Trump's Syria withdrawal: "misguided and catastrophic blow to our national security"

The Barbarian

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Israelis see Trump’s Syria pullout as a ‘betrayal’ that could help unravel the region

JERUSALEM —The abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria and subsequent Turkish attacks on Kurdish fighters have badly rattled Israel’s national security experts, who decried President Trump’s action as a betrayal of loyal allies and evidence that Israel’s most vital supporter is a fickle friend at best.

Some people have no loyalties at all. The Likud just got a lesson in the way loyalty, for Trump, is strictly a one-way proposition.
 

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Some people have no loyalties at all...loyalty, for Trump, is strictly a one-way proposition.

Trump undoubtedly justifies throwing his lackeys under the bus on the grounds that they were foolish to enable him in the first place.
 
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annabenedetti

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U.S. forces say Turkey was deliberately ‘bracketing’ American troops with artillery fire in Syria

One Army officer who has deployed to northeastern Syria and has knowledge of the situation said that multiple rounds of 155mm fire were launched from Turkey’s side of the border and that they had a “bracketing effect” in which shells landed on both sides of the U.S. outpost.

“That’s an area weapon,” the officer said, noting its explosive effects. “That’s not something we ever would have done to a partner force.”

The officer said Turkey knew there were Americans on the hill and that it had to be deliberate. The service members vacated the outpost after the incident but returned Saturday, according to a U.S. official and images circulating on social media.

“We had been there for months, and it is the most clearly defined position in that entire area,” the officer said.

Brett McGurk, a former special envoy for both the Obama and Trump administrations in the campaign against the Islamic State, raised concerns about the incident Friday, saying on Twitter that the United States had declared the position to Turkey.

“This was not a mistake,” he said.
 

annabenedetti

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Turkey's Brutal Offensive Is Already a Disaster for the Kurds, a US Ally

Beyond the rising death toll, the assault has sparked a mass exodus of civilians, with at least 70,000 people having fled border towns like Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad on the frontlines of the battle, and many more expected to follow.

The mass displacement threatened to create a new humanitarian crisis in the region, the U.N. warned Friday.

Amnesty International said the destabilizing impact of the offensive meant about half a million people in the border region were potentially at risk. “Hostilities will impact and restrict access to humanitarian aid, pushing the civilian population, which has already suffered years of violence and displacement, to the brink,” said Europe director Marie Struthers.


 

The Barbarian

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Trump is gradually destroying any credibility the United States had as a trustworthy ally and partner.

He has no values higher than his own self-interest.
 

chair

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Trump is gradually destroying any credibility the United States had as a trustworthy ally and partner.

Mr. Obama wasn't much help in that regard either. I'm not sure about pre-Obama administrations.

(Note: I am not a fan of either Obama or of Trump, for very different reasons. Do not try to label me with typical US identity politics labels.)
 

The Barbarian

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Consider how Obama is regarded in other nations, relative to Trump:

FT_15.06.26_obamaConfidence_3.png
 

annabenedetti

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Brett McGurkVerified account @brett_mcgurk
@brett_mcgurk​

Turkish state-backed media hails a “successful operation” to “neutralize” an unarmed 35-year old woman working to unite Arabs, Christians, and Kurds in NE Syria. Ms. Hevrin Khalef was reportedly dragged from a vehicle and shot to death. That’s a war crime. https://twitter.com/yenisafak/status/1183028907693477888?s=21 …

EGtC3_CXkAAHDtS




There are also reports that worse than that happened to her. It's hard to know what information is accurate, but there's no doubt that Trump has blood on his hands. Civilians, including women and children, Kurdish fighters who were our allies against ISIS are dead because he had a phone call with Erdogan. All you Trump sycophants: whose endgame is being played?
 

The Barbarian

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And it was a casual gift to Erdogan, because he was throwing a hissy fit over Trump not meeting with him. Thousands of Christians are in the path of Erdogan's military offensive, but Trump doesn't give a flip about them.

In all fairness, he probably didn't think about the death and destruction he was bringing on them. But now that it's underway, his huge and delicate ego won't let him fix the error.

It's just a few thousand innocent people, after all.
 

annabenedetti

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Always excellent analysis from Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel)

WHY IT MATTERED (AND STILL MATTERS) THAT FLYNN CONTINUED TO HIDE HIS TRUE RELATIONSHIP WITH TURKEY

The guy who managed the first steps of the process that led to Trump announcing a withdrawal of troops from Syria yesterday was hiding secret ties to both Russia and Turkey when that process started. That’s one of the reasons why it matters that Mike Flynn lied about his relationship with Turkey for so long. It means that both Russia and Turkey have always known Flynn and Trump were vulnerable because they were hiding lies about their ties with those countries.
 

drbrumley

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What President Trump Does NOT Want to Say to the Mother of a Dead American Soldier
Thomas DiLorenzo


“Your son was a hero who died defending the Kurds from all enemies, domestic and foreign. He died fighting over there so that no young relative of a John Bolton or a Lindsay Graham or a Meghan McCain would have to do it instead.”
 

Gary K

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Let's look at just how corrupt the Democrat's professed outrage is over Trump getting us out of Syria.

The title of this article which I am about to quote from is: Democrats Denounce President Trump For Ending Syrian War They Never Authorized….

