The Legacy of Trump is a Genocide

The Legacy of Trump is a Genocide October 10, 2019

 

As I write this, Turkey is murdering our Kurdish former allies, and we are to blame.

President Trump ordered the troops out of Northern Syria earlier this week– no warning, just got rid of them in order to let Turkey come in.

True, our troops should not have been there in the first place, because there should never have been an ISIS for us to fight in the first place. But for there to not have been an ISIS, the United States would have had to not have destabilized Iraq. And for us to not have done that– well, we would have had to not have reacted to a terrorist attack on our soil by invading the wrong country in the first place. But we did. And here we are.

I’m not saying Iraq was ever a pleasant place, but what we did made it exponentially worse, and instead of one ruthless dictator we got the ruthless terrorist organization known as ISIS or Daesh.

The Kurds were our stalwart allies in fighting Daesh. They had been partnered with the United States for the past five years in Northern Syria, trying to keep the whole Middle East safe from Daesh. And now, suddenly, after a quick phone call with the ruthless Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Trump suddenly decided to withdraw from Northern Syria, leaving the Kurds. And now, Edrogan is two days into a genocide which the United States could prevent but won’t.

The president claims he hasn’t abandoned the Kurds, which he calls “special people.” But, well, he has.

I am absolutely in favor of ending the never-ending war in the Middle East that’s been going on since I was a child. But this isn’t an act of ending a war. It’s an act of permitting a slaughter that will make the war infinitely worse.

Trump-supporting Christians have often repeated that Trump is like King David– brash and impulsive but repentant, and with a heart to serve the Lord. I’ve laughed at them. But this action of Trump’s might be compared to a large scale reenactment of David’s murder of Uriah the Hittite. Put the Kurds on the front line, and then everyone pull back.

King David only meant to murder one man, and he did. Trump’s actions have unleashed genocide that will kill countless Kurdish men, women and children, along with anyone else Edrogan wants to sweep up. It will further destabilize the Middle East, and what comes as a result will likely make Daesh pale in comparison.

King David committed murder in a panic, to cover up his act of adultery. Trump is committing this mass murder just to please a buddy, Edrogan, whom he called to congratulate on the night of his election. Edrogan, with whom the president has a multitude of business deals— the twin Trump Towers in Istanbul being the most obvious example. Edrogan himself cut the ribbon at their opening.

There’s something hideous but entertaining about the story of a single murder after a sin of passion David committed with Bathsheeba, Uriah’s wife. It makes a good cautionary tale, a Bible story we can read and shake our heads. The idea of doing that, committing cold-blooded murder, multiplied by a whole people, for the sake of cash and influence and two massive monuments that bear your name, is sickening beyond belief. Trump isn’t King David. He’s more of a Herod.

Herod didn’t get a redemption arc to his story.

David repented. Though he lost his son and any chance at keeping all twelve tribes of Israel in his family’s dominion after a generation or two, he was sorry, and the Lord forgave him. He wrote a beautiful psalm about it. Let’s all listen to it being chanted here:

I don’t know if Trump will receive any poetic justice for his crimes in this life. I can’t really see him repenting; he seems proud of the fact that he never does. And if he does repent, I don’t think his repentance will produce any art.

His sin is already producing a few videos though. Videos of the slaughter are being posted on social media as they happen; here’s one you should all watch, and turn the sound on.

That’s the legacy of Donald Trump, right there. There are two monuments with Trump’s name on them, a tribute to what he’s done: two slaughtered children, cradled by their screaming mother. Not that the United States hasn’t committed many genocides before, for many terrible reasons; we have. But this one is his– ours. America is supposed to be a democracy. This is being done in your name and mine, for the sake of money.

Let’s pray that psalm again.

 

 

(image via Pixabay) 

 

 

 

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