President Trump proved beyond all doubt this week that his vision for military deployments is defined by hypocrisy.
On Monday, Trump pulled U.S. forces out of northern Syria. Although those forces were not engaged in active combat operations, Trump says he’s no longer willing to inject America into complicated foreign wars. But then, on Friday, the Pentagon announced the deployment of an additional 2,000 U.S. military personnel to Saudi Arabia.
Help me here, but I’m really struggling to see how the two decisions can support a common strategic narrative.
On the one hand, Trump says America shouldn’t be involved in complex foreign struggles far off American shores. Trump argues that years of Turkish-Kurdish sectarian animosity can never be resolved by America. Just for a second, let’s say that’s true. How on Earth does Trump explain why he is sending 2,000 more personnel to defend Saudi Arabia against Iran? After all, while the roots of Saudi-Iranian animosity are also sectarian in nature, they are also far older than Kurdish-Turkish animosity! It’s not even close: Saudi-Iranian animosity reaches back 1,339 years to the Battle of Karbala.
Trump says it’s not America’s place to use military force to temper two adversaries engaged in a decadeslong conflict. But in the very same week, Trump then says it’s America’s responsibility to send thousands more in troops to defend an ally against an adversary it has struggled with for more than a millennium!
This is absurd hypocrisy. But it’s also morally absurd.
I support a close U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia (it is necessary to prevent a far more powerful Islamic State 2.0), but Saudi Arabia clearly needs U.S. troops less than the YPG-aligned Kurds now under Turkish offensive need U.S. help. After all, where the Saudis retain a powerful military armed with capabilities in the cyber domain, in space, in air, on land, and at sea, the YPG have relatively small skirmishing groups, a few armored vehicles, but little heavy weaponry.
Trump can’t use the excuse of greater U.S. obligations here.
At least in recent years, the Kurds have done far more for America than have the Saudis. Where the Kurds suffered thousands of casualties against ISIS, the Saudis have allowed hundreds of their young men to travel and join ISIS.
There’s no overarching strategy to what Trump is doing in the Middle East. He simply giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other. It’s all on a whim. But for the Kurds and other allies, Trump’s Saudi deployment can only be perceived one way: Yes, the United States cares about allies. But only if they sell a lot of oil and buy a lot of American weapons.
