President Trump’s pullout of a handful of troops in Syria…only about 28 he says…caused quite the kerfuffle.
I could have shared my thoughts on this last week…but admittedly, I’m no Middle East expert. Far from it.
Now, if you’re looking for an expert on Seinfeld, the NY Mets, or a list of IPA’s SO hoppy they’ll curl your toes…then I’m your man. But beyond that….
Plus, I’ve found it’s ALWAYS prudent to let such things marinate for a bit before haphazardly bloviating.
In other words, the “mature” approach…SO unlike me.
My wife is nodding her head in enthusiastic agreement.
Anyway…Like I do everything else in life…I’ll do this backwards, and give my bottom line take on this first.
The general over-arching policy of getting the hell out of the Middle East is right on…but in this case, the execution was horrible.
Not to pick at an old scab…but it reminded me of the so-called “Muslim Ban” which was never a Muslim ban, of course (~90% of the world’s Muslims were unaffected), but simply a tweaking of an existing Obama policy…a prudent policy, IMHO.
You remember…halting the ability of people to travel to the U.S. from war-torn countries with no functioning government, no records, and therefore, no reasonable ability to vet these folks.
So yeah…let’s let people waltz in here willy nilly from Yemen and Somalia.
As Seinfeld used to sarcastically say…”Oh yeah, THAT’S a great idea.”
Anyway, Trump’s tweaking of that policy was fine, but the roll-out was a mess. Lack of coordination and planning, chaos at airports, yada, yada.
So, fast forward…Trump campaigned on getting out of these endless Middle East wars with ever-changing objectives and alliances, no exit strategies, trillions spent, and far too many servicemen and women coming home to Dover Air Force Base in flag-draped boxes to inconsolable family members.
Or missing limbs. Or worse. And for what? Civil wars and murderous regimes in the shithole that is the Middle East have been there for centuries, and will be for centuries to come…with or without us.
If these mental patients want to kill each other for the next 500 years, have at it.
Jimmy Crack Corn.
So yeah… I’m totally down with the “Get the F out of the Middle East” policy pivot. As is vintage Trump, though, the execution of THIS particular move was precipitous, and once again, lacking the proper communication and coordination.
Like strolling past a recently exploded Port-o-let…The Donald REALLY stepped in it.
But the political reaction was totally predictable.
Democrats…who almost unanimously heralded Obama’s pullout in Iraq that some say directly led to the rise of ISIS…were outraged…OUTRAGED, I TELL YOU!…by this move.
Typical hypocrisy and resistance. Off the charts.
These mental midgets of the Left have less credibility here than Michael Moore does in writing a book on calorie restriction. As such, their opinion means nothing to me.
The Republicans, for their part, are at least consistent. They bashed both Obama AND Trump for the troop pull-outs. Of course, most of these guys never met a Middle-East civil war or murderous regime they didn’t want to throw thousands of troops at.
Let me try to now delve a little into Trump’s head and thought process a bit.
Shouldn’t I have some sort of safety net for this?
To be fair and contextual, Turkish President Erdogan told Trump he was going into Syria to fight the Kurds, despite Trump’s warnings and threats of severe economic sanctions.
And we have a few dozen troops that are going to be sitting ducks in between thousands of Turkish and Kurdish fighters.
Timing was of the essence, and Trump wanted to get them the hell out of there to: 1) Prevent even the minute possibility of our guys getting annihilated, and 2) Not be put in a position to have to literally fight a war against a NATO ally…Turkey
A questionable ally for sure, but a “legal” one nonetheless.
Nobody ever said this crapola was easy.
Can you imagine the shit storm if any Americans lost their lives?
TRUMP WAS WARNED OF A TURKISH INVASION AND HE LEFT MASSIVELY OUTNUMBERED TROOPS THERE AS SITTING DUCKS TO BE SLAUGHTERED!!! THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE!!! IMPEACH!!! IMPEACH!!!
The so-called “experts” that have made a complete and utter mess of the Middle East the past 30 years said it wouldn’t have happened.
Maybe so. But pretty f*cking easy to be so dismissive when you’re not the Decider-in-Chief, as Bush 43 used to say.
We’ve seen the script before…A typically good decision gets executed prematurely…chaos ensues…everyone scrambles…the Libs and Media declare the end of the Republic, AND WE REALLY MEAN IT THIS TIME!…a sort of “clean-up on aisle 7” happens…Trump summons the media and declares victory.
This time, a “permanent” cease fire is negotiated…Turkey backs off if the Kurds pull back 20 lousy miles from the border, thereby re-establishing a “safe zone”…sanctions are lifted on Turkey…we keep a few guys there to keep oil fields from falling into ISIS hands…and we’re out.
OK, probably a little over-simplified. Maybe a lot.
Ya know, I’m not writing a book here.
And of course we’ll ALWAYS have some presence in the Middle East…counter-terrorist operations…protecting Israel…ensuring oil shipping routes are open…etc.
But getting mired in some decades long civil war…when we often don’t even know who the hell we should be backing? Regime change? Nation building? 18 years in Afghanistan?
No thanks. I mean Iraq worked out SO well. Let’s do the same thing in Syria.
The definition of insanity.
And the lion’s share of “outside the beltway” agrees with me…AKA, the VOTERS.
You want to get involved over there? Fine. Give me a CLEAR objective serving a CLEAR U.S. interest…A CLEAR exit strategy…and notwithstanding some sort of IMMINENT threat, a Congressional vote of authorization.
Sound reasonable?
So “Rand Paul” of me, don’t ya think?
I may need to rename my blog “The Drunken Libertarian.”
You lost me in the first sentence at “he says”. Rarely is what he saying true especially if he is trying to cover his ass. Meanwhile, here in Colorado on the border…