The corruption of U.S. foreign policy
Jennifer Rubin
President Trump’s “America First” foreign policy has always been a mix of vanity (love letters from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un), Russian sycophancy, trade protectionism, bluster mixed with aversion (e.g. his chaotic Iran policy), nationalist jibber-jabber and isolationism. As hard as his most cringe-worthy apologists try to argue, there is no master plan at work here. There is simply Trump navigating by ego and invariably misguided instincts.
The mistakes are piling up, with no more tragic blunder than Syria. The Post reports:
The United States began withdrawing American troops from Syria’s border with Turkey early Monday, in the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration was washing its hands of an explosive situation between the Turkish military and U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters.
President Trump, in a series of Twitter messages Monday, suggested that the United States was shouldering too much of the burden — and the cost — of fighting the Islamic State. He rebuked European nations for not repatriating citizens who had joined the extremist group, claiming that the United States was being played for a “sucker.” And he chided his own Kurdish allies, who he said were “paid massive amounts of money and equipment” to fight the militants.
One cannot overstate how deep a betrayal this is and how badly this damages allies’ trust in the United States. The Kurds have been loyal, effective allies both in the war against the Islamic State and in providing some measure of stability in a region where there is little. (“Military officials point out that Kurdish assistance is still required to avoid a return of the Islamic State in Syria and to guard facilities where Islamic State militants and their families are being held.”)
Trump, who never tires of cutting refugee admissions, also is contributing to yet another humanitarian nightmare. (“[Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s plan to send up to 3 million Syrian refugees into the 140-mile-long strip also runs counter to what the United States says was part of the agreement they had reached to allow only the 700,000 to 800,000 refugees who originally fled the area to resettle there. Turkey currently hosts more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees, but the government has recently begun deporting hundreds back to Syria as public sentiment turns against the migrants.”)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinions-the-corruption-of-u-s-foreign-policy/ar-AAIqrjf?ocid=msn360
