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Subject: Kurds Have Been Preparing for Trump’s Syria Betrayal— Mon Oct 07, 2019 8:13 pm
Kurds Have Been Preparing for Trump’s Syria Betrayal—
A recently departed senior Pentagon official considered the pullout a “blatant betrayal” of the U.S.’ Kurdish partners that gives “carte blanche to Erdogan” for a widely forecast bloodletting. “It’s going to be a massacre, that’s clear it’s fundamentally wrong. They destroyed the Caliphate.”
But the Kurds are not entirely defenseless. Military leaders of the dominant group, known as the YPG or People’s Protection Units (and their female YPJ partners), already were in overdrive in September, preparing for what they had long anticipated— a possible betrayal by their closest ally, the United States.
Nobody who fought ISIS in Syria in one vicious battle after another has forgotten that the huge Turkish army stood by and did nothing against the Islamic State as its killers carried out genocidal campaigns against Yazidis and Shiites, while abducting, torturing, ransoming or beheading Americans, Europeans, and Japanese, among others. Through all that, NATO ally Turkey was not interested in intervention. Far from it.
While the rest of the world was silent, the YPG and YPJ can also take credit for going to the rescue of the Yazidis on Sinjar mountain in 2014, fighting to stop ISIS from carrying out a massive genocidal campaign in which ISIS cadres captured and enslaved countless Yazidi women, boys, and girls.
The men were killed by ISIS, the boys killed or indoctrinated. The women and girls subsequently were raped and treated as chattel. But thousands were able to escape with YPG help.
Many current and former White House advisors counseled against the kind of announcement made Sunday night. Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned last year over Trump’s threat to remove the few thousand U.S. troops in Syria, who not only served as advisors in the fight against ISIS, but as deterrence against Turkish operations east of the Euphrates River.
In a particularly bitter post on Twitter, Bret McGurk, who served as the special U.S. presidential envoy for the fight against ISIS from 2015 to 2018, wrote, “Donald Trump is not a Commander-in-Chief. He makes impulsive decisions with no knowledge or deliberation. He sends military personnel into harm’s way with no backing. He blusters and then leaves our allies exposed when adversaries call his bluff or he confronts a hard phone call.”
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Subject: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Tue Oct 08, 2019 12:33 am
Published 11 hours ago on October 7, 2019
Spineless Trump got ‘rolled’ by Turkish president — according to national security official who heard the call
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said he’d support a Turkish military excursion into northern Syria. The move frightened military leaders and lawmakers who warned it would harm America’s Kurdish allies in the region.
Reporter Eliot Higgins spoke with a National Security Council official about Trump’s decision, which was made after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The unnamed official said that Trump had gotten “rolled” by his Turkish counterpart.
“President Trump was definitely out-negotiated and only endorsed the troop withdraw to make it look like we are getting something—but we are not getting something,” the National Security Council source said. “The U.S. national security has entered a state of increased danger for decades to come because the president has no spine and that’s the bottom line.”
The Wise And Powerful Admin
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Subject: Re: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Tue Oct 08, 2019 4:49 am
The Wise And Powerful Admin
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Subject: Re: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Tue Oct 08, 2019 4:51 am
Grackle
Posts : 2495 Join date : 2017-09-09
Subject: Re: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Tue Oct 08, 2019 9:53 am
Quote :
Temple: "reading articles it nothing but opinion junk"
directorate Regular Member
Posts : 5789 Join date : 2017-05-22
Subject: Re: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:24 am
Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump 4hours 4minutes ago
We may be in the process of leaving Syria, but in no way have we Abandoned the Kurds, who are special people and wonderful fighters. Likewise our relationship with Turkey, a NATO and Trading partner, has been very good. Turkey already has a large Kurdish population and fully........understands that while we only had 50 soldiers remaining in that section of Syria, and they have been removed, any unforced or unnecessary fighting by Turkey will be devastating to their economy and to their very fragile currency. We are helping the Kurds financially/weapons!
directorate.. did you haul that bullshit in here via a wheelbarrow or my shovel?
Temple Regular Member
Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29
Subject: Trump has handed over Isis Fight in Syria, Turkey says, Wed Oct 09, 2019 2:26 am
Trump has handed over Isis fight in Syria, Turkey says, as offensive looms Ankara says military will cross border ‘shortly’, and claims US president gave green light, contradicting US denials
The Turkish government claimed that Donald Trump has handed it the leadership of the military campaign against Isis, and warned its forces would be crossing into Syria “shortly”.
