Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Chaotic Morasses

For years the Middle East has been chaos – a chaotic morass! The Syrian Civil War has been going on for eight years with Assad and his Russian partner now close to waltzing to an Assad victory and a Russian Mediterranean seaport. “Red lines” came and went, while for years Obama tangoed with ISIS on the eastern Syrian dance-floor. In 2017 President Trump cut in and like Dick Clark turned it into a successful American Bandstand as ISIS is no longer a significant threat. Despite that the Middle East is still a quagmire. It is difficult to separate the players as some are Sunni (Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia) and some Shia (Iraq, Lebanon, Iran). And then there is Syria, and of course, Israel . . . i.e. still a chaotic morass.

President Trump has long called for the U.S. to leave the Middle East. On the campaign trail, he said the region was a “total and complete mess” and wished the government had spent the trillions of dollars in the U.S. instead. In 2013, long before he was elected, he said the U.S. should “stay the hell out” of the Syrian war. We did not stay out. After Trump was elected it was only a matter of time before the US military was pulled out of the chaos that is Syria, as Russian and Iranian influence over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was far too great to be effectively countered by a small U.S. presence in eastern Syria. In March of 2018 President Trump stated that the U.S. would be getting out of Syria very soon, but nothing happened until fortuitously on December 14, in his phone call with President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly promised that Turkey would take responsibility for finishing off the Islamic State if the U.S. pulled out of Syria, a senior White House official told NBC News. Erdogan reportedly said to the president, “In fact, as your friend, I give you my word in this,” an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to disclose details of a presidential phone call.

A way out of the chaotic morass of the Middle East? Strange things happen in strange ways. After asking John Bolton if a pullout was feasible, President Trump decided to pull the US military out of Syria. Of course, there are differing opinions on pulling out of this mess. For me, a U.S. withdrawal won’t turn Syria over to Russia because the Russians already own it. We finally have a chance to escape the chaotic morass of the Middle East, and as a bonus, Turkey now owes us.

What about Afghanistan? It is another morass, that is also chaos . . . one that has been going on for 17 years, the longest war in U.S. history. Before he ran for president President Trump talked of an end to U.S. military deployments overseas. In 2013, he tweeted: “Our troops are being killed by the Afghanis we train and we waste billions there. Nonsense! Rebuild the USA.”  Getting the U.S. out of non-winnable wars became a campaign promise of Mr. Trump. In 2017, 17 members of the U.S. military were killed in Afghanistan, bringing the total to 2297 since the U.S. entered this quagmire back in 2002. Last week President Trump acted on another of his campaign promises, and as Commander-in-Chief he is cutting the U.S. presence in half from 14,000 to approximately 7,000. Of course, there was a difference of opinion on this decision. A statement by Daniel Davis, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank and a retired lieutenant colonel, sums up my feelings on Afghanistan. He said, “As important as it is for the U.S. military to withdraw from Syria, it is even more critical that President Trump end the 17-year war in Afghanistan to focus on higher priorities, like deterring great power conflict,”  in reference to heightened tensions between the U.S. and its top military rivals Russia and China.

As a footnote, I need to address the resignation of James Mattis, the 26th Secretary of Defense, and a retired 4-star Marine General. I have nothing but the greatest respect for James Mattis. As a military man he did not agree with pulling out of Syria  or cutting back troop strength in Afghanistan. He did what he thought he needed to do, and he resigned. One has to admire his standing on principle, but remember, he was but an adviser to the President. Despite what CNN, WaPo, and the NYT say, he was not the Commander-in-Chief that the people elected.

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