October 2019: Turkey into Syria to Deal With Kurds

[tomahawk6]

I do not support this policy. It sends a bad message to our poyential allies and what happens to the 10000prisoners being held by the Kurds ? Either the prisoners get executed or they are released to fight again.

 

[The Bread Guy]

A bit of the latest ...

• "Where is Trump getting his ideas about Syria?" (Commentary, Kurdish media)
• "US defeated Daesh 'with many allies': Pompeo -- Ankara has terrorist threat to their south, says top US diplomat amid Turkish operation against PKK terrorism on its border ..." (Turkish media)
• "Here are four myths about the YPG/PKK that have become increasingly widespread as Turkey carries out #OperationPeaceSpring in northern Syria" (video, Turkish media Twitter feed)1
• "Turkish police investigate Kurdish leaders, fire water cannon at protesters" (Reuters)2
• "ISIS has a plan to bust out 70,000 supporters from Kurdish jails now that the US has abandoned the area to the Turkish military" (Business Insider)
• "Turkey's Erdogan warns of flooding Europe with Syrian refugees if EU calls assault an 'invasion' " (FOX News)
• "Turkey Syria offensive: Will Islamic State re-emerge?" (BBC)

1 - "Myths" that are "clarified" by TUR media include "Turkey is fighting Kurds," "YPG defeated Daesh," "Turkey wants to occupy Syria," and "YPG is committed to human rights".
2 - At least some of these could be the same Turkish Kurds the video above says are "integrated citizens of the republic."

 

[The Bread Guy]

And (satirical?) Duffleblog is rarely far behind  ;D

"U.S. tells Kurds it’s just going out for a pack of cigarettes"

 

[Jarnhamar]

[quote author=tomahawk6] It sends a bad message to our poyential allies[/quote]
That's an understatement.

and what happens to the 10000prisoners being held by the Kurds ?

Release them and point them in Turkeys direction.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I do not support this policy. It sends a bad message to our poyential allies and what happens to the 10000prisoners being held by the Kurds ? Either the prisoners get executed or they are released to fight again.

If I was a Kurd I'd give them all one way tickets to New York, and book them into Trump Towers

 

[Jarnhamar]

If I was a Kurd I'd give them all one way tickets to New York, and book them into Trump Towers

You're a brilliant man. :nod:

 

[daftandbarmy]

You're a brilliant man. :nod:

Please tell my kids that....

 

[brihard]

Duffelblog is predictably killing it on this one. (NSFW)

Syrian Kurds: If you’re going to **** us, could you at least buy us dinner?

And

U.S. tells Kurds it’s just going out for a pack of cigarettes

 

[mariomike]

He said, "They didn't help us in the Second World War. They didn't help us with Normandy, as an example."

I don't know how they could have, other than as individuals, because the Kurds were - and are - stateless. 

In any case, the United States today is friendly with Germany, Japan and Italy.

Saw this in the New York Times today,

Others questioned whether any member of the Trump family had fought for the United States during World War II and noted that during the Vietnam War, the president received five draft deferments.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/world/middleeast/trump-kurds-normandy.html

The NYT also posted this in the same article,

Who would Donald Trump have supported in World War Two or would this draft-dodger have sat the war out as a non participant!
https://twitter.com/BarrySheerman/status/1182192987083825152

 

[Jarnhamar]

He said, "They didn't help us in the Second World War. They didn't help us with Normandy, as an example."

That comment made me want to Spartan kick him. What an absolutely obnoxious shit head thing to say.

You're right again, he didn't serve in WW2, Korea, Vietnam, either gulf wars. Who on earth is he to make a comment like that? Just brutal.

That comment put me square in the GTFO camp.

 

[The Bread Guy]

That comment made me want to Spartan kick him. What an absolutely obnoxious shit head thing to say.

Whenever he talks about NATO not pulling it's weight, he seems to forget all the NATO folks who died in Afghanistan & Iraq, too, so sadly, it's not the first time he appears to take allies for granted.

Meanwhile, a few recent tidbits ...

