Turkey says will launch Syria attack if US delays troop pullout

[TU Curmudgeon]

From al-Jazeera

Turkey says will launch Syria attack if US delays troop pullout
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Turkey will go ahead with an offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syria if the United States delays the withdrawal of its troops from the war-torn country, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said.

"If the [withdrawal] is put off with ridiculous excuses like Turks are massacring Kurds, which do not reflect the reality, we will implement this decision," he told NTV channel on Thursday.

Cavusoglu said a military operation against the US-allied Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which it has pledged to carry out in northeastern Syria, is not dependent on the pullout of US troops.

"We are determined on the field and at the table ... We will decide on its timing and we will not receive permission from anyone."

COMMENT:-

The US is going to be in a rather difficult position if the Turks DO attack the group that the Turks have designated as terrorists because then the US government is going to have to pick from amongst several rather unpalatable options:

1. tell the whole world that ONLY the government of the United States of America has the right to determine who is, and who is not, a terrorist;
2. tell the whole world that ONLY the government of the United States of America has the right to determine which organization is, or is not, a terrorist organization;
3. stand by while the Turks attack an organization that the US government supports but which the Turkish government has declared to be a terrorist organization; or
4. use the US military against the Turkish military (which, considering that the Turks have around 500,000 military personnel available close at hand and the US has approximately 2,000 doesn't look like the smartest military decision in history [but, who knows, possibly the World's Greatest Commander-In-Chief knows more than those people who are not stable geniuses do]);

just for starters.
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