Evening Standard comment: Trump is right to do a U-turn on Afghanistan

There are many things unique about the Trump presidency, but doing a U-turn on his promise not to commit American troops to Afghanistan isn’t one of them.

All recent US presidents have campaigned for office promising to end overseas entanglements and ended up getting drawn into them. As Governor of Texas, George W Bush said: “I’m not sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say this is the way it’s got to be”; as President Bush, he did exactly that in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Barack Obama began his presidency saying he was elected to “end America’s foreign wars”, then surged troops into Afghanistan and eventually recommitted US soldiers to the area of Iraq he had withdrawn them from.

Neither Bush nor Obama were prepared to admit they changed their mind; it was just the circumstances that had changed.

At least Donald Trump has the chutzpah to admit he is doing a U-turn. “My original instinct was to pull out” of Afghanistan, he told the American people last night, “but decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office”.

He’s right. Everyone else in the world can speculate what the most powerful nation in the world, and the guardian of Western values, should do — but only its commander-in-chief can make the decision.

Not getting involved is the easier course, in the short term. If Bill Clinton had gone more aggressively after Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in the 1990s, or Obama had got more involved in Syria in 2011, both would have been criticised for sacrificing blood and treasure for causes not obviously in America’s national interest.

But after 9/11, the slaughter in the likes of Aleppo and the assertion of Russian influence in Syria, was the West right not to get involved? The cost of failing to intervene is often higher for America, and the world, in the long term.

Nato committed its reputation to restoring order to Afghanistan and preventing it becoming a terrorist base. British soldiers lost their lives.

It was — and remains — a just cause. Now that America is sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan, Britain is bound to be asked to commit more of our forces than the few dozen already pledged. That is what being a member of Nato involves.

The jihadists returning from the civil wars in Syria and Libya to cause death on the streets of Europe remind us that if we leave ungoverned spaces, then it is our citizens whose lives we are putting at risk.

It’s not an argument many people want to hear after years of foreign conflict; but that doesn’t make it any less true. If you turn your back on the problems of the world it doesn’t mean the problems of the world turn their backs on you.

Grenfell victims’ homes

The decision by Kensington and Chelsea council to spend tens of millions of pounds buying property close to Grenfell Tower so that it be used to rehouse victims of the fire is a welcome step forward.

The most immediate benefit is that the new purchases, which include flats ranging up to £1.5 million in value, will at last give those made homeless by the tragedy the prospect of permanent new homes and hasten the end of the current deeply unsatisfactory situation that has left them living in unsuitable temporary accommodation for far too long.

The proximity of the homes to Grenfell will help former residents by allowing them to rebuild their lives in an area with which they are familiar and avoid children moving school, while social mix will be maintained by giving them the ability to live on streets otherwise out of their price range.

After the allegations of social division and its role in the lead up to the fire, this is a policy in keeping with London’s tradition of mixed communities. That is encouraging. The council has been rightly criticised. But today, at least, its actions can be praised.