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Trump Followed His Gut on Syria. Calamity Came Fast.
The New York Times ^ | October 14th, 2019 | David E. Sanger

Posted on 10/14/2019 3:44:39 PM PDT by Mariner

President Trump’s acquiescence to Turkey’s move to send troops deep inside Syrian territory has in only one week’s time turned into a bloody carnage, forced the abandonment of a successful five-year-long American project to keep the peace on a volatile border, and given an unanticipated victory to four American adversaries: Russia, Iran, the Syrian government and the Islamic State.

Rarely has a presidential decision resulted so immediately in what his own party leaders have described as disastrous consequences for American allies and interests. How this decision happened — springing from an “off-script moment” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, in the words of a senior American diplomat — likely will be debated for years by historians, Middle East experts and conspiracy theorists.

But this much already is clear: Mr. Trump ignored months of warnings from his advisers about what calamities likely would ensue if he followed his instincts to pull back from Syria and abandon America’s longtime allies, the Kurds. He had no Plan B, other than to leave. The only surprise is how swiftly it all collapsed around the president and his depleted, inexperienced foreign policy team.

snip

And over the weekend, State and Energy Department officials were quietly reviewing plans for evacuating roughly 50 tactical nuclear weapons that the United States had long stored, under American control, at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 250 miles from the Syrian border, according to two American officials.

Those weapons, one senior official said, were now essentially Erdogan’s hostages. To fly them out of Incirlik would be to mark the de facto end of the Turkish-American alliance. To keep them there, though, is to perpetuate a nuclear vulnerability that should have been eliminated years ago.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Russia; Syria; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 2020; 2020election; davidesanger; djibouti; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; election2020; erdogan; eritrea; fakenews; hassannasrallah; hezbollah; iran; kurdistan; kurds; lebanon; lugenpresse; mediawingofthednc; nevertrumper; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; receptayyiperdogan; russia; smearmachine; sudan; syria; trumpkurds; trumpsyria; turkey; yemen
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To: TigersEye
If it won't spin, it don't get in.

121 posted on 10/14/2019 7:31:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

LOL


122 posted on 10/14/2019 7:38:16 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: Drango

Endless War. Quagmire. No blood for oil. Exit strategy. Who would Jesus Bomb? War is Not the Answer.


123 posted on 10/14/2019 8:20:10 PM PDT by Phillyred
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To: Mariner

124 posted on 10/14/2019 8:21:14 PM PDT by Phillyred
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To: Mariner

125 posted on 10/14/2019 8:22:23 PM PDT by Phillyred
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To: Mariner
President Trump’s acquiescence to Turkey’s move to send troops deep inside Syrian territory has in only one week’s time turned into a bloody carnage, forced the abandonment of a successful five-year-long American project to keep the peace on a volatile border

How successful can it be if we're still there after five years? How long must we be there - 500 years?
126 posted on 10/14/2019 8:45:54 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

Exactly. Obama;s failed foriegn policy resulted in a half million deaths in Syria,. Crickets from our media.

Trump pulls 50 troops out and you would have thought he lost WWIII.


127 posted on 10/14/2019 8:49:18 PM PDT by blackberry1
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To: dp0622

The Syrian army and Russians won’t take that many ISIS prisoners. They’ll just shoot them right after recapturing them.


128 posted on 10/14/2019 9:15:37 PM PDT by rfp1234 (Obscured by Clods)
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To: rfp1234

YES!

Then it will be a happy ending :)

I’m surprised the Kurds didn’t whack them.

I figured our guys would have gladly turned a blind eye.


129 posted on 10/14/2019 9:16:44 PM PDT by dp0622 (Bad, bad company Till the day I die.)
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To: Mariner

What’s that stuff called that was really scary in all the tv shows back in the day? Quicksand, that’s it. I always liked the name cause it’s not actually quick or sand. But It’s real. Some call it the middle east and we lost a good amount of good people there. Some call it a quagmire.

Take a victory.


