The First Crisis

The Trump administration has largely been the author of most of its crises, and most of its crises are essentially political in nature.  Their impact is real, but limited to the political arena.  Experts have wondered what would happen when a true international crisis arose, how would the Trump "administration" handle it.

We are in the process of finding out.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt have led a coalition of Arab states in a boycott of Qatar, primarily because of Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood.  The Muslim Brotherhood has become a convenient straw man for the supposed fight against terrorism that Saudis pledged to Cheetoh Benito last month.  The fact that the MB has largely withdrawn from political violence and rejected terrorism doesn't seem to register, especially to a moron who only hears "Muslim" and "Brotherhood" in the same sentence and assumes they are bad.

In fact, Qatar is the home to a major American military base, from which raids on ISIS are launched, and Qatar has been funding the same rebel groups in Syria that the CIA funds.

Now, Turkey is pledging their support, along with Iran, to Qatar.  Significantly, neither Turkey nor Iran are Arab states, nor do they fear much from the Brotherhood.

The current conflict in Syria is best understood as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, with ISIS as the wildcard.  Now, we have a second front under way in a conflict over support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Rex Tillerson correctly understands that Qatar is a key American ally in the Middle East.  Donald Trump is a tangerine colored moron.  Their conflict over this exposes the dangers that Trump's emotive, irrational "leadership style" is bringing to this crisis.  Trump likes the Saudis.  They let him touch their glowing orb.  He can't see the deeper picture that Qatar represents a future Middle East not ruled over by retrograde monarchs like the House of Saud.  Or he doesn't care, because he likes the House of Saud's style.

Either way, a true Gulf War with Iran and Turkey on one side with Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Egypt on another would be an absolute calamity.