Posted on 12/23/2018 7:44:08 AM PST by familyop
BEIRUT (AP) Turkey is massing troops near a town in northern Syria held by a U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led force, a war monitor and Turkish media said Sunday.
The buildup comes even though Turkey said it would delay a promised offensive in eastern Syria in the wake of U.S. decisions to withdraw its troops.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
If the Saudis are ever going to take the Americans place in supporting the Kurds, now is the time.
Now, not eight months from now.
Sounds like a DEEP STATE Fake News operation to again embarrass Trump. I don’t trust a DAMN THING coming from them.
We are watching Saudi Arabia please no more Turkey destruction of people who deserve their own nation. Has not turkey created enough genocide of people in their history? First it was the christians then the Armenians now the Kurds who did way more damage to destroy Isis...I am sure if you help to protect them they would be very useful in your actions against Iran???2 nations fight better than 1 alone.....especially the Kurds their women are huge fighters...
Erdogan lies....again.
In order to re-establish the Ottoman Empire, and the Caliphate based in Ankara, ALL dissident minorities must be extinguished.
Even if they might also be Muslim, as many Kurds are.
The US should recognize Kurdistan, carved out of parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, as well as parts of the old Soviet Union (Azerbaijan).
“Kurdish held Syrian town...”. Does that mean it was invaded by Kurds and occupied, or is it another media lie describing a Kurdish town as one “held”?
Let the genocide begin ... it the one thing Turks are really good at ...
Good luck, Saudis! It’s time to step up for us letting you literally murder any islamist you want to.
Turkey trying to commit genocide again! I U.N. Geta off your butts!
The Shiite is about to hit the fan.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan meet in Sochi, Russia November 22, 2017. (photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL METZEL/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS) The Three Amigos
So, no matter what we did, Turkey was set on invading Kurd territory.
It’s good we’re not there, we don’t need any more wars over there...we’ve got fracking.
I know the kurds are our allies and all that, but what have they ever done for us? or me?
The big media companies have been telling us that we’re a net oil exporter (exports compared to imports). What they haven’t told us, is that we still consume more than we produce and continue to be dependent on imports (consumption vs. domestic production).
Contrary to propaganda sponsored by globalists, globalists don’t want wars. Wars destabilize markets. Globalists could lose everything in disturbed markets. At the least, globalists pay much higher taxes to pay for world wars and are obligated to reward millions of men for their service.
That’s why several billionaires have said that there won’t be any more wars. It’s their wishful thinking. They are afraid of wars. From time to time, enemy attack is imminent, though. Globalists cannot afford to lose a world war, either. They would lose everything in that case, too.
The Kurds DID do most of the heavy lifting, and took almost all the casualties, in fighting ISIS. So, we “owe them one”.
Plus, it was our mistakes that in large part led to ISIS (we owe the Kurds again), and then to ISIS becoming so strong (more thousands of Kurdish deaths.)
Aside from the Kurds, there is the issue of the Syrian Christians: Can they ever go home?
If Syria could somehow be mostly left alone by everyone, aside from an occasional potent airstrike if Assad grossly misbehaves, the Christians and Kurds would probably be “ok” under Assad. Unfortunately, nature abhors a vacuum, and Assad, less the Russians and / or Iranians, doesn’t have much left to work with.
That brings us to the issue of Russian and Iranian influence in Syria. I have MAJOR problems with Syria (or a large part of it) becoming a defacto province of Iran. That, not in a year or two, but eventually, leads almost certainly to a war that spills well outside the ME and includes nuclear and large scale WMD usage.
Russia controlling Syria I could live with, especially if Israel and Russia could come to an accommodation where Hezbollah / Iran cannot operate in any part of Syria close enough to Israel to launch missiles into Israel. That should benefit Assad, if he behaves, as it virtually eliminates Israel’s reasons to hit Syria with airstrikes.
I rather suspect the Saudis could live with that too, as it may be that Qatar needs that pipeline to Europe, sometimes referenced here and elsewhere, more than does Saudi Arabia. But the relationship between SA and Qatar is really on the rocks now, and what with gas and oil production capacity glutting the market for the foreseeable future, and Saudi Arabia working on local production of other petro products (plastics, fertilizer, etc.) maybe the Saudis figure yet another pipeline won’t help SA very much at present?
Of course SA now saying it will put forces in Syria flies against the above. But, maybe those forces are just for negotiating leverage with Russia? (SA certainly now has the weaponry to make the point & be difficult to push out. Whether they have the skills & mindset is a different story.)
Note that only a little of the above “concern” is for Israel itself. I think they can defend themselves. The Kurds, however, don’t presently have the arms to do so.
The prospects of a much wider “WMD and/or nuclear” war several(?) years from now are the most alarming of all.
All in all, I am “ok” with the US pullout in Syria if:
A) Iran / Hezbollah is mostly pushed out too.
B) The Kurds are allowed to have any short and medium range weapons they desire, with the stipulation those weapons cannot be used for offensive actions against any territory the US designates, with case by case approval sometimes requestable. Infractions maybe subject to heavy NATO air or missile strikes as discipline. Said weapons also cannot be resold without US permission, and the US reserves the right to limit quantities to those conceivably useful. We will donate to the Kurds the 1st year’s supply, with following years paid in oil delivered @ market prices if the Kurds so wish.
C) The Christians get some protections.
D) Some accommodations can be worked out with the Russians.
..................
Nice of the Turks to delay until our troops are gone. Good sense too. Clearly Ergodan was planning on attacking our forces if necessary.
“The Kurds DID do most of the heavy lifting, and took almost all the casualties, in fighting ISIS. So, we owe them one.”
Pffft. The Soviets did most of the “heavy lifting” against the Nazis...did we “owe them”?
We have NO troops on our southern border, until we do, we should have NO troops ANYWHERE.
America First.
Mid-east Last.
The Kurds are not Arabs. I think they might even be Shiites.
Trp is right on Afghanistan. Very wrong on Syria.
Turks are a virulent racist disease that should be exterminated. They helped create the mess in the Balkans and in the Middle East.
The Tirks are pigs. Racist vermin from the wastes of Central Asia who should be sent back there.
Absolutely.
Create an independent Kurdistan and Greater Armenia and help them and the Greeks extirpate these execrable race of murdering savages.
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