Posted on 12/20/2018 10:20:08 PM PST by tcrlaf
President Trump’s surprise decision to rapidly withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria is meeting with intense criticism by foreign policy experts, who denounce it as strategically stupid, reckless for national security and a blow to America’s global credibility. But inside Syria, the consequences are even more serious. For one example, 50,000 Syrian civilian refugees living under the direct protection of the U.S. military are suddenly fearing for their lives.
For three years, civilians living in the Rukban refugee camp in the southeastern Syrian desert have survived because of the protection of U.S. forces encamped 10 miles away on a base called Tanf. The refugee camp falls within Tanf’s 55-kilometer-radius security zone. The residents rely on the United States to protect them from the Syrian regime and Iranian forces and to ensure vital flows of humanitarian aid.
They are near starvation, effectively under siege and living in squalor. But despite their situation, they will tell anyone who will listen that they are grateful to be free from the grasp of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and that they are depending on the United States to keep them safe and alive. On Wednesday, Trump put their lives at grave risk with a single tweet.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
And being the heartless prick I am I don’t give a F- - -!
Have a Merry Christmas
Let the U.K. and France pay for it. They have forces in country.
They already be dead if Obama had been the President the last two years.
You must realize that we are in an existential war with no time limits - 100 years is just the start.
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I think a part of the problem is that our military was saddled with rules of engagement which made it hard to win. If they could fight full strength, they could make some good progress in a shorter amount of time. But we have warriors fighting with one hand tied behind their backs while Muslims are yelling, as you said, “Kill kill kill.”
Besides, I don’t think President Trump said he would pull troops out from everywhere in the Middle East.
Well, I was all for nuking Mecca and Medina after 911 but had to settle for 3rd best ... still up for that option with Riyadh and Tehran thrown in for giggles.
Other than that you seem to lack any actual knowledge of how the ME is actually run among the various countries of interest as well as any knowledge and history of Islam while seeming to settle for an anti-war propaganda line .. perhaps just absorbing the next attack and those that follow will assuage your thirst for peace at any coast.
In war, nothing is clear, and everyone sitting in a chair thinks they could do it better than those that actually put their lives on line.
No just Syria and half of those in Afghanistan the troops in the Negev will stay unless they’ve already been pulled. All the other are just for shows of support (which are with DJT’s actions effectively worthless) and medals, promotions and so on ... the ones pulled are the actual trigger pullers the war fighters.
The Obama ROE did not just make in “hard to win”, they made it nearly impossible to survive on the battlefield ... but that was the point, and why so many died needlessly.
Modern Jihadis yell, “Allahu akbar” (”My god is greater than yours”). Mohammad yelled, “Kill kill kill”
I think a part of the problem is that our military was saddled with rules of engagement which made it hard to win.
This must be comedy night here on FreeRepublic. Existential war with no time limits, but rules of engagement that make it hard to win.
LOL. That's not warfare. It's a court battle -- run by lawyers who have a vested interest in perpetuating it while they run up trillions of dollars in invoices to their clients. "It's an existential war, people ... 100 years -- no, 1 million years -- is just the start!"
I know how the ME works very well. The place is a sh!thole, and has been a sh!thole for centuries. I'm not sure what any of this has to do with the U.S. spending 100+ years on an "existential war" over there ... while electing retarded baboons here who call "Islam a religion of peace" and topple governments that get replaced by other governments that enshrine Islam as their official state religion.
In war, nothing is clear, and everyone sitting in a chair thinks they could do it better than those that actually put their lives on line.
Isn't that really the problem here, dude? These stupid wars are started and run by people who DON'T put their lives on the line. They just have other people do it for them. These wars are promoted by @ssholes named Bush, Clinton, McCain, Kristol, etc. -- all of whom would convert to Islam and hump goats before they would ever dream of having their own kids put on a U.S. military uniform and go off into harms way in some dump halfway around the world.
... while seeming to settle for an anti-war propaganda line ...
LOL. I recognized the pro-war propaganda line a long time ago -- right here on FreeRepublic, in fact. So did millions of other Americans. That's why Donald Trump is the President of the United States right now.
How do you define winning in Syria?
Given the current situation where Assad controls roughly 60% of the country, and the Syrian Defense force controls most of the other 40%, What's your plan to win?
How to win without direct military conflict with Russia, since they are not going to abandon one of their last remaining allies and has stood by Assad since the Civil War started?
Who gets to be in charge when its over?
What are our long term interests and goals?
How does being there achieve them?
How does winning in Syria in any way prevent a terror attack on U.S. soil, when that threat existed before the U.S. got involved and will remain no matter what happens there?
Trump is cleaning up a mess Obama never should have created. I don't begrudge him for how he goes about it.
Cheers.
The Obama ROE did not just make in “hard to win”, they made it nearly impossible to survive on the battlefield ... but that was the point, and why so many died needlessly.
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I keep thinking about your statement and am horrified that our soldiers had to go through this. It sounds almost like (I hate to say it) treason against our own people. Why didn’t the generals speak out against this? I’m certainly no expert, but I thought they didn’t have to obey an unlawful order.
The orders were lawful ... for a long time out guys could not fire until shot at and once I heard that one of our guys actually had to be wounded before returning fire. The were not allowed to fire on women, even if shot at- so jihadis would don a burka after they fired - we could not fire back AND understand all of that could only take place after some lawyer at HQ gave the nod and only if the jihadi was on the kill list.
There were even more onerous ones I was told.
The Perfumed Princes (the generals) had other things to worry about like their careers and jobs after retirement. Those that were warriors left a long tome ago.
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