CHECKMATE – Saudi Crown Prince MbS Sends Replacement Troops To Defend Kurds in Syria…

The Conservative Treehouse ^ | December 21, 2018 | Sundance

[bobsunshine]

..."Saudi Arabia and the UAE have sent military forces to areas controlled by the Kurdish YPG group in north-east Syria, Turkey’s Yenisafak newspaper reported.

The paper said the forces will be stationed with US-led coalition troops and will support its tasks with huge military enforcements as well as heavy and light weapons.

Quoting the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the newspaper reported that a convoy of troops belonging to an Arab Gulf state recently arrived in the contact area between the Kurdish PKK/YPG and Daesh in the Deir Ez-Zor countryside.

This comes at a time when Ankara is preparing to launch an expanded military operation with the Free Syrian Army against the Kurdish PKK group in the northeast of Syria".

[morphing libertarian]

Dear media no one gives two shits about Kishoggi now.

[entropy12]

why we care who kills whom in the snake pit called the Middle-East?

No matter who controls the oil, they must sell it, because sand is very hard to digest.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Foreign wars and debt are the reasons major empires collapsed."

I agree. The defense spending as a percent of GDP is not even close to historic high levels. Having 2000 troops in Syria instead of say Kuwait is not going to be our downfall. We are in a relatively peaceful time. Not 1980's or post Gulf War 1990's peace but close. The reason this major empire will collapse is because of unfunded mandates and if we don't get a handle on Obamacare, Social Security and Medicaid, especially Social Security. The Fed funds rate hike is going to balloon our debt because it just now got more expensive to fund our budget deficit.

"Another 911 style airplane attack is improbable with the airport security we now have."

Perhaps, but you are doing what every other bad general of the past has done. Fighting the current war as if you're fighting the last war. The terrorists took advantage of the soft spots in our airlines to do 9/11. As we've hardened that, they will go onto other soft targets. They are driving trucks into masses of people, they are blowing things up. Who knows what's next. It's impossible to harden up every target. Homeland Security has done an amazing job overall foiling terrorist plots. I look forward to when these foiled plots are declassified and we get to read about them. However, the terrorists only have to be right once to stage another 9/11 style attack. The best way to resolve it is to destroy the crazies over there before they get here. There have been ISIS fighters from America and from Europe (with European passports). If they get out, they can easily get here. I imagine some are here now.

[entropy12]

They drive trucks into Western cities because they see Western soldiers killing their people in their countries. Blood is thicker than water. It is easy to brainwash religious fanatics by showing them Foreign soldiers killing their blood relatives.

[entropy12]

It is not the military budget which is the major goblin at the door, it is the SUM of all government spending.

However you can not deny the $6,000,000,000,000 spent is middle-east wars in last 2 decades is a TOTAL WASTE. Without those wars and nation building, our debt would be $6 Trillion smaller.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"However you can not deny the $6,000,000,000,000 spent is middle-east wars in last 2 decades is a TOTAL WASTE. Without those wars and nation building, our debt would be $6 Trillion smaller."

Sorry entropy12, I guess we'll just have to disagree. It does matter. We wouldn't have spent 6 trillion or whatever it is but we would have spent a lot of money. For that we get a lot of bang for our buck. I've explained a lot of this over the past couple days so I don't even want to rehash that. I reject the Ron Paul foreign policy wing of the Republican party. The one that wants to conduct foreign policy like it's 1800 when we were a fledgling country. The principles are the same as 1800, but the mission has changed. See one of my Post WWII order post. I actually like the model we are moving towards truly. It's closer to the British Empire of the 18th century model. That is to have a smaller active duty force and a larger reserve force. We have more and more guard and reserves being activated than ever. This accomplishes the mission and saves us a tremendous amount of money. The new blended retirement system that has been implemented this year is projected to save a lot in retirement cost and will actually benefit more service members as they will have something for retirement even if they don't do 20 or more years.

In short, I am with you about tackling our budget deficit which will tackle our debt. We have to attack the true drivers of this to really get at the problem. Unfunded mandates. Our gutless congressmen won't tackle it.

[BeauBo]

“The Saudi go to infantry forces are Sunni fanatics”

Just as those same Sunni fanatics were supported by the Obama Administration, they were supported by the last Saudi King.

The new Saudi leadership says they are working to fix that. Nobody trusts them after all they have done with those jihadis, but the signs so far seem promising.

