Is Our Military Might Being Sold?

I really try to stay out of the political issues around the military because it is such a divisive topic. However, recent events have made me feel the need to speak up. I have been talking to a lot of veterans who are struggling with the way foreign policy is being handled concerning the Middle East, specifically the abandonment of the Kurdish, and sending troops to Saudi Arabia.

Many of our veterans have trained with and fought with the Kurds and feel they are being abandoned. The alliance with the Kurds goes back to the first Gulf War. John fought with and supported the Kurds; he was mad they were being slaughtered because of the Trump policy in Syria. John is struggling with the morality of leaving our allies for a political agenda. Pulling out of Syria and leaving the Kurdish fighters to fend for themselves against Turkey, the second largest standing army in NATO, is an insult to the US troops who have fought beside and been allies with them for almost 30 years. The Kurdish people helped the US fight Saddam Hussain in the first Gulf War and most recently ISIS helping fight for US interest and hoping for the homeland they were promised after World War I. The Kurdish are now on their own because they don’t buy weapons from the US, primarily because they don’t have a homeland. It is now known that after pulling away from the Kurds that the US is sending troops to Saudi Arabia toprotect them because they buy US equipment.

Some veterans have speculated for years that the US military has been fighting for big business and big oil, especially when we have gone to war with Iraq. But President Trump squelched that speculation when he told the nation that he was renting out our armed forces to Saudi Arabia.

Talking about the Saudi’s he stated that “They buy millions of dollars of merchandise from us!”so we will be sending our troops to Saudi Arabia to help them handle a possible attack by Iran.

John feels the United States Military is now becoming a mercenary military instead of a moral fighting force. He fears the US military will be ordered to fight and die for the highest bidder and not US interest.

I know this has always been done to a point, but it has never been this “in your face” Desert Storm was a perfect example, when the oil supplies were threatened and the little guy was Kuwait with its large oil reserves the US was there. But make no mistake about it, the ties the politicians and businessmen have with Saudi Arabia is the true reason our troops are sent there.

I know and understand that other presidents have done similar things, the difference… the pullout of American troops in Syria has alienated a prime ally in the Middle East and opened the possibility of the resurgence of ISIS. The Kurds have been holding captured ISIS members in prison camps, it has been reported that ISIS troops and their families have escaped due to Turkey bombing the camps. If this is true the failed foreign policy by the Trump Administration would not only be a blow to the Middle East, it would be a huge blow to the world because ISIS could be allowed to be resurrected.

Since the Americans have pulled out of Syria and abandoned them the Kurds have had no choice but to turn to the Syrians and Russians for help fighting Turkey. In a rare instance of bipartisanship high-ranking Americans including Generals, and members on both sides of Congress appear to be forming alliances to stop President Trumps policy of pulling out of Syria.

There are a lot of Veterans who support President Trump, but there is also a lot of veterans who do not like his policy. John served with the Kurds and feels a loss because they were his combat brothers, something John says the President will never understand. It appears that President Trump is selling out to those with money and setting aside the values the US military is supposed to have. It scares a lot of Veterans about where we are going as a country and makes them wonder, what did we fight for?