Taking a second look

I have some one-minute synopses, if you care to hear them. I think coddling Turkey at this time is a mistake. That’s what the Trump administration appears to be doing in holding off its support for an offensive to retake Raqqa, ISIS headquarters in Syria, until after an April referendum in Turkey.

I think downplaying human rights in the face of humanitarian crises—migrants drowning at sea, famine alerts, trafficking, and enslavement—only hurts us. That’s what Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to be doing when he skipped the latest U.S. Human Rights Report in March. The secretary traditionally is on hand for the briefing on the report to underscore the value Americans place on human rights.

I think the president’s executive orders on immigration and refugees are wrong-headed. The second is better than the first, and I don’t dispute the president’s prerogative to limit (or ban) immigrants or asylum seekers, or the need to tighten a process that could allow terrorists into the United States. I disagree with the method and the message it has sent to our allies and our foes. Review and temporary stoppage could take place without the executive order, without naming particular countries (while also not naming incubators of terrorism like Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Nigeria), and without creating fear and uncertainty among lawful immigrants.

You’ve made it three minutes, and I’ve led with my point of view on several foreign policy topics. Perhaps you’ll want to hear, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.

Politicizing every issue prevents us from looking at complexity as complexity and seeing the potential for workable solutions.

The United States is playing a dicey game in Syria—but Syria is perhaps the diciest place on earth in 2017. U.S. Central Command wants to arm and support Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) in the battle to retake Raqqa and the region from ISIS. Turkey opposes the Kurdish elements of SDF. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis reportedly has slowed things down, inserting Marines between Turkish forces and those Kurdish forces, the YPG, while assessing a longer-term U.S. strategy. A key component will be whether Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will consolidate power with the April referendum, as many fear.

“The Trump administration is actually having a much more strategic, and necessary, discussion about what is the long-term objective of the United States in Syria at the end of the counter-ISIS campaign,” said Nicholas A. Heras at the Center for a New American Security. One thing to cheer now is the U.S. military is taking a lead role, something rarely seen in the Obama White House.

On the Human Rights Report, there may be a reason Tillerson was a no-show. Largely the work of the previous administration, the report in many ways should be downplayed if not deep-sixed. The section on Iraq, for example, makes no mention of the genocide taking place there, even though it was declared by Secretary of State John Kerry one year ago. It barely mentions ISIS, instead focusing on “sectarian hostility, widespread corruption, and lack of transparency at all levels of government.”

On immigration and executive orders, the new March order tacitly admits the flaws of the January order, and revokes it. The new order lays a more solid legal framework for its restrictions and outlines the review and reporting requirements to be handled during the suspension. For an often tone-deaf, even belligerent, presidency, the new directive is responsive, yielding even, to the strong pushback from the courts and the public.

International threats and chaos grew on President Obama’s watch, and what grew over eight years won’t be resolved in the first 100 days of a new administration. Politicizing every issue prevents us from looking at complexity as complexity and seeing the potential for workable solutions. Many things worry me about a Trump White House and its view of the wider world (see paragraphs 1, 2, 3). But a second, perhaps momentary look at new policy—What more may be at work? Who is guiding the directive? Who are the winners and losers?—in these early days won’t hurt.