Posted on 10/16/2019 11:03:13 AM PDT by Hojczyk
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 guys would leave the intransigent Turks vulnerable to an alliance against them of their many enemies in the region. This thought didn't occur to Turkish president Recep Erdoğan, who at first seemed delighted that we were leaving and promptly dispatched his troops into Syria, as everybody had predicted he would.
Not so fast, fellas. The actual result hasn't been quite what everyone expected. Erdoğan suddenly understood the box he was in when Trump authorized Treasury secretary Mnuchin to prepare sanctions against Turkey. By themselves, sanctions haven't succeeded much in that part of the world. But in concert with the departure of the U.S., they became a scary signal that Turkey was all by her lonesome. Having steadfastly refused to negotiate, Erdoğan now nervously rang up Trump and asked for an emergency conference. Trump sent Vice President Pence and national security adviser O'Brien to mediate negotiations with the Kurds.
These are the long sought negotiations, brought about by U.S. troops leaving.
Trump once again exhibits strategic insight not seen in the White House since George Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Lindsay Graham, Michael Savage and half a dozen generals including Maddog Maddass don’t agree...
Erdogan I think welcomes the sanctions...
Yes, and the Russians aren’t going to fight the Turks either.
LOL
30 second neocon clock. Go....
Love President Trump!
Syria is ALL Obama era BS.
I don’t understand why they don’t just go to U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar in San Francisco and get him to issue a worldwide injunction against the Turks attacking the Kurds in Syria. /s
Moral of the story; professional politicians aren’t.
It takes someone who can think outside the box of norms to put the pieces together in a way that works.
Time will tell if this strategy works in the long run but what we were doing wasn’t working and it was costing a butt load of money and lives. Sometimes the tree must be shaken to dislodge the nuts.
Should Trump’s visage be on Washington’s right or Lincoln’s left?
I’m curious what “holes” you see in the referenced article? I see some.
For one, it may have been optimistic for the writer to say Erdogan “urgently” asked for Trump to mediate. Who knows how urgent it was. Urgent implies Erdogan was desperate. I don’t think he is, especially since there are 50 US nukes stationed there.
And two, if you watch the Pence video on that article, he doesn’t technically say that Erdogan requested that Trump negotiate with the Kurds.
One has to make the connection with Erdogan’s phone call to Trump and his promise to not attack Kobani (the Kurdish city) - and assume that that constitutes Trump acting as a mediator.
Your comments?
Such negativity!
I agree, a quick lasting peace is not likely... The Kurds want an independent state, they do engage in terrorism in attempt to get it, in Turkey and other places....
They aren’t likely to “back off” easily... However, keeping 2 or more groups who have been fighting and killing each other for centuries from continuing to kill each other is no reason, in and of itself, for our soldiers to be in harms way.
Trump could have done a better PR job...our enemies are out in force on this.
You can’t do a big PR job when you work at Trump’s speed. It is his speed of correct actions that is keeping most people BEHIND the timeline. Pelosi praising the new resolution earlier shows you how far behind the actual time she is. She just looks totally uninformed, and boringly political. It is lightning negotiating moves like this that will catch the rest if the world totally off guard. This is strike first. Other Presidents relied in the snail’s pace if the United Nations...giving the enemy ample time for defensive preparation...(costing American lives). At first I wondered...but from now on, I’ll follow this LEADER!
Good point...Trump is waaay ahead with his actions. Good but doesn’t give time for allies to take a stand.
Jon Bolton is a neocon War-Whore.
You have it exactly. The problems you note are my “big holes”. If the original Treehouse story was actually correct this would be a huge story and would totally vindicate Trump’s decision.
Like I always say, Best president since George Washington.
Trump is a genius and a political genius.
First Minnesota, next CALIFORNIA!
All we had to do was wait a little while.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.