Well, Syria went to **** overnight

[Sarge]

https://www.foxnews.com/world/turkey-syria-kurdish-troops-military-assault

Iran is holding military drills at the border, and Turkey crossed the border. Some are reporting that fighting has already begun.

Even conservative pundits (whatever that means) think his move to withdraw troops from Syria was a bad move. Best quote from the article, a Trump tweet:

“if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I've done before!)”

I laughed out loud. The ego on that guy.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/why-conservative-pundits-and-pols-are-denouncing-trumps-syria-move

As far as my opinion, as much as I want all of our guys home, there has to be a withdrawal strategy. Can't just do **** willy-nilly. Syria isn't stable enough for our guys to come home. Not yet. They have to be given goals, a deadline and if they can't meet it, we withdraw. But waking up one morning and deciding to withdraw is bad strategy.

 

[Djfan]

That area of the world is a mess. Who didn't see this coming?

 

[IndySteel]

Who said that America has to be the world's police? **** Syria. If the UN was worth a **** they would handle this bullshit.

 

[Sarge]

Who said that America has to be the world's police? **** Syria. If the UN was worth a **** they would handle this bullshit.

Perhaps the best way not to become the world's police is to keep your nose out of ****. That would be a good start.

 

[JMM]

Perhaps the best way not to become the world's police is to keep your nose out of ****. That would be a good start.

I'm all for that. Unless they're messing with us I'd prefer we stay out of it. There has to be a balance between where it took the Japs bombing Pearl Harbor to get us in the war and today (or a few years ago) where we deploy if a camel farts in the desert.

 

[Smash]

Problem is, the Kurds are in Erdogan's crosshairs and they're an ally in the region. If isis is to remain worm dirt, we need them going forward. And in order to survive they'll have to align with Assad and Putin, can't have that.

I'm hoping Trump reverses this decision too Sarge.

 

[Vader]

There is no good time to leave. There never will be. You just have to do it. These countries have been fighting for thousands of years. Nothing we can do about it. Time to get out.

 

[deljzc]

Where is Europe in all this? Why is it always what we do that matters?

We are talking about less than 1000 troops. Let EU security forces sit and babysit the Kurds so Turkey doesn't attack.

First, the Kurds are no angels. Yes, they helped us with ISIS but that was in their best interest as well. They want the same land and the same people to back them in their goal of an independent Kurdish State that includes areas in both Syria AND Turkey. Personally, that's probably the best solution, but are we really in the business of Nation Building in the Middle East? Re-drawing the borders? Telling Turkey to just turn over land? Telling Assad/Russia/Iran to give up land because we say so?

I mean, that could work with a LOT of help from Europe and sanctions on Turkey, but I haven't heard one politician here in the states bitching about this saying that should be the plan. Not one. In fact, if you listen closely enough, there isn't a "plan" at all from anyone in Congress. Just stay the course with no end in sight. Because if the Kurds aren't going away. If Turkey isn't going away. If Syria isn't going away. What is going to change next week or next month or next year?

Turkey is supporting something like 5 million Syrian refugees from the war. To them, it is time to go home and who are we to say otherwise? The Kurds aren't exactly welcoming them back with open arms.

It's a clusterfuck. We know that. The problem is the media narrative is our 1000 troops are somehow, magically, holding this all together when that isn't the case at all. Turkey has had enough and they are going to do this whether we are there or not. And the Kurds (now that they've taken care of ISIS) have turned their attention to Turkey as insurgents, terrorists and rebels to fight for what they want.

There is really no way to stop this unless we really get into the weeds of diplomacy and Europe comes along for the ride to put IMMENSE pressure on Turkey and Syria, which they just aren't willing to do. Europe is ******* a vagina right now when it comes to diplomacy anywhere. Weak as **** and leaving all the heavy lifting to us (or no one).

 

[CharlesDavenport]

Syria did not go to **** overnight, and you explain to a soldier's mother or child why we are willing to risk that soldier's life over there. All of a sudden Congress is in full support of unilateral military action. What a bunch of ****.

 

[CharlesDavenport]

Perhaps the best way not to become the world's police is to keep your nose out of ****. That would be a good start.

Yep. We need to get a lot more stingy about how we let our military expand overseas and follow the intent of Constitution regarding congressional approval of military deployment.

 

[Steeltime]

Problem is, the Kurds are in Erdogan's crosshairs and they're an ally in the region. If isis is to remain worm dirt, we need them going forward. And in order to survive they'll have to align with Assad and Putin, can't have that.

I'm hoping Trump reverses this decision too Sarge.

Never-ending wars in Afghanistan, Irag, now Syria ... billions of our dollars, thousands of our trained troops and supplies, who knows how many Americans dead, or missing limbs, or deaf, or missing part of their bodies - for what, exactly? And for how long?

What is the exit strategy in all this? All I see is never-ending war, which Washington absolutely loves. Those wars mean billions in the Federal coffers to dole out to their favorites. You know, the leeches who will never see the enemy, or get shot at, or even know which end of the gun to point at the bad guys. They all make a ton of money and love these endless wars.

These are the same people rumbling about getting into armed conflict with Iran. War is money to them. War is a business. Here is what they believe - brave Americans die by the thousands? Pfffft, cost of doing business.

 

[Steelworth]

Never-ending wars in Afghanistan, Irag, now Syria ... billions of our dollars, thousands of our trained troops and supplies, who knows how many Americans dead, or missing limbs, or deaf, or missing part of their bodies - for what, exactly? And for how long?

What is the exit strategy in all this? All I see is never-ending war, which Washington absolutely loves. Those wars mean billions in the Federal coffers to dole out to their favorites. You know, the leeches who will never see the enemy, or get shot at, or even know which end of the gun to point at the bad guys. They all make a ton of money and love these endless wars.

