Turkey has always been more worried about a strong Kurdish military than ISIS…
Now that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has found a friend in the American President and got a ‘deal’?
He can reverse American foreign and military policy and reward the Kurdish American and NATO support (Turkey is a member of NATO, but has been cozying up to Russia) with their being kicked out of Norther Syria…
Against an outcry from Democrats and Republican’s in Congress and against US Military and Foreign Affairs communities?
Turkish military air strikes and troops are on the move into Syria….
Russian President Putin has got to be smiling….
It is a sad day for NATO, an organization Donald Trump, an American President, has no respect or use for….
To boot?
Trump is warning that he may move order more troops out of the Middle East on his watch even as the ‘experts’ have warned such a inward policy would expose the American homeland to attacks from terrorist groups no longer under military pressure at home…
Turkey’s long-planned move to root out United States-allied Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria accelerated rapidly after President Trump seemingly gave a green light in a call with Mr. Erdogan on Sunday. The operation has sparked fierce debates in Washington and could open a dangerous new front in Syria’s eight-year-old war.
Earlier Wednesday, the Syrian Democractic Forces had mobilized and warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” as Turkey massed troops near the countries’ border for an incursion it said would begin “shortly.”
New violence between Turkey and the United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces pits two United States allies against each other in ethnically tinged battles, leaving Washington in an awkward position.
Mr. Erdogan has been threatening to send troops into northeastern Syria to uproot the militia, which the United States has partnered with for years to fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Turkey considers the militia a terrorist organization linked to a Kurdish guerrilla movement.
In an op-ed in The Washington Post on Wednesday, Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s communications director, wrote that Turkish forces, with their Syrian rebel allies, “will cross the Turkish-Syrian border shortly.”
“Turkey has no ambition in northeastern Syria except to neutralize a longstanding threat against Turkish citizens and to liberate the local population from the yoke of armed thugs,” he wrote.
For its part, the Syrian Democratic Forces said the area was “on the edge of possible humanitarian catastrophe” because of the looming Turkish incursion.
“This attack will spill the blood of thousands of innocent civilians because our border areas are overcrowded,” the group said in a statement.
The Kurdish-led administration that governs the area issued a call for “general mobilization” to fight the Turks.
“We call upon our people, of all ethnic groups, to move toward areas close to the border with Turkey to carry out acts of resistance during this sensitive historical time,” it said.
Early Wednesday, Mr. Trump reiterated his opposition to United States military presence in the Middle East, writing on Twitter that “USA should never have been in Middle East.”…
image…CreditCreditMehmet Ali Dag/Ihlas News Agency, via Reuters
Jennifer Griffin
@JennifetGriffin FNC
I just spoke to a distraught US Special Forces soldier who is among the 1000 or so US troops in Syria tonight who is serving alongside the SDF Kurdish forces. It was one of the hardest phone calls I have ever taken.
“I am ashamed for the first time in my career.”
Jim Sciutto
@jimsciutto
I was with the Kurdish Peshmerga in Northern Iraq during the 2003 invasion. They were the tip of the spear in the north, along with US Special Forces, after (note this) Turkey blocked access to the 4th Infantry Division. They fought bravely. 1/
Jim Sciutto
@jimsciutto
2/ But they also recalled when the US had abandoned them in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Bad memories die hard. US forces assured them they wouldn’t be abandoned again and that lasted, for a time. They will likely be telling stories from this week for years to come.