Krauthammer: Syria Strike Sends Message that ‘There Is a Sheriff in Town’ – ‘America Is Back’

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that the missile strike against Syria sent the message that “there is a sheriff in town. There was an absence for eight years. America is back, and you’re not allowed to do whatever you want.”

Krauthammer said, “I think the most important element here, is that the world had looked in this area, and seen the profound abdication, for eight years, where the United States had disappeared, and also, the beginning of the Trump administration, where the man who came into office — in fact, who said only a week ago, I’m not president of the world, I’m president of the United States. We have to look after our own interests here at home. Who gave an inaugural address in which he essentially said, we are not interested in policing the world. And then, this is a sort of neck-snapping about about-face, which is extremely salutary. All of the sudden, as Tom said, the United States reacts, and quickly. Unlike Obama, where you’d have weeks of public hand-wringing. Remember when he came up with the policy on Afghanistan? It took something like 8 months. This is about 48 hours, and America strikes. So, I think that’s the most important message, particularly important for the Chinese, for the Koreans, for the Russians. America is back, and it is liable to react now. You no longer have a free hand. And that, I think, is going to change a lot in the world, from a single response like this.”

Krauthammer added, “[H]e just wanted to say, it’s not that there’s a new sheriff in town, there is a sheriff in town. There was an absence for eight years. America is back, and you’re not allowed to do whatever you want. That, in and of itself, is going to have a big effect.”

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