Art imitates life, the saying goes, and sometimes the reverse is true.

There is a movie, The Manchurian Candidate, that some of us worry presages our current situation. Based on a novel published in 1959, the movie dramatizes the idea of a candidate for U.S. President who is under the control of a Communist country. The movie’s hero foils the plan, of course. Recent events have caused many people to see the parallels between the movie and President Donald Trump, but there’s no hero in sight (with the possible exception of Robert Mueller). The unthinkable question we now have to ask has become: Is the President doing Russia’s bidding to our detriment?

Trump commanded that U.S. Armed Forces leave Syria immediately and Afghanistan in the near future, sending shock waves throughout the world. Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned in protest over those actions. Who benefits most from these actions?

The U.S. benefits only superficially and in the shortest term. Perhaps we save a few million dollars of defense spending. But Russia and Iran become the greatest long-term winners. Our allies will be forced to recognize the likelihood that, when it becomes expedient for us to do so, we will ignore long-standing commitments and promises and abandon those whom we promised to protect on the battlefield.

When the U.S. leaves Syria, it will leave behind the Kurdish fighters who are the primary reason ISIS lost its territory in Syria. Russian and Syrian forces are there primarily to be certain that the Assad regime remains in control. But Turkey, Iraq and Iran all see these Kurdish fighters as enemies. For years we promised to protect the Kurds in exchange for their help in fighting ISIS and Iranian-sponsored terrorism. Turkey, nominally a NATO ally, plans to attack the Kurds as soon as we leave. Our presence in Syria was a reluctant necessity in order to deny Russia control over Syria and and in order to protect the Kurds from Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi and Russian forces.

Once we occupied Afghanistan and commenced Bush-era “nation building” there, our continued presence became a reluctant necessity to protect Afghans who sided with us against the Taliban. Make no mistake about it: there are many thousands of people who have relied upon U.S. promises in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who will pay with their lives when the President’s orders are carried out.

With Trump’s precipitous actions, every one of our allies must be considering whether the U.S. will be a reliable partner in the future. Since the close of the war in Vietnam, many of those who have backed the U.S. have had cause to regret it. Russia and China have and will continue to try to replace the U.S. in each of these situations.

Russia seems certain to consolidate its grip over the Middle East when the U.S. leaves. Its occupation of Crimea will lead inexorably to further efforts by Putin to put back together the former Soviet Union. A provocative move by Russia in Crimea in the very near future is certain.

In the Manchurian Candidate, “brainwashing” techniques were used. Putin instead (and apparently) needed only to make a few well-placed investments in and loans to the Trump organization to gain these advantages. No other explanation seems plausible.

Couple the above with the looming trade war with China and the threatened government shutdown over an absurd (and wholly ineffectual) border wall, and the terrible consequences of the U.S. being isolated from the rest of the world will become apparent to all but the willfully blind, but by then it will be too late.

Israeli commentators have been sharply critical of this latest move by Trump. If Russia and Iran remain the ascendant powers in the Middle East, it is only a matter of time until Iran controls Iraq, Russia controls Syria and Israel finds itself surrounded by enemies with the very uncertain support of the U.S. as its only defense. That will make Israel much more likely to react forcefully and immediately to any threat, instead of through peaceful negotiations.

In the meantime, the Kurds may be annihilated. Also, in the vacuum created by the U.S. pullout, the Taliban will regain control over Afghanistan and ISIS will once again crawl out from the rocks under which it is hiding. Syrian revolutionaries who fought against the brutal Assad regime will be exterminated.

“So what?” you may ask. As Gen. James Mattis said in his resignation letter: “One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies.”

We will soon see whether we can prosper without the alliances and partnerships that have served us so well for the past 73 years.

If the President continues unchecked, the destruction of America’s preeminent place in the world at the hands of our Manchurian President is a realistic probability. We need a few Congressional heroes to step forward and stop this descent.

Craig A. Van Matre is a retired attorney formerly with Van Matre, Harrison, Hollis and Taylor.