#MAGA

Simon Jenkins gets it.

There's no real way to stab allies in the back and come out looking like anything but scum. And Trump, to his credit, hasn't bothered to try. He is utter scum and he doesn't care who knows it.

But - with the Kurdish withdrawal - he's achieved something that Obama could only aspire to. He's tied the hands of every US administration to come for the next generation. At a stroke, he's made it vastly harder for the US to intervene in future wars anywhere in the world - because only the very foolish or the very desperate would ally with them. Nobody trusts a traitor.

This may be the Suez moment of the American empire - the moment when everyone, even Americans, are forced to accept that they just don't matter that much any more - because it doesn't matter how invincible your army is, if the taxpayers back home have lost the will to use it. If so, Trump deserves a deal of credit for getting there so quickly. Obama may have hunted bin Laden down, but it takes a Trump to surrender to him and get away with it. #MAGA - Make America Go Away.

Just to be clear - I personally think this is a horrible thing. I think the world was a better place for American intervention. I am aghast at the despicable treatment of the Kurds, and I think this treachery will haunt America. But given a choice between fighting until they were beaten, and simply giving up and going home - it's hard to fault the USA for choosing the second option. Generations of brave, decent and honourable US presidents, trying desperately to do the right thing - "to lead the cause of freedom", as George W Bush once put it - have led the US into seemingly endless wars. Now Trump, who combines in one man the personal courage of a diseased rat, the integrity of Pontius Pilate and the morals of a Bangkok pimp, has shown how to end them.

I hope people elsewhere who are placing their hope in US support - such as in Hong Kong, and Israel, and even some poor fools in Britain - are taking note.