\nPresident Trump had a private phone call with Turkish dictator Erdogan\nthat for the second time (that we know) led directly to a dramatic change in\nour Syria policy. Last time, Secretary Mattis\nresigned and Trump was forced to delay the change, but not now. Trump charged in grossly unprepared and\nbotched another major national security issue. \nHe not only failed to coordinate this major change with our friends and\nallies in the region, including allies with forces on the ground such as the UK,\nhe unjustifiably and completely ignored his own State Department and Department\nof Defense; both agencies should have been integral. They did not even know until after the fact! A Turkish dictator exercised more control\nover Trump policy than his own administration officials. Trump has no military experience, training,\nor knowledge whatsoever. In fact, he\ndodged Vietnam with a phony doctor\u2019s note. \nThroughout his Presidency, Trump has shunned any and all expertise, something\nany president truly needs, but he continuously ignores. Shameful, foolhardy, and dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTrump continues his endless stream of lies to the American people. First, he claimed he consulted \u201cwith everyone\u201d\nwhen he actually consulted with no one. The\nU.S. military is vehemently opposed to this sudden change because it leaves our\ncountry less safe and forces us to violate our promises to the Kurds. State also opposes the change. Trump was not interested in their advice or input. Not only are we reneging on our promises of\nsupport, but we are leaving the Kurds exposed to anticipated attack and\ngenocide by Turkey. So, we lied to the\nKurds, too. Trump also lied about the\nsize and nature of the U.S. presence in Syria. \nThere were only approximately 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria, not a large or\nexpensive force by any measure. This is\na small and sustainable footprint that thwarted Russian and Iranian expansion\nin Syria as well as fought ISIS. They were\nalso providing crucial support to the Syrian Democratic forces, the Kurdish\nforce the U.S. created to fight ISIS. Trump\nalso falsely claimed we were leaving so U.S. troops no longer had to staff and\nprotect the camps holding ISIS prisoners. \nThe truth is that the Kurds have been doing that, not the U.S. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe Kurdish people will suffer greatly from Trump\u2019s latest failure. While the Kurds acted valiantly, Trump cut\nsecret deals with Putin and Erdogan to their detriment. Turkey has longed for decades for the opportunity\nto engage in ethnic cleansing against the Kurds to prevent them from ever achieving\nthe autonomy they truly deserve and need. The Kurds lost over 11,000 fighters as our\nallies against ISIS. They did the heavy\nfighting on our behalf, they liberated cities, and they defeated ISIS. U.S. troops were there in part to keep Turkey\nfrom invading and slaughtering the Kurdish people, among our promises to the\nKurds for their steadfast support. This\nmove is entirely against our regional strategy and national security interests. It is a gift to Turkey and Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWhy would Trump do something so reckless and wholly against our own national\ninterests? Erdogan clearly gave Trump an\nultimatum in their private call and Trump immediately blinked as he is prone to\ndo. He acceded to Erdogan\u2019s threats,\nwhether a threat to Trump Towers Instanbul (a major Trump business interest)\nand\/or a threat for the Turkish military (one of the largest in the world) to\nroll past (if not through) the small U.S. force in the area. Trump cares not about our national security\ninterests, our allies, or whether the job is really done. He is looking for a policy win, even one he\nfabricates, just to have an issue for his campaign. He is also desperate to preserve his business\ninterests in Turkey. However, he tries\nto spin it, it will just be another lie to the American people and devastation\nfor the Kurdish people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nMilitary members take an oath to obey the orders of the President and\nthose above them in the chain of command. \nThey may not pick and choose based on what policies they favor unless\nthey truly believe the order is unlawful, in which case there is a process. No matter how virulently they oppose this atrocious\nchange, they must follow the orders once given. \nNothing here is unlawful, just immoral and unwise. The President loves his tweets, but that is\nnot a proper way to issue orders. The\nPentagon needs to have formal direction from the President and then they will\nissue implementing orders down the chain of command to those on the ground. As of this moment, most of the U.S. forces\nremain in place in Syria awaiting further instructions from the chain of\ncommand. It is unclear if opposition from\nsome key Congressional Republicans will force the President to change his\nmind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe military expects all presidents to follow established, critical procedures. They need all major policies to be deliberate;\ncarefully and thoughtfully vetted through the normal consultation and\ncoordination process that has served us well for generations. Trump completely ignores this in favor of no\nprocess whatsoever. There is no\nconsistency in his foreign policy and no clear rationale or theory of\napproach. His actions all stem from his\nemotions of the moment. The consequences\nof rash, inept, ever-shifting policies place our troops in great peril and\nprevent proper planning and training. The\nU.S. will also suffer from deteriorating relations around the world when allies\nsee we cannot be trusted. Our allies\nhave already learned they cannot trust or rely on us. Forget times of crisis, under Trump the U.S.\ncannot even get the small stuff right. \nWe need friends and allies; now is not the time to alienate them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe President tweeted that if ISIS reemerged as a threat to the U.S., we\nwould just go back in there and fight them again. That is a complete farce. If ISIS regenerated and took control over\nterritory, it would be a much larger conflict. \nThe U.S. would have to start from scratch with no footprint and no friends\non the ground. It would be very\ndifficult to get forces in place and under these circumstances we would need a\nmuch larger force. It is highly unlikely\nany of our allies or partners would support us at that time \u2013 they all saw how easily\nTrump betrayed the Kurds and broke our promises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSo, who wins from this abomination? \nPutin, Assad, Erdogan, and Iran win. \nWe are faced with another example of President Trump doing Putin\u2019s\nbidding. The continuing instability in\nSyria benefits Russia. Weakened U.S.\nsecurity benefits Russia. Russia will\ncontinue to build on its foothold in Syria, one Trump was all too happy to\nprovide after he took office. Wake up\nAmerica \u2013 we have a President who continues to threaten our security and work\nfor our adversaries. It may seem as\nunfathomable as it is unprecedented, but it is the reality of the Trump\nadministration. Trump is carrying out\nRussia\u2019s foreign policy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Trump had a private phone call with Turkish dictator Erdogan that for the second time (that we know) led directly to a dramatic change in our Syria policy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,169,223,226,302,306],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-erdogan","tag-kurds","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-putin","tag-turkey","tag-u-s-syria-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}