USA betrays the Kurds, Turkey attacks.

[Solauren]

I don't think it's any surprise that Trump ordered this pull out, when he's under investigation to be impeached.

He did it as a distraction.

[Darth Yan]

If he did it might backfire....even Fox is calling Trump on that stupidity

[madd0ct0r]

If he did it might backfire....even Fox is calling Trump on that stupidity

But the Epstein case has been neatly forgotten, it seems.

[Darth Yan]

Republicans are big on militarism and trumps incompetence aided Isis. It’s like when Juan peron made a deal with standard oil. Even his professional stooges couldn’t justify THAT.

[Mange]

I first thought this was fake, but it came from a FOX reporter and the NYT White House correspondent Katie Rogers later got confirmation from the White House that it's genuine... This is the actual letter, surprisingly not written with crayons, from President Trump to President Erdogan: Twitter

[Darth Yan]

Dear god.....I wrote better in 8th grade.....and my writing was SHIT.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Turkey agree to pause Syria advance, says US Vice President.

US Vice President Mike Pence says the United States and Turkey have agreed to a cease-fire in Syria.

Mr Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met their Turkish counterparts and President Recip tayyip Erodgan in Turkey on Thursday and made the announcement as the Turkish advance was beginning to intensify.

Syrian forces had entered the strategic border town of Kobani, blocking a path for the Turkish military to establish a “safe zone” free of Syrian Kurdish fighters.

The seizure of Kobani by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad also pointed to a dramatic shift in northeastern Syria. The town was where the US military and Kurdish fighters first united to defeat the Islamic State group four years ago.

The convoys of government forces drove into Kobani after dark on Wednesday night, a resident said.

[Mange]

Turkey agree to pause Syria advance, says US Vice President.

US Vice President Mike Pence says the United States and Turkey have agreed to a cease-fire in Syria.

Mr Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met their Turkish counterparts and President Recip tayyip Erodgan in Turkey on Thursday and made the announcement as the Turkish advance was beginning to intensify.

Syrian forces had entered the strategic border town of Kobani, blocking a path for the Turkish military to establish a “safe zone” free of Syrian Kurdish fighters.

The seizure of Kobani by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad also pointed to a dramatic shift in northeastern Syria. The town was where the US military and Kurdish fighters first united to defeat the Islamic State group four years ago.

The convoys of government forces drove into Kobani after dark on Wednesday night, a resident said.

It's Munich all over again. The SDF wasn't informed or asked nor was Syria whose territory this is (and which the U.S. can't just give away to Turkey). Under the deal, the SDF was to withdraw, surrender their heavy weapons to the Turkish armed forces which would also destroy the fortifications. Turkey would gain control of an area 444 km long and 32 kilometers wide where Syrian refugees in Turkey would be transferred to.
What about the existing Kurdish, Syriac/Assyrian, Yazidi population then? Where would these people live?

The SDF has, expectedly, rejected the deal. No word yet from Assad or Russia which occupies cities in the Turkish "safe zone".

[Mange]

Sorry for the DP, but SDF was indeed informed and has accepted the ceasefire.

[Ziggy Stardust]

On whose behalf is the US declaring this ceasefire anyway? The US wasn't in a shooting war with Turkey to begin with, so it's not like we can be in a ceasefire with them. The Kurds certainly aren't going to respect this (nor should they). Syria isn't going to respect this. This seems to amount to little more than the US recognizing that Turkey should get what they want, and that any future resistance to Turkey getting what they want is somehow in violation of this imaginary ceasefire.

[Knife]

On whose behalf is the US declaring this ceasefire anyway? The US wasn't in a shooting war with Turkey to begin with, so it's not like we can be in a ceasefire with them. The Kurds certainly aren't going to respect this (nor should they). Syria isn't going to respect this. This seems to amount to little more than the US recognizing that Turkey should get what they want, and that any future resistance to Turkey getting what they want is somehow in violation of this imaginary ceasefire.

It's a sham anyways. Reports of Turkish backed Arab militias continuing attacks even after the 'cease fire' are still coming in.

