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Trump threatens Turkey: ‘Don’t attack Kurds or else face economic devastation.’
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Predictably the value of the Lira sunk.
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The threat has been realized.
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Turkey can now do whatever it likes.
More than 2.8 million women and children have been driven out of their Syrian homes by men with guns and bombs. They live in Turkey now. Without Turkey there is no saying what could have happened.
- On 23 April 2016, the United Nations and Arab League Envoy to Syria put out an estimate of 400,000 dead between 2011 and 2016.
- Other estimates range between 367,965 and 560,000.
- An estimated 80,000 children have been killed.
These facts make a case for demilitarizing Syria. Every weapon in the country including Bashar al Assad’s weapons of mass destruction should be destroyed. But that would take a half million blue helmet troops. Nobody has that kind of money to invest in Syria ending its war.
Hundreds of armed entities have fought for a piece of Syria. Now there is next to nothing left.
Editorial comment: Micheal John with files from Melissa Hemingway
Feminine Perspective:
Let Russia and Syria solve the problem of the militant jihadists in Syria. Iran must leave. America and allies must leave. Syria must remain intact and thrive while Bashar al Assad must step out and let the country elect a real government. Assad is not going to govern Syria. The world wants a bullet put in his head but maybe he will dodge that and go live in Antarctica in exile. If the penguins protest, he is done. That one man, Bashar al-Assad brought on this human tragedy there is no doubt. Lynching would be too good for this monster. Just think of the boost for space exploration if mankind built a prison on the dark side of the moon and funded regular shuttles with the money saved by not having scumbags like this starting horrid, enduring wars.
The rich cultural history of Turkey. The theatre at Hierapolis was built in the second century AD under the Roman Emperor Hadrian during a period of extensive rebuilding following a devastating earthquake in 60 AD. It was later renovated under Septimus Severus (193-211 AD). At this time, the scaenae frons was modified and decorated with elaborate limestone and marble carvings. Although the exterior is relatively unassuming as viewed from the front, the interior contains one of Anatolia’s most complete and best-preserved collection of Greco-Roman theatre decorations. Photo Credit: Turkish Dept. of Tourism
Only the Russian and Turkish influences have mitigated the risk of civilian casualties, particularly the Russian side. Iran is only about killing as is the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad. Russia has repeatedly brokered deals where militants were allowed to drop their weapons and take their families to neutral zones. Russia has been doing good work in Syria.
Is Trump Right about ISIS?
ISIS says, “Yes. Trump is right. We are dead and just ghosts of some imaginations. Don’t worry. Relax. Go home.”
Vladimir Putin also thinks America should go home. That’s because Putin’s soldiers and airmen are kicking the crap out of the ISIS slobs. They plan to do more. Civilians need to hunker down in place in Idlib or get out.
ISIS is a worse threat to the United States than ever before. Why? Because it is no longer publishing its address. As a Caliphate, the world knew where the fighters were. As a 30-thousand strong salafist jihad group they are like cockroaches scuttling here and there with over three billion homes to shove their ugly carcasses into. In order to be a serious threat, however, they need to construct a statehood from a perishing nation. That’s not going to happen, for now.
But Trump is right to pull troops from Syria.
There are better ways to deal with ISIS. Drones, satellites and bombers can deal with pockets of ISIS and HTS. Some five thousand Americans on the ground where the best part of a million opposed fighters are making war are at risk of being mowed down, probably by Iran which has made that promise. The threat of bombing an enemy’s home city is irrelevant if the American troops are killed. Get them home. They are indeed in harm’s way. Syria could explode in their faces.
The growing rage of Iran for America is both warranted and unpredictable. Destroying the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was a kind of foolhardiness leading to enduring war the world has seen little of since the USA entered Vietnam.
The United States should withdraw troops from Syria because the people there are great Americans, good friends, and in real danger. It’s one of those cases where you either fish or cut bait. Add 400,000 troops or get out. Neither option is palatable, nor is war of any kind. Trump has wisdom as a pragmatist. Yes, never-ending wars are like a malignant tumour. Remove them.
America also needs to get out of Iraq. US presence in Iraq is dangerous for those good people as well. They are not welcome. They are doing some great work but they are in danger. Their presence aggravates the Iranians as well as ordinary Iraqis although it is hard to tell the difference.
Trump’s disrespect for a NATO Ally, Turkey, Destabilizes America Further
Disrespecting a NATO ally is just one more US-destabilization but it is no less true that Turkey should not attack the northern regions of Syria, or any area for that matter unless it is for the specific purpose of national security.