[entropy12]

We seem to agree on more points than we disagree. I have zero problem with strong military spending. A strong military is the best deterrent as proven by history.

What is foolish is starting wars like Vietnam, Iraq, and getting involved in civil wars in the middle-east. Besides the loss of huge treasure, even worse is the meat grinder chewing up the best America has to offer, the brave young soldiers who died for nothing in Vietnam and Iraq.

I am all in for wars like WWII, when our country was actually attacked by foreign powers. Vietcong and Saddam never attacked here.

[usconservative]

why we care who kills whom in the snake pit called the Middle-East?

In the case of the Kurds, it would likely help you to know who they've been fighting against on our behalf, often with our backing and support only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them by oh, say the Obama Administration for starters.

The Kurd's helped us fight and defeat Saddam Hussein, they fought against ISIS (and often won) with some assistance from us, they keep the Turk's at bay and more.

I'm curious about your statement in regards to Israel. Do we not care about them as a key ally, and the only one of which has a democratically elected Government in the middle east?

[mac_truck]

Article 5 kicks in if a NATO ally is attacked. If the NATO ally does the attacking, they are on their own.

Turkey says they're defending against a terrorist PKK insurgency with arms and support coming from Northern Syria.

NATO officially recognizes PKK as a terrorist group and despite the disclaimers, the Turkish PKK and Syrian SDF have close ties, a shared ideology, and similar aspirations.

Turkey warned the US not to provide heavy weapons to the SDF, but they did so anyway under the guise of fighting ISIS and now some of those weapons and fighters have wound up in Turkey.

So the conditions already exist on the ground for Turkey to invoke Article-5 if it wanted to, and the Turkish incursion into Syria to stamp out the cross border insurgency has the imprimatur of NATO acceptance.

Which is not to say Turkey isn't a bad actor (they clearly are), but as a member of NATO they are mostly immune from Western interference, while still being able to call on them as needed.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"I am all in for wars like WWII"

My opinion, we will never see another WWII scenario where it's all out war nation state against nation state and they are evenly matched. The consequences are known on both sides as too great. For instance, Russia and U.S. will never go to an all out war IMO.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

I hate Turkey and want these Islamist out of NATO. Atta Turk would be horrified at what his dream has turned into.

[Tallguy]

What is foolish is starting wars like Vietnam, Iraq, and getting involved in civil wars in the middle-east. Besides the loss of huge treasure, even worse is the meat grinder chewing up the best America has to offer, the brave young soldiers who died for nothing in Vietnam and Iraq.

Agreed. It comes with the territory of world hegemon. Look at all the useless wars Britain was involved in during the 19th century. Of course being a true colonial master a lot of the troops doing the dying weren't English, Scots, Irish or Welsh -- though many of them were.

[entropy12]

Agreed that Russia & US will not go to war, at least as long as Trump is at the helm. Another all out World War is unlikely due to MAD (Mutually assured Destruction). However I am seeing proxy wars with us backed by China.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Yes, I’m afraid there will be more proxy wars to come in my lifetime.

[gleeaikin]

” the forces will be stationed with US-led coalition troops and will support its tasks...”

If these forces are stationed with US-led coalition troops, then what happens when the US leadership is pulled out? On the other hand if SA has to stop bothering Yeman, then their soldiers can be busy fighting ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, and we can continue sending them armaments and making our gun dealers happy. And it really annoys the Iranians and probably the Russians.

[bIlluminati]

If I thought the Saudis could fight their way out of a wet paper bag this might be welcome news.

---

I think it’s welcome especially if they can’t. Except for the Kurds. They seem to get screwed over, and over, and over. Reminds me of the Poles, between Germany and Russia.

[BTerclinger]

“The main power brokers are Iran, Turkey, and the Saudis - who are tacitly allied with Israel. Turkey has been maneuvering with Iran for influence over Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kirghizstan, and Uzbekistan - and going along with Iran in suppressing the Kurds since the Kurds are located in both countries. Basically, whomever gains control, controls the Islamic world.

The reason the Turks exposed their espionage capabilities by skylining the Kashoggi murder was to diminish Saudi power and to elevate their own. We are closely tied to the Saudi-Jordanian-Israeli- Gulf State alliance and therefore aligned against both Iran and now, Turkey. Syria is only important to us because of its ties and assistance to Iran - and its links to Russia.”

bump that comment!

[BTerclinger]

You stand with ISIS, since KSA now stands with America AND Israel...