6 | OCTOBER 31 • 2019 

commentary
Why America Can’t 
Escape the Middle East

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T

he excuses President Donald 
Trump and his loyal fans continue 
to put forward for his disastrous 
decision to give Turkey a green light to 
invade Syria continue to be as foolish 
as they are disingenuous. 
Pretending that it’
s not 
really a betrayal to leave 
loyal Kurdish allies in 
the fight against ISIS to 
the tender mercies of an 
authoritarian and murder-
ous Turkish regime deter-
mined to destroy them 
doesn’
t pass the smell test.
The same is true of efforts to argue 
that the Kurds aren’
t worth our sym-
pathy because they weren’
t with us “at 
Normandy,” as the president prepos-
terously claimed. Trashing that brave 
people because they’
re not “all angels” 
or because they are politically divided 
is unworthy of a superpower who not 
long ago was arming and training the 
same people to do the dirty work in a 
war against an enemy of America that 
Americans didn’
t want to fight anymore.
But these terrible arguments were just 
a smokescreen for something that has 
little to do with the Kurds, whom most 
Americans couldn’
t care less about, or 
the admittedly complicated politics of 
Syria and the Middle East. Americans 
are tired of foreign conflicts.
That’
s why, no matter how absurd 
Trump’
s self-justifications for his policy 
blunder might be or how comically inept 
his letter to Turkish President Recep 
Tayyip Erdoğan was as he vainly sought 
to mitigate the damage he had already 
done, there’
s no sign that his moves there 
are doing him any political damage.
Trump’
s instinctive neo-isolationism 
and talk about opposing endless wars 
may be wrongheaded, but it’
s not unpop-
ular — and there are good reasons for 
that.

Americans paid a high price in dealing 
with the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. 
The war in Afghanistan was an unavoid-
able response to Al-Qaeda’
s assault on 
America, yet after 18 years of inconclu-
sive fighting, the reason why that was 
necessary has been largely forgotten. 
The decision to invade Iraq turned out 
to be a mistake, not least because it had 
the unintended effect of strengthening 
neighboring Iran.
As Trump’
s predecessor learned, 
escaping that conflict wound up being 
a lot more complicated than ordering 
troop pullouts and a president claiming 
that he had “ended” the war. That’
s what 
President Barack Obama did in Iraq, and 
the American people cheered. Many of 
the same people are cheering Trump’
s 
decision to get out of Syria and leave the 
Kurds to fend for themselves.
Trump’
s crude rhetoric about the 
Kurds is indefensible, but it’
s easy to 
see why his comments about avoiding 
spilling another drop of American blood 
in the Middle East resonates with the 
public.
Even many supporters of Israel are 
backing him on this decision, though 
the consensus in the Jewish state is that 
the American retreat from Syria and its 
encouragement of Turkish depredations 
are a blow to the security of Israel and 
the region, as well as a humanitarian 
disaster for the Kurds.
Part of this is a matter of blind parti-
sanship. In our current bifurcated politi-
cal culture, most of the public takes their 
cue as to how to think about the issues 
from the president and his opponents, 
rather than contemplating current events 
for themselves. If Trump is for it — 
even if it is something they would have 
lauded had it come from a Democratic 
president — most Democrats will still 
oppose it, as Trump’
s stand on Jerusalem 
illustrated.

The same was true with respect 
to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Pro-
Israel Democrats would have called it 
appeasement and a disgrace had GOP 
president made such a deal. But since it 
was Obama doing the appeasing, they 
fell into line and supported it without 
batting an eye. The same people who 
applauded Obama’
s bug out from Iraq 
are condemning Trump for similar con-
duct.
Still, there is more to this problem 
than partisan hypocrisy.
As Obama discovered after his with-
drawal from Iraq and humiliating “red 
line” fiasco in Syria, the price of dishon-
or can be quite high. Having washed his 
hands of those countries and punted 
their fate to Iran and Russia, it wasn’
t 
long before a new threat arose. The 
establishment of ISIS and its so-called 
caliphate in large portions of Syria and 
Iraq was the logical consequence of 
Obama’
s policies. As that terror group 
expanded the territory under its control 
(and videos of the hideous atrocities it 

Jonathan S. 
Tobin

continued on page 12

Trump’s crude 
rhetoric about the 
Kurds is indefensible, 
but it’s easy to see why 
his comments about 
avoiding spilling 
another drop of 
American blood in the 
Middle East resonates 
with the public.

