Monday, October 14, 2019

Ready, Shoot, Aim


Many politicians have waded in on the Turkey invasion of Syria. I’ve even put my toe in the water ... see: Tough One. The vast majority of politicians have thumped Trump for his tough decision ... often without knowing all the give-and-take behind Trump’s stance. Maybe some circumspection is called for.

Somehow it appears to this observer that there is more to Trump’s move than is immediately apparent ... since abandoning previous allies comes with a large potential cost. When he ran for president, Trump had pledged to remove US troops from foreign entanglements ... and this is part of his rational for stepping aside during Turkey’s rash move.

But this, as Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says, is obviously a very complex situation. Recently there is some friction between the Kurds and American forces ... see: Breitbart Story, Turkey’s membership in NATO makes things more difficult (is Trump setting it up for expulsion?), Trump has been trying to force countries in the region to step up to their responsibilities, etc. And I’m sure that there are many sub rosa issues which few politicians understand.

Therefore, it would seem to me that a little time should be invested in fully understanding things before stepping in front of the national media and saying words that might have to be eaten later.

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