Syria has seen enough bloodshed. Moreover, Turkey is unable to discern between Kurds who are aligned to Syria, loyal to the self governing region of Rojava; and the Kurds labelled as terrorists by the US and Europe who have slipped across the border as PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and fought against Turkey and ISIS from there.
The Syrian Kurds made their Bed with PKK in it.
America is to blame for the conundrum to which it currently finds itself exposed.
The Turks have a serious security problem threatening 84 million people including at least 4 million Syrians they must protect from violent screwballs who have slipped into Syria and Iraq and are forming a launching base for attacks against Turkey. This is not an imagined threat like the outrageous paranoia over coup attempts launched from the USA but a very real problem. Yes. Turkey must deal with riff-raff Kurds who can’t be bothered with due diligence and democratic process, they want to storm the Bastille walls and kill everyone.
This build up on the south side of the Turkish/Syrian border happened at the pleasure of the President of the United States: that would be both Obama and Trump.
Politicians are somewhat like CIA maestros. They want to shine within their time and don’t give a damn about what comes next because they won’t be around.
Killing the Islamic State Caliphate might have taken a week longer without the PKK but now that they are in Syria, Turkey is correct to claim that it wants to clean up the hornet’s nest building along its borders.
The YPG should have decided long ago if it is fish or fowl and stuck with their identity. Now it is hard to tell them apart from the Turkish terrorist crews.
It’s really simple. Just accept that when civilians who have a beef with the government grab mortars and assault rifles and begin attacking their countrymen, the democratic authority has the right to do whatever it takes to end the rampage. When it slips into a war torn region on the border, it invites attack.
Expect attacks no matter what the dishonest, treacherous, misogynistic, deceitful rapist in the US White House has to say.
HTS is an Emerging Threat in Syria’s Idlib Governorate
The HTS is able to control most of Idlib today say medical workers in the city of Idlib.
The HTS jihadists are more strict and violent than the Islamic State. Allegedly they are former al Quaeda and a virtual spin-off group having some former al Qaeda members, but the resemblance stops there. Both al Quaeda and the Islamic State appear to be considerably more moderate than the HTS which has a stricter interpretation of Sharia law and is more violent than all other Salfist Jihad groups.
Turkey has lost some raison d’etre in Syria because the groups forming the Syrian Liberation Army outposts backed by Turkey have mostly dropped out of the fight with the HTS taking over most of their held territory.
Dismantle National Security Threats, Yes, but Turkey must not threaten Syria’s borders.
Turkey has the right to protect itself from incursion by forces on the Syrian side. It should likely close its border and walk away but with 4 million or more Syrian refugees in refugee camps on the Turkish side, that is not easy.
Turkey has faced difficult times thanks to America
George Bush’s foray into Iraq lasted from 2003 to 2011 and killed roughly a million Iraqis. The instability that emerged after that bred some of the political problems the world sees today in Ankara.
Then came ISIS Jihadists and both American and Canadian bombers into Syria smashing some places to rubble in 2015. By 23 September, 2014 some 160,000 Rojava Syrians had fled to Turkey. Life under ISIL in Kobane would have been better than death under an American 500 pound bomb. The exodus that followed and the continual back and forth across the Turkish border ever since has put security in Turkey on a teeter-totter ride
Canada and the United States had no right nor any reason to bomb targets in Syria. In 2015 when Justin Trudeau came to power he put an end to Canada bombing sites in Iraq and Syria but not before bombing an ice cream factory in Mosul killing 20 civilians on 19 November 2015 and injuring dozens more.
The RINJ Foundation has published video of the dead children resulting from that attack.
There is no quibble that ISIS had located a IED-build operation nearby using the civilian traffic as a shield but the Americans had said they would not hit that target because of the chance for civilian casualties being so high. This would be less of an issue if the Canadian government had not lied. But the lie itself is part of the arrogance that put Canadian and American bombers over Syria as an act of war without good cause. In the case of Iraq, the coalition’s assistance was more or less requested by Baghdad. Attacking Syria from the air may in time have serious consequences.
If Syria or any allies decided to retaliate, American and Canadian cities were fair game. In theory that time has legitimately expired. Maybe not. 9/11 Happened because of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the former states of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The wrongful things done by the leaders of today will have consequences for our children of tomorrow.
Trump’s threat to Destroy Turkey is not good for anyone, America included.
