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Donald J Trump will.....MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
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<blockquote data-quote="Hindsight" data-source="post: 6596870" data-attributes="member: 3169"><p>DWARD LUCAS</p><p>october 14 2019, 12:01am, the times</p><p><span style="font-size: 26px"><strong>Every US ally now fears betrayal like the Kurds</strong></span></p><p><strong>edward lucas</strong></p><p>Trump’s erratic foreign policy means that European nations must prepare to be cast aside too</p><p><img src="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F51cafb58-edf7-11e9-ba44-aad5db5172e7.jpg?crop=711%2C711%2C404%2C95&resize=320" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p>Share</p><p>Save</p><p>Perhaps the Kurds should have named the road to Raqqa “Trump Highway”. Or translated <em>The Art of the Deal</em> into Kurdish. Sycophancy certainly seems to have worked for Poland, which is basking, almost alone among American allies, in a favourable gaze from Washington. Soon 5,500 US troops will be posted there, including to a base the Poles cannily nicknamed Fort Trump.</p><p>Flattery, not loyalty, is the main currency now for America’s friends. Past sacrifice counts for nothing. The mainly Kurdish Syrian Defence Forces lost about 11,000 fighters battling Islamic State alongside US forces (who lost five people). But President Trump is indifferent to that, instead issuing a nonsensical rebuke that the Kurds did not take part in the Normandy landings. (In fact, 8,000 Kurdish troops fought in the war, chiefly helping to foil Nazi plans in Iraq. Some later served in Albania, Greece and Italy.)</p><p>Nor does strategic calculation matter much. The handful of US forces protecting the Kurdish-controlled zone in northern Syria were cheap and cost-effective. Their presence did not solve the country’s problems but they stopped them getting worse. Even Mr Trump’s staunchest defenders struggle to justify the abrupt withdrawal, announced off the cuff in a late-night, ill-prepared phone call with President Erdogan of Turkey. In the words of the wartime propaganda poster, careless talk costs lives. It should hang in the Oval Office.</p><p>To be fair, pulling out from “endless” foreign wars was a campaign promise. Mr Trump assures his supporters that the US has notched up a win. But with the Syrian Kurdish militia, once America’s staunchest and most effective regional ally, battered by Turkey and in retreat, Isis and al-Qaeda can regroup. Americans may forget the jihadists. But they have not forgotten America.</p><p>Worse, friends and foes alike will not forget the betrayal of the Kurds. Why should any ally now trust the US? Why should Russia hold back in its war in Ukraine, or in menacing other small countries on its borders: non-Nato Finland and Sweden, or Nato members such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? It does not help if you have shed blood in US-led wars in faraway Afghanistan or Iraq. The president is not interested in what you did for him lately. Now is what matters.</p><p></p><p>An optimistic take on this is that Mr Trump will not make the same mistake twice; many Republican national security hawks are aghast at his reckless behaviour. With the impeachment battle looming, he can ill-afford to lose allies on Capitol Hill by mistreating allies abroad. But his chaotic administration seems rather good at repeating its mistakes.</p><p>A more cynical view is that the Kurds were inherently expendable. US interest in the Middle East is waning thanks to the shale boom, which has cut American dependence on imported energy. Counterterrorism has dropped down the agenda. Great-power competition is now the centrepiece of the administration’s national security strategy. Despite Mr Trump’s strange personal ties with President Putin, the White House is still hawkish towards the Kremlin; so too, emphatically, is Congress. The 30 million Kurds, stateless, isolated, lightly armed and tied to the terrorist PKK, are not in the same category as real countries. Moreover, US involvement in Syria was always half-hearted and temporary. It bears no comparison with the solemn, decades-old treaty obligations that bind the countries of Nato.</p><p>That too could be comforting were it not for the bruising treatment the president has already meted out to Japan and South Korea, two vital, long-standing US allies in Asia. Mr Trump’s erratic personal diplomacy with the North Korean and Chinese leaders has repeatedly blindsided and humiliated decision-makers in Tokyo and Seoul. Europeans could easily be next.</p><p>The main point for all countries that rely on American security guarantees is that outsourcing defence to the US is costlier and chancier than it seems. Mr Trump’s behaviour may be reckless and his words incoherent but he reflects heartfelt dissatisfaction with the country’s thankless role as world police. American taxpayers have long and rightly wondered why Europe — bigger and richer than the US — cannot foot the bills and take the risks involved in dealing with crises in its own neighbourhood. Allies, coddled for too long, will have to raise their defence spending, appetite for risk and readiness for innovative, taboo-busting co-operation. Anyone who thinks Brexit will allow this country to cut free from involvement in European foreign, security and defence policy has another think coming. As US involvement and dependability shrink, European countries have no choice but to do more, and to do it together.</p><p>Money still talks. Poland offered $2 billion (about £1.6 billion) towards the costs of the new US presence. Mr Trump has deployed nearly 3,000 US troops to Saudi Arabia, gleefully pointing out that the country has met his request to “pay us for everything we are doing”. Toomas Ilves, former president of ultra-loyal Estonia, wonders if the Pentagon will publish a price list; at least we will know where we stand, he says. US foreign policy engagement now depends on the answers to three flinty questions. Does the US have a vital interest at stake? More unpleasantly, what are the direct benefits (business, flattery, family) of this for Mr Trump? Will any of this count in a real crisis? Those who complain should count their blessings. The Kurds would love to have our difficulties.