Richard Haass: Trump’s Syria Decision ‘Reinforces the Message’ the U.S. Is ‘No Longer Reliable’

‘We are no longer predictable and we cannot be counted on’

EXCERPT:

HAASS: "Well, the only explanation is the one the President keeps giving, that he was, quote/unquote, elected to bring American troops home from the Middle East and he's doing that, the consequences be damned.  There's zero chance the Kurds, if they're fighting for their lives against Turkey, are going to have the capacity to continue to guard the thousands of ISIS fighters so that ISIS would be able to reconstitute itself. But Joe, this is part of a much larger piece, the desire to get the U.S. Forces out of Afghanistan. Again, consequences be damned, given what the Taliban could do. And so the consequences of this are not simply good for Iran, good for Russia and Syria and all that. What this does is it sends the message worldwide, it reinforces the message that the United States is no longer reliable, we are no longer predictable, we can no longer be counted on. So if you're an ally of the United States, this sends the message essentially you are on your own. No matter what the alliance commitments are or the treaty commitments, you are increasingly on your own no matter what sort of documents or papers or previous commitments have been there. This president essentially started from a blank slate and does not honor his inheritance."

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