{"id":51397,"date":"2019-10-22T11:15:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T00:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=51397"},"modified":"2019-10-22T11:15:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T00:15:01","slug":"trumps-perfidious-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/trumps-perfidious-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s perfidious America"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

US President Donald Trump\u2019s abrupt decision to withdraw American troops from almost all<\/a> of Syria, clearing the way for a Turkish offensive against the Kurds, is an unconscionable betrayal of a strategic ally. One would expect such disloyalty from a fascist or otherwise dictatorial regime. And yet, today, it is the United States\u2014a global leader with supposedly high ideals\u2014that has emerged as the world\u2019s perfidious empire.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s cavalier abandonment of the Kurds\u2014America\u2019s most loyal and effective allies in the war against the Islamic State, who until last week shared<\/a> military outposts with US soldiers\u2014is but the latest in a long series of devastating betrayals by his administration. He set the tone for his presidency by withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, shamelessly placing the financial interests of America\u2019s fossil-fuel tycoons above the existential interest of the rest of humanity.<\/p>\n

Trump also renounced the Iran nuclear deal and reinstated sanctions, even though Iran had complied with the agreement\u2019s obligations (and continued to do so for another year<\/a>). Even America\u2019s European allies are not safe: not only has Trump repeatedly lashed out at NATO allies; his administration is now imposing trade sanctions on up to US$7.5 billion worth of European Union goods. The US would, Trump recently boasted<\/a>, undoubtedly win a trade war with the EU.<\/p>\n

Europe also stands to lose from Trump\u2019s abandonment of the Kurds. If, in the ongoing chaos, the thousands of IS prisoners held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces escape\u2014as some already have<\/a>\u2014America\u2019s estranged European allies will suffer. Yet Trump is unconcerned. \u2018Well, they are going to be escaping to Europe, that\u2019s where they want to go\u2019, he remarked<\/a> casually at a press conference. \u2018They want to go back to their homes.\u2019<\/p>\n

America\u2019s unreliability as both a global leader and ally or partner is no longer in doubt\u2014and countries are adjusting accordingly. India, for example, is pursuing closer ties with China and Russia, after a decade of ever-deeper relations with the US. (The Kurds, it\u2019s worth noting, scrambled to make a deal with Russia, further strengthening the Kremlin\u2019s regional influence.)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, America\u2019s East Asian allies are weighing their options for mitigating the North Korean threat, in which Trump has apparently lost interest. He has shrugged off the North\u2019s repeated tests of short-range ballistic missiles\u2014which threaten Seoul and Tokyo, not New York or Washington\u2014declaring<\/a> that he is not \u2018personally\u2019 bothered by them.<\/p>\n

Now, South Korea is attempting to reconcile with the North, while Japan is raising<\/a> its defence budget to record levels. Meanwhile\u2014in yet another vote of no confidence in the US\u2014Taiwan seems increasingly inclined<\/a> to reconcile with China.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, too, is adapting to Trump\u2019s perfidy. Immediately following last month\u2019s attack on Saudi oil installations\u2014claimed by Yemen\u2019s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, but widely blamed<\/a> on Iran itself\u2014Trump hinted<\/a> at military action. But Saudi Arabia knows better than to bet on US loyalty.<\/p>\n

In fact, the US withdrawal from Syria came shortly after it moved its air force command and control operations out of the Gulf region, where they had been based for almost four decades, further reinforcing expectations of a more comprehensive US departure from the Middle East. That followed Trump\u2019s refusal to respond with force when Iran downed<\/a> a US$150 million American drone and impeded<\/a> navigation in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Now, in what could be the mother of all diplomatic revolutions in the region, a Saudi-Iranian rapprochement<\/a> seems to be in the offing. The other Gulf states would most likely join any such agreement.<\/p>\n

The US itself is also desperate to get Iran to the negotiating table. Trump would surely laud a new nuclear deal as a major victory, even though it would probably represent little improvement over its predecessor, much like the US\u2013Mexico\u2013Canada Agreement<\/a> did not improve<\/a> upon the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump may proclaim himself a master of the \u2018art of the deal\u2019, but, compared to the Iranians, he is an apprentice negotiator.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s regional posture is strengthened further by the fact that Israel\u2014the US ally that is perhaps least able to handle a betrayal\u2014remains utterly in Trump\u2019s thrall. To be sure, Trump has thrown his support behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has expressed his support for discussions on a formal US\u2013Israel defence treaty. But if Iran decides to retaliate for Israel\u2019s repeated attacks on its military installations in Syria and Iraq, there is no guarantee that the US will stand by its ally. After all, like the Kurds, Israel did not \u2018help [the US] in Normandy\u2019\u2014apparently a necessary precondition<\/a> for US loyalty. (Trump didn\u2019t mention, of course, that his own father did not help the US in World War II, either; he avoided service, just as his sons did during the Vietnam War.)<\/p>\n

As for Turkey, Trump has threatened<\/a> to \u2018destroy and obliterate\u2019 its economy if it does anything in its war on the Kurds that he considers \u2018off limits\u2019. He then sent a bizarre letter<\/a> warning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to \u2018be a tough guy\u2019.<\/p>\n

But why would Erdogan listen? Didn\u2019t he get away with acquiring Russian-made S-400 missiles over Trump\u2019s supposed objections? And has Trump not already handed him the prize of his dreams: a green light to slaughter the Kurds of northern Syria? Not surprisingly, Erdogan reportedly threw the letter straight into the bin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US President Theodore Roosevelt advised foreign-policymakers to \u2018speak softly and carry a big stick<\/a>\u2019. Trump seems to be doing just the opposite. Add to that his ignorance of history and geopolitics, his blind belief in his supposedly<\/a> \u2018great and unmatched wisdom\u2019 and his apparent disregard for the lives of anyone outside his inner circle, and the global danger that America\u2019s 45th president poses can hardly be overstated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump\u2019s abrupt decision to withdraw American troops from almost all of Syria, clearing the way for a Turkish offensive against the Kurds, is an unconscionable betrayal of a strategic ally. 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