A Shutdown, Troop Withdrawals, and a Resignation

First of all, I hope you and your loved ones had a very blessed Christmas. As we should always remember at this time of year, there are those in uniform and otherwise serving our nation in remote areas around the globe, who cannot be with their families, and may God keep them contented and protected until they are back home with their loved ones.

Next, you may remember that the title of last week’s blog was “Another Shutdown?” Well now we can remove the question mark. Parts of the government did indeed shut down at midnight last Friday, and it’s not clear at this time when those parts will reopen. Even though President Trump had said at a meeting with Democrat leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi that he was willing to take responsibility for a shutdown if it occurred, I think Senate Democrats deserve far more of the blame.

In the House, we passed legislation which would have kept the government open. But in the Senate, it’s not a simple majority (51 of 100) that’s needed to get something passed. It’s 60. Since there are only 51 Republicans in the Senate, that means at least 9 Democrats are needed (assuming all 51 Republicans are on board.) And the Democrats’ opposition to securing our southern border is apparently more important to them than keeping the government fully functioning. And that’s despite the fact that many of them had once proclaimed that they were FOR cracking down on illegal immigration. My how times have changed. Now Democrats have come to the conclusion that the influx of huge numbers of immigrants, who are overwhelmingly voting Democrat, is changing the political dynamics of the nation – and they’re right, just look at California. When the new Congress is sworn in next week, after last month’s election, there will be 46 California Democrats in the House of Representatives, and only 7 Republicans.

Several other major things occurred over the last week. President Trump announced that he’s pulling all 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria. And he’s pulling half of U.S. troops from Afghanistan (7,000 of the approximately 14,000.) In reaction, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis announced he was resigning, more or less in protest.

As your representative, and particularly as a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I think I owe you my thoughts on major matters like this. So here they are. I’m not surprised by any of these three things. As a candidate, Donald Trump was quite outspoken about his opposition to many U.S. military commitments around the globe. He was particularly critical of President Bush’s “intervention” in Iraq (although he was also critical of President Obama for withdrawing all U.S. military troops from Iraq, and credited the growth of ISIS to that withdrawal.) President Trump’s announced withdrawals are consistent with that quasi-isolationist foreign policy viewpoint.

That being said, I do not agree with either withdrawal. Both withdrawals in my opinion weaken U.S. influence in a critical part of the world, and strengthen Russian and Iranian influence, and are likely to reverse our gains against radical Islamic extremism, particularly ISIS. And I think the loss of Mattis is significant, although this nation is fortunate to produce many fine military commanders, and I hope and trust that President Trump will be able to choose another Secretary of Defense in the Mattis tradition.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I’d appreciate hearing yours.

 

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