TrumpThrows Kurds Under the Bus After They Take on IS

[grzegorz]

A US general recently stated that the Kurds did 95% of the fighting against IS.

The fact that Trump ran on defeating IS and thousands of Kurds died in that fight and Trump stabs them in back while the far right puts themselves into pretzels to defend Trump is absurd.

[grzegorz]

Watch "[FULL] Real Time with Bill Maher 10/18/2019 (HBO) Real Time with Bill Maher October 18, 2019 HD" on YouTube

https://youtu.be/N6MtE_8_PpY

Good discussion on this week's events.

[grzegorz]

Well, it worked. Turkey and Kurds reach cease fire without the USA getting involved militarily/kinetically.

Wrong again.

Can you say fake news?



Not surprised that some never learn.

[grzegorz]

Looks like Trump will losing that "solid" military vote.

BURN!!!



Watch "Mattis mocks Trump's bone spurs during Al Smith dinner speech" on YouTube

https://youtu.be/g_sG7N7pJ6g

Jokes aside what follows is the truth.

[Steve James]

Bringing the boys home and getting out of endless foreign wars?

US troops leaving Syria will move into Iraq

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/wor ... 044343002/

I know. It's part of the brilliant plan.

[Steve James]

WASHINGTON — Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants more than control over a wide swath of Syria along his country’s border. He says he wants the Bomb.

In the weeks leading up to his order to launch the military across the border to clear Kurdish areas, Mr. Erdogan made no secret of his larger ambition. “Some countries have missiles with nuclear warheads,” he told a meeting of his ruling party in September. But the West insists “we can’t have them,” he said. “This, I cannot accept.”

With Turkey now in open confrontation with its NATO allies, having gambled and won a bet that it could conduct a military incursion into Syria and get away with it, Mr. Erdogan’s threat takes on new meaning. If the United States could not prevent the Turkish leader from routing its Kurdish allies, how can it stop him from building a nuclear weapon or following Iran in gathering the technology to do so?

(The quote above came from The Times, but check https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turk ... SKCN1VP2QN if it's in doubt).

As a NATO partner, his logic is flawless.

[Trick]

Bringing the boys home and getting out of endless foreign wars?

US troops leaving Syria will move into Iraq

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/wor ... 044343002/

I know. It's part of the brilliant plan.

Didn’t Bush do something similar, leaving Iraq......(but relocated to Afghanistan) ?

[Steve James]

The promise was to bring the troops in Syria home and out of the Middle East. If that didn't happen, then the reasons given were meaningless or just not true. In any case, the promise was not kept. Meh. That's hardly the biggest problem.

[Trick]

yet you wanted to put out HE is a liar........He is (now)a politician, he is an US president, it goes with his job to bend truths or straight out lie

[Steve James]

Ah, your point is that every president's job is to lie. Ok, so there's nothing wrong with pointing out His lies now. And, we can agree that those who agree with him are really just agreeing with his expected lies.

However, then we can talk about the truths, facts, actualities of the results of his lies. It's fair, imo, to criticize Obama's decisions in Liby. Bush's invasion of Iraq based on WMD reports can be condemned. In fact, both were. There's no good reason not to condemn what any president does while he's in office.

Again, ya'll need to read Michael's list of logical fallacies. The fact that Bush, Obama, Clinton, or George Washington did something is simply not an argument for abandoning the Kurds for the excuses (lies) given. When you see people cheering at a rally after he says "I brought the boys home," they're knowingly cheering a lie. If someone disagrees, they say that he just hates the president, or that he's not a patriot, or that he's a democrat, or "whatabout" Obama, or ... "they all do it." None of which has anything to do with whether what this president did will have positive results now for this country.

Many people expect Trump to lie. That's not a bad thing; it actually makes it easier to determine what is true. Unfortunately, for him, many people will not believe anything he says. The problem is that even a broken watch is right twice a day.

[Steve James]

Oh, and I accept being the villain in this story. No problem. I'm just trying to tell the truth. I'd be embarrassed to lie. I've done it, but it's a sign of disrespect.

[windwalker]

The actual number of troops was quite small.
Short of direct military intervention apparently there was nothing that would have persuaded turkey from protecting its own borders in a way they felt best for their interest. President was probably told that their action would happen on a certain date, he had to make a decision.

. The Pentagon said Monday it does not endorse a Turkish operation in northern Syria, and that U.S. troops would not support or be involved in such an operation.

The statement from the Pentagon follows Sunday’s White House announcement that U.S. troops would withdraw from northeastern Syrian ahead of a potential Turkish military incursion to rout out Kurdish militants.

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoin ... esurgence/

it seems that the focus on the Kurds were fighting for the US when actually they're fighting for their own interest that happened to ally with the US interest.

The US was helping them to achieve their own ends indirectly while achieving it's directly. Historically this does not always work out so well.

Had the US annouced the withdrawal ahead of time or had stayed thinking they would have prevented turkeys actions.

Either option would have been a way to force the US to remain by attacking and killing its troops.

If the Congress or others feel so strongly about it they could always declare war. Part of the problem, the Congress refuses to do its constitutional duty. Over many years it has ceded key points of its duty to the executive branch

[windwalker]

.Turkey has long made claims of a pending invasion of northern Syria to buffer against what it sees as Kurdish groups aligned with the terrorist group known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Kurdish YPG fighters who fought under the larger SDF umbrella organization to liberate northeastern Syria from ISIS fighters have various allegiances to the PKK. That connection has soured relations between Ankara and Washington.

kind of odd the u.s. trying to tell another country how to protect its own borders while it cannot even protect its own yet. Soon .


The problem of the prisoners taken remains a problem as their countries of origin will not take them back..

[Ian C. Kuzushi]

All of this mental jujitsu just to avoid admitting the obvious: if Trump had not given Turkey the green light and then pulled our troops back, this would not have happened. It's really that simple.

Of course, it's fine to talk about how to deal with the fallout, but if you ignore this basic link in the series of events, you will be standing on shaky ground.

[GrahamB]

^^^^ THIS!