Turkey did not deserve that abuse. It has been a good ally to all members of NATO despite America and Europe treating it like a bunch of wogs.
Turkey has shown some considerable wisdom in the past thirty years.
In 2003 Ankara told the Americans to go cut bait when a troop transport convoy arrived seeking permission to send 80,000 troops cross country into Northern Iraq. The 4th Infantry Division wanted to set up camps just north of the Iraqi border. The US Air Force wanted to fly war missions from Turkish Air Bases. “No”, was the answer. That turned out to be a very good call although at the time there was worry that technically Turkey should have, under NATO rules, helped America. A closer read says “no” because America was invading another country on a trumped up story to the UN Security Council which the US controls.
One of the reasons Turkey has been well-accepted by previous US governments and by all NATO members is that while being a Middle East nation with significant ties to all parts of the region stretching back before recorded history, it is also a well developed country with very high standards that in some case match or exceed those of the West.
Since 1991, when al Quaeda was strong in Northeast Iraq, the south side of the Iraqi border has been a haven for anti-Turk attacks by various Kurdish factions. The behaviour of the PKK has been scurrilous.
The Kurds in Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Iraq and Syria are each a different group of people, disunited except in a joint claim that there should be a Kurdistan but no agreement on where and how. They are good fighters because that is what they do most: fight. They fight with each other more so than with anyone else but have been warring with all neighbours and friends for all time. Yes they are good fighters. But that is all they are known for. The French have great wine; the Italians have amazing pasta; the Germans have the best sausage; Turkey has amazing coffee and sweets; and the Kurds are known for killing. Killing anybody. It is not something to be proud of. It was a major consideration in the early 1920s when Lester B Pearson and Winston Churchill created the regions borders the world lives with today.
Saddam Hussein replaced a King in Iraq who did not have a grip on the country. Saddam was suited to the job for his being a psychopath because only a psychopath could beat the Persians, Sunnis, and Kurds into submission and peaceful coexistence. Iraq worked under Saddam better then before and better than what has transpired since. He did kill 10,000 Kurds in the early 1980s with poisonous gas but the war of 2003 killed 100 times that number. Many Iraqis today would still say that Saddam was preferable to invasion and the current situation.
Between the first and second Gulf Wars, Iraq was cursed with the UN “Oil for Food Program”. (Give us your oil and we will let you eat.) European nations screwed over the Iraqis so badly this once rich nation was starving by the time George Bush was elected. By then Saddam was bruising egos of air forces patrolling the UN decreed no fly zones that America wanted in place to protect the Shi’ite Muslims in the South.
It would not have gone that way as Uday and Qusay Hussein, Saddam’s psychotic evil bastard kids were soon to take over Saddam’s palace running the country and they were more vile and disgusting than anyone will ever fully know. Uday was a psychopathic monster.
Kurds Helped America Kill Fellow Iraqis 17 January to 28 February 1991
America has repeatedly exploited the Kurdish capacity for fighting. Peshmerga in Iraq helped fight the Islamic State in Northern Iraq to some extent but they were more likely to fully Join ISIS or to make siripticious deals for mutual benefit under the leadership of Masoud Barzani.
In Syria, the Kurdish people are Syrian Kurds who formed the self-governed region of Rojava. Their record is incredible. While they do have their own protection forces they are the most moderate of Kurdish militants in the world. Their militias were trained by the US military after a monumental boondoggle involving the CIA training Syrian rebels (the CIA completed the training of 4 yahoos for about $4 billion).
The way to thank the Syrian Kurds of Rojava is to keep the borders of Syria intact.
If the YPG had not become tight with the PKK of Turkey, the current situation would not exist. But as one rather rabid YPG fighter put it, “what are we supposed to do, kill our brothers and sisters from Turkey who come to help us fight ISIS”?
Between 2012 and now the PKK have been on sorties in Iraq and Syria from the furthest east to the farthest west points along the border. They have been a pain-in-the-ass for everyone. The Turks have also ventured into Iraq and Syria looking after their own national interests and security concerns which are both legitimate and substantial. They have also made mind-boggling humanitarian contributions far beyond what was expected and far beyond what the world gives Turkey credit for.
The People of Turkey continue to host the world’s largest refugee population.
The number is in excess of 4 million people of which 70% are women and children. The extent of Turkey’s generosity is staggering and deserving of the world’s thanks and respect.
Turks can hold their heads high and don’t need to take any crap from a country that is tear gassing children at its southern border and has been confiscating children from migrant families. America is humbled by Turkey’s example.