American troops are not supposed to be mercenaries

[prettylight 2520]

American troops are not supposed to be mercenaries

Opinion by John Kirby

Updated 8:15 AM ET, Tue October 15, 2019

 

American service personnel are not mercenaries.

They do not fight, sail or fly under the banner of other countries, and they do not take foreign money for their work -- not in pay or benefits or any other compensation. Their obligation is to the American citizens they protect and defend, and it is not for sale.

 

President Trump cheapens and insults the men and women of the US military when he reduces their service to a bill of lading. He said last week that Saudi Arabia would be footing the bill to support the additional American troops he plans to send there.

"Are you ready?" he asked reporters outside the White House. "Saudi Arabia at my request has agreed to pay us for everything we are doing. That is a first. Saudi Arabia, and other countries soon now, but Saudi Arabia has agreed to pay us for everything we are doing to help them, and we appreciate that."

 

Trump was responding to a question about the recently announced deployment to Saudi Arabia of a small number of military personnel, aircraft and air defense capabilities. That deployment comes in the wake of Iranian attacks against two Saudi oil facilities and lands squarely amid Trump's acquiescence to Turkey's invasion of northern Syria, a move being roundly criticized on both sides of the aisle as a betrayal of the Kurdish forces with whom we have partnered to fight ISIS.

 

Both decisions -- to surge troops in one case and pull them back in another -- make a mockery of Trump's insistence that he wants to "bring our troops home" and "end these endless wars."

No end date has been placed on the Saudi deployment, and the Pentagon is keeping open the possibility that even more forces could be sent to the kingdom in the future. "We are taking this one step at a time," Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said last Friday. "We thought it was important to continue to deploy forces, to deter and defend, and to send the message to the Iranians: Do not strike another sovereign state, do not threaten American interests [or] American forces, or we will respond."

 

And by any measure, Trump's decision to turn his back on the Kurds -- after all, they "didn't help us with Normandy," he said -- will broaden the civil war in Syria and provide ISIS fresh opportunities to regain a foothold and renew attacks on US and Western targets. We may even find ourselves having to go right back in. Only next time, we won't have Kurdish partners. They've already run to Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for help.

 

But Trump's sheepishness in Syria and his swagger over Saudi reimbursement also raise questions about the degree to which he understands and appreciates the fundamental nature of military service and the mutual benefits American citizens accrue from having troops forward deployed.

 

He demeans the purposes to which these military men and women have been deployed and risks widening the yawning gap between the American people and its military.

 

There is certainly room for debate in this country about the nature and duration of the wars we have been fighting. It's fair, even healthy, to revisit our footprint around the world and alter our security commitments accordingly. It's even worth asking ourselves about the whole idea of national service and the continued efficacy of being defended by a professionalized force of volunteers.

 

But none of this debate is well served when Trump signals to our citizens that our troops are not wholly our own.

 

more at

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/15/opinions/president-trump-american-troops-are-not-mercenaries-kirby/index.html

Edited November 25 by prettylight