Posted on 02/23/2017 4:09:15 PM PST by Texas Fossil
The Pentagon’s top military officer on Thursday underlined that one of the complex challenges the US will face in the future is how to navigate the animosity between the two key US allies in Syria: Turkey and the Syrian Kurds.
It comes as the Trump administration debates plans for an increased military campaign against ISIS and future operations to oust ISIS from Raqqa.
The Turkish government has suggested that the Kurds should be excluded from the Raqqa operation, while the Kurds argue that Turkey should not play a role in northern Syria and consider Turkish intervention as occupation of Syrian territory.
The US military will soon present President Donald Trump with a “full range of options” to defeat the Islamic State group and other jihadist networks in the greater Middle East, the Pentagon’s top military officer General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday at the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
“We will talk about the importance of our Turkish ally and making sure our plans are consistent in maintaining a strong alliance with Turkey. We will talk about the implications of the Kurdish challenge in the region,” he said.
“Which is you know not isolated to one particular Kurdish group, but many Kurdish groups that have interests,” he said in a reference to different Kurdish factions such as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) that controls parts of northern Syria and Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraqi Kurdistan allied to Turkey that have different interests in the region.
“We talk about complexity of dealing with Turkish versus Iranian interests in the region, presence of Russia, and all of those things,” General Dunford added.
However, the Pentagon’s top military officer said in the end the president of the United States will decide.
General Joseph Dunford met his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on 17 February at NATO’s Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey with talks focused on Washington’s support for Syrian Kurdish militias in the fight against the Islamic State group and the Raqqa operation.
Yesterday Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made a secret trip to northern Syria to visit US military officials and Kurdish fighters in Kobane and to discuss the Raqqa campaign.
McCain also met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım last Monday in Ankara, where the fight against ISIS was also discussed.
Erdogan has made a deal with ISIS to withdraw from al-Bab. When ISIS withdraws, Turkey declares Victory and proceeds to go kill Kurds or send his Terrorists to go kill Kurds.
Erdogan never intended to withdraw from Syria or Iraq. He was never there to destroy ISIS. He was there to take over Syria and destroy the Kurds. This is clear from his actions.
John McCain has asked Erdogan to stop attacking the Northern Syrian YPG and YPJ and the SDF. Will he take that advice?
Guess we will soon see. So far Turkey has not played well with other forces. He demands and threatens frequently.
He sent out progress reports from the battle at al-Bab that were clearly not accurate.
Trust? Headshake
Turkey is the enemy.
Kurdistan.
Has been a long time.
Turkey is not the Turkey of 30 years ago. They are increasingly siding with Sunni fundamentalism. Time for us to transport the nukes out of there and stop sharing forces and secrets with them.
The are out.
Turkey is an ally?
The last time nukes were in Turkey, nukes were in Cuba.
As per Slick Willie?
The answer to that depends on the definition of the word “ally”.
“Erdogan never intended to withdraw from Syria or Iraq. He was never there to destroy ISIS. He was there to take over Syria and destroy the Kurds. This is clear from his actions.”
It’d be a real shame if this mohammedan brotherhood tough guy got accidentally thrown off a tall building.
Last I heard there were about 80 of his top officers who were abroad when the purported “coup” took place. They have not been extradited. I’m sure some of them have considerable clout with the old survivors in the military.
What would that do? Well in a few weeks if Erdogan cannot get his blessing as King in spite of the opposition in jail, this might get interesting.
Why do I need an ally in Syria?
“You” don’t.
But Obama created this great chaos in the ME. A fascist dictator ruling much of the Middle East has consequences. Much like Hitler.
A threat to Israel is a threat to Christians.
A fascist dictator ruling much of the middle east was great compared to everything else.
I am not fearful for Israel in any way.
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