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Viewpoint: Some Type of Way

I’ve been feeling “some type of way” lately. My guess is you may feel the same.

Some type of way about a President who seems to want to shoot first and think later. Whose selective righteous indignation was reportedly moved by pictures of a man who tragically lost his 2 baby girls in Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad’s nerve gas chemical weapons attack against his own innocent people.

But first I should probably explain what feeling “some kind of way” means. The phrase is neither new nor novel. You’ve heard it before, maybe even used it a time of two.

Rapper Richie Homie Quan made it famous in a cut about raw emotion, candor, clarity and attitude. Once we get beyond his language, Quan shows us a series of examples that define “some type of way” in the context of justifiable anger at the injustice of police shootings of Black men, the constant green-eyed irritation of those wrapped up in ever evolving neighborhood jealousy, as well as the nagging confusion that comes from needlessly intense personal relationships with the opposite sex.

Feeling “some type of way” is about all of that and more. It’s about intense emotion, disgust, depression, anger, fear, love and joy.

What makes me feel “some kind of way” about what the President has done and is doing has everything to do with what could be another layer of deception. Another possibly selfish attempt to manipulate a public that’s becoming increasingly suspicious of his tangled web of Russian connections.

Is it possible the attack on Assad could be the most sinister of all manipulations? Clearly the emotions of rage and anger are understandable at many levels, even laudable. But what could be considered a declaration of war, without consulting Congress or anybody else for that matter, has me feeling some kind of way about what’s really behind this volley of 59 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles and the pile of rubble that used to be a Syrian Air Field.

I’m not convinced this move is rage at all. I’m trying to figure out how there can be so much compassion for people President Donald Trump doesn’t apparently want to allow into this country. With the Trump Administration there appears to be a need to interpreting things in opposites, contradictions that always have his best interest at heart.

Right now his best interest may be in distancing himself from Russian President Vladimir Putin. There’s no better way to do that than to attack Putin’s ally and friend Assad, then demand Putin sever ties with him. He has to know that’s not gonna happen. Has to know he’s not in a reality TV show where drama is only an amplified reaction to a minor event. Or does he?

The world stage is not about drama. It’s about power and national interests. Leaders like Putin and Assad are not to be trifled with unless you’re ready to go to “the mattresses.” (War) Or, unless they are complicit.

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It’s hard not to notice this air field is pretty remote, the comparative damage wasn’t really that severe nor was the loss of life. “Russian forces were notified before hand.” “U.S. military planners took precautions to minimize risk to Russian and Syrian personnel located at the airfield.”

What a neat, tidy yet deadly fire works display this turned out to be. Almost too tidy. Putin did what dictators do. He warned of reprisals and talked about damaged relationships. But exactly where does all of that take us? What does it tell us about the “Leader of the Free World” who makes this kind of move without a clear and identifiable strategy for dealing with Assad, his government or their civil war?

The United Nations doesn’t seem to quite know what to do with itself or how to respond.

I guess the world is feeling “some type of way” too.

Dennis Edwards is the Interim-Pastor of Richmond’s Historic 4th Baptist Church. He is an Emmy Award Winning Investigative Television Journalist, a graduate of Virginia Union University and its Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology.

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