I’m not an expert on foreign affairs.

I live in rural Nevada amongst people who believe in America First, Donald Trump, the Second Amendment, self-reliance, generosity, limited government and God.  

We are the people about who Barack Obama once said,  “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”  In short, we’re Hillary’s “deplorables”.  The 63,000,000 people who elected Donald Trump.

That said, I’ll bet I know at least as much as the talking heads on TV who know nearly nothing but sure want to tell us how President Trump should conduct an endless war in the Middle East.

Let’s put the Kurds versus Turkey in perspective, as an example.

The Kurds have been fighting the Turks for hundreds if not thousands of years.  That’s what they like to do in the Middle East.  They’ve been fighting each other so long they probably could not tell you why.  They are the Arab version of the Hatfield's and the McCoy's.

Nobody has any real number of how many of each other they have killed.

But, it’s a lot.  Maybe as many as a million.

So, our President asked a reasonable question.  What are our interests there and why is it worth the life of a single American soldier?

He came up with a reasonable answer.  Now that we are a net exporter of oil, we have very limited interests there and they are not worth a warm bucket of spit much less the life of a single American soldier.  And, if we need to choose our friends, we have only one true friend in the region—Israel, which we helped found.  Occasionally, we can count the Saudis in that category as well, when it suits them.

As for the rest of the area, the historical truth has always been that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.  When they need us, they become the enemies of our enemies and suck us into their intramural battles so we can have young American men and women killed to suit their needs—whatever they may be.

Is any of that worth even a single bandage on, much less the life of one American soldier?

It’s not worth a bandage on, much less the life of, one bomb sniffing dog.

So, why are we there?  Because we are afraid to fight wars to win them.  We apparently learned that in Viet Nam.

After the 9-11 attacks, we—and I mean BOTH sides—made some bad decisions, not the least of which was NOT using weapons to wipe out Al Qaeda which would leave such a lasting scar that these morons would NEVER attack us again.  Do we have small tactical nuclear weapons designed to turn a Al Qaeda or ISIS training camp into glass?  Of course we do.  Unfortunately, we have a State Department which is part of the deep state and would counsel the President such a move would end the world.  Why it would be a “violation of the rules of war.”  Rules of war?  Who are they kidding?

One thing is sure.  Like the death penalty, it would make sure that these killer clowns would never harm an innocent civilian again.

And, for the record, 1,600,000 people live today in those two cities we bombed in 1945.

But Harry Truman had the cojones to end the war.  I’m guessing that Donald Trump does as well.  I’m also guessing he will exhaust every alternative before he reaches into our arsenal that deeply.

By NOT having a President who is part of the failures since Viet Nam, our chances of coming up with both new and old solutions is greatly enhanced.

Of course, I’m not an expert in foreign affairs.

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Fred Weinberg is a guest columnist and the CEO of USA Radio Network. His views and opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GCN. Fred's weekly column can be read all over the internet. You can subscribe at www.pennypressnv.com. This is an edited version of his column, reprinted with permission.