Dangerously Ignorant

As the Turkish military attacked our Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS, yesterday the president attempted to answer questions from the press about his motives in abandoning the Kurds to their fate.  Seeing the results of his whimsical and unilateral decision, made in the dark of a Sunday night, to acquiesce to Turkish demands to allow them to invade Kurdish territory, the president went on the defensive.

Among other things he was asked was if he had any qualms about giving Turkey a green light to attack the Kurds, knowing that it would be a devastating attack with the potential for a huge loss of life.  His response?  Well, all I can say is that it is baffling in its irrelevance and display of total ignorance.  In trying to explain that we do not really owe the Kurds for helping us to fight ISIS, he was dismissive of the alliance.

“Now the Kurds are fighting for their land.  They didn’t help us in the Second World War, they didn’t help us with Normandy, for example.”  — Donald J. Trump

It gets better.  When asked if our betrayal of our ally would have an impact on our other alliances, he said, “No it won’t.  Alliances are very easy.”  He then went on to disparage our NATO allies.

And better still.  When asked if he was concerned that the ISIS prisoners, about 16,000 strong, might escape, reconstitute, and once again become a security threat to the U.S. he said that he was not at all concerned.  Or in his words,

“Well they are going to be escaping to Europe, that’s where they want to go.  They want to go back to their homes.  But Europe didn’t want them for months.  They could have had trials, they could have done whatever they wanted, but as usual, it’s not reciprocal.”  — Donald J. Trump

Life and national security are hard.  But it is a lot harder when you are ignorant.  People die.