Middle Americans are often left out of controversial events in our culture and in our political machinations. This will correct one of those oversights! Of course, someone in “power” will need to read this, agree with it and then act!
One of these events was to be expected, because it had been promised three years ago. When he was campaigning for President, Donald Trump promised to end America’s “endless” wars, and bring our soldiers home. His mantra was that the blood and treasure of Americans were to be used only when there was an obvious national interest at stake.
Afghanistan is one of those wars. Begun 18 years ago, Trump has managed to shrink our involvement to about 14,000 troops, far fewer than when he took office. But every now and then, an American serviceman is killed in that forlorn country. That part of his pledge is a thorny one, for no one seems to be able to articulate what our end game is in Afghanistan.
But the President unleashed a firestorm of criticism when he decided to remove our troops from another theatre of war; when he did so, he reminded Americans of his promise to bring our soldiers home. This time it was our deployment in Syria, a military action taken by the Obama administration. On both sides of the political divide, politicians criticized his action, claiming we were abandoning allies who helped us defeat the Islamic State. These, the Kurds, have long sought a political homeland in the area where they lived, an area on the border of Turkey and Syria. The President’s friends and foes feared that Turkey would unleash an attack against the Kurds in an effort to eliminate them. They did so within hours of America leaving the field.
Now, to protect themselves, the Kurds (at least one of the factions of the Kurdish people) have made a deal with the Syrian government to aid them in their fight with the Turks. What they will have to give up is yet to be determined. Not much — under pressure from President Trump, Turkey has also agreed to stop the action against the Kurds.
Many of our military leaders have condemned the pullout, but like the proverb that to a hammer every problem looks like a nail, these warriors see every conflict as part of their raison d’être. But do ordinary Americans want their grandchildren going into the military fighting in Afghanistan or Syria or Kosovo or one of those African nations we can’t find on a map? America is approaching $23 trillion in debt; do we want our descendants to continue to fight wars we have no business fighting?
Our Constitution has the answer to these many conflicts — Congress declares war! Most Americans would be surprised to know that only five times in our history has the Constitution been followed in our warfare: the War of 1812 (1812); the Mexican War (1846); the Spanish-American War (1898); World War 1 (1917; and World War 2 (1941-1942).
Since 1942, every conflict American troops have fought have been instigated by Presidents, citing their role as Commander-in-Chief. I, for one, want the United States to begin abiding by the Constitution in sending our precious sons and daughters into mortal danger by demanding Congress do their duty.
How much grief would have been avoided if there had been sober deliberations before engaging in the following “wars”: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq 1 and 2, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Syria — the list is almost endless.
Many will decry the chaos we leave behind, but it couldn’t be worse than the chaos of our leaving South Vietnam. Furthermore, Donald Trump is continuing to keep his word by bringing the troops home rather than leaving them forever as in Korea. Perhaps Afghanistan will be next.
An addendum to this was the killing of two of the top leaders of ISIS. After being kicked out of their self-declared caliphate in the Middle East by U. S. military action, this terror group was decimated, but not eliminated as a threat. Our military in two quick strikes killed the leader and the spokesman for the group. Despite the griping of some on the left because the operation was carried out by the military without the President informing Congressional leaders beforehand, President Trump’s greenlighting this does him further credit in foreign policy. If only those who oppose him would just give him credit for the positive actions he takes, it would go a long way to healing the “divide” in our political landscape. But that would take away from most of the Democrats’ reason for living, so I won’t hold my breath for anyone on the left praising the President.