Tag: Kurds

Trump appears to confuse the Kurds of Syria and Iraq in a meeting with the president of Iraqi Kurdistan

Washington Post logoPresident Trump met with Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan, on Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

During their encounter, Trump focused on praising the Kurds of Syria.

“As you know, we left Syria from the standpoint of the border,” said Trump, seated beside Barzani. “And that’s worked out great with Turkey. It’s worked out far better than anyone thought possible. They have the so-called safe zone, and I appreciate everything you’ve done to keep it as safe as possible.”

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U.S. Resumes Large-Scale Operations Against ISIS in Northern Syria

New York Times logoAfter a lull of several weeks, American troops and Syrian Kurdish fighters are once again conducting large-scale counterterrorism missions.

MANAMA, Bahrain — United States troops have resumed large-scale counterterrorism missions against the Islamic State in northern Syria, military officials say, nearly two months after President Trump’s abrupt order to withdraw American troopsopened the way for a bloody Turkish cross-border offensive.

The new operations show that despite Mr. Trump’s earlier demand for a complete withdrawal of all American forces from Syria, the president still has some 500 troops in the country, many of them in combat, for the foreseeable future.

“Over the next days and weeks, the pace will pick back up against remnants of ISIS,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the commander of the military’s Central Command, told reporters on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain on Saturday.

View the complete November 25 article by Eric Schmitt on The New York Times website here.

Trump’s false claim of ‘centuries’ of fighting between Turks and Kurds

Washington Post logo“If Syria wants to fight for their land, that’s up to Turkey and Syria, as it has been for hundreds of years, they’ve been fighting. And the Kurds have been fighting for hundreds of years — that whole mess. It’s been going along for a long time. Syria may have some help with Russia, and that’s fine. It’s a lot of sand. They’ve got a lot of sand over there. So there’s a lot of sand that they can play with.”

— President Trump, remarks at the White House, Oct. 16

“We helped the Kurds. They’re no angels, but we helped the Kurds. And we never gave the Kurds a commitment that we’d stay for the next 400 years and protect them. They’ve been fighting with the Turks for 300 years, that people know of.”

— Trump, remarks at a Cabinet meeting, Oct. 21 Continue reading “Trump’s false claim of ‘centuries’ of fighting between Turks and Kurds”

AP FACT CHECK: Trump exaggerates scope of cease-fire deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump describes it, the U.S. swooped into an intractable situation in the Middle East, achieved an agreement within hours that had eluded the world for years and delivered a “great day for civilization.”

It was a mission-accomplished moment that other Republican leaders, Democrats and much of the world found unconvincing.

Trump spent much of the past week trying to justify his decision to pull U.S. troops away from America’s Kurdish allies in Syria, leaving those Kurdish fighters vulnerable on several fronts and already reeling from attacks by Turkish forces.

View the complete October 21 article by Calvin Woodward, Hope Yen and Lolita C. Baldor on the Associated Press website here.

Trump created the bloody disaster in northern Syria. Biographer David Cay Johnston explains how we make sure he owns it

AlterNet logoVladimir Putin must be smiling – even laughing out loud — at the bungling Donald Trump’s crazy mess in Syria.

Putin is the clear winner in Trump’s blood-soaked disaster. By tweeting without telling the generals his signal for Turkey to invade Syria, Trump forced American troops to flee half-eaten meals so they could escape alive. His inept (to be kind) actions then required our Air Force to bomb America’s weapons storage base in Northern Syria.

This 100% Trumpian disaster in the Middle East is unfolding so fast it’s easy to get lost in details. So, let’s walk through the significance of Trump’s incompetent actions. They came about for a simple reason. An ignorant, mentally disturbed, play-acting president has no idea what he is doing.

View the complete October 20 article by David Cay Johnson from DC Report on the AlterNet website here.

Defense chief says US troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq

The Hill logoU.S. troops leaving Syria will be relocated to western Iraq, where they will continue to conduct operations to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday.

