In a stunning success for both President Trump and the nation at large, American forces killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Well, technically we didn’t kill Baghdadi. After clearing out the slain terrorist’s remaining compound in northwestern Syria, dozens of Americans from the Army Delta Force and Rangers chased him down to the end of a tunnel, where Baghdadi brought three of his children to use as human shields as he blew themselves up.
“He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” the president told a safer nation today. “He died like a dog. He died like a coward.”
The late-night raid, not unlike that of the successful raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound, was a targeted success, though one contingent on clandestine travel and the utmost secrecy. Trump first credited the Russians glowingly and Turks (slightly less so) for allowing American forces to make the hour-and-a-half-long flight to the compound despite not disclosing the purpose of the mission.
Lastly, earning tepid plaudits from the president was the one force that seemed to have deserved more, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. According to the U.S. officials, while the Turks did nothing — except as Trump noted, refuse to shoot down American aircraft — to assist the raid, the Syrian Democratic Forces had spent months providing intelligence on what they considered a joint mission with the U.S. The Syrian Democratic Forces’ leader confirmed the reports and Trump’s tenuous thanks:
Successful& historical operation due to a joint intelligence work with the United States of America.
— Mazloum Abdî مظلوم عبدي (@MazloumAbdi) October 27, 2019
For five months there has been joint intel cooperation on the ground and accurate monitoring, until we achieved a joint operation to kill Abu Bakir al-Bagdadi.
Thanks to everybody who participate in this great mission.@realDonaldTrump#SDF#USArmy #Rojava #Baghdadi
— Mazloum Abdî مظلوم عبدي (@MazloumAbdi) October 27, 2019
Trump’s best and worst instincts were on display on his Sunday morning address announcing Baghdadi’s death. On the one hand, his dismissal of the Kurds led him to concede that, like some Bush-era parody, he is only willing to trade American blood not for freedom or our allies, but oil.
“We’re out. But we are leaving soldiers to secure the oil. We may have to fight for the oil, it’s ok,” Trump boasted. “Somebody else may claim it … In which case, they’ll have a hell of a fight.”
But the same fervor fueling Trump’s disregard for our most strategic and loyal allies and sense of entitlement to Syrian oil also guides his visceral and righteous glee over the destruction of the ISIS caliphate.
A notably elated Trump reiterated in detail how he got to watch Baghdadi “whimpering” and “crying,” describing the raid like “watching a movie.” Isolationists and know-nothing peaceniks may call it macabre, but Trump’s passion meant that whether it was foolhardy or noble, he chose to authorize a high-risk raid despite the odds. His campaign will surely use clips of him celebrating the details of Baghdadi’s demise as evidence that Trump joyously destroyed the leader of a caliphate that President Barack Obama weakly let arise.
And of course, that won’t be the whole story. But these two sides of the same coin, a sophomoric Trump blowing off our allies for oil and a heroic one vanquishing what Obama could not, will play out on their respective sides of the aisle while the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
We ought to celebrate today. But remember that while Baghdadi may be dead and the ground game of ISIS demolished, the war on terror never ends.
