Since the surprise announcement from the White House that said U.S. troops will be withdrawing from areas of Kurdish-held northeast Syria to avoid a planned Turkish assault, an onslaught of U.S. politicians spoke out against the decision. Members of Congress from both parties used the same talking points to argue for a continued U.S. presence in northeast Syria.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went on a tirade on twitter and appeared on Fox and Friends Monday morning. His main argument against the move is that ISIS would reemerge in areas where they were defeated. “I feel very bad for the Americans and allies who have sacrificed to destroy the ISIS Caliphate because this decision virtually reassures the reemergence of ISIS. So sad. So dangerous,” Graham tweeted. Graham also said that any incursion into Northern Syria by Turkey “will be met with most severe sanctions against Turkey’s military and economy.”
Hilary Clinton also took to Twitter to voice her concern over the announcement and said, “Let us be clear: The president has sided with authoritarian leaders of Turkey and Russia over our loyal allies and America’s own interests. His decision is a sickening betrayal both of the Kurds and his oath of office.”
Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley said, “We must always have the backs of our allies, if we expect them to have our back. The Kurds were instrumental in our successful fight against ISIS in Syria. Leaving them to die is a big mistake.”
Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) released a statement that said, “The President’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Northern Syria is a deeply disturbing development that betrays our Kurdish allies who have been instrumental partners in our mission to eradicate ISIS.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also released a statement that said, “A precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime. And it would increase the risk that ISIS and other terrorist groups regroup.”
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said, “Withdrawing US forces from Northern Syria is a catastrophic mistake that puts our gains against ISIS at risk and threatens US security.”
Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said, “This President’s decision to abandon our Kurdish allies in Northern Syria is ultimately a victory for Assad, Russia, Iran, and ISIS.”
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) tweeted, “We degraded ISIS using Kurds as the ground force. Now we have abandoned them & they face annihilation at the hands of the Turkish military.”
Even some progressives in Congress who have supported ending U.S. involvement in Syria came out against the announcement. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said, “Trump’s move will not put an end to endless wars. What it *will* do is reward Russia, Iran, and ISIS.”
Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) tweeted, “I have long believed the U.S. must responsibly end our military interventions in the Middle East. But Trump’s abrupt announcement to withdraw from northern Syria and endorse Turkey’s incursion is extremely irresponsible. It is likely to result in more suffering and instability.”
President Trump defended his decision and said, “I was elected on getting out of these ridiculous endless wars, where our great Military functions as a policing operation to the benefit of people who don’t even like the USA.” But Trump also seemed to agree with Graham about sanctioning Turkey and later tweeted, “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!)”
It is still not clear if Trump plans a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria or if they are just going to relocate. A full withdrawal of U.S. troops would allow the Syrian government to step in and help the Kurds. When Trump announced his unfulfilled plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria back in December 2018, the Kurds asked the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for protection from a possible Turkish invasion.
Residents of the capital are the last to hear the news of the end of the empire and react with great dismay. They will get over it, as the residents of Paris and London have.
It isn’t dismay, it’s distraction. You can’t finish off looting the rest of the empire if you admit it’s over.
What a bunch of hogwash.
Omar’s comments are very interesting. Clearly she hates Trump more than she likes good policy.
What’s good about this policy ? Just moving troops and sanctioning Turkey changes nothing as far as foreign policy goals.
All the IPAC clones are shouting their unified indignation as choreographed by Likud.
So you believe moving troops inside Syria will actually end the invasion by the US ?
This is what nobody is talking about. The mischaracterization is thoroughly intentional.
So many straw-man arguments, and so many useful political maneuvers that have no relevance to good policy. Where are the shrill cries about betraying our NATO ally Turkey? How useful a story to argue Trump is committing treason by “rewarding” / helping Russia with our non-actions. We love stories, to make sense of the senseless, and to cover for the short American attention-span over any facts that may exist.
I can’t remember the last time I saw media coverage that even repeated Turkey’s position that the Kurds are terrorists, much less examining the degree to which that description may be accurate.
No withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria can be precipitous enough… we had no right to go there in the first place and no valid excuse to stay even this long.
You’ll never hear anything about US foreign policy GOALS changing in that region due to the fact the corporate oligarchy will never change their goal of ruling the entire planet.
All coverage is biased when there are billions in oil reserves in Northeast Syria, and Water reserves which may be more important someday. People who don’t know anything are told what to say – this includes most of our politicians who just go with the flow ($$$)
“… go with the zio-flow.”
An AIPAC-bought congress, and a Neocon-controlled State Dept implementing the Oded Yinon Plan via the Wolfowitz Doctrine.
“We have to fight them over there so that Israel doesn’t have to fight them over there.”
Every US dollar and every drop of US serviceman/woman blood for criminal Israel.
America is Israel’s bitch.
Syria has no large oil reserves. It has so little water it has longstanding drought problems.
The Syria war is about Israel. It is about keeping Israel’s villa safely surrounded by a wasteland that cannot threaten it.
Silence from Warren – because she agrees with the action.
Does anyone have any kind of clue as to how the forces of Syria/Assad, Russia, and the Shia/Iranian/Hezbollah plan to respond to the US pull-out? I have not seen a shred of information about their intentions or any kind of announcement from them. Surely Putin/Lavrov has been communicating — quietly — with Erdogan in an effort to prevent any ***uncontrolled*** outbreak of violence.
The “quietness” suggests to me that Putin/Assad have a plan, but they are keeping it quiet to maximize its effectiveness and preempt any counter-plan.
EXACTLY.
The problem with all these people commenting is — they are clueless. They know nothing about life there, actual strength and weaknesses.
Turkey, Russia and Iran are guarantors of peace in Syria. Meaning they will promote solutions that will result in Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Majority of steps have been completed. From perspective of territorial integrity — only US is currently an obstacle. Idlib is a domestic affair, that can be solved by any number of means. Turkey is a peace guarantor, and is peace-keeping in its border regions including Kurdish Afrin.
US has been trying to keep status quo in what has been labeled “SDF controlled area”. I am sure that people on the ground know very well that Kurds do not have actual control. Kurds are minority in most of the areas, some as little as 1%. If Kurds are to get autonomy — it wll be in the region where they are majority, and that is limited to Kobane. US cannot stay and force Syrian Arabs to accept Kurdish overlords.
Especially as the overlords became zealous and wrote their Constitution, have their Parliament, introduced Kurdish language in Arab schools, and televised oaths of loyalty that Arab local government officials had to take in thus Kurdish “state”. We fed this delusion — and it is time to accept that this is not sustainable. Turkey has strong arguments, not just to solve huge refugee problem, but also to reverse quickly the effects of ethnic cleansing that comes unfortunately with any war.
People must be allowed to go home. And be helped there, not struggle as ling term refugees do.
Our fluffy and ignorant ruling class and their equally ignorant mouthpieces are seriously working against our national interest. Prolonging the Kurdish crisis is in nobody’s interest. YPG had unrealistic goals — and has led their own population down that path.
They should have known that Turkey in partnership with Russia will prevent Kurdish state in any form. And should have known ever since fall of 2015 that the handwriting is on the wall. No matter how long it takes — Turkey was going to prevail. Will US seriously want a shooting — or even cold —war with Turkey? NATO alliance is being tested. For the sake of a nation building project for Kurds, US and EU are willing to lose Turkey?
They have already lost it psychologically.
US pushing any further, would result in very serious consequences for the alliance.
Hillary Clinton also took to Twitter to voice her concern over the announcement and said, “Let us be clear: The president has sided with authoritarian leaders of Turkey and Russia over our loyal allies and America’s own interests. His decision is a sickening betrayal both of the Kurds and his oath of office.”
The sickening betrayal of US national interests was by Hillary Clinton, when as Sec of State she got the Syrian Arab Spring turned into a civil war, and promised the Kurds things she had no intention of delivering in return for their help in that.