“Our delegation received briefings from Ambassador John Bass and other top diplomats on reconciliation efforts with the Taliban, which has been responsible for violent attacks in Afghanistan. We also heard more about the still-pending status of results from the Afghanistan presidential election in September, which we all hope will be available soon,” Pelosi said in a statement Sunday night.
View the complete October 20 article by Steve Hendrix on The Washington Post website here.
Vladimir 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.
Kurdish fighters under attack by Turkey have described President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria as a “stab in the back.”
Since bombing began on Oct. 9, Turkish military operations against the Syrian Democratic Forces in northern Syria, Washington’s staunchest and most effective allies in the war against the Islamic State, has killed at least 11 civilians and an unconfirmed number of Kurdish fighters, with estimates ranging from dozens to hundreds.
Kurdish fighters are key partners to the U.S. in the Middle East. From 2003 to 2017, they helped overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein, battled al-Qaida and pushed the Islamic State out of northern Iraq and Syria.
U.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.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post criticizing Donald Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria.
But there’s something distinctly missing from the piece: the words “Donald” and “Trump.”
Unbelievably, however, another name does appear in the piece: former President Barack Obama.
View the complete October 19 article by Emily Singer on the National Memo website here.
Temporary, nonbinding, requiring nothing: ‘We got what we wanted,’ foreign minister saysANALYSIS — President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday that Vice President Mike Pence had reached an agreement with Turkey’s president for a halt to hostilities in northern Syria.
“This is a great day for civilization,” Trump wrote. “People have been trying to make this “Deal” for many years.”
Maybe he put “Deal” in quotes because it really isn’t one.
View the complete October 18 article by John M. Donnelly on The Roll Call website here.
It’s a startling turn of events. For years, Turkey watched with frustration as more distant powers — from the United States to Russia to Iran — imposed their will on the bloody Syrian conflict to its south. For years, to no avail, Turkey demanded that the United States end its support of a controversial Syrian Kurdish faction with alleged links to an outlawed separatist group within its borders. For years, Turkey fumed at a hostile Washington, a putative ally whose politicians, for a host of reasons, often cast Ankara as an adversary.
All of that has suddenly changed, largely thanks to President Trump.
It was Trump who, less than two weeks ago, acquiesced to a Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria, abandoning those in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. It was Trump who, despite a vociferous backlash in Washington, started to echo Turkish talking points about the SDF being “communists” and “terrorists.” And it was Trump who on Thursday hailed a “deal” clinched with Turkey that effectively satisfied most of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s demands while also relieving him of the looming threat of U.S. sanctions on his country’s vulnerable economy.
View the complete October 17 article by Ishaan Tharoor on The Washington Post website here.
During a live press conference in Turkey on Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence announced a “deal” with Turkish President Recep Erdogan to give Turkey … everything it wanted.
With great pride and voluminous sucking-up, Pence announced a 120-hour “cease-fire” agreement with Turkey, during which time the United States will “assist” Turkey’s Kurdish targets in fleeing the region Turkey is attacking. In other words, Kurdish forces, their families, and others have five days to withdraw from their own homes, after which Turkey will control the region. It is unclear where those forces are expected to retreat to. Pence’s announcement amounts to an agreement for Turkey to ethnically cleanse a Turkish-demanded “safe zone” with the United States’ approval, and possibly its assistance.
In “exchange” for a cease-fire agreement—an ultimatum to Turkey’s Kurdish targets to withdraw, or else—Pence announced that the United States “will not impose further sanctions” on Turkey for its assault.
View the complete October 17 article from the Daily Kos on the National Memo website here.
“It’s been … suggested that Turkey may have called America’s bluff, telling the president they are coming no matter what we did,” said Romney, of Utah. “If that’s so, we should know it. For it would tell us a great deal about how we should deal with Turkey, now and in the future.”
View the complete October 18 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.
With President Donald Trump withdrawing U.S. troops from northeastern Syria and abandoning the United States’ Kurdish allies, Turkish forces are making an incursion into that area just as critics of the U.S. withdrawal predicted they would. A U.S. delegation including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday met for four hours with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday. At a press conference following the meeting Pence, claimed Turkey agreed to a “ceasefire” in northeastern Syria. But Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in a separate press conference made it clear that a “ceasefire” isn’t what the Turkish government and Erdoğan have in mind.
Speaking in Ankara, Turkey, Cavusoglu told reporters, “This is not a stopping of the operation. This is not a ceasefire because a ceasefire takes place between two legitimate parties.”
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”We agree on collecting YPG heavy weapons, destroying their positions, fortifications” – Turkey’s Foreign Minister Cavusoglu
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“Pause in Turkey’s operation in Syria is not a cease-fire, cease-fire can only happen between two legitimate sides” – Turkey’s Cavusoglu
View the complete October 17 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.
