Trump Pulls Out Of Syria: But What About Yemen?

There are two ways of looking at this. One is the conspiracy theory that somehow Trump is under the thumb of the Kremlin through money or women or whatever. So he is trying to please Putin, who is the big winner of this sudden and dramatic decision. This blog has no plans to explore that minefield.

The other way to view this is that Trump, who shows marginal interest in traditional politics and diplomacy, is determined to carry out campaign promises to extricate America from foreign wars, most of which cost a lot and achieve little to nothing. It is America First. We know that. If you cut out all the traditional stuff about America the world policeman and American domination of everything, there is merit in his plan. Syria, even in the Cold War, was within the Russian sphere and has never been much to do with the US. Both Russia and Iran as well as Assad are capable of dealing with the remnants of IS, which all regard as an enemy.

The overwhelming priority is Yemen. A fragile ceasefire is holding , but with sporadic fighting locally. It is very much time for Trump to focus on this war. He should lean on the Saudis and extend some kind plus for the Iranians if they cooperate in a serious drive for peace. For Trump that is a much trickier problem than Syria. He has boxed himself in by being too forgiving of the Saudis and too antagonistic to Iran. Reversing the effects of those themes will not be easy. But he needs to try. He is good at reaching out to undemocratic autocracies and semi-democratic dictatorships. It is within his comfort zone. Time to get busy.