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hindsight, post: 6596870, member: 3169"] DWARD LUCAS october 14 2019, 12:01am, the times [SIZE=7][B]Every US ally now fears betrayal like the Kurds[/B][/SIZE] [B]edward lucas[/B] Trump’s erratic foreign policy means that European nations must prepare to be cast aside too [IMG]https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F51cafb58-edf7-11e9-ba44-aad5db5172e7.jpg?crop=711%2C711%2C404%2C95&resize=320[/IMG] Share Save Perhaps the Kurds should have named the road to Raqqa “Trump Highway”. Or translated [I]The Art of the Deal[/I] into Kurdish. Sycophancy certainly seems to have worked for Poland, which is basking, almost alone among American allies, in a favourable gaze from Washington. Soon 5,500 US troops will be posted there, including to a base the Poles cannily nicknamed Fort Trump. Flattery, not loyalty, is the main currency now for America’s friends. Past sacrifice counts for nothing. The mainly Kurdish Syrian Defence Forces lost about 11,000 fighters battling Islamic State alongside US forces (who lost five people). But President Trump is indifferent to that, instead issuing a nonsensical rebuke that the Kurds did not take part in the Normandy landings. (In fact, 8,000 Kurdish troops fought in the war, chiefly helping to foil Nazi plans in Iraq. Some later served in Albania, Greece and Italy.) Nor does strategic calculation matter much. The handful of US forces protecting the Kurdish-controlled zone in northern Syria were cheap and cost-effective. Their presence did not solve the country’s problems but they stopped them getting worse. Even Mr Trump’s staunchest defenders struggle to justify the abrupt withdrawal, announced off the cuff in a late-night, ill-prepared phone call with President Erdogan of Turkey. In the words of the wartime propaganda poster, careless talk costs lives. It should hang in the Oval Office. To be fair, pulling out from “endless” foreign wars was a campaign promise. Mr Trump assures his supporters that the US has notched up a win. But with the Syrian Kurdish militia, once America’s staunchest and most effective regional ally, battered by Turkey and in retreat, Isis and al-Qaeda can regroup. Americans may forget the jihadists. But they have not forgotten America. Worse, friends and foes alike will not forget the betrayal of the Kurds. Why should any ally now trust the US? Why should Russia hold back in its war in Ukraine, or in menacing other small countries on its borders: non-Nato Finland and Sweden, or Nato members such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? It does not help if you have shed blood in US-led wars in faraway Afghanistan or Iraq. The president is not interested in what you did for him lately. Now is what matters. An optimistic take on this is that Mr Trump will not make the same mistake twice; many Republican national security hawks are aghast at his reckless behaviour. With the impeachment battle looming, he can ill-afford to lose allies on Capitol Hill by mistreating allies abroad. But his chaotic administration seems rather good at repeating its mistakes. A more cynical view is that the Kurds were inherently expendable. US interest in the Middle East is waning thanks to the shale boom, which has cut American dependence on imported energy. Counterterrorism has dropped down the agenda. Great-power competition is now the centrepiece of the administration’s national security strategy. Despite Mr Trump’s strange personal ties with President Putin, the White House is still hawkish towards the Kremlin; so too, emphatically, is Congress. The 30 million Kurds, stateless, isolated, lightly armed and tied to the terrorist PKK, are not in the same category as real countries. Moreover, US involvement in Syria was always half-hearted and temporary. It bears no comparison with the solemn, decades-old treaty obligations that bind the countries of Nato. That too could be comforting were it not for the bruising treatment the president has already meted out to Japan and South Korea, two vital, long-standing US allies in Asia. Mr Trump’s erratic personal diplomacy with the North Korean and Chinese leaders has repeatedly blindsided and humiliated decision-makers in Tokyo and Seoul. Europeans could easily be next. The main point for all countries that rely on American security guarantees is that outsourcing defence to the US is costlier and chancier than it seems. Mr Trump’s behaviour may be reckless and his words incoherent but he reflects heartfelt dissatisfaction with the country’s thankless role as world police. American taxpayers have long and rightly wondered why Europe — bigger and richer than the US — cannot foot the bills and take the risks involved in dealing with crises in its own neighbourhood. Allies, coddled for too long, will have to raise their defence spending, appetite for risk and readiness for innovative, taboo-busting co-operation. Anyone who thinks Brexit will allow this country to cut free from involvement in European foreign, security and defence policy has another think coming. As US involvement and dependability shrink, European countries have no choice but to do more, and to do it together. Money still talks. Poland offered $2 billion (about £1.6 billion) towards the costs of the new US presence. Mr Trump has deployed nearly 3,000 US troops to Saudi Arabia, gleefully pointing out that the country has met his request to “pay us for everything we are doing”. Toomas Ilves, former president of ultra-loyal Estonia, wonders if the Pentagon will publish a price list; at least we will know where we stand, he says. US foreign policy engagement now depends on the answers to three flinty questions. Does the US have a vital interest at stake? More unpleasantly, what are the direct benefits (business, flattery, family) of this for Mr Trump? Will any of this count in a real crisis? Those who complain should count their blessings. The Kurds would love to have our difficulties. [/QUOTE]
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