What is Aleppo

No…really…what is Aleppo to you? To someone living in America (or an American living abroad), what is it to you? How does the city of Aleppo, more accurately – the crisis therein,  affect your day to day lives? Do you wake up in the morning and think, I hope the people of Aleppo have a better day today? Maybe if you are Syrian or have family there…but mostly, no, you probably don’t.

My opinion is that on the list of things a citizen of the USA thinks/worries about on a daily basis – jobs, money, schools, food, etc…Aleppo isn’t in the top 100. I would wager that a vast majority of the US population doesn’t know anything about Aleppo and if you asked, they would say they like his music.

Why then, is this one item supposedly enough to derail Gary Johnson’s presidential candidacy? For those of you who don’t follow the Libertarian candidate, he was asked about Aleppo and answered with an honest, “What is Aleppo?”.

The buzz spread like talk through a high school cafeteria in a teen movie. “Did you hear him?” “I can’t believe it!” “He really said that?” “OMG, so much lolz.” Headlines around the internet called it the end of the road.

We can have the argument that someone who wants to run this country should know about the cities in the world where there are major troubles, especially those involving ISIS. So, to that point…If I was interviewing Trump and asked, “What are your feelings on Quetta?” would he know what I meant? Would Hillary be able to tell me what recently happened in Şahinbey? I would venture to say that without prompting or being fed, they wouldn’t have the answer on the tip of their tongues. Asking about Aleppo specifically instead of Syria (which we are all far more familiar with) seems to be a purposeful attempt to get exactly the response the interviewer wanted. Is Matt Lauer going to ask Clinton to answer questions about Qamlishi with out prepping her for it? Of course he won’t.

But that isn’t the point of my writing today…the point is that when I am voting for a president, I want someone who is focused on the problems in the US…first and foremost. Of course the USA can’t just pull back and be a non-factor in the world. We are in way, way too deep to pull out now without affecting a major disruption in global politics and economies…but should Gov. Johnson, or Clinton, or Trump be thinking Aleppo first (or second or tenth?) Of course not…

As for what our mainstream candidates *do* know…Trump told us that he saw a video of the $400 million being walked off the jet (filmed on nice cameras, so obviously government) to free the hostages in Iran. He now says that he didn’t see the video. Should his candidacy be over? Hillary told us all that she and Chelsea were under sniper fire on the tarmac in Bosnia. She confirmed a slightly less dangerous version the next day with the account that there were threats and they were told to run to their cars.  CBS showed the video proving that absolutely none of it happened. In fact, it was quite a peaceful event with a little girl greeting her with a poem. One week later she claimed she misspoke and that made her human. I didn’t see the calls from the media that she should just pack up and go home because there is no recovering from something as devastating as that.

By the way, yesterday when I was driving, I was the victim of an attempted carjacking and I was almost killed. Huh? I wasn’t? You have it on video that none of that happened? Oh yeah…I erroneously recounted the events of yesterday. What I meant to say was that I drove home yesterday with no excitement whatsoever. See how easy it is to get those two things confused?

Just so I am clear on how the process goes, it is acceptable to outright lie or “misremember” something, but it is unforgivable not to know all the cities involved in the ISIS and terror threats?

Let’s see…someone who saw a video that doesn’t exist, someone who can’t remember that they weren’t shot at (oh and conveniently she had a concussion in 2012 and doesn’t remember some of the briefings she received about email safety), and someone who didn’t know the name of a city in Syria. Which of those is the least upsetting to you? Exactly…I would rather my person be honest about what they know and what they don’t.

I’m not saying any of them are perfect, what I am asking is, “Why do we hold all third party candidates to wholly different standards than the two representing the big parties?” Anyone?