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originally posted by: Mach2
originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: Mach2
What would you do? It's easy to be an armchair general, but putting our military in harm's way requires a better reason than I've heard to this point.
Ah that old chestnut again , your military weren't in harms way the presence of US troops and your support of the Kurds were a block to Turkey doing what they are now doing.
This area of the world has almost never known peace in the history of civilization, and we shouldn't be the world's policemen, when it doesn't serve national interests.
I guess that makes the murder of men , women and children OK then , just wipe your hands and walk away.
Your national interests are not best served by stepping aside to let genocide take place , history will remember and shame will remain.
So where does our responsibility end? There are atrocities happening in S. Africa, parts of Asia, etc as well. Should the US go in, guns blazing in those situations too?
How about you put your country's military there? How about the UN pass a resolution to put a multinational force there? How about if someone besides America steps up to the plate?
It seems everyone else is wiping their collective hands to me.
originally posted by: Shamrock6
a reply to: hyperlexic
I know you’re new here, but attacking a point not being made and telling other members that if they don’t defend themselves in a manner you dictate is a) a strawman and b) not really going to work on ats. Most of us aren’t monkeys who jump just because you demand we jump.
And labeling me an Obama supporter is simply laughable in the extreme. Since you’re going wildly off-topic, I won’t be engaging with you any further.
It seems everyone else is wiping their collective hands to me.
originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: Mach2
It seems everyone else is wiping their collective hands to me.
The facts are you were there and used the Kurds to meet your objectives , now those objectives have been met you pull out leaving them to their fate , when you open Pandora's Box you are left to deal with the consequences .... unless you bottle out and run away.
Trumps decision will have knock on effects beyond the murder of innocent civilians , time will tell how far those effects reach.
Yep its Trumps fault Turkey kills people.... LOL
originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: gortex
So how long is the US going to stay there? What is the end game? Are we invited there by the country that owns that land?
originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
All I hear is bad Trump.
Tell me what Trump should have done and what the outcome is supposed to look like for the Kurds.
Are they supposed to get their own country?
originally posted by: Shamrock6
a reply to: OccamsRazor04
A point that’s lost on those who think Trump can do no right. There was only three options available. Pull out, stay there quite literally indefinitely, or overwhelmingly expand the operation to achieve Kurdish aims and then leave.
All three of them are not exactly terrific options but two of them are significantly worse than the other. It doesn’t make that third option great, just less bad.
originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: Mach2
It seems everyone else is wiping their collective hands to me.
The facts are you were there and used the Kurds to meet your objectives , now those objectives have been met you pull out leaving them to their fate , when you open Pandora's Box you are left to deal with the consequences .... unless you bottle out and run away.
Trumps decision will have knock on effects beyond the murder of innocent civilians , time will tell how far those effects reach.
Yep its Trumps fault Turkey kills people.... LOL
For weeks, the two Nato allies have been working to set up a buffer zone along the Syrian-Turkish border, in an attempt to keep US-backed Kurdish forces at least 32km from Turkey.
However, Ankara has been growing frustrated with the progress, and began to prepare for an assualt into Kurdish-held areas of northeast Syria to clear them of the YPG militia.
Though Turkey considers the YPG an arm of the outlawed PKK militant group, the Kurdish militia has been the US's principal partner on the ground in its fight against the Islamic State group (IS).
A contingent of U.S. Special Forces has been caught up in Turkish shelling against U.S.-backed Kurdish positions in northern Syria, days after President Donald Trump told his Turkish counterpart he would withdraw U.S. troops from certain positions in the area.
Newsweek has learned through both an Iraqi Kurdish intelligence official and senior Pentagon official that Special Forces operating on Mashtenour hill in the majority-Kurdish city of Kobani fell under artillery fire from Turkish forces conducting their so-called "Operation Peace Spring" against Kurdish fighters backed by the U.S. but considered terrorist organizations by Turkey.
The senior Pentagon official said that Turkish forces should be aware of U.S. positions "down to the grid." The official could not specify the exact number of personnel present, but indicated they were "small numbers below company level," so somewhere between 15 and 100 troops.
The official said shelling was so heavy that the U.S. personnel were exfiltrated once the attack had ceased. Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon for comment on the situation.
Like I said before, if you can get the UN, or even the other NATO allies on board, I'll listen. If you can't, them let the cards fall where they may.
“We wanted Turkey in NATO because of the Cold War,” Steven A. Cook, a Turkey expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told me. Back in 1952, with the alliance just a few years old, it expanded for the first time, welcoming two new members: Greece and Turkey. At the time, President Harry Truman offered membership to both as a way to contain Communist expansion—Greece’s Western-backed government had just defeated Communist forces in a civil war. It helped that Turkey also gave the alliance a foothold close to the Middle East.
www.theatlantic.com...