A spokesman for the Turkish president, Recep Tayyap Erdoğan, justified the impending invasion by saying that Trump, in a telephone conversation with Erdoğan on Sunday, had handed Turkey the mantle of the counter-Isis battle that the US has been waging alongside Kurdish forces since late 2014.
Fahrettin Altun, Erdoğan’s communications director and one of his closest aides, suggested Trump had given the Turkish leader the green light for an invasion, contradicting denials from White House officials.
Kurdish military leaders inside Syria said they were braced for the invasion and claimed there had been an Isis attack on its former stronghold of Raqqa. But reports from the city suggested the attack had been small scale.
However, it deepened Kurdish fears they would soon find themselves fighting on several fronts, against Turkey, Isis and possibly Iranian or Russian-backed units aligned with Damascus, all without US support.
Joseph Votel, who headed US central command until March and was instrumental in establishing the partnership with the Kurds, said the abrupt policy decision to seemingly abandon Washington’s Kurdish partners could not have come at a worse time.
In an article he co-written on the Defense One military news site, Votel said: “This policy abandonment threatens to undo five years’ worth of fighting against Isis and will severely damage American credibility and reliability in any future fights where we need strong allies.”
directorate Regular Member
Posts : 5789 Join date : 2017-05-22
Subject: Re: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Wed Oct 09, 2019 9:09 am
I give nadda shit what AOC says about anything ... Tim Pool brings up good points about the issue ...
There's no reason to keep our troops in Syria or anywhere else in the middle east, costing us trillion$ and American lives in pointless conflicts ...What about our European allies they keep yammering about? ..Can't they hold the fort down for a change if it's necessary?
These countries over there continue their conflicts despite our funding and military presence .. Bring our troops home and concern ourselves with our own sovereignty and infrastructure ..as Trump has indicated, the U.S. can financially destroy these countries without military actions
What the ...huh? ...OMG! .. holy SHIT ...I believe Obi has changed the subject line of this thread to indicate its content, and in turn, negating Temple's heartfelt subject line of his opinion of the article he posted that doesn't cite the source or how his opinion might align with the opinion of the article he posted, besides being of the Orange Man Bad narrative ....I hope he can find the thread now for further comments on what he posted ..Obi mighta thrown him a curve ...haa
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Subject: Every Trump Supporters Should Be Ashamed , Absolutely Ashamed !! Wed Oct 09, 2019 7:02 pm
Published 31 mins ago on October 9, 2019
Special forces soldier tells Fox News reporter he’s ‘ashamed’ to carry out Trump’s order on the Kurds.
A special forces soldier spoke to Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin and confessed they were “ashamed.”
“I just spoke to a distraught US Special Forces soldier who is among the 1000 or so US troops in Syria tonight who is serving alongside the SDF Kurdish forces,” Griffin tweeted Wednesday evening.
She also said that it was one of the hardest phone calls she’s ever taken.
“I am ashamed for the first time in my career,” the soldier told her. “Turkey is not doing what it agreed to. It’s horrible.”
According to Griffin, this soldier has helped train local forces on the ground in multiple continents. Tonight, he is on the ground “witnessing Turkish atrocities.”
Turkey has been after the Kurds since the late 1970s, before most of the soldiers in the military were even born. The U.S. worked with the Kurds to fight back against ISIS in Syria, but now they’re facing attacks from another foe entirely. Already, civilians are dead at the hands of Turkey’s attacks.
He explained to Griffin that the Kurds “are as close to Western thinking in the Middle East as anyone.”
“We met every single security agreement. The Kurds met every single agreement. There was NO threat to the Turks – NONE – from this side of the border,” the soldier told Griffin. “This is insanity. I don’t know what they call atrocities but they are happening.”
Despite knowing the U.S. was supposed to be pulling out and Turkey was on its way to bomb them, the Kurdish people stayed to ensure someone was guarding ISIS prisoners, the soldier told Griffin.
“They prevented a prison break last night without us,” the soldier said. “They are not abandoning our side (yet).”
But they are “pleading for our support.” but the U.S. is doing “nothing.” He said that he anticipates the ISIS fighters will likely be “free in the coming days and weeks.”
He was surprised that Trump made that decision Sunday, he said.