130 posted on 10/14/2019 9:26:54 PM PDT by CJ Wolf (Freedom, if you can keep it)
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To: dfwgator; null and void

What is it, that’s not exactly water and it ain’t exactly Earth!

Quicksand!

Dang, that was lucky. Darn near lost a $400 handcart.

Wire the main office. Tell them I said...

OW!!!!!

“Tell them I said: ‘OW!’”. Gotcha!


131 posted on 10/14/2019 9:40:53 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Mariner

NYT - Filthy liars. May they burn for it.


132 posted on 10/15/2019 2:37:40 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists...Socialists...Fascists & AntiFa...Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Trumpisourlastchance
This is NeoCon/NeoLib utter GARBAGE.
President Trump has ended the Turkish invasion of Syria by allowing the Syrian government to move its forces to protect the Kurds, WITH the Kurds’ agreement.
It was an amazing move & he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for it.

Exactly...Another chess move by Trump...

Trump was given a very short warning that Turkey was going to attack...Trump had to get our troops out of the way so Syria could move forward...They and the U.S. are not about to share the battlefield...The Turk never anticipated this move...If he fights Syria, he'll also have to go up against Iran and Russia, Syria's allies...

And all while this is happening, even as it unfolds Americans are still attacking Trump...Of course that's normal for the liberals and Rinos...

133 posted on 10/15/2019 3:35:46 AM PDT by Iscool
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To: Mariner

The only calamity is the neocon war machine gravy train got derailed.


134 posted on 10/15/2019 6:05:45 AM PDT by Flick Lives (MSM, the Enemy of the People since 1898)
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To: dp0622

Really? Thanks for that educational post. I have not followed what has been done with the prisoners as much as I ought to. I was NOT aware that the countries involved refused to take the prisoners back. This is a no-win situation for us. What do they expect the U.S. to do? Stay over there guarding them for years/decades? We cannot do that. I’m hoping Trump figured that Turkey and the Kurds would end up killing them in the crossfire chaos.

Now there’s a real solution.


135 posted on 10/15/2019 6:31:50 AM PDT by Vaden (First they came for the Confederates... Next they came for Washington... Then they came...)
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To: Mariner

The President’s gut was correct.


136 posted on 10/15/2019 6:38:49 AM PDT by madison10
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To: Alberta's Child

I am not going to make that assumption. It might be true and I hope it is true, but I don’t want to tempt an Islamic leader with anything that has the word “bomb” in it.


137 posted on 10/15/2019 7:56:21 AM PDT by taxcontrol (Stupid should hurt - dad's wisdom)
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To: Trumpisourlastchance
"Anyone watching fake US media (that includes FAUX News) is unaware that the Syrian Kurds have made a deal with Assad/Damascus for protection and it IS WORKING. You need to follow alternative media to find out what is actually happening now in northern Syria. Manbij is safe. Kobane is safe. Raqqa is safe. The Syrian Army has now moved into all of these cities. The Turkish invasion of Syria is ending now."

I was just going to post the same from another FR thread. The Kurds got smart and did a deal Assad. Most importantly, Assad's Syria is almost a client state of Russia. There will be no Turkey invasion of Syria less they want to fight the Bear. The wild card is the Iranians.

I believe Pres. Trump figured this out and ignored his military advisors who can't think past their next star or career objectives. It's becoming increasingly clear that Trump is a strategic and long term thinker. Too bad the Mediots can't understand or refuse to believe what's happening before their own biased eyes.

138 posted on 10/15/2019 8:26:50 AM PDT by A Navy Vet (I'm not Islamophobic - I'm Islamonauseous. Also LGBTQxyz nauseous.)
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To: madison10

That’s right. Read “The Defeat of Kurdistan Maoists”:

https://newrightnetwork.com/2019/10/defeat-kurdistan-maoist.html/


139 posted on 10/15/2019 8:54:51 AM PDT by WWII_Historian
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To: Drango
Don't forget:

USA defends own borders = baaaaaaaaaaaaad!

140 posted on 10/15/2019 8:58:24 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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