Free Republic

Everybody thought we had to keep our troops around so the Turks wouldn't invade Northern Syria and kill off all the Kurds. Everybody wanted them to negotiate with the Kurds and figured the only way to do that was little by little, by getting allies to reason with Turkey and hem and haw and maybe buy her off as in times past. Meanwhile, we had to keep the two ancient enemies, Kurds and Turks, apart. Negotiations would ever happen only if our troops stayed. Trump saw the situation differently. As beautifully laid out by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse, removing our...

The Kurds should thank the short-sighted strategists of the DNC for Turkish aggression. Hong Kong residents are also paying for the short-sighted policies of the American Left, who, for the past three years, have been trying to expel the legally elected president from the White House. Their (untrue) signal that Trump is about to be overthrown has been heard both in Beijing and in Ankara. But Turkey made a serious mistake – they attacked civilians. Of course, television footage of these crimes and further bullying of civilians by Turkish troops in Northern Syria cannot be compared with what the Russian...

On Monday, ABC News got caught lying about having a video allegedly showing Turkish troops slaughtering Kurdish civilians in northern Syria, when, in fact, it was video from a gun range in Kentucky. Seemingly thinking a pair of weak apologies on Twitter were enough, the liberal broadcast network refused to correct the record and inform viewers on their journalistic malpractice during that evening’s World News Tonight. As NewsBusters’s Kristine Marsh reported, Sunday’s World News Tonight teed up the contents of the video as being a product of President Trump’s foreign policy, declaring, “This video right here appearing to be showing...

The UK will not join other European countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland in halting selling arms to Turkey after its invasion in Syria, the Independent reports. The UK was initially also against an EU condemnation of Turkey's military attack, but later agreed to the EU's unanimous position. Because of the UK's refusal to a European arms ban, the EU agreed on stopping arms sales unilaterally.

"Vice President Mike Pence says he’s being dispatched to the Middle East by President Donald Trump as U.S. troops pull out of northeast Syria and Turkish forces invade. Pence says Trump spoke with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier Monday and called for an immediate end to Turkey’s moves against the Kurds in Syria. Pence says the president is “very concerned about instability in the region” and is denying that Trump gave Turkey the green light to launch the invasion when he announced a troop pullout. Pence says the U.S. is “simply not going to tolerate Turkey’s invasion of Syria...

President Trump has played this out perfectly. By isolating Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and effectively leaving him naked to an alliance of his enemies, Erdogan is now urgently asking for the U.S. to mediate peace negotiations with Kurdish forces. This request happens immediately after President Trump signed an executive order [See Here] triggering the sanction authority of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Erdogan called the White House requesting an urgent phone call with President Trump. After President Trump talked to Kurdish General Mazloum Kobani Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, President Trump then discussed the options available to...

Why risk it? Even if NATO wants the nukes in Europe, Erdogan’s unstable regime is 68 miles from Syria, the hottest conflict zone on earth. When President Donald Trump and other heads of state meet at this week’s NATO Summit it might be a good time to discuss the wisdom of keeping 50 U.S. thermonuclear weapons in Turkey, just 70 miles from Syria, the most intense combat zone on the planet. Each of the B61 gravity bombs stored at Incirlik Air Base, 68 miles from the Syrian border have a maximum yield of 170 kilotons, or 10 times more powerful...

President Trump’s acquiescence to Turkey’s move to send troops deep inside Syrian territory has in only one week’s time turned into a bloody carnage, forced the abandonment of a successful five-year-long American project to keep the peace on a volatile border, and given an unanticipated victory to four American adversaries: Russia, Iran, the Syrian government and the Islamic State. Rarely has a presidential decision resulted so immediately in what his own party leaders have described as disastrous consequences for American allies and interests. How this decision happened — springing from an “off-script moment” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey,...

On Friday’s episode of “The View,” Sen. Rand Paul sparred with Ana Navarro, a regular contributor to the show, about the nature of socialism in Venezuela. “You talk about Venezuela in your new book,” Navarro said, “I get a lot of political ads from the Republican Party. Donald Trump has tweeted this. Many have tweeted this. If you vote for Democrats, they will turn the United States into Venezuela. Do you think that’s a fair statement to make?”

The only good thing that can be said about the U.S. propaganda media is that they aren’t the only ones who know how to BS people. Turns out our ‘good buddies’ the Kurds in Syria are pretty good propagandists too. If only that ogre Donald Trump hadn’t decided to pull American troops out of yet another failed Mideast dung heap.