“[Trump] doesn’t understand the problem. He doesn’t understand the repercussions of this. Erdogan is an Islamist, not a level-headed actor,” he said. “This is not helping the ISIS fight.”
“The Kurds are sticking by us. No other partner I have ever dealt with would stand by us,” he closed.
The Wise And Powerful Admin
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OCTOBER 11, 2019 / 2:00 PM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO Explosion near U.S. military outpost in northern Syria: U.S. official 2 MIN READ
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An explosion occurred near a U.S. military outpost in northern Syria on Friday, but no personnel were reported hurt, a U.S. official said.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the source of the explosion near Kobane, Syria, was unclear. The blast coincided with an offensive by Turkey in northeast Syria against U.S.-allied Kurds.
The official added that U.S. troops were in the outpost at the time of the explosion, but there had been no further activity since. U.S. forces have had a successful partnership with Kurdish YPG militia in Syria to oust the Islamic State group.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday that Turkey had been told of U.S. positions in Syria.
“The Turkish military is fully aware - down to explicit grid coordinate detail - of the locations of U.S. forces,” Milley said.
Top Pentagon officials stressed the need for Turkey to avoid doing anything to endanger U.S. forces inside Syria, which numbered about 1,000 before the incursion. Although U.S. troops had no intention of firing on Turkey, a NATO ally, the Pentagon noted they had the right to defend themselves, if needed.
“Everyone is fully aware that we are the United States military. We retain the right of self-defense,” Milley said.
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Subject: Re: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Sat Oct 12, 2019 6:57 pm
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Subject: Re: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Sat Oct 12, 2019 11:55 pm
Exclusive: Military leader of Syrian Kurds tells US 'you are leaving us to be slaughtered' By Barbara Starr and Ryan Browne, CNN Updated 3:59 PM ET, Sat October 12, 2019
(CNN)The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces told a senior US diplomat, "You are leaving us to be slaughtered," demanding to know whether the US is going to do anything to protect Syrian Kurds as Turkey continues its military operation targeting America's Kurdish allies in Syria.
"You have given up on us. You are leaving us to be slaughtered," Gen. Mazloum Kobani Abdi told the Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, William Roebuck, in a meeting Thursday, according to an internal US government readout that has been obtained exclusively by CNN. "You are not willing to protect the people, but you do not want another force to come and protect us. You have sold us. This is immoral," Mazloum added.
He insisted the US either help stop the Turkish attack or allow the Syrian Democratic Forces to strike a deal with the Assad regime in Damascus and their Russian backers, allowing Russian warplanes to enforce a no-fly zone over northeast Syria, thereby denying Turkey the ability to carry out airstrikes. The US does not want the Kurds turning to the Russians, administration officials say.
"I need to know if you are capable of protecting my people, of stopping these bombs falling on us or not. I need to know, because if you're not, I need to make a deal with Russia and the regime now and invite their planes to protect this region," Mazloum said.
Turkey launched its long-threatened incursion into Syria after President Donald Trump ordered a small contingent of about 50 US troops to be pulled back from the border area amid a belief that a Turkish incursion was imminent. Before that, as a confidence building measure with Turkey, the US convinced Kurds to dismantle their defensive fortifications along the border and pull their fighters back. The US said Turkey had agreed to the arrangement which sought to prevent unilateral Turkish military action.
Senior members of the Trump administration have insisted Turkey would have invaded regardless of whether US troops had remained and that the US has not deserted the Syrian Kurds, however the US government has not taken action yet to stop the Turkish incursion.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Friday the US is not abandoning its Kurdish allies, although he made it clear the US military will not intervene in the fight.
"We are not abandoning our Kurdish partner forces and US troops remain with them in other parts of Syria," Esper told reporters at the Pentagon.
"We remain in close coordination with the Syrian Democratic Forces who helped us destroy the physical caliphate of ISIS, but I will not place American service members in the middle of a longstanding conflict between the Turks and the Kurds, this is not why we are in Syria," Esper said.
Lawmakers scoff as White House threatens Turkey with sanctions but won't 'activate' them In an interview with The Tennessean on Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration "has been incredibly supportive of the Kurds" and that they had been good partners to the US. "I am very confident this administration will continue to support these people who have been good friends of the United States of America," he said.
Trump signed an executive order Friday giving the Treasury Department "very significant new sanctions authorities" against Turkey over its actions in Syria, but the US doesn't have any immediate plans to use them, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said.
