Geopolitical Hotspots: The Middle East

Sometime life gives us lemons

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Yep like this letter.

Turkish president Erdogan ‘threw Trump’s Syria letter in bin’

:grimacing:

Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan for several hours on Thursday and agreed on the brief ceasefire agreement, which gives Kurdish fighters 120 hours to leave the 20-mile-wide occupied zone along the Turkey-Syria border.

“Once that is completed, Turkey has agreed to a permanent cease-fire,” Pence said.

Just tweaking the border is all. Nothing to see here. :whistle:

typing something like that is pretty easy being an ocean away from the hotspot.

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Well, clearly the 100 year old border wasn’t working. I am hopeful that the new one will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=X5Cu8WiWgmU

Update on what’s actually happening on the ground.

Russia/Syrian troops taking over land together; Kurds being squeezed to the East, while making political deals.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/10/18/romney_trump_syria_policy_a_bloodstain_in_the_annals_of_american_history.html

I am having a hard time squaring the fact that Romney and other “stabilizing forces” in the US government think that a splintered band of well, mercenaries, are more worthy of continued US support on a forever battlefield than to support a NATO member (one that happens to have a few dozen US nuclear tipped missiles) that wishes to make said battlefield into a 49th parallel.

My prediction: Turkey is going to get a decisive win on the border, and Syrussiran is going to be fine with it and will look to calm down the innards of the country. The Kurds usefulness will return when and if ISIS or the next boogeyman pops up.

And this guy is just ridiculous:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/10/18/dem_rep_ro_khanna_on_syria_does_trump_care_about_non-american_lives.html

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, I have called for responsible withdrawal, but not a withdrawal that is oblivious to human life in Syria or to American interests in Syria. President Trump, at the very first instance, should have notified the Kurds about what our intentions were, and notified our allies. I mean, he did this in a phone call with Erdoğan without even giving the Kurds notice. And, in fact, we were misleading the Kurds to believe that the Americans would have their back.

Second, we have a tremendous amount of leverage with Turkey. We could have gotten a deal with Erdoğan that would have prevented this kind of invasion. We give them military support. We give them economic support. They are a NATO ally. There was no consideration of that with the Trump administration.

But his answer really illustrates what he’s thinking, in that he does not have any concern for non-American life. Here, it’s just a total indifference to the fate of the Kurds who fought with us. That’s not the American tradition. In America, we believe and have a consideration for human rights.


Trump has made a point of not telegraphing military action. Why would he tell the Kurds they were about to be let go? So they could make one last push for territory?

And this guy…never heard of him before…has a real lack of awareness about the US’s history of human rights. Ask the Indians, or the Mexicans…just for starters. :roll:

Why are Kurds in Syria responsible for overseeing prisons full of former ISIS fighters? They (the Kurds) aren’t even a unified group and don’t have territory of their own. I know the prisoners probably wouldn’t survive if Turkey was in charge and imagine that’s the reason but if they aren’t going to be kept by an actual state, why not send the prisoners back to their home countries for prosecution?

They’d just be released on their own recognizance? :idunno:

I suppose that a lot of countries would release them and others would probably execute them without a real trial. However, simply handing the keys over to Kurdish fighters doesn’t seem like a much brighter solution.

Presumably, some are from western countries like Germany and the UK who have actual legal systems.

Reminds me of this clip I saw recently. Kurds will fight for Kurdish reasons, Americans, if they choose to align themselves with other groups like the Kurds have a price to pay too. I really believe this is the toughest part of being the President, I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.

I’d wish it on Homey, just to see the look on his face when every implacable thing he thinks is dismissed as …wait for it…
image

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/10/20/lindsey_graham_after_talking_to_trump_about_syria_im_increasingly_optimistic_this_could_turn_out_very_well.html

So let me tell you where I think we are. Withhold judgment as to what’s going to happen in Syria until it’s all in. I am increasingly optimistic that we can have some historic solutions in Syria that have eluded us for years, if we play our cards right.

I blame Erdogan for the invasion, not Trump. But here is what the president told me over the weekend. Here are our objectives, to make sure we have a demilitarized zone between Turkey and the Kurds. The Kurds were the allies what helped us defeat ISIS. They lost 10,000 soldiers. We have lost eight in four years. God bless the eight, but it was the Kurds who did most of the fighting.

Protect our NATO ally Turkey from elements of the Kurds that they considered to be terrorists, a demilitarized zone occupied by international forces, no Americans, but we provide airpower.

The president appreciates what the Kurds have done. He wants to make sure ISIS doesn’t come back. I expect we will continue to partner with the Kurds into Eastern Syria to make sure ISIS doesn’t reemerge. That is in our national security interests, and we owe it to the Kurds.

The big thing for me is the oil fields. President Trump is thinking outside the box. I was so impressed with his thinking about the oil. Not only are we going to deny the oil fields falling into Iranian hands. I believe we’re on the verge of a joint venture between us and the Syrian Democratic Forces, who helped destroy ISIS and keep them destroyed, to modernize the oil fields and make sure they get the revenue, not the Iranians, not Assad.

Handing the keys over lol. This is the new stupidest thing I’ve heard this week. I mean that’s really dumb man. :sunglasses:

They CAPTURED THEM by fighting a vicious war in which 11000 Kurds died. ISIS regularly attacked Kurdish cities too.

I like you stated a data point about something entirely unrelated and then pretended that was the actual topic being addressed.

A group of nomadic people bound only for the sake of discussion by their ethnicity but possessing no land, no leader, no state to call their own operating outside of international law and jurisdiction should not be responsible for safeguarding prisoners held in a country that is not their own. I don’t care if a gang of illegal Mexican immigrants catch a bank robber in California; they don’t get to keep him.

So take the tens of thousands of ISIS prisoners and their families then if you want them lol. I think the US took about five so far.

A group of nomadic people ?
That’s their home ya big eejit. Where do you think they are going to move to ?

Also a bit of reading required before commenting is a good thing.

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It’s nice that you agree that countries should take their citizens back. The US should absolutely take US citizens caught up in the War against ISIS. Germany should do the same. The UK the same. Saudi, likewise. If the UN was worth anything, they could swoop in and stop the intrusion in a moment but everybody knows they won’t.

It’s cute that you’ve expanded your “DO UR RESEARCH” trope beyond vaccines and gun control. Really, I applaud your effort and am certain you were concerned about the fate of the Kurds before #orangemanbad.

I don’t know man, I’d delete your posts earlier if I was you and leave it at that :grin:.

Cos they are still there and not a good look for you.:sunglasses:

It’s pretty stupid to not know it’s the KURDS who battled ISIS and defeated them in North Syria and captured all those prisoners , not the Americans. You know the battle of Kobani for instance where at least 1600 people died.

Oh you didn’t know ? What a surprise.
Here educate yourself.

https://youtu.be/AE7_C3mkCVg

I mean you really didn’t know anything about this at all but hey keep commenting and digging that hole.

On this one, I’m with the “jumped-up buffoon.”

I’ve just about heard it all:

Keeping our commitments, independence, world order, halting the spread of communism:

–Lyndon Johnson, speech , American University, April 1965

Fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here:

–Lyndon Johnson, speech, November 2, 1966

We even did one for jobs:

–“[Secretary of State James] Baker to Reporters: Iraq Sits on ‘Economic Lifeline’ of World,” Citizen’s Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, November 14, 1990

And of course there were other reasons for other wars.

I’m done, so just set me down with the buffoons.