“What is Aleppo?”
This is what a wide-eyed Gary Johnson asked an MSNBC reporter last week when he was being questioned on his stance toward the Syrian Civil War. Immediately, this excruciating gaffe caused the internet to have a heart attack.
This man, wanting to assume a role of international negotiation, was unable to identify Syria’s second-largest city. Trolls and quasi-internet-activists took to Facebook, as they are known to do, and berated Johnson for his “stupidity” and “incompetence.”
Yet the Editorial Board has a feeling that many of these very people had to themselves Google, “What is Aleppo?”
Before we address that statement, we must understand how people reacted to Johnson’s blunder, especially when this entire Presidential election has been one flaming, merciless gaffe.
If this were any other election season, Johnson’s words would have caused immense backlash and criticism. People would cry, “How can a presidential candidate be so uneducated on the issues?”
The timid, half-hearted response to Johnson demonstrates just how much permanent damage Donald Trump has done to our political process. Ignorance has become an admirable political trait, one that distances a candidate from the experts.
“Johnson wants to disengage from the Middle East and stop the wars,” some may say. “Not knowing what Aleppo is shows that he doesn’t want to get involved in the region.”
Does this not sound totally insane? We as a political collective have destroyed candidates over much more insignificant transgressions.
Not in a post-Trump world, though. Ignorance can now be applauded in American politics.
This seems fitting. Americans have long been stereotyped as culturally and geographically illiterate fools. So why shouldn’t our political leaders possess these characteristics as well?
Furthermore, what is more troublesome is that, 15 years after the 9/11 attacks, Americans are still totally unaware of the U.S.’s true role in the international system.
We routinely fail to point out that so much anti-American sentiment in regions like the Middle East is fomented by American support for harsh and repressive regimes. In fact, this history of backing dictators precedes American involvement in the region by quite some time.
After World War I, the British and French empires divided up the defeated Ottoman Empire. The English took Iraq, Palestine and the Arab emirates, while the French controlled Syria and Lebanon. The French then instated totalitarian rule in Syria, purposefully dividing ethnic territories to prevent the formation of national identity.
Once Syria became independent, it experienced numerous military coups before the Assad family took control of the government in the early 1970s, and this rule continues today. Aleppo, the once thriving commercial apex of Syria, currently finds itself in a struggle between Russian-backed Syrian regime forces and U.S.-backed rebels.
We do not intend to be biased toward either side of the conflict.
However, the city has experienced serious damage at the hands of both military factions. The ongoing siege there is a major humanitarian crisis that threatens international peace and the balance of power.
That, Mr. Johnson, is Aleppo.