[The Romulan Republic]

On whose behalf is the US declaring this ceasefire anyway? The US wasn't in a shooting war with Turkey to begin with, so it's not like we can be in a ceasefire with them. The Kurds certainly aren't going to respect this (nor should they). Syria isn't going to respect this. This seems to amount to little more than the US recognizing that Turkey should get what they want, and that any future resistance to Turkey getting what they want is somehow in violation of this imaginary ceasefire.

It's a sham anyways. Reports of Turkish backed Arab militias continuing attacks even after the 'cease fire' are still coming in.

Like everything Dickless does is a sham.

Aaaand Turkey has agreed to joint control of the new border, with Turkey keeping the Kurdish land its already invaded, and Russia controlling the rest.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/turkey- ... d=66444947

Russia and Turkey have reached an agreement to share control of Syria's northern bordersuperseding a deal, between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence that was reached last Thursday.

The deal came just before the U.S.-Turkish halt in hostilities reached its deadline, with a senior Trump administration official touting it as "one of the best ceasefires I've ever seen."

But as the remaining 1,000 U.S. troops withdraw from northeast Syria at President Donald Trump's command, critics have blasted his administration as ceding this territory to Turkey, Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has overseen a brutal war against his own people, and giving up leverage to accomplish U.S. goals in the region, including ensuring the defeat of the Islamic State and expelling Iranian forces from Syria that threaten U.S. allies, especially Israel.

After the announcement, the U.S. special envoy for Syria told the Senate Tuesday that Putin took "a page from what we have done" and came up with a "similar ceasefire in many regards for the rest of northeast Syria, except the Turks got even less" -- meaning Russia got more out of its negotiations with Turkey than the U.S. team.

The deal between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for Syrian Kurdish forces and their weapons to be removed from a buffer zone the length of the border in northeastern Syria -- an expansive area where these forces live now that extends 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) in from the border. Turkey would maintain control of the portion it now has, thanks to its agreement with the U.S., while Assad's forces, backed by Russia, would secure the rest of it.

It was unclear Tuesday whether the Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the YPG, would agree to that or whether they were consulted on the deal. The YPG constituted the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, the fighting force that effectively served as U.S. ground troops in the fight against ISIS.

If the YPG exit this area in the next 150 hours, or just over six days, then Russian and Turkish military units will conduct joint patrols at the 10 km line to ensure the deal meets what Turkey says are its security concerns about Kurdish terrorists in the area. Turkey considers the once U.S.-backed YPG to be a terrorist organization, indistinguishable from Kurdish separatists across the border in Turkey that Ankara and Washington both consider terrorists.

Ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield, Ambassador James Jeffrey, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence pose for a photo on Oct. 17, 2019, in Ankara, Turkey.more +
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ambassador James Jeffrey, the U.S. special envoy for Syria and for defeating ISIS, cast some doubt on the Russia-Turkish deal, saying it's "not particularly believable" that Russia can get the YPG out of the area.

"Turkey has not really gained all that much from this, as I said, but in the process has scrambled the entire northeast, undercut our efforts against ISIS, and brought in the Russians and Syrian regime forces in a way that's really tragic for everyone involved," he said, adding at another point that ISIS is now "emboldened" by the situation.

But he again denied blame for the Trump administration. While he said it was not "inevitable" that Turkey conducted this operation, he said Erdogan and his government chose to act "unwisely and dangerously ... despite warning after warning and incentive after incentive" from the U.S. not to do this, including from Trump himself.

Before the deal was announced, the U.S. had warned Turkey and Russia against "any agreement ... that would undermine the security and stability and the current calm that we now have in the far northeast of Syria," according to the senior administration official.

But they also said the U.S. opposed "any Turkish kinetic military operation that moves forward" from the territory Turkey currently controls under the U.S.-Turkish deal announced last week.

That agreement called for a 120-hour, or five-day, "pause" in Turkey's offensive into northeastern Syria against the YPG. During that time, the U.S. facilitated the exit of YPG fighters and the dismantlement of their heavy weapons -- something that the SDF commander, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, told Pence they had completed in a letter delivered on Tuesday. The senior administration official told reporters that the U.S. was "fairly confident" that was the case, but was working with Turkey now to address their questions on it.

