates, a Bush-appointed Republican.” Interestingly, Clinton endorsed airstrikes against the Assad regime. When Trump did the same thing, however, he was harshly criticized by the left. Hillary Clinton even criticized Trump for “hypocrisy”, which is especially ironic because he did what many people think she would have done if she was president. It seems as though the recent democratic presidential candidate and many of her constituents switched their views pretty rapidly.
Republicans are not innocent either. Many republicans heavily criticized Obama during his presidential term for his continuous militant acts. According to The Atlantic, Obama was responsible for escalating the war in Afghanistan, ordering 250 drone attacks in Pakistan, sending troops to Libya, and many other militant actions. While the majority of republicans disagreed with these measures that the former President was taking, they have taken a complete 180 on their views on this issue. Recent Syrian government attacks, such as though that took place in Aleppo, have received international attention. Assad and his army have been using force against his own citizens, and many of them have no way to escape. While many people defend Assad’s actions by saying that he is just trying to take down ISIS, his attacks are often pointed at the wrong people. Recently, he sent inhumane chemical weapons at his own people. Disturbing images from the incident depict many Syrians, some of whom were young children, suffering from the attacks. They were badly burned, their bodies were convulsing, and countless Syrians were left dead as a result. Not only did this heinous attack kill many Syrians, it did not particularly hurt ISIS much at all. Americans have been particularly sympathetic, and there had been many cries of action from both political parties. When Trump took measures to the extreme, however, many people who formerly called him to act have retracted their statements. Obviously, hypocrisy was blatantly present from both political parties in regard to the recent conflicts in the Middle East.