Middle Eastern knock, knock joke (stolen from Jon Stewart) — Person 1: Knock, knock.

Person 2: No, my friend, it is you who is wrong!

My greatest concern regarding the Trump administration has been that he would recklessly and precipitously get us into a new war. Last week, he recklessly and precipitously got us out of an old one.

When I heard Thursday that President Donald Trump had ordered troops out of Syria, my first inclination was to agree. I’ve never understood what victory in Syria looks like, or how we would achieve it.

Typically when we send in our troops it’s with a two-pronged mission, to defeat the terrorists and build up the local army so they can take over when we leave. In Syria, the local army is worse than the terrorists. And we can’t take them out without going through Russia. So, withdrawal may make sense.

But if the reporting is correct, the president’s motivation for ordering the withdrawal is nothing less than sinister. Trump is pulling U.S. troops off the battlefield at the request of Turkish President Recep Erdogan so that he can send his troops in to slaughter the Kurds, who have been our most reliable allies in that part of the world ever since the start of the Iraq War.

Erdogan warned Trump last week that he would send his troops into the Syrian town where U.S. troops and their Kurdish allies were fighting side by side.

The Washington Post reported Friday that after talking with U.S. diplomats, Erdogan now agrees to wait for one month before beginning the slaughter, “which we think is enough for the U.S. to withdraw,” Turkey’s state broadcaster reported.

The most cynical, yet still quite probable, explanation for Trump’s decision is he wants Erdogan to stop talking about the plot orchestrated by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to murder U.S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its embassy in Turkey. That ambush and dismemberment has brought unwanted attention to the humanitarian disaster now occurring in Yemen, where a war being executed by the Saudis with the weapons and backing of the United States has led to the death by starvation of thousands of children.

On the day that he ordered our withdrawal from Syria, Trump also declared victory over Isis. No need to stay when Isis has been wiped out, he explained. He then assured us that Russia and Turkey would continue the fight against Isis.

And, he made a video in which he pointed to the sky and declared that all of those who had given their lives in combat would agree with his decision.

One person who did not agree, and is still alive to express his opinion, is Defense Secretary James Mattis, who resigned in protest.

Mattis’ resignation letter is an eloquent denunciation of Trump’s America First foreign policy. He spoke of the importance of allies and the need to confront enemies, and ended by saying that since Trump disagreed, he should get a new defense secretary.

When Mattis follows Michael Flynn, H.R. McMaster and John Kelley out the door, Trump will be out of generals. I assume another Fox News heavyweight like Heather Nauert, now in line to be our nation’s top diplomat, will be selected to replace Mattis as the leader of our nation’s defense.


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