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Donald Trump loves the mess. The US president keeps contradicting himself, he changes his mind on an hourly basis, he lets the public face his next tweet. "We'll see," he likes to say, let's see. From the long-term consequences of his actions, his consciousness seems completely unclouded. "I have a gut feeling," he boasted of last year, "and my gut sometimes tells me more than anyone else's brain can tell me."
This has often led to political turmoil, which, before they calmed down, have been captured again by the next deep runners. Whether Trump's brutal immigration policy, his five-week government shutdown, several smoldering trade wars or his love-hate relationship with various dictators, especially North Korea's Kim Jong Un: The whole world lives and suffers from the daily fever dream of the US president.
But now Trump's notorious gut feeling has triggered a geopolitical and humanitarian catastrophe.
ERDEM SAHIN / EPA-EFE / REX
With the sudden withdrawal of troops from northern Syria, announced on Twitter, Trump betrayed the Kurds who had previously fought together with the Americans against the Islamic State (IS). He took their protection and drove them into the arms of the Syrian regime, indirectly giving the go-ahead for Turkey's invasion.
Do not be interested, says Trump's gut feeling.
"They did not help us in World War II, they did not help us in Normandy", Trump nagged about the Kurds - an absurd misinformation, he wants to have read that somewhere on a website.
And the catastrophe has just begun:
Hundreds of IS members have already disappeared from bonded labor camps, Russian-backed troops of the Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad are entering a vacuum, and a new refugee crisis is beginning. Meanwhile, a thousand US soldiers are still stuck in the middle, some were under attack from NATO partner Turkey and are now to be evacuated by airlift.
The reputation of the United States, its reliability as an alliance and negotiating partner, is damaged far and wide in the long run. Strengthened are Russia, Iran, Syria and the IS, which Trump has "resurrected from the dead," said a US commentator.
Do not be interested, says Trump's gut feeling.
more on the subject
The sanctions that he issued on Monday evening against Istanbul are almost all pro forma, and apparently only to appease the indignant congress. As a justification, he described this as a "national emergency," which he himself had previously approved - in a phone call with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which preceded the US troop withdrawal.
It was not Trump's fault, one of his advisers insisted on Monday night, but Erdogan.
Trump is said to have gone into this conversation "under prepared", as so often. He failed to warn Erdogan of the invasion, the New York Times wrote. Vice President Mike Pence denied the report on Monday, but who still believes in this government?
Bled and demoralized
It is no wonder that there is a lack of competence and therefore credibility. The State Department has bled to death, the Pentagon demoralized. The National Security Council was reduced to a core team of Jasagern. Many consultants act anyway only "acting", so on call. Trump prefers this because it stifles contradiction.
In December, the idea of a Syria withdrawal had driven the then Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to resign. Since then, all warnings, if they existed, have apparently faded.
.... and Assad to protect the land of our enemy? Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte. I hope they are all great, we are 7,000 miles away!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 14 October 2019"Anyone who wants to help Syria to protect the Kurds, I'm right, whether Russia, China or Napoleon Bonaparte," Trump tweeted on Monday carefree. "I hope they are great, we are 7000 miles away!"
Donald Trump loves the mess. And now the chaos is there.
