WASHINGTON — President Trump managed to do something remarkable with his abrupt order last week to withdraw all American troops from Syria and half from Afghanistan: unite the left and right against a plan to extract the United States from two long, costly and increasingly futile conflicts. So chaotic was Mr. Trump’s decision-making process; so transparent his appeal to his political base; and so lacking in a cogent explanation to allies or the public that the president’s move short-circuited a much-needed national debate about the future of America’s wars. The case for pulling out, military analysts and diplomats said, is stronger in Afghanistan than in Syria, where the United States is abandoning its Kurdish allies, leaving a vacuum that could allow the Islamic State to regroup, and ceding a strategically vital country to Iran and Russia. Yet even in Afghanistan, where American troops have fought a pitched battle for 17 years, those who believe the United States should get out are not speaking up. With the exception of a few vocal isolationists like Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, Mr. Trump’s handling of the issue has been condemned across the ideological spectrum.

Source: New York Times December 27, 2018 16:13 UTC