Donald Trump sure has made the rest of the world respect us:
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected a U.S. offer to mediate a cease-firebetween Turkish forces and Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria….“The terrorists should drop their weapons and leave the area that we have identified as the safe zone,” he said in a speech Wednesday to the Turkish parliament. He vowed to press forward with the campaign to rout Kurdish-led fighters,known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, from a wide swath of territory along the border.
For better or worse, the US has no influence in Syria anymore. Turkey does. Russia does. Syria itself does. But not us.
And now he’s dumping on our former allies, the Kurds, who took the hits and got rid of ISIS, using words that could have come from Erdogon’s mouth.
Stagggering statement by @realDonaldTrump that the Kurds, betrayed by the US, then attacked by the second biggest army in NATO, Turkey, “are much safer now”.
— Bill Neely (@BillNeelyNBC) October 16, 2019
Trump: “The Kurds are much safer right now, but the Kurds know how to fight, and as I said, they’re not angels, they’re not angels…Take a look – you have to go back and take a look. But they fought with us, and we paid a lot of money for them to fight with us, and that’s OK.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 16, 2019
Trump betrayed the Kurds, doomed them to slaughter, and is now saying they’re “no angels.”
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) October 16, 2019
There is no bottom to this hole.
There is nothing redeemable about this man. Nothing that even approaches decent or humane. How sad and demoralizing of a time this is. https://t.co/1STaRVyZ6J
I worry we will not have allies in the future against radical Islam, ISIS will reemerge, & Iran’s rise in Syria will become a nightmare for Israel.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 16, 2019
I fear this is a complete and utter national security disaster in the making and I hope President Trump will adjust his thinking.
Situation only getting messier as US admin intervenes belatedly to get a ceasefire but efforts already rejected by Turkey.
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) October 16, 2019
Trump taking sanctions path, but with Assad heading up North to border, it’s becoming much harder to envision how Erdogan can establish a 30Km SZ,or even 15
UPDATE:
The 354-60 House vote to oppose the president’s action on Syria had unanimous Democratic support and won 129 (!) Republicans.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 16, 2019
Here are the 60 Republicans who voted with Trump 👇 pic.twitter.com/vMquJVncxh
Interesting exchange btw @LindseyGrahamSC and Brian Hook. pic.twitter.com/ELsV9pVhHr
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 16, 2019