Back in 1991 Saddam Hussein started massing his forces on the Kuwaiti border. The Bush administration and State Department did essentially nothing to tell Saddam to knock it off and otherwise thwart his plans. They basically gave Saddam the OK to settle his neighborhood dispute. Saddam invaded and the rest is a sad history from there. There were many follow on events from this, like the basing of US troops in Saudi Arabia which was bin Laden’s rallying cry that resulted in well over 11,000 thousand American lives in Iraq, Afghanistan and New York City. It created fertile breeding grounds for terrorism and led to the emergence of ISIS. It’s cost the US trillions in wasted treasure and the blood of untold numbers of Kuwaitis, Iraqi Shi’is, Kurds, Yazidis, etc.
Trump rightfully called out all this was a fiasco and a tremendous mistake. His solution? To throw one of the few US allies, the total of which can likely be counted on the fingers of a single hand, has in all the Middle East and pushed them into the hands of the Syrians and Russians. Now he’s sanctioning Turkey for doing what they said they were going to do which Trump refused to tell them no ■■■■■■■ away. US relations with Turkey taking a further dive is no doubt delightful to the Russians. And Trump’s re-basing Troops back in Saudi Arabia. Has anyone done any calculation of blowback on this because there is a clear history to draw from which Trump seems keen on repeating. The idea that this move doesn’t cost US lives is a dicey one to make.