"If the Turks can find any (Kurdish fighters) inside the safe zone ... the Turks will either let us know or they'll shoot them if they find them because the Turkish ceasefire does not involve people who are behind their lines," the official added, "but we don't think that's going to happen. We think that Turkey in the end will agree that the withdrawal is taking place."

An SDF spokesperson told ABC News they had withdrawn from the buffer zone, but declined to say more. There was no comment yet from the Turkish side.

ABC News' Sohel Uddin contributed to this report from Duhok, Iraq.

So, the US withdraws, and Russia and Turkey divide the spoils. Remember when we thought we'd moved past the days when invading and annexing a neighbor's territory was an accepted practice? Hell, it only took four invasions of other peoples' countries by Hitler before the world decided enough was enough. I wonder how many it will take for Putin?

Where are the outraged cries of "Imperialism" over this? Or is imperialism only bad if a "Western" nation does it?

Also, why exactly are we allowing a Russian ally to remain a member of NATO?

[The Romulan Republic]

On whose behalf is the US declaring this ceasefire anyway? The US wasn't in a shooting war with Turkey to begin with, so it's not like we can be in a ceasefire with them. The Kurds certainly aren't going to respect this (nor should they). Syria isn't going to respect this. This seems to amount to little more than the US recognizing that Turkey should get what they want, and that any future resistance to Turkey getting what they want is somehow in violation of this imaginary ceasefire.

It's a sham anyways. Reports of Turkish backed Arab militias continuing attacks even after the 'cease fire' are still coming in.

Like everything Dickless does is a sham.

Aaaand Turkey has agreed to joint control of the new border, with Turkey keeping the Kurdish land its already invaded, and Russia controlling the rest.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/turkey- ... d=66444947

Russia and Turkey have reached an agreement to share control of Syria's northern bordersuperseding a deal, between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence that was reached last Thursday.

The deal came just before the U.S.-Turkish halt in hostilities reached its deadline, with a senior Trump administration official touting it as "one of the best ceasefires I've ever seen."

But as the remaining 1,000 U.S. troops withdraw from northeast Syria at President Donald Trump's command, critics have blasted his administration as ceding this territory to Turkey, Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has overseen a brutal war against his own people, and giving up leverage to accomplish U.S. goals in the region, including ensuring the defeat of the Islamic State and expelling Iranian forces from Syria that threaten U.S. allies, especially Israel.

After the announcement, the U.S. special envoy for Syria told the Senate Tuesday that Putin took "a page from what we have done" and came up with a "similar ceasefire in many regards for the rest of northeast Syria, except the Turks got even less" -- meaning Russia got more out of its negotiations with Turkey than the U.S. team.

The deal between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for Syrian Kurdish forces and their weapons to be removed from a buffer zone the length of the border in northeastern Syria -- an expansive area where these forces live now that extends 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) in from the border. Turkey would maintain control of the portion it now has, thanks to its agreement with the U.S., while Assad's forces, backed by Russia, would secure the rest of it.

It was unclear Tuesday whether the Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the YPG, would agree to that or whether they were consulted on the deal. The YPG constituted the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, the fighting force that effectively served as U.S. ground troops in the fight against ISIS.

If the YPG exit this area in the next 150 hours, or just over six days, then Russian and Turkish military units will conduct joint patrols at the 10 km line to ensure the deal meets what Turkey says are its security concerns about Kurdish terrorists in the area. Turkey considers the once U.S.-backed YPG to be a terrorist organization, indistinguishable from Kurdish separatists across the border in Turkey that Ankara and Washington both consider terrorists.

Ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield, Ambassador James Jeffrey, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence pose for a photo on Oct. 17, 2019, in Ankara, Turkey.more +
In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ambassador James Jeffrey, the U.S. special envoy for Syria and for defeating ISIS, cast some doubt on the Russia-Turkish deal, saying it's "not particularly believable" that Russia can get the YPG out of the area.

