Murphy may provide a reason to reelect Trump

Who knows now what U.S. policy on military intervention in Syria is or will be under President Donald Trump? The president is notorious for changing his mind or contradicting himself in all sorts of things even as he waxes megalomaniacal, as he did this week about his “great and unmatched wisdom” and his ability to destroy Turkey’s economy.

But people may take heart from Trump’s simultaneous denunciation of “ridiculous endless wars” in reference to the thousand or so U.S. soldiers in Syria and the U.S. warplanes overhead. Yes, the Islamic State forces in the neighborhood are gangsters, but not much worse than some of the regimes there. Indeed, the U.S. policy to overthrow Syria’s government empowered the Islamic State.

What is the U.S. military objective in Syria and how can it be achieved with just a thousand troops and an occasional air raid? As the president urged, why not leave the tribal wars to the tribes themselves and let Turkey, Israel, and Russia police the area?

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, joined with Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican, to deplore what they called Trump’s readiness to abandon this country’s Kurdish allies in Syria. But the Kurds have been fighting more for themselves than for the United States, as well as fighting our other occasional ally, Turkey, and sometimes doing it in Turkey itself.

A thousand U.S. soldiers are not going to be enough to defend the Kurds. Those soldiers are serving mainly as hostages for a wider war with whoever attacks them. Further, the MurphyRomney position is that any intervention must be perpetual regardless of its results, lest the world come to see the United States as an unreliable ally.

After this country’s disastrous interventions in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, it would be wonderful if the world did start begging the United States not to engage militarily where this country’s vital interests were not at stake. During World War II, when this country’s vital interests were at stake, many elected officials resigned to join the military and be sent into harm’s way. Any American who really thinks Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria are vital should join those they would send there.

If Trump really gets this country out of its “ridiculous endless wars” and the Democrats want to continue them, there suddenly will be a reason to reelect the president.