Think about this. They are screaming at Trump for getting out of a war which not only did Democrats not authorize, neither did Republicans. In other words, Congress never authorized any kind of war in Syria, and that is a Constitutional requirement for getting the US into a war. In other words, they are angry because Trump is doing the right thing.

The level of political nonsense today from the House of Representatives is off-the-charts. Speaker Pelosi calls a resolution to the House floor to denounce President Trump for removing 28 troops from a foreign war never authorized by the same House.
If Pelosi wants to have a war with Syria, then declare one. Or, Pelosi could call a resolution to the House floor to condemn Turkish President Erdogan for invading Syria. Instead, the House votes to denounce President Trump for getting our military out of the way. The Democrats are the party of war, and a whole bunch of republicans are supporting them. Why? Simply, because war is a big business from K-Street.
Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Steny Hoyer walk out of a meeting with President Trump because, according to them, the president called the speaker a “third-rate politician”. Speaker Pelosi replied “I wish you were a politician”…. How typical is that?
Interesting to think about.
Speaker Pelosi brings a resolution to the floor to denounce President Trump for removing 28 U.S. troops from Syria.
Speaker Pelosi does not bring a resolution to the floor denouncing Turkish President Erdogan for invading Syria.
…. pic.twitter.com/YL7fchZoKL

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) October 16, 2019
That's odd… Show me the House vote to authorize moving troops into Syria.

The House did not vote to authorize Obama putting troops in Syria, but the House did vote to denounce Trump for removing them?

So, Pelosi, Schumer, and Hoyer walk out because Trump said the truth. And the comeback was that Trump isn't a politician? Really? Why else does she think he got elected? The majority of US citizens are sick to death of politicians and all their lying and corruption. The reason Pelosi is a third rate politician is because she doesn't follow the rules. Because she is lawless and supports lawlessness. Think about it. She, and her buddies, just condemned lawful behavior by Trump and she acted lawlessly when Obama started the mess in Syria without authorization, and she did nothing about it. She supported the lawless behavior.

The rest of this article is found at the following link. https://theconservativetreehouse.co...-for-ending-syrian-war-they-never-authorized/
 

annabenedetti

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Daniel DaleVerified account @ddale8

Trump this afternoon: "We've taken control of the oil in the Middle East, the oil that we're talking about, the oil that everybody was worried about. We have -- the US has control of that." (?)
0:35 AM - 18 Oct 2019



Patrick Wintour Verified account@patrickwintour

Rare joint statement from US, German, French, EU and UK foreign affairs committee chairs lambasting Turkey and Trump.

EHLCo0NWwAILwPB.jpg:large
 

Gary K

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Trump ordered the removal of approximately 700 out of a total of 1000 troops in Syria. They will be moved to western Iraq.

Syria has a land area of 71,000 square miles. That means taking total troop count each soldier was supposed to be controlling an area of 71 square miles. Now let's take a closer look at that. The US armed forces have a 50/50 ratio between combat troops and support troops. In other words, out of that 1000 total troops only 500 of them were combat troops. The rest were truck drivers, cooks, dishwashers, garbage collectors, housekeepers, etc.... So, in reality there was one US combat soldier for every 142 square miles. That is an area approximately 60% the size of Chicago. What an overwhelming force. A force that was fully suppressing all of our enemies there.... :rolleyes:

Yeah, that number of troops was a really big deal. It was a force great enough to control all of Syria. :kookoo: What stupidity to make the claim that the force reduction ordered by Trump is going to destroy US security. It's so stupid, it's too stupid to be stupid. It's nothing more than a "manufactured crisis" that the leftists here support 100% of the time and it's only the swamp's talking points in it's desire to destroy Trump. Their support for this insanity says they have no intellectual honesty whatsoever. For only someone who cares nothing about truth could claim that the number of troops being moved to Iraq could have had any kind of real effect in Syria or have a serious affect on US security.

The brazen lying going on is reaching a fever pitch and is completely disgusting. The Democrats and RINO's have completely abandoned any pretense of being honest.

Here is the Breitbart article from where I got the gist of what I posted. https://www.breitbart.com/news/pentagon-chief-says-us-troops-leaving-syria-for-western-iraq/

It will be interesting to see what unrelated criticism of Trump will be posted following this. Ever notice that these people who say they are either political independents or Libertarians do nothing but post the DNC's and the mockingbird media's universal talking points?
 

annabenedetti

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Turkish-Backed Militias Are Killing Civilians as They Clear Kurdish Areas in Syria

Three weeks after President Donald Trump ordered U.S. forces to pull out of northern Syria, American spy agencies are seeing disturbing intelligence. Turkish-backed militias, armed by Ankara, have killed civilians in areas abandoned by the U.S., four U.S. military and intelligence officials tell TIME. The officials say they fear that the militias committing those potential war crimes may be using weapons that the U.S. sold to Turkey.

These officials say they are concerned that worse could lie ahead. Turkey and its allies are deploying larger forces and bringing more significant weapons to the field than would be necessary to complete their publicly-stated mission. They have said that they plan only to maintain a security zone along a 18-mile wide ribbon of land south of Turkey’s border with Syria. “They’re far more than the Turks need to conduct the operations they’re supposed to be conducting,” one of the U.S. officials told TIME.
 
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