Posted on 06/08/2022 1:56:50 PM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007
BEIRUT — The U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria said Tuesday that they will turn to the government in Damascus for support should Turkey go ahead with its threat to launch a new incursion into the war-torn country.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, said after a meeting of its command that its priority is to reduce tension near the border with Turkey but also prepare for a long fight if Ankara carries out its threat.
The announcement appears to be a message directed at the United States and meant to elicit pressure from Washington on Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to put aside his offensive plans.
Erdogan has repeatedly said over the past weeks that he’s planning a major military operation to create a 30-kilometer (19 mile) deep buffer zone inside Syria along Turkey’s border, through a cross-border incursion against U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters — an attempt that failed in 2019.
Analysts have said Erdogan is taking advantage of the war in Ukraine to push his own goals in Syria — even using Turkey’s ability as a NATO member to veto alliance membership by Finland and Sweden as potential leverage.
On the ground, the situation has been tense with near daily exchanges of fire and shelling between the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters on one side and Turkish forces and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition gunmen on the other.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Scant years later, the threat of Erdogan is making Assad more palatable to the Kurds on the ground.
Shifting alliances in a war-torn region make long-term planning rather difficult...which is why our continued presence is even more of a head-scratcher.
Trump tossed them under the bus when he was in the Oval Office. Biden hasn’t shown any interest in helping them. If Assad is all that’s left then it isn’t surprising they would turn to him.
Good idea - President Retard will sell you out to the ragheads 🤪
“using Turkey’s ability as a NATO member to veto alliance membership by Finland and Sweden as potential leverage”
The problem for Turkey is that they have the least “leverage” of any member of NATO. They’re a worn out husk of a dead empire that traded their loyalties for NATO keeping them on life support. Well, maybe it is time to pull the plug.
Is this the same Recep Tayyip Erdogan who left Joe standing on the tarmac at the Ankara airport and sent the mayor instead? I don't think he thinks Joe does a very good job with pressure.
Why are we backing people from that shithole? That implies more of tax dollars, err money being printed, to back these goat humpers, driving us further into inflation.
Would the Kurds rather be stateless, pushes out of their lands by Turkey….or Syrian?
Hmmm.
If they choose to establish an arrangement with Assad, perhaps for future autonomy, they also get Russia and Iran as allies.
If Turkey attacked Syria from the rear, would Greece help?
Sounds like the Afghanistan model. Just hope our troops get out of there.
Wasn’t that part of the general pullout of the region, which
most folks here thought was a swell idea?
We were never going to help the Kurds against Turkey. We were fine helping them fight ISIS in Syria, and they were in an area Syria didn’t really have the resources to fight, thus they had a defacto homeland. With Russia effectively out of the game, Turkey can push a little harder to take a piece of Northern Syria. Maybe they can play the “referendum” game like Russia has done in several areas. Be a shame if the Assad regime fell...
Don’t we have enough problems at home? When has getting involved in these ME squabbles ever benefitted us? GTFO.
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