These are the same people rumbling about getting into armed conflict with Iran. War is money to them. War is a business. Here is what they believe - brave Americans die by the thousands? Pfffft, cost of doing business.

Sad but so very true.

 

[Spike]

If Congress wants to do something about it, they can declare war, per the Constitution.

No more undeclared wars, that's what Trump said. We pull 50 people out and all of a sudden it's news?

Where is NATO?

 

[Smash]

Turkey is a member of NATO. Trump is on record also of pushing captured isis fighters back to their country of origin and those EU and NATO member countries said get bent they're your problem. So instead of rotting in euro jails, they're headed to Turkey and most likely welcomed as heroes to Erdogan's muslim brotherhood rule. Remember Biden pointed to Erdogan as the culprit behind isis?

Essentially I think Trump is setting up the whole lot of them and rightfully so. NATO and the EU are being exposed and I'm all for that. He promised to make all member countries pay their share and when put in the spotlight, they proved him right again, love it. But an old adage comes to mind here, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and that's the Kurds. They're on an island much like the Jews. And while I'm all for bringing ALL of our troops home, giving the finger to the neocons and the MIC, and striking fiercely when provoked, I just don't like the idea of abandoning an ally but I'll wait and see what Trump is doing here.

 

[hamster]

If Congress wants to do something about it, they can declare war, per the Constitution.

No more undeclared wars, that's what Trump said. We pull 50 people out and all of a sudden it's news?

Where is NATO?

Where are the UN peacekeepers?

**** on a boar.

 

[SojournerSteel]

Trump is at odds with the intelligence community and M-I-C more so than any POTUS since JFK's speech at American University in 1963. Likewise, Trump went to the UN and said "the future does not belong to globalists" I.E. nation builders.

It's not hard to see what's going on here with the soft coup attempt first. What did Schumer tell Trump in 2017? "The intelligence community has six ways to Sunday of getting back at you.."

 

[Steelr4evr]

We should have been executing every ISIS ****** we found from day one. They only understand ruthless brutality.

I do think we're at a point that this has to end. **** the middle east. If they ever **** with us again here on our soil. Nuke the country they come from and make it known that's what will happen. Enough of these stuck in the 7th century cultures

 

[Stoney]

As far as my opinion, as much as I want all of our guys home, there has to be a withdrawal strategy. Can't just do **** willy-nilly. Syria isn't stable enough for our guys to come home. Not yet. They have to be given goals, a deadline and if they can't meet it, we withdraw. But waking up one morning and deciding to withdraw is bad strategy.

I haven't done what you've done, so please understand that this comes from a person who respects and appreciates your service. But do you not see the flaw in your own logic? You're saying that they're not ready to be responsible for themselves. So we should give them goals, and if they prove themselves unable to handle their own business, we should leave. Either way, we'd be leaving them when they're not ready to be left alone.

The fact seems to be that they'll never be ready. They want us there forever. A forever protector. A forever giving teat of funds and weaponry. A lot of people in high positions continue to get rich off of this conflict, but they'll probably never step inside the borders of Syria or Iraq, or even 'stable' Turkey. They send expendable citizen soldiers.

We don't owe them anything. They are not worth the lives of our military men and women, in my opinion. Everyone keeps saying the Kurds helped us defeat ISIS, but the truth is that ISIS had THEIR homeland under siege, not ours. They didn't help us defeat ISIS, we helped them defeat ISIS. Its long been time to call it a day over there. Hopefully we won't go back for a long while, we have our own oil now.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Syria did not go to **** overnight, and you explain to a soldier's mother or child why we are willing to risk that soldier's life over there. All of a sudden Congress is in full support of unilateral military action. What a bunch of ****.

Well, Congress will reflexively support the opposite of whatever President Trump does.
If he wanted to increase the number of troops there they'd say we need to pull out.

 

[Spike]

If Congress wants to send troops, declare war and fund it.

We don't need another 20 year open ended deployment, **** that ****

Those tribes have been fighting over the same dirt patches for thousands of years

Jesus decided its better to die than live in that shithole area of the world, he got out, so should we

 

[Superman]

"Bring them home!"

President Trump: ok, done

"No, not them!"

 

[oneforthebus]

Obama pulls out of Iraq, it goes to ****, ISIS rises up...omg he's horrible.

Trump pulls out of Syria, it goes to ****, just wait ISIS will be up and about any minute...it's a brilliant idea.

Like I said before some of you will defend Trump no matter what.

 

[oneforthebus]

The man is a ******* moron. Sorry.

President Trump said Wednesday that it would be “easy” for the United States to form new alliances if Syrian Kurds leave the fight against the Islamic State to fend off a Turkish attack, noting that “they didn’t help us in the Second World War, they didn’t help us in Normandy” and were only interested in fighting for “their land.”

“With all of that being said, we like the Kurds,” he said in response to questions about Turkey’s incursion into Syria.

 

[Roy92040]

How big a difference was/is 50 troops?

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

Obama pulls out of Iraq, it goes to ****, ISIS rises up...omg he's horrible.

Trump pulls out of Syria, it goes to ****, just wait ISIS will be up and about any minute...it's a brilliant idea.

Like I said before some of you will defend Trump no matter what.

I don't support pulling out of Syria willy-nilly. Because I recall how poorly it's worked other times.

It's a double edged sword though, how long do we stay? Look at Afghanistan. The Soviets were there from 1979-1989. We've been there for nearly 2x as long. $$ and lots of lives. For what? The Afghan problem will never be fixed. Nor will the problems be fixed in Syria.

It's a damned if you do and don't situation. We literally should stay. And we literally should leave. There's no right move.