The Treasury statement had said that Trump's threat of sanctions was meant to dissuade Turkey from actions that included "the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, targeting of civilian infrastructure, targeting of ethnic or religious minorities."
Trump, who has a well-established affinity for authoritarian leaders, invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House in November.
Mazloum told Roebuck Thursday that "I've been holding myself for two days from going to the press and saying that America abandoned us and that I would like you to get out of our areas now so that I can invite Russian and regime planes to take over this airspace. Either you stop this bombing on our people now or move aside so we can let in the Russians."
Roebuck told Mazloum "not to take any immediate decisions," saying he would communicate the Kurdish leaders' messages to the State Department, and saying the US was working to stop Turkey's offensive and broker a ceasefire.
CNN has reached out to the State Department and White House on Saturday for comment.
Asked what message the US was communicating to the Kurdish-led SDF, the Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said Friday that "we're encouraging them not to over-react at this point, and to try to tamp things down in order to allow some sort of diplomatic resolution to some of this."
Several US military and defense officials who have spoken to CNN expressed dismay over how the Trump administration has handled the situation. One US official said it is well known that some senior US military officials are livid at how the Kurds have been treated.
Another senior US defense official told CNN, "We are just watching the second largest Army in NATO attack one of our best counter-terrorism partners."
A US official familiar with the situation in Syria tells CNN there is growing concern that Turkey's operation in Syria has grown in ambition and that Ankara seeks to control an area stretching from the Iraq border all the way to areas in northwest Syria already under Turkish control -- an area inhabited mostly by Kurds and other minorities. Turkish officials had previously communicated to the US that the scope of the operation was narrower, focusing in the area where the now defunct US-Turkish safe zone was to be located.
The official said Friday's artillery strikes near US troops around Kobani are evidence Turkey is operating beyond the areas it had indicated to the US.
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Subject: Re: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Sun Oct 13, 2019 6:37 am
Published 56 mins ago Hundreds of ISIS supporters escape camp in Syria as Turkish troops approach, Kurds say Nicole DarrahBy Nicole Darrah | Fox News
A number of ISIS prisoners have escaped captivity after an artillery attack near a prison in northeastern Syria.
Hundreds of people affiliated with the Islamic State escaped a camp where they were being held on Sunday after Turkish forces approached the Kurdish-held town, Kurdish officials said.
About 950 ISIS-connected foreigners managed to leave the camp, located in Ain Eissa, roughly 20 miles south of the border, after detainees apparently attacked the camp's guards and gates and fled, the Kurdish-led administration said in a statement.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said Turkish warplanes struck villages near the camp on Sunday. They didn't provide the exact number of residents who fled the camp, but said clashes broke out between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and Kurdish forces.
Roughly 12,000 people, including nearly 1,000 foreign women with links to ISIS and their children, live in the camp. The town of Ain Eissa is also home to one of the largest U.S.-led coalition bases in northeastern Syria.
The Kurdish forces, who partnered with the U.S. in the fight against ISIS, say they may not be able to maintain detention facilities holding thousands of militants as they struggle to stem the Turkish advance.
Turkish forces have been pushing toward the town as part of their offensive against Kurdish-led forces — fighters which Turkey believes are terrorists because of their links to the insurgency in its southeast. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey won't stop until the Syrian Kurdish forces withdraw at least 20 miles from the border.
Turkey launched an operation to carve out a "safe zone" along the border earlier this week after President Trump moved U.S. forces aside, saying he was committed to getting out of America's "endless" wars.
The Trump administration has been criticized for abandoning the Kurds, who have been steadfast allies in the five-year-long fight against the ISIS terror group.
On Saturday, the president announced the release of $50 million in aid to human rights groups and other aid organizations in Syria in an apparent attempt to counter the criticism he's received about the pullout.
“Other presidents would not be doing that, they’d be spending a lot more money but on things that wouldn’t make you happy," Trump said while addressing a gala dinner. "The U.S. condemns the persecution of Christians and we pledge our support to Christians all over.
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Subject: Trump Keeps On Keeping On Fucking Up .. Sun Oct 13, 2019 6:56 pm
Published 4 mins ago on October 13, 2019
Trump claimed US was taking custody of 5 dozen ISIS prisoners — but troops didn’t get them before they were freed
There was a concern that the Turkish attacks on the U.S. Kurdish allies would free dozens of ISIS fighters that were captured by those on the ground. According to the Kurds, once Turkey began dropping bombs on the area, there wouldn’t be anyone who could stay to guard the prison.
