"Kurds Betrayal" Topic

"The Turkish Army rolled across the border into northeastern Syrian last week, beginning a campaign to clear the border region of Kurdish fighters. The 50–100 U.S. troops previously in the area withdrew on President Trump's order, leaving their erstwhile Kurdish allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to the tender mercies of the Turks. Dozens have been killed, and an estimated 160,000 civilians have fled the fighting. Trump dispatched all of his national security heavyweights to attempt to find a resolution: National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are all in Ankara. Yet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected calls for a ceasefire.

The reaction to Trump's pullback has been immediate and nearly unanimous. Pundits denounced Trump for betraying the "ally" who had defeated ISIS, albeit with ample American aid. Special Forces soldiers who fought beside the SDF told reporters about their shame. Congress, despite never authorizing the war in the first place, is incensed about any potential U.S. drawdown in Syria. But this rejection of the Kurds was always going to happen sooner or later. Though Trump appears to have left the Kurds in a particularly peremptory and callous manner, the real issue is the way in which America habitually acquires, arms, and then abandons partners of convenience…"
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Amicalement
Armand

The USA entered Syria to neutralize ISIS.
That mission was accomplished.
There was no reason to stay there.
There is no mutual defense treat between the US and the Kurds.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Bring all of our soldiers home and let the other countries sort out their own problems. Some of these wars have been going on since they only had rocks to throw at each other.

I think we have a moral obligation to support people who have aided us in our fights. Having 50-100 soldiers stationed somewhere seems a small price to pay for peace in a region.
Does it seem odd to anyone else that the Turks were able to launch their attacks within 2 days of learning of our withdrawal?

+1 Bunkermeister! In addition, we've been training and supporting the Kurds (at various levels) for 20 years or so.

Its all very well to say: great, job done, see ya!
We absolutely need to get our troops out of that area. Its a never-ending quagmire.
But when you get involved anywhere away from home you develop relationships, forge alliances. There will always be complications upon withdrawing but a responsible nation insures their allies are as secure as possible. Blindsiding them with effective abandonment, knowing full well what the consequences are going to be raises moral questions and is very short-sighted from a long term military perspective, clearly.
If we've been supporting the Kurds for a long time, but not to the point where they would be able to stand up to their self-declared enemy, whos ready to pounce, does that make it a good thing to drop them like a hot potato?
I think we should have handled this a little more as the majority of our own military would have preferred.

The Kurds would have never told us, "It's OK now – you can withdraw your troops". There is never a convenient time to do this.

Let's not beat around the bush here. The Kurds should never have expected the US to be the guarantor of their security or back their claims to statehood. It is simply not realistic or politically feasible.

True, they were "recruited" and were integral to the western US-led coalition which helped reduce if not entirely defeat ISIS and we thank them for that, but looking at the big picture they were only one minor player among many, namely Russia and Assad's Syrian army as well as Iran and its coalition of various volunteer militias drawn from Iraq and Afghanistan. ISIS very likely would have been reduced/defeated even without their contribution anyway.

Let Russia and Iran deal with ISIS in the long term. The US should not drain its resources fighting "forever wars" in the ME; its efforts are better directed elsewhere like countering China in the Pacific and Russia in eastern Europe.

Plus, the Kurds were well paid (over $4 USD million) for their assistance. Not counting material and training.

Syria is not our circus and not our monkey.

Dave

50-100, 10,000 or 100,000…

Small "price" to "pay"!?!

GOOD!!!

Then send YOURSELF or your kids to pay the "price"!

Bring our's HOME!!!

The Kurds have, over the past 16 years proven to be about the only real justification to have American forces in the middle east at all – down trodden repressed people who want to modernize, who want to form a stable democratic nation state. And we just pack up and leave a bunch of dictators to stomp them into the ground again.

Shameful.

It's a pit, time to stop digging and get out

What is shameful is to keep troops in Syria but only around the oil fields as Trump stated…

And we elected him to drain the swamp. Ha!

Oil is a vital resource; sounds like it's in our national strategic interest. Oil is the reason we fought the first gulf war with Iraq back in 1991.