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‘Did Erdogan blackmail the president?'

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way
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Wesley Clark on Trump’s Syria withdrawal: ‘Did Erdogan blackmail the president?'


Syrian Kurds fighting together with US forces in Syria.


Because Trump has such a transactional nature, there could also very well be a quid-pro-quo agreement with the Turkish dictator Erdogan. Trump gets Erdogan to back off from his pressure campaign against Saudi Arabia for the murder of US resident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Kingdom's Turkey consulate. In return, Trump withdraws US forces from Syria and agrees to look the other way as Erdogan slaughters the Syrian Kurds, dependable US allies in Syria since 2014.

Related: Turkey Edges Closer to Attacking Kurdish Stronghold in Syria
 
Lack of war, ending any war, or ending the Cold War all drives the Democratic Party, the party of war and death, crazy. If the DNC had it's way we'd still have half a million troops in Vietnam.
 
joko104 said:
Lack of war, ending any war, or ending the Cold War all drives the Democratic Party, the party of war and death, crazy. If the DNC had it's way we'd still have half a million troops in Vietnam.
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It is like you guys have completely forgotten the days neocon nation-building.
 

I am pretty sure I mentioned this before the erdogan blackmail topic came to be, but turkey had been threatening to invade a few weeks before this whole thing went down. Trump not only had to worry about possible all out war with russia over syria, but it became the possibility of all out war with turkey as well, turkey is part of nato and the second most powerful nato member, so war with turkey and even russia would not only tear nato apart but give russia quite an edge,


He likely decided such a breakdown was not worth it, to position america in a lose-lose situation by breaking apart nato sending erdogan into russias arms granting russia near complete control of the black sea plus access to the mediterrainian to control as well. Sometimes you need to look at the big picture and realize leaders are not making choices over such small conflicts, but making such over a whole of a region.
 
beerftw said:
I am pretty sure I mentioned this before the erdogan blackmail topic came to be, but turkey had been threatening to invade a few weeks before this whole thing went down.
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Turkey did invade Afrin canton February-March 2018. Hundreds died. Erdogan only stopped because of a US blocking force at Manbij just east of Afrin.

Now that force will [conveniently] be removed by Trump.
 
joko104 said:
Lack of war, ending any war, or ending the Cold War all drives the Democratic Party, the party of war and death, crazy. If the DNC had it's way we'd still have half a million troops in Vietnam.
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^
They spend 8 years accusing Obama of being weak on terror, of palling around with terrorists, of creating ISIS by pulling out of Iraq, yadda yadda - and that's after several more years of attacking Democrats for opposing the Iraq War, puffing themselves up on what big tough patriots they are for supporting the war and our torture program - and now they're going to try to run their mouths about how the Democrats are supposedly the "party of war"?

I wish I could still be surprised. Such well-studied dishonesty.



The Democrats have spent all that time trying to get us out of pointless conflicts the people you vote for started without actually making the situation worse. You spent all that time slandering them for it. You're only a born-again pacifist because you feel that that is what is necessary to defend Trump. If he had instead ordered another 20,000 troops in, you'd be cheering him on for it.
 
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joko104 said:
Lack of war, ending any war, or ending the Cold War all drives the Democratic Party, the party of war and death, crazy. If the DNC had it's way we'd still have half a million troops in Vietnam.
Click to expand...

You have clearly forgotten about this monster:

 
Phys251 said:
You have clearly forgotten about this monster:
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Oh, they'll just claim Cheney was a "RINO", or perhaps claim they never voted for Bush. They'll type anything.
 
Ergodan and these other autocratic leaders don't need to blackmail Trump to get what they want.

All they have to do is flatter him and he laps it up.

Ergodan smiles at Trump and bingo bango, new policy is enacted without running it by the Pentagon first.
 

What a comforting thought for our adversaries in the world. All you have to do is make a call to Donald and muse a bit about your intentions in this case Turkey's intentions in a region and Donald will just cut and run.

As for the chance of all out war with Russia, people should get real. Neither Russia nor the US would have gone to all out war over Syria. Putin certainly would not have been STUPID enough for that. Though you cannot be sure about our guy AT ALL! All bets are off with regard to what nonsense that peabrain might concoct.

Trump today tweeting that "Turkey will take care of ISIS for us". Based on what Donald? You can bet that Turkey will slaughter our allies the Kurds if they cross the border into Syria. That is the one you can take to the bank.
 
Mr Person said:
No worries. Their reticence will be the Democrats' fault the next time the GOP starts a war there. People don't matter and neither do words.
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US soldiers in-theater I have spoken to are very bitter. They've been in the suck with the Kurds for a long time.

We're going to regret this betrayal down the road. When [the defeated] ISIS begins to attack the mainland US.
 
And I want to be clear: I argued against an Iraq invasion since 2002, which is when I started hearing ominous noises from the Bush admin. They came to fruition in 2003. But once we're there, we own it. You break it, you buy it.

We need to do right by the Kurds. This is a ****ing travesty.


PS: We're good at travesties. Do you know that quite a few Afghanis who helped us during our spat with the Taliban were sent through 2-3 years of immigration red tape but got slaughtered by the Taliban while waiting, in direct contradiction of what our troops told them?

Did you?







We will rightly be seen as faithless and untrustworthy for decades. It will hurt. And God DAMN anyone who turns around to blame "liberals" or "leftists" for it, which inevitably they will do. Probably the same sort of people who let their dogs' **** in the snow on my morning running path because nobody can see it when it happens....but then the turds have to be dodged when it melts.
 
Rogue Valley said:
US soldiers in-theater I have spoken to are very bitter. They've been in the suck with the Kurds for a long time.

We're going to regret this betrayal down the road. When [the defeated] ISIS begins to attack the mainland US.
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I can't measure the cup of woe/bitterness I'd be draining if I had served and then he did this.




FFS, we ask people to die young on some sandy hill, in some trench, in some jungle. We ask them to bleed and die in the **** and mud. And then "**** it, we're out, because CiC changed hands"?

It was for nothing...

I'd rather we not have been there, but damnit we went there. We bought it. We fix it.
 
joko104 said:
Lack of war, ending any war, or ending the Cold War all drives the Democratic Party, the party of war and death, crazy. If the DNC had it's way we'd still have half a million troops in Vietnam.
Click to expand...

I see what you did there
 
joko104 said:
Lack of war, ending any war, or ending the Cold War all drives the Democratic Party, the party of war and death, crazy. If the DNC had it's way we'd still have half a million troops in Vietnam.
Click to expand...

Wan't it the GOp that got us into the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? Maybe I am wrong but it seems like it was their leadership and lies that got us into the two wars and not the Dems.
 
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