It was reported overnight that, following a call with Turkish autocrat Recep Erdoğan, demagogue and unraveling Kremlin asset Donald "Rump" Trump gave the green light to Turkey to invade northern Syria, putting our longtime Kurdish allies in mortal danger. The U.S. has roughly 1,000 military personnel in the area, who are being withdrawn in advance of the Turkish invasion.
What the decision means is that the Kurds, who along with our special forces fought and contained ISIS, will be the target of the Turks, who see the Kurds as "terrorists" aimed at carving a Kurdistan from areas of Turkey, Syria and Iraq. It's also expected to strengthen the hand of not only Turkey, but Syria's dictator Assad and his allies Russia and Iran. The fate of thousands of ISIS fighters held by the Kurds is also in doubt, with many fearing that many will escape during the withdrawal of U.S. and Kurdish forces. Trump's also damaging the U.S.'s ability to maintain alliances around the globe, now that we've betrayed an ally that has fought along side us going back to the Iraq war.
Some spineless Rethuglicans have momentarily found it necessary to push back on Trump's disastrous decision. Trump cheerleader and towel boy Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry" Graham, who called the move "a disaster," promised a non-binding Senate resolution opposing Turkey's action. However, the damage is done to our ally, and should ISIS rebound in that area, we won't have the Kurds to fight them. We don't know what Erdoğan promised Trump in the way of a quid pro quo (something something Trump Towers Istanbul), but it won't be worth the calamity Trump's brought on.
BONUS: From the former special envoy coordinating anti- ISIS policies --
Donald Trump is not a Commander-in-Chief. He makes impulsive decisions with no knowledge or deliberation. He sends military personnel into harm’s way with no backing. He blusters and then leaves our allies exposed when adversaries call his bluff or he confronts a hard phone call.— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) October 7, 2019
The Turkish proposed “safe zone” would effectively extend Turkey’s border 30km into Syria, including areas of Christians, Kurds, and other vulnerable minorities. Our diplomats were working on a plan to forestall such a debacle. Where’s Pompeo?https://t.co/t2EMqoTqHk— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) October 7, 2019
Pompeo? Oh he's out somewhere trying to extort some random country to investigate the Bidens.
More reaction --
Turkey spends the past half decade giving the U.S. the middle finger, effectively ditching NATO for Russia and screwing up the F-35 program, and Trump’s response is to withdraw from Syria in order to enable Turkey to have a wide open lane to overrun our Kurdish allies. Lovely.— (((Michael Koplow))) (@mkoplow) October 7, 2019
A moment of American betrayal - and these moments matter. The US partnered with Syrian Kurds. Together they fought and defeated the isis state. Now Trump is abandoning the Kurds to allow a Turkish invasion. (And don’t forget the Kurds are guarding thousands of isis members...)— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 7, 2019
Syria Kurdish official told us, reacting to Trump’s overnight decision.— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 7, 2019
“The Americans are traitors. They have abandoned us to a Turkish massacre.
We can no longer fight against isis and have to defend ourselves. This could allow isis to return to the region.”
(photo: "The winners", l. to r., Iran's Rouhani, Turkey's Erdoğan, and Russia's Putin. AP photo/Tolga Bozoglu)
5 comments:
Nobody with any brains thinks the withdrawal is a good idea. Even stalwarts like Lindsey Graham have raised concerns about the plan. So golf dates might be “awkward” , huh Lindsey?
This asshole president and his asshole advisors should be in prison. They are essentially ordering the slaughter of people who have been staunch allies and defenders. This president is destroying yet more lives and seems to expect no blowback.
This is terrifying criminal behavior.
donnah -- He's going to brag that he got us out of a conflict there, but the truth is he's introduced more instability to a region that will only empower our adversaries and result in perhaps of thousands of more casualties.
I remember watching in disbelief as Trump was declared the winner that fateful day in November. A speechless panel of moderators sat numb, wondering what to say. And Richard Engel was on the set and they pulled him in and asked what he thought, as an international journalist, about Trump as president. He said it would be “completely catastrophic”.
And he was right.
If Trump goes through with this, the disgrace to the United States will linger long after he's out of office.
In the fight against ISIL it was the Kurds who did the most -- they, especially the Yezidi minority among them, were among those with the most to lose if ISIL took over.
The Kurds can't fight Turkey. Nobody in the Middle East could effectively fight Turkey except Israel, and they're certainly not going to get involved in this.
Trump's also damaging the U.S.'s ability to maintain alliances around the globe, now that we've betrayed an ally that has fought along side us going back to the Iraq war.
Yes, and that's compounding what is already a huge potential problem. Not only non-state groups, but Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and even Europe will be given fresh doubts about what American defense commitments are really worth. It's going to destabilize a lot of situations and create huge headaches for the next president to deal with.
Infidel -- Yes. Undoing Trump's awful legacy (and it's still in development) will be a tremendous challenge to the next President(s). He's leaving a trail of damaged alliances, corruption, and degradation of the climate, among many other things for a generation.
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