Mike Bloomberg has indicated to associates in recent weeks that Joe Biden’s recent struggles are making him rethink his decision to stay out of the 2020 Democratic primary, according to people familiar with the discussions. “Bloomberg is in if Biden is out,” says one source. Biden has not indicated any desire to drop out any time soon. Bloomberg could be in for a showdown with Elizabeth Warren, whether he runs or not, as he has been one of her biggest critics on the Democratic side. “I think it’s something he wants. He has not been shy about that,” one of...

Hunter Biden sat down with ABC News anchor Amy Robach over the weekend at his home in Los Angeles for an exclusive interview, and no questions were off limits. Tune in to "Good Morning America," "World News Tonight," "Nightline" and ABC News Live and ABCNews.com starting Tuesday for more on Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and China as well as his reaction to President Trump's rally and tweets targeting him directly. Hunter Biden, the 49-year-old son of former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, has become the focal point of a political firestorm over his former position...

A Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee was ejected from a closed-door impeachment hearing. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida tried to enter a hearing Monday in which lawmakers from three different committees are interviewing President Trump’s former top aide on Russia, Fiona Hill. Gaetz said he believed he should be allowed to attend the hearing because impeachment inquiries traditionally are handled by the House Judiciary Committee, and he serves on that panel. But the House parliamentarian told Gaetz he is not allowed to attend the hearing because he does not sit on either the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, or Oversight...

Sen. Rand Paul told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the situation with the Syrian Kurds is much more complex than it appears at first glance and detailed some of the history involved. CHUCK TODD: Joining me now is Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. He also sits on the Foreign Relations Committee senate side. Senator Paul is also the author of the new book "The Case Against Socialists." Senator Paul, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir. SEN. RAND PAUL, (R) KENTUCKY: Thanks, Chuck. Thanks for having me. TODD: Let me start with the news of the morning. I hope...

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden announced Sunday that he was stepping down from his board position at BHR Equity Investment Fund Management, but he likely still has millions of dollars of value in the company. Hunter Biden has a 10 percent stake in BHR, which he acquired through a company he created named Skaneateles LLC in 2017. Although Hunter Biden’s lawyer has said that his client’s stake in the company is only valued at $420,000, a FactCheck.org analysis estimates it’s value to be millions. “It is difficult to imagine, if not incomprehensible, that a 10% stake in...

A 26-year-old woman with dual American and Israeli citizenship who has been jailed in Russia since April after authorities allegedly found nine grams of cannabis in her luggage, has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, her sister said. Naama Issachar's sister, Liad Gold, told Fox News on Sunday that her sister was sentenced Friday and the family has reached out to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for her. She said the prime minister called their mother the day of the sentencing to let her know that he will do everything he can to have her released...

The West’s Kurdish allies on Sunday night announced they had agreed to a Russian-brokered deal to allow the Assad regime into their territory in a bid to spare their cities from a Turkish assault after they were abandoned by Donald Trump. Hours after the US said it was withdrawing all of its troops from northern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had reached an agreement to allow Bashar al-Assad’s troops into their territory. “If we have to choose between compromises and the genocide of our people, we will surely choose life for our people,” said Mazloum Kobani Abdi,...

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a deal has been reached through which Syrian government forces will protect the Kurdish-held towns of Kobani and Manbij. US troops had been deployed in both towns since they were cleared of "Islamic State" (IS) militants in 2015. However, last week US President Donald Trump made the surprise announcement that he was pulling the US military out of Kurdish Syria, leaving a key US ally in the fight against IS vulnerable to the Turkish army. Turkey, which has been fighting an off-and-on insurgency from armed Kurdish groups in its own...

The Kurds in Syria say the Syrian government has agreed to send its army to the northern border to try to halt Turkey's offensive against them. Syrian state media earlier reported that government forces had been deployed to the north. It follows the US decision to pull all its remaining troops from the area... (Turkey said) It also plans to resettle more than three million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey within the zone. Many of them are not Kurds. Critics have warned this could lead to ethnic cleansing of the local Kurdish population. (Just as Turkey did after it took...

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) slammed The New York Times' feature of her Saturday afternoon. The Democratic presidential candidate tweeted "As if to prove my point, NYT just published a “greatest hits” smear piece." "All your favorite hits in one article! These are the folks who will be acting as the “neutral” questioners/moderators of Tuesday’s debate lol," Gabbard continued. The Times' article is titled "What, Exactly, Is Tulsi Gabbard Up To?" with the sub head reading "As she injects chaos into the 2020 Democratic primary by accusing her own party of “rigging” the election, an array of alt-right internet stars, white...