International Turkey announces invasion of Syria

[all caps]

What a JOKE!

The Kurds went hard on the lines and sacrificed blood and thousands of lives to help us take on Isis, but now, we're like seeya!

We shouldn't abandon our allies to ethnic cleansing because that's what's going to happen when Erdogan attacks. Then we'll have to hem and haw until the UN decides to go in to stop the bloodshed that we gave the greenlight for when we abandoned the Kurds.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Problem, reaction, solution

 

[Islam Imamate]

Well, what borders do you propose instead of the Sykes Picot? That area was a mess to begin with during the Ottoman era. The Ottomans had nominal power there but bands of bedouin raiders would routinely attack cities. Moreover the Ottomans were the aggressors and had their land invaded only as retribution.

The West could've recognized an independent Arab state as they had promised to do before the Arab revolt at least.

 

[GhostZ06]

I thought Turkey was already in northern Syria

they wanna annex a bigger portion of land. Pretty sure its loaded up with oil

 

[Damien Karras]

Holy shit that reads like a parody.

The more that goof's back is against the wall the more he is going to use exaggerated rhetoric like this to inflate his own ego. Typical of narcissists

 

[Ruprecht]

Dear God

He says that, but he's clearly redrawn the line on what is "off limits", and it's no longer protecting the SDF.

Article based on an interview with the top SDF commander.

“This is going to jeopardize all the achievements we have made with the coalition against ISIS,” said the top SDF commander Mazlum Abdi. It’s up to Americans, now.

Of all the post-9/11 conflicts, the one story of uninterrupted fragile, real, and endangered progress the United States has achieved is in northern Syria. Now comes the U.S. decision that could allow Turkey to launch an offensive in northeastern Syria. This would leave those who fought in partnership with America and against ISIS for the past five years sitting in the crosshairs, as Syrians await the promised Turkish military campaign aimed directly at them.

On Monday, I spoke by phone to Mazlum Abdi, the commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, whose cemeteries sit full of white marble tombstones honoring young people who perished in the ISIS fight.

“Honestly, we were surprised by this decision because the security mechanism was ongoing and it was working and we did our best,” said Abdi, referring to an August 2019 security agreement the U.S. established with Turkey to assuage its concerns about SDF’s proximity to its border. “We did everything on our end to help this succeed.”

President Trump’s decision reflects a larger frustration with America’s wars abroad. “I was elected on getting out of these ridiculous endless wars, where our great Military functions as a policing operation to the benefit of people who don’t even like the USA,” he said, in a Monday tweet defending his decision to pull from northern Syria.

This is the second administration which believes deeply it was elected to end wars in the Middle East, not launch them. But it is the first to have seen the fruits of a policy of “by, with and through” that has largely succeeded. Syrians I’ve met on the ground say they are thankful the Americans have remained in the region.

America’s presence in northern Syria is not about loyalty or an expansive military footprint on the ground; it is about national security and whether the United States will keep pressure on ISIS and — something that deserves more attention, as the administration has noted — force U.S. allies to step up and take responsibility for their own citizens who fought for the Islamic State.

We have arrived at a moment where U.S. power could make a difference in creating a deal that would keep the ISIS fight in focus while stabilizing the region and succeeding at convincing allies to share more of the burden. Or the U.S. can decide to leave their battlefield partner to face on its own a NATO ally.

Those who lead the U.S.-backed forces see the consequences standing right before them.

“If this decision is implemented, of course a fight is going to erupt between us and the Turks in the northern border,” said Abdi, noting that he hopes it does not come to this. “If our partners and our allies don’t put big pressure on Turkey, it is only a matter of days.”

Abdi urged U.S. leaders to consider just how much this decision will place at risk all of the gains of the counter-ISIS fight.

“This will lead to a security vacuum that ISIS will take advantage of and which will be in the ISIS interest,” he said. “This is going to jeopardize all the achievements we have made with the coalition against ISIS.”

