But It's NO Thanksgiving for the Kurds
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| Trump gives Kurds the bird |
This is a major foreign policy failure of the Trump Administration. This is true on several levels. Abandoning allies on the battlefield is dishonorable and makes the world think the United States in unreliable and unwilling to stand with its friends. Turkey is now an unreliable ally and should be thrown out of NATO. The President blinked when Erdogen of Turkey threatened to invade Syria whether the US withdrew 50 special forces from the border or not. President Trump threatened economic sanctions against Turkey if it misbehaved in Syria – apparently, murdering Kurds in the streets doesn't count. American military forces have come under attack by Turkish artillery with no military response by the United States.
Dishonor
Abandoning your friends to people trying to murder them because you just don't feel like backing them anymore is dishonorable. It also makes the United States look weak and unreliable. In fact, the Kurds are now making deals with Russia and Assad of Syria to get protection from the Turks. This throws our former allies into the hands of enemies working against our interests.Even more critical is that our allies around the world see how unreliable and weak an ally the United States is. Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, South America, Finland, Ukraine, and the Baltic States will look to make deals with China or Russia to protect themselves because the United States is unreliable. Even though our current allies are unlikely to immediately desert us, they will be more receptive to Chinese and Russian positions to avoid provoking them.
Being the World's policeman is not fun and can be expensive. However, maintaining a network of alliances and keeping order in the world is less expensive than fighting major wars - especially on our own soil.
World trade facilitated by maintaining order also brings us tremendous prosperity. There are legitimate concerns that other countries should pay a fair amount for the military protection the United States provides them. Other countries also benefit from expanded world trade. This is a long standing issue that needs to be resolved separately. It does not excuse abandoning allies.
Turkey is No U.S. Ally
Turkey is officially in NATO, but it has been an unreliable ally.Turkey has lately become more of an Islamic State than a majority Muslim secular republic. Remember that the Ottoman Empire based in Turkey was the Islamic State just over 100 years ago. Erdogan seems to have similar ambitions for Turkey now.
It is time for the United States to remove its 50-100 nuclear weapons from Turkey and suspend Turkey's NATO membership. U.S. military personnel now based in Turkey should be pulled out. Ideally, they should be relocated to Kurdish controlled areas in either Syria, Iraq, or both. A mechanized infantry brigade and military aircraft should reinforce them. We should detonate any nuclear weapons Turkey won't let us safely remove. No country should be allowed to steal or otherwise interfere with our nuclear weapons without severe consequences.
Russian Sphere of Influence Enlarged
Because the Kurds can no longer get protection from the United States, they have turned to Russia. The Kurds gained control of part of Syria while fighting against ISIS as allies of the United States. This area was part of the U.S. sphere of influence until Trump recently abandoned it. The Turks and Syrians – both governments unfriendly to the U.S. and linked to Russia- will fight over control of that area. Our abandoned allies, the Kurds, who live there will become Syrian and Russian allies. We will lose influence in that area which will also impact other U.S. allies in the region.Cowardice or Naivety by President Trump
When President Erdogan of Turkey told President Trump he would send the Turkish army into Syria, President Trump could have said, “No! There are U.S. soldiers fighting with the Kurds. An attack on them would be an attack on the United States.” Trump should have asked Erdogan if he was ready to go to war against the United States. The Kurds could have resettled refugees now in Turkey after Turkey sent them over the border. A Turkish invasion was not necessary to remove refugees from Turkey.Another pressure Trump could have applied is warning Turkey that an invasion would expose Turkey to better armed Kurds who might form a Kurdish state in eastern Turkey. Facing heavily armed Kurds trying to create Kurdistan out of eastern Turkey is not a threat Edrogan would easily dismiss. Plus, Kurdistan would probably be friendlier to the United States than Turkey is. U.S. diplomats would need to mentioned this only if Erdogan was still threatening to attack U.S. forces.
Our military should have deployed fighter bombers and attack aircraft as well as fuel and munitions to defend the American soldiers on the ground and their Kurdish compatriots. This would have been a credible deterrent along with the Kurdish soldiers on the ground.
Remember, just one French or British soldier telling the German army to turn back and get out of the Rhineland would have stopped Hitler in 1936. Hitler was probing the French and British, and they blinked. World War II was the result.
If Trump had not blinked, the Turks would not have invaded Syria and started killing our Kurdish allies. Until recently, the prospect of war against the United States was not something to be taken lightly.
Economic Sanctions?
The Turks have already started murdering the Kurds. The attacks enabled about 700 ISIS prisoners to escape. Thousands more are likely to escape when their Kurdish guards redeploy to defend their homes.The area Turkey said it will invade has expanded since the invasion started.
President Trump promised to use economic sanctions to shut down the Turkish economy if the Turks got out of hand. If they aren't already out of hand, what will it take? Talking about sanctions rather than already having imposed them is inadequate. Failure to act makes Trump and America look even weaker.
Turkish Army Shells American Soldiers
The Turkish Army launched an artillery attack against areas adjacent to U.S. military forces. The Turkish Army knew this was an American military position. The attack bracketed the American soldiers to clearly send threat. When artillery targets are bracketed, the next shots are progressively closer to the target until it is hit. That final volley was never fired, but a small aiming mistake or U.S. soldiers patrolling the perimeter could have easily caused U.S. casualties. This was no accident. Trump should have authorized military forces to launch a counter battery attack to destroy the Turkish artillery unit instead of ordering the soldiers to evacuate their position.One of the leading indicators that a military force is an enemy is it shoots at you.
Abandoning the Battlefield is Victory?
President Trump says pulling U.S. troops out of Syria is a victory for America. It looks more like bailing on our Kurdish allies, showing fear of Turkey, and turning the area over to our Russian enemies. It looks like America doesn't even have the will to keep 50 soldiers on the ground advising our friends. The Kurds were doing the fighting with only U.S. advisers on the ground and U.S. air support.The only people happy about this American “victory” are Venezuelan Communists, Cuba, Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and other enemies of the United States and freedom.
America “policing” the world is not altruistic. It serves genuine American interests. We keep the world freer which helps to keep us safe and more prosperous. "Policing" helps prevent expensive, deadly wars from starting. Most importantly, it keeps our enemies farther away from our country so we don't have to fight wars on our own land and suffer the devastation war brings.
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