The United States has decided to give a green light for a Turkish invasion of Northeast Syria, fully retreating the 1,000 soldiers deployed in that region. This decision, apparently under the direct orders of the President, are a grave strategic blunder, one that will have significant ramifications for both our national defense and our standing around the world.
For our allies in Syrian Kurdistan, this is a decision that weakens our mutual trust that the United States has prided itself on since the end of World War II. For our geopolitical interests in the Middle East, President Trump has resorted to appeasement and retreat, which as history has shown can be detrimental to a nation’s interests.
This decision is an example of what the President and his allies in the White House claim to be “America First.” Yet, it is actually not “America First” but rather “America Stupid.” You can not trust Russia to prevent terrorism and stand by our allies in Syria. Instead of the United States and our longtime Kurdish allies working together to defeat terrorism and preserve sovereign autonomy, it is now great powers of the region dueling for control. This is what happens when the United States retreats.
Because this President is apparently very determined to fulfill a “campaign promise” to get the United States out of “endless wars,” there have been unintended consequences. Our Kurdish allies are now turning to our enemies, the Assad government and Russia, to fight the Turkish invasion, the Turks are committing war crimes against innocent civilians in the name of appeasing Erodgan’s nationalist base, Iran and other bad actors will continue to gain a foothold in the Middle East.
Most heinously for Western interests, ISIS and other radical terrorist organizations are conducting prison breaks, thereby endangering our commitment to eliminate terrorism and the threats it poses to all of civilization. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that over 300,000 civilians have been displaced by the Turkish invasion into Northeast Syria, and another refugee crisis just as we witnessed earlier this decade could have unintended consequences for Western countries in terms of security vetting, assimilation, and nativism.
Since news of the Turkish military operation and the President’s subsequent decision have made headway, we have seen the Democrats, from the Joe Bidens to the Tulsi Gabbards of the world, complete a 180 pivot from doves to hawks, belittling the lack of American leadership. For the party that just one decade ago pushed for the withdrawal of the 150,000 American GI’s stationed in Iraq, the present crave to keep the 1,000 American GI’s in Northern Syria reeks of resistance to President Trump, for if Barack Obama were to withdraw 1,000 troops from the region, the Democrats would be singing his praises. Put it plainly, the Democratic Party’s opposition to this misguided and woeful policy decision is political and insincere.
As for the Republicans, they should know that it is OK to disagree with the President of your own party. I would hope to believe that the “RINO hunters” who convict Republicans over lack of allegiance to President Trump are a very small minority in the Republican Party. Yet it seems like Republicans in Congress can not exert a scintilla of independence from the White House. You can support Republican principles while fighting for strong national security and sane foreign policy. Any congressional response must go beyond a symbolic resolution condemning the decision, there must be punitive sanctions on both the Turkish government and economy, as well as a joint resolution directing the White House to reverse the withdrawal.
We are ominously losing are standing and trust in the world. No symbolic resolution can be enough to condemn this atrocity. Unfortunately, it may be too late to mitigate the damage from a very costly decision, as the Assad government has entered the region, Russia and Iran seek to create a buffer zone, and we can not engage in a military conflict with Turkey, who is a “NATO ally.” The White House must recognize a grave and irreversible mistake was made, greatly slimming the chances of peace and stability in the Middle East.
