By Gary Bauer
There are good people on both sides of the decision President Trump made to move a small number of U.S. troops out of harm's way after Turkish President Erdogan said he could no longer allow cross-border attacks to go unanswered. I am skeptical of those who claim they would have left the troops in place.
I guarantee you that if U.S. troops were killed during a Turkish incursion, the president would be under tremendous pressure to retaliate against Turkey, a fellow NATO member. The left and its media allies would be screaming that the president was risking war with a member of NATO.
For the first time yesterday, I heard someone in the media acknowledge the additional complications facing President Trump. We have airbase privileges in Turkey, and there are dozens of nuclear weapons stored in Turkey as a check against Russian and Iranian ambitions. Erdogan is reportedly holding them "hostage."
I am a tremendous supporter of the Kurds. I have met many of their leaders, including earlier this year. But what exactly was the president supposed to do when Erdogan started making demands? Threaten to attack a NATO member?
None of our European NATO allies are doing much, other than wagging their fingers. Britain and France are not offering to send troops to secure the Turkish border.
Congress is threatening to impose sanctions. Trump already did. And notice that no one is proposing a declaration of war against Turkey and suggesting we send 150,000 troops to Syria. Why not? Because the American people would be overwhelmingly opposed to such a move.
The president is making it clear that he is prepared to ratchet up the sanctions even more. Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo are heading to Turkey now to negotiate a ceasefire.
The biggest hypocrites are those on the left who sat by as Barack Obama allowed Syria to devolve, as he drew red lines and then ignored them, as he dismissed ISIS as a "JV team," and as he allowed Iran and Russia to occupy Syria.
Obama left a tremendous mess behind. Most of the progressives who are screaming the loudest now defended Obama when he did nothing.
And as several commentators have noted recently, we're all worried about ISIS jihadists escaping from Kurdish-run prison camps. But many of the leftists screaming the loudest now have worked nonstop to legally break the jihadists out of Gitmo!
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