This is not a moment for platitudes. Here’s what gains the U.S. has made in northern Syria:

First, achieving the territorial defeat of ISIS with fewer than five U.S. combat deaths. The U.S.-backed forces bore the casualties of the grueling block-by-block ISIS fight. More than 10,000 SDF members died in that fight.

Second, the U.S. has established an Oz-like presence in northern Syria in which you never — ever — see American forces on the ground, but in which U.S. interests are protected. This is one “by, with and through” operation that has worked. Local forces who did the ground fighting are able to keep Iran, Russia, the Syrian regime, ISIS and, until now, NATO ally Turkey’s security concerns at bay while allowing moms and dads to send their kids to school in fragile but real stability. In a neighborhood of the region that is ground zero for extremism and the fight against the Islamic State, local women and men are leading their own fight for their children’s future. The United States is the invisible presence which has, even with fewer than 2.000 forces, enabled stability on the ground by keeping other actors at bay and letting local forces do their jobs protecting people.

Third, the United States has a partner on the ground that it trusts deeply and who has done what Washington asked. This is a non-state actor that now imprisons ISIS fighters whom it has battled since 2014, and which has taken responsibility for more than 70,000 ISIS families — folks no one else in the world has wanted and whose home countries, in the case of most foreigners, don’t want them back.

Finally, women have played a central role in the fight against ISIS and have reshaped their societies in the process — across the region and across ethnic groups. While in Washington, I always am asked if the “women’s thing” is a Washington creation. On the ground in Syria, you can see that progress is not about “foreign influence”; instead, it’s about seeing combat-veteran women who led the fight against ISIS translate those gains into expanding roles for women across politics and civil society across the region and among all ethnic groups. The U.S. did not create or even play much of a role in this phenomenon, it simply benefits from it.

In the last two years, I frequently joked that there was more of a can-do spirit and a sense that positive change was possible in northeastern Syria than northwest Washington, D.C. America has a moment in which it can engage with its wars, acknowledge the gains and push for an outcome that would not leave the ISIS fight in tatters or a yawning security vacuum in the region.

It is not only up to the White House. It is up to Americans to care.

 

[dissectingaorticaneurysm]

Oh Nikki Haley doesn’t approve? Lindsay Graham wants more war you say? Great, now I have another reason to bury the careers of two neocons that I hate and never trusted.

And how pray tell, will you "bury" their careers? By voicing displeasure through scathing memes on Sherdog?

 

[PolishHeadlock2]

I think many people expected to see Nikki Haley and Lindsey Graham pushing back hard against Trump on this but I didn't realize that a mandate from Heaven was at stake.

 

[Teehee]

Airstrikes have begun

 

[Pseudo Sane]

Sykes-Picot strikes again. I wish I could go back in time and slap those fools for drawing lines on a map without considering who was living where. So many of the Middle East's demographic dysfunctions and racial grievances go back to that God-damned treaty.

And the relentless buggery of the Kurds continues apace. I'd love to blame Trump in particular, but hanging the Kurds out to dry is a proud bipartisan tradition.

 

[ShadowRun]

Orange man bad! must want war !!!!
"Hillary Clinton calls Trump's Syria pullout a 'sickening betrayal' of allies"

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ning-betrayal-of-allies/ar-AAIp18A?ocid=ientp

 

[VivaRevolution]

Republicans slam Trump's Syria pullout: 'Disaster,' 'Betrayal,' 'Mistake'


A long list of Republicans — including several top allies of President Donald Trump — lined up in vehement opposition Monday to the president’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from the northern border of Syria and allow a Turkish operation there.

The announcement marked a major blow to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, which the U.S. relied upon heavily as the most effective fighting force against the Islamic State militant group in Syria — and prompted outrage among GOP lawmakers.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...ublicans-slam-trump-s-syria-pull-out-n1063251

_____________________________________


Can we be honest about why we are in Syria?

Let me just give you a run down on how this went.

