Posted on 10/08/2019 10:01:33 AM PDT by xzins
So the question is, do they have more in common with Syria? And could there be some unification of causes there to try to find stability in Syria?
The Kurds could have more in common with Syria than Turkey. Perhaps some arrangement could be made with Assad.
Mark says there’s only like 50 troops there. So why don’t they get 50 of their own troops and police themselves?
Who cares if we betray allies? Trump has real estate investments in Istanbul and that is frankly more important than some dead Kurds. Ha Ha, Kurds what a funny name!
I’m tired of endless war. I’m sick of sacrificing our best for dubious results.
If we’re going to fight, fight. Don’t hamstring the troops and allow them to be picked off by whoever. The Kurds are good people who deserve a chance. So, carve out a place for the Kurds, and make it abundantly clear that attacks on the Kurds will be met with a furious response.
Meanwhile, bring the troops home.
Is that workable?
The Turks are holding about 2 million Syrian refugees. They want to send them home and have them be safe. They want to do that by taking about a 30 mile swath of northern Syrian and setting up a protectorate area.
Many of the Kurds are PKK, an identified terrorist group that hates Turkey. They will do what they can to destroy any initiative on Turkey’s part.
So, the issue isn’t ONLY abandoning the Kurds. It’s safely repatriating a couple million Syrians back to their own country. The alternative for Turkey is to send them to Europe. The bottom line, then, is that Trump is helping Europe more than Europe helps Europe. But for the repatriation to be effective, the Kurdish terrorist groups need to be controlled.
In the meantime, the US Troops will just be cannon fodder for some group to attack to try to get the US involved.
Trump’s making a decent decision here. But all we’ll hear is that the Kurds are being betrayed. That’s by those who are into empire building by the USA.
I think the Kurds and Turks are enemies for the most part. But the Kurds could negotiate with Syria maybe. It would be nice if someone tried to make that happen. See post #6
The CIA and Military are very unhappy. But the US can’t hold position without a large cost. Who knows what is going on there. And by the way, where is NATO. Notice this is just a US thing not a NATO thing. Why are we the only ones caring here. If its so bad to leave, why wouldn’t the rest of NATO step up. Frankly, I think its a CIA boondoggle. We can control the skies from Romania, The Mediterranean or IRAQ. We don’t need to be in Syria with boots on the ground.
Rand Paul 2024
I like a lot of what Paul says.
I agree. We can launch air missions from so many locations given the Navy, Romania, and our mideast presence elsewhere.
Not our Circus
Not our Monkeys
Do not expend US lives on issues
that are not a direct threat to the US
I can only imagine what the threads would look like here on FR if the Chinese government started maintaining diplomatic and military ties to La Raza or Black Lives Matter.
5 Americans have died in Syria this year since the fighting has ceased. We are not a police force. Our military is designed to fight wars, not to patrol sectarianism in foreign countries.
I don’t know how many injured.
And Obama got us in there.
‘Cuz those 50 troop know the magic spells “Summon Airstrike” and “Summon Artillery Support” which makes them far more powerful than their numbers indicate.
If you owe 10 times what you earn, and are piling on more debt, you are flat broke. US is in that boat currently.
So essentially we go in debt to Japan, China and others to protect oil supplies from middle-east going to Japan & China. We no longer need the middle-east and their oil. Let them manage their own 1400 year wars among themselves.
“Paul said world powers “could have done a better job drawing up these country lines” after World War I: “
A huge part of the borders of Africa, the Middle East and Asia are drawn based on European colonial priorities. They are responsible for many countries containing groups that really should be in separate countries and others case where an ethnic group is split into more than one country.
This has contributed greatly to instability across that part of the world.
Kurds hate the Turks, Iraq, and the Syrian governments. We made a deal with them to give them guns. They use the guns to hold mountain positions inside of Turkey, Syria and IRAQ. All three countries hate the Kurds. The Kurds are lawless people who kill people who trespass in their regions. Its like if we had Apache’s still active in the Dakota mountains but with rocket launchers and machine guns. Or consider Mexican gangs.
I don’t say that the Kurds don’t have a right to exist. They do have a right to exist. But they never seem to get along with anybody else except the US. And they get along with us because we pay them huge amounts to fight for us. And when we go, they are left with money and guns until it runs out. Then they have to make a deal to survive. This game has been being played for over a hundred years.
What is the legal basis for US troops to be in Syria?
Was there a UN Security Council resolution? Was US military assistance requested by the de jure government of Syria? Was there a Congressional Declaration of War against Syria?
What is the legal basis? Inquiring minds want to know.
I spent two hours yesterday looking for a US official number of troops in Syria. No one publishes this. You can’t even get a number from CNN.
I doubt if it’s more than 300 total but that’s just a humble guess.
As for the Kurds...what exactly did they really want? Their own independent land? Carving it off from Syria? That wasn’t going to happen.
As for the ISIS prisoners? If you are European ISIS, I suspect Turkey will put them on a raft, and send them in a quiet way to Greece. In three months, all of that 800-odd ISIS Europeans will be in Greece and everyone will get all hyped up about this happening.
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