U.S. troops deserve a clear mission from President Trump
It is a sight both stirring and sobering to see troops from Fort Bragg’s 82nd Airborne Division filing onto planes bound from North Carolina for Iraq.
It’s a reminder of how much soldiers are willing to do to protect the United States. They leave their loved ones on a moment’s notice and go into a Middle East cauldron where they will be both protectors and targets.
For that, the nation owes them more than praise, respect and thanks. It owes them — and their families — a coherent mission, a clear reason why they are putting their lives at risk and a clear idea of what will constitute success.
Unfortunately, the commander in chief of the troops recently deployed and those already in the Middle East has not provided a clear reason for their sacrifice or defined what goal they are to achieve. In his remarks to the nation on Wednesday, President Trump seemed to define success as the fact that no American soldiers were killed or injured by Iran’s missile attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq.
“The American people can be extremely grateful and happy,” the president said.
The American people are grateful that the troops were spared, but there’s a continuing anxiousness about what might happen next. In the name of preventing “imminent” attacks on Americans, Trump approved a fatal drone strike on the leading Iranian general. That made attacks on Americans not imminent — a still questionable claim — but actual. The risk to American troops — and perhaps all Americans at home and abroad — has been heightened.
Thanks to U.S. missile tracking systems, good luck and perhaps deliberate restraint by Iran, 22 missiles launched by Iran fell on two U.S. bases without a casualty. But the barrage is unlikely to be the end of Iran’s response. There could be more scattered attacks, terrorism against civilians or cyberstrikes that cause problems within the U.S.
And this is for what? The Trump administration first said it was to prevent attacks on Americans being planned by the target of the drone attack, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. Now, after failing to identify that threat, Trump is saying it was a past due action against a Iranian military figure who was a “terrorist.” He blames Presidents Bush and Obama for not having killed Suleimani “long ago.”
But killing Suleimani surely begins as much as it ends. And from here the Trump administration appears to have no plan for how to respond to what it has set in motion.
Strangely, the move to risk war with Iran seems to be in part about Trump’s hostility toward Obama. Trump condemned and then withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal agreed to by Iran, the U.S., China, Russia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Trump said the deal reflected Obama’s weakness in containing Iran.
Disputed wars
Trump is hardly the first president to send troops on a muddled mission. The nation was divided over the Vietnam War and troops have been mired in Afghanistan and Iraq for well over a decade. A recent Pew Research Center poll of veterans found a majority feel that wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not worth fighting. Now Trump is sending thousands of troops to the Middle East after vowing to end “endless wars.”
U.S. soldiers, especially those in the 82nd Airborne Division, train for a rapid response to threats against the United States. But those who send them toward danger should know — and plainly explain — why the troops must go, what they are to accomplish and what achievements will make it possible to bring them home. So far, none of that is clear, and that ill serves those who serve.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 12:00 AM with the headline "U.S. troops deserve a clear mission from President Trump."