• "Divided UN fails to agree on Turkey’s offensive in Syria" (Associated Press)
• "Syria pullout may trigger 'complete reversal' of U.S. gains: Former intel officer who interrogated ISIS leader" (Fox News)
• "Norway suspends arms sales to Turkey over Syria invasion" (The Hill)
• "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to send the refugees to Europe instead if it characterised the Turkish offensive as an occupation." (BBC via YouTube)
• " Turkish soldier martyred* in northern Syria operation" (Turkish media)

* - Emphasis mine.

 

[The Bread Guy]

And one more, from the "child kills both parents & asks judge for mercy because he's an orphan" file ...

Turkey's assault on Syrian Kurdish forces has not breached a red line declared by President Donald Trump, a US official said Thursday, as he added that Washington wanted to broker a ceasefire.

(...)

On Twitter on Thursday, Trump said that he hoped to "mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds" -- saying the alternatives were sending in "thousands of troops" or hitting Turkey hard with sanctions.

Asked to elaborate on the remarks, the US official said that Trump had asked diplomats to seek an end to the violence.*

"We have been tasked by the president to try to see if there are areas of commonality between the two sides, if there's a way that we can find our way to a ceasefire," the official said ...

* - edited to add:  In fairness, here's the full quote from a Whitehouse scrum ...

... we have no soldiers in Syria. We've won. We've beat ISIS. And we've beat them badly and decisively. We have no soldiers.

The last thing I want to do is bring thousands and thousands of soldiers in and defeat everybody again. We've already done that.

So what we have is really two choices: You have the choice of bringing in the military and defeating everybody again, or you have the choice of financially doing some very strong things to Turkey so that they take it a little bit easy on, really, competition that is -- I don't think it's being fairly treated in many ways, okay? We have a very good relationship with the Kurds. Or we can mediate. I hope we can mediate, John. I hope we can mediate ...

 

[tomahawk6]

Maybe we could buy Turkey off with arms and cash rather than sanctions ?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

That comment made me want to Spartan kick him. What an absolutely obnoxious crap head thing to say.

You're right again, he didn't serve in WW2, Korea, Vietnam, either gulf wars. Who on earth is he to make a comment like that? Just brutal.

That comment put me square in the GTFO camp.

This is the article he is poorly quoting, although i don't agree completely with it either. https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/10/08/critics-aghast-as-trump-keeps-word-about-no-more-wars-n2554328

 

[tomahawk6]

  I am deeply troubled by this decision and I see Jarod Kushner and like minded people in the White House behind this. I suspect that is why Matis left. Kushner lacks experience in the military-political sphere. Well Obama lacked experience and his foreign policy was a failure. You can trust the Israelis but you cant trust Erdogen I know I dont. But then I am just an arm chair strategist now. ;D

 

[The Bread Guy]

This is the article he is poorly quoting, although i don't agree completely with it either. https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/10/08/critics-aghast-as-trump-keeps-word-about-no-more-wars-n2554328

Thanks for this.  I note the author also takes the tack used by Turkish media about "we're not really fighting the KURD Kurds ..." too ...

... all Kurds are not equal. The PKK – the Kurdistan Workers' Party – are a bunch of commie terrorists who have been fighting the Turks for a long time. Those reds are no friends of ours, and it’s their antics that seem to be inspiring the Turkish campaign ...

 

[The Bread Guy]

P.S. -- A reminder (with thanks to Ted Campbell for pointing this out in one of his latest pieces) ...

 

[daftandbarmy]

You can trust the Israelis but you cant trust Erdogen I know I dont. But then I am just an an chair strategist now. ;D

Having met a few guys in the 6th Airborne Division who fought against the Irgun & Stern gangs post-WW2, as well as a couple of UN Canadians who were blown up by them in the Sinai, I'd prefer to continue to view them as just another bunch of folks in the middle east who should be viewed with polite suspicion from a safe distance.

 

[Journeyman]

I'd prefer to continue to view them as just another bunch of folks in the middle east who should be viewed with polite suspicion from a safe distance.

Well, Trump has already been bought off by Netanyahu's Potemkin village, so no anti-Israeli suspicion allowed.  Nothing to see here; move along.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Having met a few guys in the 6th Airborne Division who fought against the Irgun & Stern gangs post-WW2, as well as a couple of UN Canadians who were blown up by them in the Sinai, I'd prefer to continue to view them as just another bunch of folks in the middle east who should be viewed with polite suspicion from a safe distance.

Let's not forget how many times our passports have been abused around the world.