Donald Trump has announced, again, that the U.S. troops will leaving northeastern Syria (or at least parts of it) – and, in effect, we will basically give Turkey a free hand to do whatever they want to the Kurdish forces there. And this time he may actually mean it. He previously announced such a withdrawal in December of last year. Then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned because of the decision, as did Brett McGurk, who was Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS. Last December/January, President Trump was apparently talked out of a complete withdrawal, and approximately 1,000 U.S. troops stayed. But he now is saying, once again, that he is going to do it, so maybe we will. Several comments (out of the many that could be made).
The Kurds helped have been a key ally in the fight against ISIS in Syria. They lost thousands killed. I realize it was to their benefit to do so, but it was to our benefit, too. We were fighting together. We were allies. And now we have left them in the lurch. That’s just wrong. Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said it well: “We must always have the backs of our allies, if we expect them to have our back.”
President Trump said we needed to bring our troops home. I see a small number of American troops in an area of importance to the U.S. keeping the fighting down and protecting our interests. That sounds just like what we want our troops to do. Like South Korea since 1953 and Germany for so long after World War II.
President Trump says if ISIS comes back, “we can always go back & BLAST!” Why take the chance? Why take the risk? When a few troops staying can reduce the chance of it happening.
After getting criticized for his decision, President Trump tweeted:
“As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!).”
Really? He threatens to “obliterate the Economy of Turkey” if they do anything that he, in his “great and unmatched wisdom, consider[s] off limits”? Sigh.
Finally, I would like to think that the next president, who I hope will be elected in November of 2020, will approach foreign policy differently, but the conspicuous lack of comments by candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination1 on President Trump’s decision makes me wonder – and worry.
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1 I would link to this, but it is hard to link to nothing.
UPDATE (10/9/19 11:20 am): It’s too bad that, as Turkish forces move into Syrian territory held by Kurdish allies of the U.S. (or should I say “former allies of the U.S.,” since President Trump abandoned them over the weekend), the U.S. media will be only talking about President Trump’s refusal to cooperate with the House Democrats’ impeachment probe. There may be people dying because of President Trump’s order to our troops to withdraw, but we won’t know about it because it doesn’t matter to us – or at least it doesn’t matter to the media.
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