Gabriele Holtermann-Gorden/Sipa USA via AP Images
Kurdish Americans and allies rally in Union Square in New York City, October 12, 2019.
The House of Representatives this afternoon voted overwhelmingly to condemn the “abrupt withdrawal” of American forces from Syria. Trump’s impetuous move has emboldened the Turkish government to attack the United States’ Kurdish partners and galvanized the terrorist group ISIS to return with a vengeance. Turkey, a staunch NATO partner, is quickly becoming a tarnished brand. The calls between Turkish President Erdogan and Trump are likely every bit as slippery as the notorious Ukraine exchange, especially if this is what they’re willing to put on White House letterhead.
Today, 129 Republicans crossed the aisle to censure the U.S. president. Combined with the vigorous condemnations on the Democratic primary debate stage last night, a consensus is emerging that, in spite of three years of morally corrupt national-security maneuvers across the board, the Syria extraction is conspicuously beyond the pale.
But—against the backdrop of a U.S.-sanctioned endless war in Yemen, the anniversary of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death, and saber-rattling with Iran—condemning Trump on Syria is not enough.
Will Congress be equally vocal about how Trump is conducting relations with other so-called partners in the Middle East? Yesterday, Vice President Pence met with the Egyptian prime minister, discussing “several human rights cases of mutual concern, including Americans detained in Egypt.” But with reports that at least two Egyptian journalists and activists in detention are enduring torture, a tougher statement was necessary—and the absence of one is embarrassing.
Also this week, a senior U.S. diplomat visited Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whose ongoing war against Yemen is a humanitarian nightmare. The talking points that came out of those get-togethers—expressing “solidarity with the Emirates and our Gulf partners in the face of Iranian aggression”—are a gift to autocratic leaders who want to ignore Khashoggi’s death and conceal their vile treatment of political prisoners, all while building new surveillance capacities.
The Senate set a high bar in March by voting to end U.S. assistance to the Saudi-led Yemen war. (Trump vetoed, and the weapons sales have continued.) Congress could be passing resolutions like this every day, illuminating to the American public just how thoroughly Trump is humiliating us worldwide.