THE DEMOCRATS HAVE CHANGED THIER TUNE ON SYRIA
Only a few years ago the Democrats were eager to “bring our troops home” from the all too many parts of the ME. They argued and railed against the tragic human and massive financial costs of Bush II’s (and Obama’s) admittedly mistaken Middle Eastern wars of choice. But today they sing a completely different tune. Why? A pervasive mental disorder infects the progressives..
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The Trump Era is a time when a potent virus, the cause of the Trump-Hysterical-Hatred Syndrome (THHS), has infected many on the left. It has coursed through the veins of its hosts, infected the cerebral cortex and there manifested its debilitating effects on the centers of memory, restraint and logic. The diseased are radically altered by the infection: individuals are found closeted “speaking in tongues” they never studied, or having thoughts they never imagined possible. As a result of the THHS plague journalists become stenographers for politicians, honest folk become prevaricators, and pacifists morph into warmongers.
The impact of the plague is so pervasive many now claim that if President Trump would somehow eliminate the terrible opioid epidemic, the Democrats would probably find fault with it. Perhaps, they would charge Trump with a drop in the value of Pharma stocks or the unabated pain in citizenry. . Or if he somehow cured cancer, they would bewail the fact that resulting decreased mortality led to higher populations and consequently more green house gases. Trump can not win with this group. So what can you expect from them on the complex issue of Syria?
President Trump recently (October 2019) withdrew a small contingent of US troops from war-torn Syria. They served there in northern Syria as a “trip wire force” to help protect well-armed Kurdish forces which occupied a swath of northern Syria which borders Turkey.
What you should know to evaluate this action.
The Kurds are a distinct ethnic group with their own language, culture and religion which is neither Sunni or Shiite. They are scattered through Asia Minor where they are found as ethnic minorities in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. They have fought for a state of their own since the end of WWI and the break up the Ottoman Empire. Those Kurds who live in Turkey have turned to horrendous acts of terrorism to achieve that goal. Turkey has suffered many thousands of deaths as a result of the Kurd’s push for autonomy or statehood. Turkey considers them violent terrorists on the par with ISIS.
As the Syrian Civil War began to unfold, President Obama began an unwise policy of illegal, unsanctioned, covert intervention in Syrian with the goal of unseating long time leader of Syria, Bashar Assad, Obama, the Nobel Peace laureate (who should have known better) continued and even expanded the discredited foreign policies of George Bush II whose disastrous acts of “regime change” were tantamount to crimes against humanity in Asia Minor.
Furthermore, the Obama policy was doomed to failure and a.fool’s errand since Assad always held on to the allegiance of about 60% of the polyglot and mixed religious citizenry of more densely populated western Syria. Obama’s unwise short-term (Bush II-like) polices of “regime change” and “wars of choice” only expanded and extended the length of the terrible and bloody civil conflict The Obama regime armed any who opposed Assad, including extreme elements of the Sunni radical minorities who would have been worse despots than Assad.
A key part of Obama’s failed Syrian policy was to arm and support the Kurds who were a more homogeneous, coherent and well-led military force, having much experience fighting Turkish army regulars in southeastern Turkey. The Kurds, with US money, CIA support, financial aid, war materiel as well as intelligence support fought ISIS terrorists as they covertly established themselves and built military defenses in several communities in northern and eastern Syria along the border with Turkey.
These acts of intervention in Syria by the USA and their Kurdish cooperators elicited strenuous objections from Istanbul and Ankara. But were ignored by the USA.
From the Turkish perspective the USA a NATO ally was establishing Kurdish military bases and supporting settlements which would act as sources of terrorism in Turkey proper only a few kilometers away. These well-armed Kurdish forces and enclaves on their southern border were adjacent to a region in Turkey rife with Kurdish unrest and a hotbed of terrorist acts. But a near autonomous, well armed Kurdish military base and enclave established and supported by the USA only a kilometer south of the Turkish border would be an existential threat to Turkey. It was not possible for our powerful, well armed and key NATO ally to accept this situation.
President Trump acted. He removed the US “trip with forces” and looked the other way as Turkey invaded a swath of several kilometers south of its border in Syria to cleanse it of Kurdish troops and settlers.
The Turks claim that they will clear the area of Kurds, and will resettle Syrian refuges (now living precariously in refugee camps in Turkey) in those areas to act as a buffer against return of the Kurds. These Syrian settlers will help to pacify the eastern portion of Syria. The plan will relieve Turkey of the financial burden of supporting thousands of Syrians who they agreed to detain in Turkey so they would not create a migrant flood into Europe.
The Trump policy of removing troops in harms way was a wise one. It was inevitable, It was politically difficult, but it was the correct policy for this time. Future historians will record it as an historic and heroic act by our President.
Let the close-minded, militant war hawks on the right and the phony virus-plagued Trump-hating war-hawks on the left howl all they like. The deed is done, the dogs of war released and now we wait for peace and for the dust of battle to settle. President Trump is right and his detractors are all wrong.
Had President Obama the necessary rigidity in his spinal column he might have made a similar decision, if so the Dems would be attempting to award him another Nobel Peace Prize, while they reward President Trump only with only disdain, derision and contempt.
Ahhh that virus which infects their brains what harm it does.
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