Last week a sham ceasefire was ordered on the northern border of Syria after the US Vice-President Mike Pence met the Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish forces still sporadically fire on the Kurd militias and the civilian population, having moved well into the Syrian territory ostensibly to create a buffer zone between Turkey and the Kurds. The unprovoked aggression against the Kurds was triggered by the idiotic decision of Donald Trump, who without taking into account vital US interests and without consulting anyone in the State Department, announced the pullout of the American troops from the region.
This was an open invitation to Erdogan to attack. Earlier, the Turkish strongman had reportedly threatened Trump in a telephonic conversation that he would go ahead with his plan with or without the US nod. Instead of warning Erdogan against unilateral action, Trump meekly surrendered. No doubt even those in the ruling Republican Party who have glossed over his huge missteps in domestic and foreign policy are now looking for a place to hide. They are so outraged at the sheer foolishness of Trump ceding ground to the Russians in the Middle East, and, more importantly, throwing Kurds, the long-term US allies, under the bus that Trump has had to look for fig leafs to cover his stupidity.
Threatening to destroy Turkey economically through sanctions is pointless－ Iran still survives despite the sternest possible sanctions. Besides, the Turkish attack on the Kurds within Syria has made Erdogan much stronger at home than at any time before. However, the fallout of Trump’s folly has wider implications. That the Kurds had fought for over two years alongside the US troops to defeat the Islamic State, losing more than ten thousand men, was overnight undone when Trump risked the imprisoned IS terrorists breaking free after Erdogan’s assault on the Syrian territory. Those IS terrorists could regroup and pose a threat to the US and other countries in the not-so-distant future. Besides, betrayal of the Kurds has pushed them into the arms on the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, who now seeks to reclaim lost territory in the north with the very Kurds who had kept him at bay.
Who and why anyone would trust the US any longer after Trump’s despicable withdrawal is another question the US foreign and security establishment will soon have to confront. Trump in order to boast that he has brought back the US troops home to his equally ignorant and isolationist base has yielded further space to the Russian strongman. Putin has summoned Erdogan to his durbar for a little chit-chat later sometime. The Russian dictator is only too happy to fill the space vacated by Trump-led US in the Middle East.
The post-war global arrangement which saw the US playing a crucial role as a stabilizing force now lies in tatters, thanks to the growing isolationist streak in the US and the follies of leaders like Trump. To an extent, the American public opinion was right to turn its back on its global cop role given the huge blunder of the Iraq war－and the consequent loss of men and trillions of dollars in the futile war－and the continuing stalemate in Afghanistan despite 18 years of the American presence. But if a unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan will result in handing that country virtually on a platter to the Taliban thugs, Trump’s withdrawal from Syria may have now virtually revived the IS threat while throwing long-term US allies, the Kurds, to the wolves.
When the leader is innocent of basic knowledge about the world, when he is incapable of thinking about anything other than his re-election, the outcome has to be as terrible as Trump’s in Syria. Never before has the White House been tenanted by a greater ignoramus than Trump. He preens himself as the greatest president. Since he claims to know everything, he has made the vast State department and the strategic security establishment redundant. Having defeated al-Qaeda and the IS, the US under Trump has given both a life-line. Ceding space in the Middle East can also send tremors in Tel Aviv, given that Iran and Syria along with their chief mentor Russia emerge much stronger from the latest Trumpian folly.
