Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said President Trump would fail her Georgetown University course on national security decision-making while arguing the Trump administration needs to develop an in-depth strategy to deal with Syria.
Albright, who served as the nation’s top diplomat during the Clinton administration, said the course requires students to write papers where they list out pros and cons, and identify a clear objective.
“President Trump would flunk my course,” she said in an interview Tuesday with USA Today. “Because none of those things do we know. What is the objective? What is the strategy? What are the pros and cons of it? And what are the unintended consequences?”
Albright said the Trump administration should have a larger strategy concerning Syria beyond just taking military action against Syria in response to a reported chemical attack over the weekend.
“Just doing it to punish isn’t enough if we don’t have a strategy,” she said.
The U.S. and some western allies have signaled a willingness to carry out a retaliatory strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, whom they blame for the attack. Meanwhile, Russia, the regime’s staunchest ally, has denied any chemical weapons were used.
Last April, Trump ordered a retaliatory missile strike on a Syrian air base following a chemical attack on civilians.