Turkey wanted to overthrow the Syrian government, and Israel and the gulf Arabs didn't disagree because it would weaken Iran, so the deep state and Obama admin allowed the attempted overthrow of Assad.

Well, it seems no one asked Russia if this was cool, and they decided to throw a wrench in the plans, by putting a Russian base in Syria basically taking a giant shit on the plans to overthrow Assad. This however wasn't clear that a Russian base would be enough at first, so Assad also invited in Iran and Lebanon to station forces in Syria.

This was a major blow to Israel as it allowed Iran to station troops on the border with Israel. Hence we had to invade/"fight ISIS" in Syria to keep Israel safe from the cluster fuck they helped create.

What McConnell is melting down over here, is Trump not acting in Israeli interests like the good little bitch that McConnell expects him to be.

Fuck Mitch McConnell and all Israel first traitors.

Discuss ..........

 

[AznTrojan]

we start trade wars with our allies.. so of course we're gonna fuck the kurds..

 

[Gunny]

Lol, been waiting for this thread.

 

[Gregolian]

I'm just sad for the Kurds. How many times have we supplied them arms and asked them to help us fight despots and shit and they've done so, in ways that few other civilian groups nevermind army's would be willing to help us and we're leaving them high and dry holding their dicks in their hands.

 

[VivaRevolution]

I'm just sad for the Kurds. How many times have we supplied them arms and asked them to help us fight despots and shit and they've done so, in ways that few other civilian groups nevermind army's would be willing to help us and we're leaving them high and dry holding their dicks in their hands.

They are better off then they have been since they have had a country to call their own.

No one is messing with the kurds in Iraq. The Sunni's and Shiites are too focused on each other to care, and they basically have a place to govern and call their own.

Only good thing to come out of the war in Iraq.

We did bring freedom, and were greeted as liberators in Iraq, it was just in 1/3rd of the country.

 

[Bull Hurley]

they wanna annex a bigger portion of land. Pretty sure its loaded up with oil

Yea...Turkey has been stealing oil from Syria for awhile. They would use isis or "moderate rebels" to help them accomplish this. Which is part of the reasons why Erdogan shot one of Russia's bombers out of the sky when they were near turkeys borders doing work.

 

[JamesRussler]

And how pray tell, will you "bury" their careers? By voicing displeasure through scathing memes on Sherdog?

Yeah.

 

[hillelslovak87]

I'm just sad for the Kurds. How many times have we supplied them arms and asked them to help us fight despots and shit and they've done so, in ways that few other civilian groups nevermind army's would be willing to help us and we're leaving them high and dry holding their dicks in their hands.

The USA urging the Kurds to fight Saddam, only to allow him to use attack choppers for "humanitarian aid" to bomb them is one of the worst betrayals in our history. Why the fuck would the Kurds eeeeeeeever trust us?

 

[Happy Man]

I think many people expected to see Nikki Haley and Lindsey Graham pushing back hard against Trump on this but I didn't realize that a mandate from Heaven was at stake.

Isreal is VERY UPSET. Lol this is how you can tell.

They warned to use the risk of American troop deaths to keep actors in line.

Which to me is treason, and our esteemed senators and congresspeople who put isreal first should be exiled to isreal immediately.

FINALLY! Trump is getting us out of there. Now we just need to leave the Iraq Syrian border area we occupy near Bukamal.

Kurds can ally with Assad again and resist turkey. Case closed.

 

[VivaRevolution]

The USA urging the Kurds to fight Saddam, only to allow him to use attack choppers for "humanitarian aid" to bomb them is one of the worst betrayals in our history. Why the fuck would the Kurds eeeeeeeever trust us?

Especially knowing that no president, including Trump, wants to be known as the guy who lost Turkey.

As long as Turkey is a country half made up of Kurds that the Turkish government can't afford to lose, the Kurds will always fall 2nd to ensuring the most important geo-political ally in the world, aka turkey.