Even with the arrival of a pan-Arabian security force, this much reassures me.
John Bolton: No Withdrawal from Syria Without Security Guarantees for Kurds
FTA:
Washington maintains that the YPG and the PKK are two different entities, infuriating the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Following President Donald Trump’s remarks implying he would soon withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, Erdogan officials suggested they were ready to send troops into northern Manbij, Syria, where the YPG is established. American troops are currently stationed in Manbij, making a Turkish offensive against the Kurds a major risk for Ankara.
Speaking shortly before leaving to Ankara to meet with senior Turkish officials, including Erdogan, Bolton asserted that the Trump administration highly discouraged Turkish troops from operating without coordinating with U.S. counterparts, particularly regarding the Syrian Kurds.
“We don’t think the Turks ought to undertake military action that’s not fully coordinated with and agreed to by the United States, at a minimum, so they don’t endanger our troops but also so that they meet the president’s requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered,” Bolton reportedly said, adding that Trump would “not allow Turkey to kill the Kurds.”
Bolton asserted that U.S. troops were not going to leave the Manbij area anytime soon without concrete safeguards in place for the Kurds, suggesting an indefinite timeline for withdrawal, if withdrawal occurs at all. The New York Times reported that Bolton required of the Turks significant assurances that they would not expel the Kurds from Manbij before U.S. troops left.
...
Yeni Safak, a virulently pro-Erdogan newspaper, reported that Bolton arrived in Ankara with a map of a “new Sykes-Picot” arrangement breaking up Syrian territory into Sunni Arab, Shiite Arab, and Kurdish sectors. The Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 created the modern borders of the Middle East and became a rallying cry for the Islamic State in 2013-2014; the “caliphate” was intended to tear down the British and French early 20th century borders. Yeni Safak cited the Wall Street Journal as the source of their reporting.
Turkish officials have already responded to Bolton’s remarks Sunday, calling them “irrational.”
“The issue is PKK/PYD/YPG are making efforts to establish an order by oppressing Kurds, who don’t obey them, and their terrorist activities against our country,” Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said. “There is no doubt that a terror group cannot be an ally of the U.S.”
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/net-neutrality-ajit-pai-internet/
One Year Later, ‘Net Neutrality’ Zealots Proved Dead Wrong
FTA:
A year later, none of the horror stories came true. In fact, average internet speeds climbed by roughly a third last year. The number of homes with access to fiber internet jumped 23% last year, according to the Fiber Broadband Association.
Oh, and “net neutrality” was a nonissue in the Democratic midterm campaigns. One party official said that Dems didn’t campaign on it because: “It’s not something that people bring up in their top list of concerns.”
In a statement last week, Pai said that, “the FCC’s light-touch approach is working.”
Meanwhile, at this year’s CES, the industry will highlight the promise of 5G internet, which allows speeds 100 times faster than the current wireless networks. D-Link plans to showcase a 5G router that will let homeowners cut the cord and still get speeds 40 times faster.
Promise of 5G
Not only will speed climb exponentially, but 5G will inject still more competition in the ISP market. Even “net neutrality” advocates should be willing to admit that there’s no need for a massive federal regulatory system in a highly competitive market, since no internet provider would dare throttle or block sites for fear of losing customers.
What we did learn over the past year is that the real threats to a “free and open” internet aren’t the ISPs, but the self-appointed internet censors at Google, Facebook and Twitter.
The only question that remains is whether those “net neutrality” zealots will apologize to the public for repeatedly crying wolf.
Thanks for that. Erdog needs to bite the dust or leave office somehow or another, for the good of the Middle East and especially the Turks who suffer under him.