Syria and Turkey Edge Toward All-Out War While Putin Smiles

There have been several clashes between Syrian and Turkish military forces in the last two weeks, as Syria attempts to retake Idlib province from rebel forces. Turkey has carved out a demilitarized zone in Idlib, which is supposed to be a safe zone for Syrian civilians. Their goal is to prevent a flood of refugees from crossing the Syrian border.

But Syria is ignoring the Moscow-negotiated cease-fire and driving hundreds of thousands of refugees toward Turkey, most of them in desperate straits.

The UN is warning of a humanitarian catastrophe as 700,000 Syrians are on the move with nowhere to go. But there are likely to be more refugees as Syria and Turkey have now come to blows, with President Erdogan promising to "punish" Syria for attacking Turkish positions in Idlib.

Washington Times:

Analysts say the reignited Syrian crisis threatens to engulf Turkey and force Ankara to greatly expand its military mission inside the country. The winner, they say, could ultimately be Russia, as President Vladimir Putin may emerge as the only player powerful enough to prevent a full-blown war.

“Erdogan went into Syria for entirely selfish and cynical reasons, and now finds that it was a lot easier to go in than get out,” said former Defense Department official Michael Rubin, now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who tracks the region extensively.

Turkey originally went into Syria to fight Kurdish "terrorists" after Donald Trump's withdrawal of most American forces in Syria. Taking even the token force of Americans off the board was clearly a mistake. It not only enabled Erdogan to act with impunity in Syria but also gave a green light to President Assad

“Taking even the token force of Americans off the board was clearly a mistake. It not only enabled Erdogan to act with impunity in Syria but also gave a green light to President Assad “

WRONG!!!!!!!!!! Dumbasses!!!!

We can now help Turkey, a Nato Ally, against Syria without having troops there.

We’re out of that theater. Yeah, anyone who says we should have troops there are dumbassess.

We can support Turkey with logistics.

That takes Russia out of the picture...

Yeah...I’m doubling down... Was a dumbass idea to keep troops there.

Let them fight it out...We have no business being there.

If you want to send AMericans over there write your congressman....

I say, best thing Trump did was to pull us out...

Best news of the day, Syria and Turkey at war...

I love winning....

Turkey did not “ carve out” a chunk of Syria for humanitarian purposes, despite the cover story. No one in their right mind counts Erdogan as a humanitarian. This is a struggle to keep a hard core islamist enclave from being wiped out, ending an important strategic outpost of a new islamist caliphate.

And to give Turkey some strategic depth to deal with the PKK. Who are not, should not be, called “US allies”

Let Russia and Syria wipe out the IS and al Qaeda barbarians and Syrians will return home...unless they are family and friends of the barbarians.

Let Turkey deal with the PKK.

And let the US stay out of it,

“Turkey originally went into Syria to fight Kurdish “terrorists” after Donald Trump’s withdrawal of most American forces in Syria.”

That is so demonstrably untrue, that it shows the rest of the author’s arguments to be motivated by a biased agenda.

President Trump’s withdrawal (actually just a reduction by half, when the heavy combat forces re-deployed, after the active combat against ISIS was successfully concluded), occurred in 2019.

Turkey was directly supporting their surrogate militias to take control of Syrian territory from the Assad Government since 2011.

Turkish Military units crossed into Syria, in a declared Military operation, on 24 August 2016, and has been occupying (and Governing) an increasing amount of Syrian territory since then. They have conducted harsh ethnic cleansing of Kurds from Afrin Province, to shape the demographics there, in support of a future referendum to formally secede from Syria and join Turkey. The occupied areas have been given Turkish Post offices, and other elements of Turkey’s civil administration have been extended there as well.

Turkey’s incursion into Syria started as a deliberate strategy long before President Trump was elected. It was conducted with the full and active support of the Obama Administration, as part of their “Arab Spring” drive to overthrow Governments in the region, using surrogate militias.

“But Syria is ignoring the Moscow-negotiated cease-fire and driving hundreds of thousands of refugees toward Turkey”

All in the wording. Actually, the Syrian army is moving around IN Syria. And Sunni theocratic wahabbist rebels are fleeing them. All you have to do to not be “driven” is go to the Syrian line and be a good citizen.

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