Commentary by Hartmut Bühl, Paris Security must be palpable

COMMENTARY Security must be palpable

by Hartmut Bühl, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Brussels/Paris

Donald Trump is in the process of squandering America’s heritage. The betrayal of his Kurdish allies in Syria will have an impact on America’s allies all over the world and will not leave NATO unaffected. The Kurds were the shining example for the United States of the necessary sacrifices in the fight against the Islamic State. After a telephone call to Turkish President Erdogan, and without any consultation with his administration, Trump tweeted that he was abandoning the Kurds from one day to the next, because he no longer needed them, fully realising that he was leaving them to be slaughtered by the Turks. He withdrew his troops, giving Erdogan a free hand. Now that the inevitable damage has occurred, he is trying, as a result of pressure from his own side, to backtrack, but he has left it too late. The Russian President has already made his move to fill the geostrategic vacuum.

Betrayal – there is really no other word to describe the American President’s attitude towards his Kurdish allies. They experienced heavy losses in battle, keeping faith in their great ally in the hope that they were on track to establishing their own state. Trump had previously advised the Kurds to dismantle the border with Turkey. Even if he warned the Turkish President shortly before his troops were ordered to cross the border into Syria and tweeted that he would impose sanctions, he has left Erdogan free to undertake his war

of destruction. The risk of a war between Turkey and Syria is clearly an outcome he has disregarded. He no longer sees it as relevant to America’s role as a world power as it wreaks further havoc throughout the region, in which fires already rage.

Donald Trump, the populist, is in the process of demolishing the foundations of American foreign policy as Washington throws away its last shred of credibility in international relations as well as the international order that generations of American politicians have taken a leading role in building up for the benefit of all. Today, American security guarantees are still in place. They have always been worth more than the paper they are printed on. Under them, America’s allies have felt safe and protected. The western world has felt secure for over 40 years and trust in America has been the cornerstone of its foreign and defence policy. Who knows what Trump, “in his great wisdom” as he says himself, will tweet next? What Europeans are increasingly coming to realise, however, is that they can no longer rely on Trump’s America.

Trump has betrayed the Kurds. Will he also betray us, his European allies, by telling us that American troops will only go into battle if America’s interests are at stake? Sooner or later, the future of NATO itself will be at stake.

Trump – a reliable partner? Donald Trump (second from the right) and Recep Tayyip Erdogˇ an (third from the right) at the G20 Summit in Japan, 28 June 2019

photo: © European Union, EC Audiovisual Service