Trump scares off ‘Mad Dog’

US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis has submitted his resignation, at least in part due to the petulance of the president he has been serving under. Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan appears to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general with the nickname Mad Dog, was often referred to by pundits as the only adult in the room vis-à-vis the Trump cabinet, a description that greatly annoyed Trump according to many news outlets. In his resignation, Mattis criticised Trump for alienating America’s allies and ceding space to ‘authoritarian’ Russia and China.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, praised Mattis and publicly urged Trump to reconsider the Syrian pullout and warned that withdrawing troops from Afghanistan could ultimately lead to another 9/11. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was “particularly distressed that he is resigning due to sharp differences with the president on… key aspects of America’s global leadership”. Even Fox News reported that morale at the Defence Department has never been worse.

Meanwhile, it became clear that Trump had already decided to cut troop in Afghanistan on Tuesday, the same time he told the Pentagon he wanted to pull all US forces out of Syria. An official announcement, however, was not forthcoming. It was only last year that Mattis and other top military officials had convinced Trump that the troop presence was necessary as the Afghans were, and remain, incapable of fighting the Taliban and forcing them to the negotiation table.

The military men felt a sense of American responsibility in fixing Afghanistan – you break it you buy it. But Trump’s moves are another gross reminder of one of his biggest lies – that he is a good businessman. Like a run-of-the mill scammer, he is running for the hills because it might make him look good to his political base, while further harming America’s reputation and regional security in the Middle East and South Asia. But what is to be expected in a week when Trump’s namesake charity was ordered to be liquidated for what has been called ‘massive fraud’.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2018.

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