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Editor's Note: Jill Filipovic is a Washington-based journalist and author of the book "The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness." Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
(CNN) - President Donald Trump has finally managed to do something so outrageous that some key Republican colleagues have taken the almost unprecedented step ... of criticizing him.
What could he have done to find courage and break ranks with the president in a public and forceful way - something commendable - and to challenge him? A foreign policy error that exposes a key ally in the fight against ISIS to considerable danger. But in those Republicans who have stepped forward and condemn their action, it is likely that a depressing political calculation is also influencing.
To begin with, the president has plunged US foreign policy once again into chaos - in an impulsive and destructive way - this time in Syria. After a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdog᷃an, Trump announced on Sunday that he would withdraw troops from the Turkish border with northern Syria. Turkey has made it clear that it would invade and destroy Syrian Kurds, US allies. whom Turkey sees as terrorists.
This means that Trump has effectively abandoned the Kurds to their fate; the Kurds, those who have fought bravely and effectively alongside American interests, helping to destroy the power of ISIS. This action also opens the door to other corrupt characters in the region, from Russia to Iran, or Assad or ISIS fighters.
As criticism against this decision increased during the week (Trump's ally, Senator Lindsey Graham called it "a stain on American honor"), Trump published a surprising and strange tweet in which he warned that "if Turkey does something that, in my great and insurmountable wisdom, I consider out of bounds, I will destroy and completely destroy the economy of Turkey (I have done it before!) ”. (He has not done so.)
Republicans have said that leaving the Kurds leaves the US vulnerable: breaching our military commitments, committing to the protection of the allies and then leaving them fully exposed to attacks leads us along a dangerous path of defense alone. The president does not seem to care. Expresses a desire to get the US out of "endless wars" - a commendable goal too - but does not seem to understand that the bungling of this exit will be a boomerang and will leave a large number of dead.
"It doesn't matter," the president seems to say. He ruled out these wars by calling them "tribal" - an ignorant, condescending and racist characterization - before writing that the Kurds "were paid huge amounts of money and equipment" to fight with us. It is a sample of how the president thinks: loyalty to others and long-term strategy matter little; The bribe is that you get what you want.
Which leads us to the sudden strengthening of republican value. It's great that Republican hawks are criticizing Trump's foreign policy when he puts US interests at risk. and the lives of our allies (although his own desire for an endless war, and the dollars of the military industrial apparatus he generates, is an enduring and disgusting motive).
But it is revealing that Republicans are willing to criticize the president for an issue that has not generated or likely generate a cataract of denigrating and harmful tweets by the president and, therefore, probably does not make them lose voters, since very few Americans vote primarily for foreign policy, and the issue of abandoning the Kurds probably does not attract or drive many people away from the polls.
And it is also distressing that those same Republicans remain silent - in the best case - that Trump asks a foreign power to interfere in the US elections and, in the worst case, support the president while doing so again. . It is about power and money: breaking with the president for this foreign policy does not lead to a break of the party or to the political trial; but break up with him for threatening the integrity of the US elections. and supposedly breaking the law does lead to that. Republicans are simply reluctant to go to the bottom to protect the country.
One more thing: when reading the president's tweets about Turkey and Syria ("I, with my immense and unparalleled wisdom"), it should be enough to indicate that he is not making decisions based on his mastery of foreign policy - or even in based on a basic coherence.
This is an emergency. The president has no aptitude to carry out the position. It has already jeopardized our elections and the confidence of Americans in free and fair elections. Now, he is taking dangerous steps that could lead to even greater turmoil in an already chaotic region that could create a vacuum and recular, hurting us.
His impulse to bring home American troops home is good. The tumultuous, clumsy and risky way he is doing it is not. And his own words indicate that he is an unstable despot aspirant.
The Republican Party needs to offer more than words. We need action: Republicans must also demand that the president leave.
United States Policy