A few instructive links on Mr. Donald J. Trump’s catastrophic new policy in Syria:
“Reporter’s Notebook: In Syria, Fox News was embedded with Kurdish forces battling ISIS”
(The three-minute video at the link above is worth watching.)
“Graham, Van Hollen Announce Bipartisan Deal on Sanctions against Turkey”
(The 8.5-minute video from Bret Baier’s Special Report at the link above is very valuable.)
“GOP congressman ‘heartbroken’ over President’s Syria moves and says he no longer supports Trump”
“Susan Rice slams Trump’s troop withdrawal from Syria”
“Republican anger grows as Trump disavows Kurds by saying they didn’t help during WWII”
“Fact-checking Trump’s claim that Kurds did not help the US in WWII and Normandy invasion”
Yes, it’s complicated. But there was never any serious risk of war with Turkey. Had Mr. Donald J. Trump not announced the withdrawal of American troops and expressly given the green light for a Turkish invasion to assault the Kurds, Turkey would not have invaded.
Here’s the bottom line: If we betray our allies, we will soon have no allies. If we are unwilling to have the backs of surrogates fighting ISIS and other such forces on our behalf, we will shortly have no alternative but to fight Islamist extremists ourselves.
Whether or not our involvement in Syria was warranted in the first place, whether or not Congress should have been more deeply involved from outset — I agree with Charles C. W. Cooke that it should have been — it is disgraceful to abandon allies the way that we now have yet again.
***
In related news:
“Trump ally on Fox News calls whistleblowers ‘suicide bombers,’ accuses Democrats of ‘regicide’”
“Regicide”? “Regicide”? Seriously? If opposing Mr. Donald J. Trump is “regicide,” that means that he is a “rex,” or a king. And here I thought — silly me! — that America fought its War of Independence in order to escape being subject to a king.
Why not just abandon false reserve and call opposition to Mr. Trump deicide?
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