Esper told reporters traveling with him to the Middle East that details regarding the U.S. military’s efforts in western Iraq would be worked out in the upcoming weeks, The Associated Press reported.

The comments came after weeks of bipartisan scrutiny of President Trump‘s abrupt decision to pull roughly 1,000 troops from northern Syria ahead of a planned Turkish offensive in the area. Trump has repeatedly argued that it is time to get out of “endless wars” and promised to bring U.S. troops home.

View the complete October 20 article by Justine Wise on The Hill website here.

‘They are livid’: Trump’s withdrawal from Syria prompts rare public criticism from current, former military officials

Washington Post logo‘They are livid’: Trump’s withdrawal from Syria prompts rare public criticism from current, former military officials

A cascade of criticism by current and former military officials of President Trump’s abrupt withdrawal from Syria has thrust into plain sight internal debates over the military’s role in foreign policy and whether uniformed officials have a responsibility to publicly appraise decisions affecting American security.

Retired Gen. Joseph Votel, who stepped down this year as head of U.S. Central Command, and other former top officers have issued sharp warnings in the days since Trump ordered a sudden exit of nearly all U.S. forces in Syria, leaving Syrian Kurdish forces that have been an important U.S. partner against the Islamic State exposed to an offensive by Turkey’s better-armed military.

The “abandonment threatens to undo five years’ worth of fighting against ISIS and will severely damage American credibility and reliability,” Votel and co-author Elizabeth Dent wrote in the Atlantic.

View the complete October 19 article by Missy Ryan on The Washington Post website here.

Russian Media Cheers Trump’s Moves in Syria: ‘Putin Won the Lottery!’

For Russia, Trump’s presidency is a gift that keeps on giving. The Kremlin’s propagandists see no acceptable alternative among any viable presidential candidates in 2020.

President Trump has boasted he’s “getting a lot of praise” for his abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops out of northern Syria, abandoning the Kurds—America’s longstanding allies—to Turkey’s incursion. On the home front, the controversial move has been met with criticism on both sides of the political aisle, but the reaction in Moscow was far from mixed. As Trump uncorked chaos in the Middle East, champagne tops were likely popping at the Kremlin.

“Putin won the lottery! Russia’s unexpected triumph in the Middle East,” raved Mikhail Rostovsky in his article for the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. “Those who were convinced of Trump’s uselessness for Russia ought to think again…What Washington got out of this strange move is completely unclear. To the contrary, what Moscow gained from this is self-evident…Trump’s mistake in Syria is the unexpected ‘lottery win’ that further strengthened Moscow’s position in the Middle East and undermined America’s prestige as a rational political player and a reliable partner.”  Continue reading “Russian Media Cheers Trump’s Moves in Syria: ‘Putin Won the Lottery!’”

Trump authorizes sanctions on Turkish officials for Syria invasion

Axios logoPresident Trump signed an executive order on Monday authorizing the imposition of sanctions on current and former Turkish officials, senior administration officials told reporters Monday.

Why it matters: Trump’s removal of nearly all U.S. troops from Syria created bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill, prompting members of Congress to immediately prepare sanctions bills of their own in retaliation. As Axios’ Dave Lawler notes, Trump is now preempting those looming sanctions with steps of his own.

    • However, some Democratic lawmakers have already said that sanctions on Turkey alone are not enough.
    • Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said as much in a Monday statement, arguing that Trump must “correct course” and reverse the troop withdrawal.

View the complete October 14 article by Alayna Treene on the Axios website here.

Congress set for showdown with Trump over Kurds

The Hill logoPresident Trump is barreling toward a showdown with Congress over his decision to pull back U.S. troops in northern Syria despite widespread opposition.

The announcement, which caught leadership and traditional GOP allies flatfooted, sparked a wave of condemnation, with Republicans calling it a “disaster in the making,” a “catastrophic mistake” and a “terrible decision.”

Lawmakers are already weighing how to respond to Trump’s decision, setting the stage for a high-profile clash with Trump as soon as Congress returns from a two-week break on Monday.

View the complete October 9 article by Jordain Carney and Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.