Posted on 01/30/2018 6:44:54 AM PST by Kaslin
If Turkey is not bluffing, U.S. troops in Manbij, Syria, could be under fire by week's end, and NATO engulfed in the worst crisis in its history.
Turkish President Erdogan said Friday his troops will cleanse Manbij of Kurdish fighters, alongside whom U.S. troops are embedded.
Erdogan's foreign minister demanded concrete steps by the U.S. to end its support of the Kurds, who control the Syrian border with Turkey east of the Euphrates, all the way to Iraq.
If the Turks attack Manbij, the U.S. will face a choice: Stand by our Kurdish allies and resist the Turks, or abandon the Kurds.
Should the U.S. let the Turks drive the Kurds out of Manbij and the entire Syrian border area with Turkey, as Erdogan threatens, U.S. credibility would suffer a blow from which it would not soon recover.
But to stand with the Kurds and oppose Erdogan's forces could mean a crackup of NATO and loss of U.S. bases inside Turkey, including the air base at Incirlik.
Turkey also sits astride the Dardanelles entrance to the Black Sea. NATO's loss of Turkey would thus be a triumph for Vladimir Putin, who gave Ankara the green light to cleanse the Kurds from Afrin.
Yet Syria is but one of many challenges to U.S. foreign policy.
The Winter Olympics in South Korea may have taken the threat of a North Korean ICBM that could hit the U.S. out of the news. But no one believes that threat is behind us.
Last week, China charged that the USS Hopper, a guided missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Shoal, a reef in the South China Sea claimed by Beijing, though it is far closer to Luzon in the Philippines. The destroyer, says China, was chased off by one of her frigates. If we continue to contest China's territorial claims with U.S. warships, a clash is inevitable.
In a similar incident Monday, a Russian military jet came within five feet of a U.S. Navy EP-3 Orion surveillance plane in international airspace over the Black Sea, forcing the Navy plane to end its mission.
U.S. relations with Cold War ally Pakistan are at rock bottom. In his first tweet of 2018, President Trump charged Pakistan with being a duplicitous and false friend.
"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"
As for America's longest war, in Afghanistan, now in its 17th year, the end is nowhere on the horizon.
A week ago, the International Hotel in Kabul was attacked and held for 13 hours by Taliban gunmen who killed 40. Midweek, a Save the Children facility in Jalalabad was attacked by ISIS, creating panic among aid workers across the country.
Saturday, an ambulance exploded in Kabul, killing 103 people and wounding 235. Monday, Islamic State militants attacked Afghan soldiers guarding a military academy in Kabul. With the fighting season two months off, U.S. troops will not soon be departing.
If Pakistan is indeed providing sanctuary for the terrorists of the Haqqani network, how does this war end successfully for the United States?
Last week, in a friendly fire incident, the U.S.-led coalition killed 10 Iraqi soldiers. The Iraq war began 15 years ago.
Yet another war, where the humanitarian crisis rivals Syria, continues on the Arabian Peninsula. There, a Saudi air, sea and land blockade that threatens the Yemeni people with starvation has failed to dislodge Houthi rebels who seized the capital Sanaa three years ago.
This weekend brought news that secessionist rebels, backed by the United Arab Emirates, have seized power in Yemen's southern port of Aden, from the Saudi-backed Hadi regime fighting the Houthis.
These rebels seek to split the country, as it was before 1990.
Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE appear to be backing different horses in this tribal-civil-sectarian war into which America has been drawn.
There are other wars -- Somalia, Libya, Ukraine -- where the U.S. is taking sides, sending arms, training troops, flying missions.
Like the Romans, we have become an empire, committed to fight for scores of nations, with troops on every continent, and forces in combat operations of which the American people are only vaguely aware.
"I didn't know there were 1,000 troops in Niger," said Sen. Lindsey Graham when four Green Berets were killed there. "We don't know exactly where we're at in the world, militarily, and what we're doing."
No, we don't, Senator.
As in all empires, power is passing to the generals.
And what causes the greatest angst today in the imperial city?
Fear that a four-page memo worked up in the House Judiciary Committee may discredit Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia-gate.
Pat’s right. I’m gonna miss him when he croaks.
In terms of communications and travel, the inhabited world is smaller today than the State of Virginia was when the Constitution was ratified.
We have many wars because we have many enemies.
They would be are enemies if we fight them or not.
The Kurds were working with 5th SF Group types for some 20 years or so.
Kick Turkey out of NATO and declare it an enemy. Erdogan is truly a muzzie snake and aligned with jihadism. Protect the Kurds our friends.
Yeh!
Overwhelmed, Fear, Don’t GAS!. The Enemy Within, etc.
It’s working!
Then Came TRUMP.45!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not a nice guy; but he’s got our “six”.........If We Can keep Him???
Dick@PlanetWTF!
****************************
Erogen will come to pass. We have influence in the Turkish military. Carve Kurdistan out of Iran and Iraq. Joe Biden had it right. Remember?
By John A. Tures • 01/30/18 6:15am
http://observer.com/2018/01/trump-needs-to-defend-the-syrian-kurds-from-turkeys-attacks/
No international group has helped President Donald Trump more in his first year in office than the Syrian Kurds, who provided ground troops to capture Raqqa, the “capital” of ISIS. Turkey’s dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan is currently bombing Kurds in Afrin, Syria, and Trump needs to show loyalty to allies who once did the same by defying Turkey’s anti-American and anti-Israeli leader.
snip
Syrian Kurds Need America’s Help
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that Trump would keep U.S. forces in Syria to train 30,000 Syrian Kurdish forces in order to ensure that ISIS doesn’t make a comeback.
Hoping to undermine America’s plans, Turkish President Erdogan ordered the bombing of the Syrian Kurds, dispatching more than 70 planes and hundreds of soldiers to kill Kurdish forces. Erdogan’s orders are a response to the Kurd’s acquisition of enough votes in the 2015 Turkish election to prevent Erdogan’s AKP party from getting a majority in the Turkish parliament.
Already, civilians have been killed in the raids by bombs and ground forces, which are worsened by the Free Syrian Army. The Army originally claimed to be moderate but instead linked with the Al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate, revealing itself as an extremist Sunni group. Erdogan supported this al-Qaeda movement too. His AKP party will be the next terrorist group to attack Americans once the last ISIS fighter has been dispatched.
exerpt
America has more dangerous threats at home: illegal immigration,politically protected and promoted moral decay,globalism entrenched in DC and the media, anti-white mental cases, criminals favored over the law abiding, the disarm the citizens movement,etc.,etc.
How soon “Will the you know what hit the fan?” Everyone has been rearming like crazy and is armed to their teeth, it is just a matter of time when push comes to shove and some hothead decides to light the the fuse to the proverbial powder keg of which there are way too many spread all around. All we can hope for is that cool heads will prevail.
Very profound.
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