It's still difficult to understand why Donald Trump decided on a precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, ignoring the advice of his own national security team, and disregarding the objections of our allies and partners. The Associated Press reports today that the American president settled on his new policy after "a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week."
This is helpful context, but it isn't a comforting realization. As Rachel and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) discussed on the show last night, it's a crazy dynamic in which the leader of a foreign country effectively says, "We're planning on attacking your allies where you have 2,000 troops," at which point Donald Trump decided it's time to get out of the other country's way.
Complicating matters, of course, is Russia, which is delighted by the American president's decision, though the White House continues to insist otherwise. Trump said yesterday that Moscow is "not happy" with the new U.S. policy, and his chief spokesperson went even further today.
A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was "a correct one," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed as "ridiculous" and "silly" the "idea" that Putin was happy about the withdrawal."The idea that Putin is happy about this is ridiculous," Sanders told reporters outside the White House Friday morning. "He's not. This puts a greater emphasis and makes them have to actually step up and do something, and do more in the region. It puts them at a greater risk. So I think that's just silly."
I don't understand what it is the White House doesn't understand.
Some foreign policy challenges are complex and require a detailed understanding of nuance and history. Russia's satisfaction with U.S. withdrawal from Syria isn't one of those challenges.
Putin and his government have long wanted American forces out of Syria -- a country Russia has seen as its top outpost in the Middle East. Putin was prepared to bargain for greater control, free of U.S. influence, and Trump, for whatever reason, decided to give the Russian leader his long-sought goal in exchange for nothing.
The New York Times reported overnight:
A note of glee crept into Russian commentary and news coverage on Friday about the current turmoil in Washington around national security, with President Vladimir V. Putin seemingly checking off one item after another that he might have written on his wish list for Santa.First, President Trump blindsided his aides and the rest of the world by deciding to pull the full contingent of some 2,000 American troops out of Syria, helping the Kremlin to confirm Mr. Putin's gamble that intervening in Syria would revive Russian influence in the Middle East.Mr. Trump followed that up by declaring that the United States would pull half its forces out of Afghanistan; the combined withdrawals prompted the resignation of Jim Mattis, the respected general who leads the Pentagon.All that followed Mr. Trump's already substantial effort to undermine NATO and the European Union by weakening the American commitment to its traditional alliances.
The Times' article quoted Leslie Vinajmuri, a professor of international relations at SOAS University of London, who said, "Once again we see a president who appears to be acting impulsively and erratically -- except when it comes to Russia. Here, Trump has been eerily consistent in his willingness to adopt policies that enable Russia's strategy while undermining ours."
To Sarah Huckabee Sanders' argument, there's certainly something "ridiculous" about this, but it's not those pointing to obvious factual details.