Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Syria, The Kurds, & Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
We have to admit that as funny as some of Oliver’s coverage was about US politics, we will say that we got the most laughter out of seeing John talk a little bit more about the UK. We don’t get too much international news elsewhere, and given Oliver’s many years in Great Britain, he has more perspective on the country than any other late-night comedian out there.
Now, let’s get to one of the biggest surprises out there — Oliver actually addressed tonight the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which is mostly notable since this was just in the headlines. The writers got together a small little piece discussing Donald Trump’s reaction to the raid overseas, including the bizarre emphasis on the word “dog” as though it was something special.
The main segment tonight was about The Kurds, who are at the center of a crisis in the Middle East. As Oliver put it tonight, they are the largest ethnic group in the world without a country, and they are scattered throughout various places and subject to a lot of violence. Donald Trump decided to pull out military support in the Turkey/Syria region, a move that has been widely criticized by many — including a number of his own allies.
We do think that this was a very appropriate main segment tonight, largely due to the complicated nature of foreign policy, the delicacy of the situation overseas, and then also the lack of real knowledge that many have on what’s going on. Trump’s philosophy seems to be to leverage money at every turn. Then, there’s also the part where he gives in to other world leaders without all that much in the way of advance warning to others in government.
Oliver’s central point here was simple — the way Trump is presenting the Kurds is skewed and wrong, and the decision to allow Turkish forces to go into Syria unchecked could have far-reaching consequences.
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