Just when you think you’re free to blog about something fun like the new tennis pavilion Melania Trump is building at the White House for her, Novak Djokovic-like husband — not— or the new movie “The King,” starring Timothée Chalumet as a real leader, Henry V , President Donald J. Trump does something else stupid on the road to IM, impeachment meltdown. If it’s not Rick Perry being thrown under the bus one day, it’s the Syrian Kurds watching the bus filled with American soldiers pulling out the next, leaving these staunch American allies in the fight against ISIS to fend for themselves against their longtime enemies, the Turks, in what has already become a humanitarian crisis.
By pulling out of Syria, we are not only going back on our commitment to the Kurds, who’ve been a better ally than the Turks, but we’re giving the (for now) contained ISIS an opportunity to regroup and creating a vacuum in which the Russians and Chinese can rush in.
For a while, Trump was able to keep Turkish President, and fellow strongman, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at bay. But recently, he talked with Trump, and you know how that goes: The squeaky wheel gets greased, particularly when the squeaky wheel is providing Trump with his daily adulation fix. And, you know, the Kurds didn’t help us on D-Day. No, seriously. Trump’s going with that.
How does this make us strong and keep us first? How does this honor our troops who’ve sacrificed life and limb in various Middle East conflicts? Where is the consistency and coherence in our so-called foreign policy?
How long can we be the world’s policeman, you say? Where does it end? Smarten up, cookies. It doesn’t. Maybe at one time when we had an army the size of Sweden we could bury our heads in the sand. But as leader of the free world, we can’t go back. And why should we want to renounce our status? Yet we may have to. If we’re not careful, this century is going to belong to the Chinese, who are already extorting and bullying weaker countries with their New Silk Road, “One Belt One Road” project, which delivers infrastructure — at a high price. Their attempt to intimidate the NBA is just the tip of the iceberg of what would happen in a “Chinese century.” Look at what’s happening in Hong Kong with those brave kids fighting for democracy.
We should be calling China out on what it’s doing to those kids. But Trump won’t, because it’s all transactional for him. If you don’t have something that he thinks is important — adulation, money — you don’t matter to him. The Hong Kong freedom fighters, the Kurds — all they have is their idealism. The Chinese, the Russians, even the Saudis — they have money, power, commodities.
But the fight for democracy is all our fight. Democracy is on the line, and it won’t be saved by looking inward. The Trumpettes want to be left alone, I say, give them what they want. Leave them. Time to cut the dead wood and go on to improve our lives and the lives of those like us who continue to aspire to greatness.
You don’t get to be the number one tennis player in the world by avoiding the Slams. And you don’t get to remain the leader of the free world by disengaging.
This is our revelation. This is our challenge. We’re on the road to Damascus, whether Trump flees it or not.