"Turkey has not really gained all that much from this, as I said, but in the process has scrambled the entire northeast, undercut our efforts against ISIS, and brought in the Russians and Syrian regime forces in a way that's really tragic for everyone involved," he said, adding at another point that ISIS is now "emboldened" by the situation.

But he again denied blame for the Trump administration. While he said it was not "inevitable" that Turkey conducted this operation, he said Erdogan and his government chose to act "unwisely and dangerously ... despite warning after warning and incentive after incentive" from the U.S. not to do this, including from Trump himself.

Before the deal was announced, the U.S. had warned Turkey and Russia against "any agreement ... that would undermine the security and stability and the current calm that we now have in the far northeast of Syria," according to the senior administration official.

But they also said the U.S. opposed "any Turkish kinetic military operation that moves forward" from the territory Turkey currently controls under the U.S.-Turkish deal announced last week.

That agreement called for a 120-hour, or five-day, "pause" in Turkey's offensive into northeastern Syria against the YPG. During that time, the U.S. facilitated the exit of YPG fighters and the dismantlement of their heavy weapons -- something that the SDF commander, Gen. Mazloum Abdi, told Pence they had completed in a letter delivered on Tuesday. The senior administration official told reporters that the U.S. was "fairly confident" that was the case, but was working with Turkey now to address their questions on it.

"If the Turks can find any (Kurdish fighters) inside the safe zone ... the Turks will either let us know or they'll shoot them if they find them because the Turkish ceasefire does not involve people who are behind their lines," the official added, "but we don't think that's going to happen. We think that Turkey in the end will agree that the withdrawal is taking place."

An SDF spokesperson told ABC News they had withdrawn from the buffer zone, but declined to say more. There was no comment yet from the Turkish side.

ABC News' Sohel Uddin contributed to this report from Duhok, Iraq.

So, the US withdraws, and Russia and Turkey divide the spoils. Remember when we thought we'd moved past the days when invading and annexing a neighbor's territory was an accepted practice? Hell, it only took four invasions of other peoples' countries by Hitler before the world decided enough was enough. I wonder how many it will take for Putin?

Where are the outraged cries of "Imperialism" over this? Or is imperialism only bad if a "Western" nation does it?

Also, why exactly are we allowing a Russian ally to remain a member of NATO?

[The Romulan Republic]

If I were PotUS, I would immediately withdraw US weapons and forces from Turkey, and demand their expulsion from NATO, with any continued American participation in NATO contingent on the other members' agreement. I would then place sanctions and travel bans on Erdogan and all his top officials and officers, and make it clear that they will be arrested for war crimes if they enter the United States or any country with an extradition treaty with the United States. And that any further advances by Turkey into Syria or anywhere else will result in a declaration of war by the United States.

[Darth Yan]

I agree with that in spirit but getting congress to approve is difficult. It's like Israel. They routinely shit on international law and act like assholes yet we let them slide.

[The Romulan Republic]

I agree with that in spirit but getting congress to approve is difficult. It's like Israel. They routinely shit on international law and act like assholes yet we let them slide.

In Turkey's case, its largely because they're valued as a military ally in the Middle East, and to contain Russia.

If they're this openly throwing in with Russia, though, there's got to be a point where its just not worth it to keep pretending that they're an ally.

But yeah, getting Congress to do the right thing is like pulling teeth without anesthetic sometimes.

[Alyrium Denryle]

If I were PotUS, I would immediately withdraw US weapons and forces from Turkey, and demand their expulsion from NATO, with any continued American participation in NATO contingent on the other members' agreement. I would then place sanctions and travel bans on Erdogan and all his top officials and officers, and make it clear that they will be arrested for war crimes if they enter the United States or any country with an extradition treaty with the United States. And that any further advances by Turkey into Syria or anywhere else will result in a declaration of war by the United States.

I'd be doing something a little different. The first part is good. Remove everything from Turkey, move to boot them from NATO, impose sanctions and INTERPOL warrants. I would then move everything into Rojava, diplomatically recognize Rojava, and basically dare Turkey to try something.

Of course there's no way I ever have that kind of power unless we're the People's Republican States of America so...