前共和党战略家史蒂夫·施密特认为，在美国从叙利亚战略性灾难性撤军之际，唐纳德·特朗普总统反复无常的外交政策正在削弱美国的安全，损害其国际声誉。
说到周一的MSNBC施密特说，这一决定向美国的对手发出了一个信号，现在是利用一个不愿意维护二战后“自由秩序”的无效美国政府的时候了
“我们有麻烦了，”施密特告诉主持人妮可·华莱士，指的是美国从叙利亚东北部撤军。“你可以看到美国正在撤退，从字面上来说，那些卡车驶出来之不易的领土，毫不在乎如何撤退。”
许多图像和视频已经被捕获离开叙利亚的美国军事车队在那里，华盛顿的库尔德人领导的盟友正在与土耳其军队及其入侵叙利亚北部边境的盟友作战。
总统雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安长期以来一直试图发起行动——清除土耳其政府认为是恐怖分子的库尔德战士——但特朗普突然决定命令美军撤离该地区实际上给安卡拉开了绿灯。
库尔德人领导的叙利亚民主力量——在西方支持的打击叙利亚伊斯兰国武装分子的运动中首当其冲——已经向叙利亚总统巴沙尔·阿萨德及其俄罗斯和伊朗支持者寻求帮助。
“我们由此看到伊朗政权的加强弗拉基米尔·普京和俄罗斯施密特解释道我们看到数百名(如果不是数千名)伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国战斗人员被释放，他们将回到恐怖和杀戮的行业。"
施密特辩称，特朗普“向我们在世界各地的所有对手发出了一个信号”，告诉他们，“现在是采取行动的时候了，因为美国正在撤退。”
施密特曾为乔治·布什总统、加州州长阿诺德·施瓦辛格和亚利桑那州参议员约翰·麦凯恩的竞选活动工作，他说特朗普正在“瓦解”由富兰克林·罗斯福总统及其继任者建立的美国领导的自由秩序。
他说，总统的言辞可能“直接来自20世纪30年代，来自导致世界最大悲剧的孤立主义时代”。施密特认为，美国从20世纪40年代的恐怖中崛起，成为“世界上不可或缺的国家”，但这一地位现在似乎正在崩溃。
他警告说:“显然，我们正处于一个小时的前线撤退中。”。“我们不知道五年后、十年后、十五年后会有什么后果。但我们将会感受到很长一段时间。”
施密特继续说，特朗普放弃自卫队表明总统不理解或尊重“国家荣誉”。“我们不会抛弃我们的盟友，和我们并肩作战的人...美国外交政策不是基于交易，而是基于价值观。”
但这一决定也会削弱美国国家安全提升其竞争对手，并允许伊斯兰国重组。逃脱的激进分子“不去就业项目，也不去社区大学。施密特说:“他们又回到了杀害西方人的行业。“这对美国来说是一个深刻的安全威胁。”
特朗普将撤军定义为兑现竞选承诺把美国士兵从不可战胜的战争中带回家，特别是在中东和南亚。但是施密特说特朗普反复无常的外交政策只会让事情复杂化。
“从长远来看，这将削弱我们在这个地区的影响力，因为这个决定过于草率，美国的影响力可能会被延长——而不是被削弱，”他告诉华莱士。
特朗普的决定招致了来自跨政治领域，包括一些最有影响力的共和党参议员他最坚定的盟友之一。随着弹劾调查的进行，共和党议员很可能很快就有机会对特朗普采取立场。
但是施密特说他并不乐观。“没有证据表明参议院中的任何共和党人会将他们的义务和誓言置于对唐纳德·特朗普的忠诚之上，”他说。“如果这种情况发生，那么他们迄今为止对他表现出的忠诚将是非同寻常的。”
施密特暗示，他们对总统的持续支持完全是“对权力的迷恋，或者接近权力”。
2019年10月21日，一支美国军车车队从叙利亚北部撤离后，抵达杜胡克省的伊拉克库尔德城镇巴达拉什附近。
FORMER GOP STRATEGIST SAYS TRUMP'S SYRIA RETREAT TELLS AMERICA'S RIVALS 'NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE YOUR MOVE'
Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt has argued that President Donald Trump's erratic foreign policy is making America less safe and undermining its international reputation, amid the U.S.'s strategically disastrous withdrawal from Syria.
Speaking on MSNBC on Monday, Schmidt said the decision was a signal to America's adversaries that now was the time to take advantage of an ineffective U.S. administration unwilling to uphold the post-World War Two "liberal order."
"We're in trouble," Schmidt told host Nicole Wallace, referring to America's withdrawal from northeastern Syria. "You see America in retreat, literally, with those trucks driving out of hard-won territory, precipitously with no care to how the withdrawal is done."
Many images and videos have captured U.S. military convoys leaving Syria, where Washington's Kurdish-led allies are fighting against Turkish troops and their allies invading Syria across its northern border.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had long sought to launch the operation—to clear wthe Kurdish fighters that the Turkish government considers terrorists—but Trump's sudden decision to order American troops to leave the area effectively gave Ankara the green light.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces—which bore the brunt of the Western-backed campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria—have turned to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers for help.
"We see from this the strengthening of the Iranian regime, the strengthening of Vladimir Putin and Russia," Schmidt explained. "We see hundreds, if not thousands of ISIS fighters have been freed from detention, they will go back to the business of terror and killing."
Schmidt argued that Trump has "sent a signal to all of our adversaries all over the world" telling them, "Now is the time to make your move, because the United States is in retreat."
Schmidt, who worked for the campaigns of President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arizona Senator John McCain, said Trump is "dismantling" the U.S.-led liberal order, built by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his successors.
He said the president's rhetoric could have come "straight out of the 1930s, from the era of isolationism that led to the world's greatest tragedy." The U.S. emerged from the horror of the 1940s as, Schmidt argued, "the world's indispensable nation," but this position now appears to be collapsing.
"We are clearly deeply in an hour of retreat on that front," he warned. "And we don't know what the consequences of that are five years from now, ten years from now, fifteen years from now. But we will be feeling it for a long time."
Trump's abandonment of the SDF shows the president has no understanding of, or respect for, "national honor," Schmidt continued. "We don't cut and run on our allies, the people that fought with us...United States foreign policy is not based on transactions, it is built on values."
But the decision will also undermine U.S. national security, boosting its rivals and allowing ISIS to regroup. Escaped militants are "not going to go into a jobs program, they're not going to community college. They're going back into the business of killing and killing westerners," Schmidt said. "It's a profound security threat for the United States."
Trump has framed the withdrawal as the delivery of a campaign promise to bring American soldiers home from unwinnable wars, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia. But Schmidt said Trump's erratic foreign policy will only complicate matters.
"That will weaken us in the long term in a region where America's presence is likely to be elongated—not truncated—because of the rashness of the decision," he told Wallace.
Trump's decision prompted criticism from across the political spectrum, including from some of the most influential GOP senators that have been among his staunchest allies. With the impeachment investigation ongoing, Republican lawmakers will likely soon have the chance to take a stand against Trump.
But Schmidt said he was not optimistic. "There's no evidence that any Republicans in the Senate are going to put their obligations to their duty and their oath above their fealty and allegiance to Donald Trump," he said. "If that happens, it will be remarkable given then fidelity they've shown to him thus far."
Schmidt suggested their continued support for the president is all about "a fetish for power, or proximity to power."
A convoy of U.S. military vehicles arrives near the Iraqi Kurdish town of Bardarash in the Dohuk governorate after withdrawing from northern Syria on October 21, 2019.