The last thing the U.S. military or any allies wanted was for terrorists to be freed by Turkey’s new war. But that’s exactly what happened.
Approximately five dozen ISIS prisoners and about 700 family members and sympathizers of the Islamic State fighters “escaped a Kurdish-run camp in northern Syria as Turkish-led assault unleashes chaos.”
A Special Forces soldier told Fox News this week that despite knowing the U.S. was supposed to be pulling out and Turkey was on its way to bomb them, the Kurdish people stayed as long as they could to ensure someone was guarding ISIS prisoners.
“They prevented a prison break last night without us,” the soldier said Wednesday. “They are not abandoning our side (yet).”
He warned Wednesday that the ISIS fighters would likely be free in the coming days or weeks. It took just four days for ISIS to be free again and back on the battlefield.
By Sunday, those prisoners and supporters went unguarded as Kurds fled for their lives.
“[Trump] doesn’t understand the problem. He doesn’t understand the repercussions of this. Erdogan is an Islamist, not a level-headed actor,” the soldier said. “This is not helping the ISIS fight.”
Indeed, these ISIS fighters could easily head to Europe and even fly to the United States.
“ISIS has already claimed responsibility for at least two attacks since the start of the invasion, including one car bomb in a border city, Qamishli, and another on an international military base outside Hasaka, a regional capital further to the south,” The Times noted.
directorate Regular Member
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Subject: Re: Turkey / Syria / Kurds Mon Oct 14, 2019 4:36 am
OCTOBER 14, 2019 / 12:24 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO Syrian Kurdish leaders: Damascus deal to protect border, politics later 2 MIN READ
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Kurdish leaders said a deal with Damascus, brokered by Russia, centers for now on army troops deploying along the border and the two sides will talk politics later.
Top Kurdish politician Aldar Xelil said “the emergency measure” with oversight from the government’s key ally Russia was meant to block Turkish attacks at the border.
Washington said on Sunday it will withdraw its 1,000 troops from Syria in the face of an expanding Turkish offensive, while Damascus struck a deal with Kurdish forces to redeploy at the border - victories for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The remarkable turn of events kicked off a week ago when U.S. President Donald Trump decided to withdraw forces from two outposts in northern Syria, where American troops have been stationed for years.
The move opened the way for Turkey’s incursion into northeast Syria within days, targeting the Kurdish YPG militia and its allies who control the region.
Syrian army soldiers are now poised to enter border territory from the town of Manbij to Derik, under the deal with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the YPG spearheads and which controls the northeast.
“After the Americans abandoned the region, and gave the green light for the Turkish attack, we were forced to explore another option, which is talks with Damascus and Moscow to find a way out and thwart these Turkish attacks,” senior Kurdish official Badran Jia Kurd said.
“This is a preliminary military agreement. The political aspects were not discussed, and these will be discussed at later stages.”
State media said army units entered the town of Tel Tamer in northeast Syria on Monday, some 35 km from a focal point of the Turkish offensive.
“The priority now is protecting the border’s security from the Turkish danger,” Xelil said. “We are in contact with the Damascus government to reach common (ground) in the future.”
haha! ..It's absolutely ridiculous ...ya can't believe a damn thing from the MSM nowadays ..Pushing the leftist, anti Trump agenda is their only purpose anymore ...Deceive, misinform, blatantly lie ..As long as it's the Orange Man Bad narrative it's fair game to feed to the public as "news"
...I figured MSM networks like CBS and ABC to be kinda on the "outskirts" of blatant fake news like MSNBC and CNN ...as if they sometimes *tried* to report the facts ...that's not even the case anymore ...I'd much sooner get more accurate, objective facts from a disheveled, unkempt guy making youtube videos from a phone in his friggin car forfuksake ...lol
Quote :
ABC News regrets the error.
...Well I bet they *Regret* it NOW, after bein' caught red handed manipulating a video and intentionally broadcasting the fake shit on their network to push their anti Trump narrative to dupe the public instead of doing their job and reporting an accurate, objective account of the issue ...sheesh ...SMH
Sean Davis @seanmdav That video never “appeared to be from the Syrian border,” as the audience at the Kentucky gun show where the video was shot is clearly visible. ABC News deliberately edited that out and is now pretending this is all some honest mistake. Nonsense.
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