When all our friends around the world are killed off, who will be our friends?
The Kurds have not attacked US forces to my knowledge.
They hold similar views to ours concerning Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
As far as I know they are not anti-Israel.
We have the power to stop them from being slaughtered.
If we allow them to be conquered and killed off, when we have the ability to stop it, it will say a lot about us, and nothing good
What is our night worth, if we are unwilling to do the right things with it.
Correction:
What is our might worth, if we are unwilling to do the right things with it.
“What is our night worth, if we are unwilling to do the right things with it.”
As I understand it we had about 150 people there. That’s not enough to stop anything. We would have to commit to attacking an “ally.” It would be a major effort with hundreds of us servicemen in Turkey at bases like Incirlik. How, when we attack Turkey, are we going to get our people out of Turkey? Now, on the other hand, if we give the Kurds hundreds of TOW missiles and tell Turkey they have them, this whole thing may become a tempest in a teapot.
The politics in the region make the Byzantine Empire look like a kindergarten class. I think Trump is making the only call he can in a situation where there is no “right” thing to do.
The first question in any foreign policy needs to be “what does it do for US?”
Since WWI we have spilled our blood and emptied our doffers for everyone else. All of our friends around the world are our friends until we ask something of them. The Kurds too.
They too, love us until they don’t.
All of “youse guys” who think we ought to get all up in the Turks faces- the enlistment age for the Army is 42. If of age, go to it. If over, then send your sons. Otherwise you are full of crap.
And yes, I have children in uniform. I used to swear them in at re-enlistment/commissioning,, no longer. I ain’t like that no more.
Turkey is in for a much tougher fight than what they are planning for.
There are multiple external restrictions on their actions. Scorched earth and wholesale slaughter will not be tolerated, under threat of US sanctions, and Syrian/Russian military intervention.
Not to mention the Kurds are well supplied and well trained.
Turkey just grabbed the tar baby.
But by us pulling out, we will allow the region to achieve its own equilibrium, something not possible when Goliath roams the mountains.