Starved for solutions, eh? Send them to Chinese . Negotiate a deal with Nato to pay for their reeducation in Chinese internment camps. Long term solutions take time and planning. Something our POTUS is not known to care for. He'd rather let them "escape to Europe" apparently. He likes "obliterating economies" instead of paying his bills. Funny that you accuse us of Grandstanding when there is a guy in white house with "unmatched wisdom" breaking promises and destroying partnerships. These alliances is what allows for long term solutions to form in the first place. We can't go at it alone but we can't abandon our responsibilities - the world is highly interconnected place these days and any instability can cause it to implode. We have to keep a hand on a pulse of the world to SURVIVE
IMO we should continue to spread our seed like the semen of Wilt Chamberlain. We better make more allies and pick up more ports before China does... Intel is the battle that matters more than anything. You throw it up there in quotes, as If to belittle it's importance, but if you had served your country, or worked in the intelligence community, you would never question the significance. It is truly what keeps us all safe, including our troops on the ground, in the air and at sea. I'd take 100000000000000000000000000000x the debt we have now in exchange for the intelligence we have collected and continue to collect. The importance cannot be understated, and how flippantly you use the term truly shows your naivety concerning military intelligence.
You gotta have boots on ground to collect SIGINT. PERIOD. 11,000 Kurd troops died fighting ISIS alongside SPECOPS. Next time we need tough allies, think we get them? Talk about wasted lives, sheesh. Thousands of ISIS members in captivity are going to break out in T-Minus 3, 2, 1...
I don’t question the importance of military intelligence. I question the need for long term expensive military commitments to obtain that intelligence. Your position that we must have long term massively expensive boots on the ground military commitments to obtain such intelligence is asinine.
I have a lot of mixed feelings as an American and a tax-payer about our various middle east deployments. Some of this is based on 2nd hand experience and stories, since I do know a number of people who've served in all sorts of military capacities over there. But here's the one thing about the situation that I don't have mixed feelings over: If our president had followed the emoluments rules from the start, divested from his various economic interests, and if he had used the common sense to not place his children all around him as advisors, I could try to assess this decision as a decision on its own merits. Instead, we're treated to Ivanka one day thanking the ruler of Turkey for attending the opening of a Trump Tower project in Istanbul, and basically the next freaking day, her father announces a withdrawal of our military support for the Kurds, telling Turkey to basically have at it. Just massive conflict of interests, as laid out at this link (Esquire, but the basic facts are available in many locations).
Does DailyKos lie about everything? No, but I avoid such graffiti as those types of sites and I'm wary of people who get information from those places.
Did we take every Vietnamese and Cambodian in the 70s? Do we take every refugee from every respective country? Can you think critically, instead of dealing in absolutes? I think a refugee situation is a great solution. Protect them until it gets worked out and hold a lottery to see what families can come over. Plenty of oil supply for the world. But I would agree there's cheaper ways to do that. I have no problem saying that Saddam needed to deposed of (like various other genocidal dictators) but the way the US went about it was a mistake. Afghanistan is different; we were always going to attack the Taliban from 9/11 but we didn't need to stick around that long. We didn't go over there for "freedom" and "liberty". There are geopolitical chess matches being played. "Leaving the middle east" is a naive, simplistic ideal. Have you ever considered that I and many others want to get out of the middle east too, but want to do so in pragmatic way....? Obama went through withdrawal agreement and stood out during all the uprising during Arab Springs? Staying out made the situation much better..... you have to be prepared for ISIS or Russia/Iran filling a power vacuum. You bring down a great country by not investing in the people but instead believing in Supply Side/Trickle Down/Voodoo economics that hollows out the country. We create money out of thin air and this current administration is hitting the gas pedal to juice the markets. Spare me your resources. Based on your posting history.... you are a big fan of spending money on the public? Expand medicare? Invest more in public schools? All those resources we same will go to public spending?
Crazy Donnie comes out to play again: Trump defends Syria move: The Kurds 'didn't help us' in Normandy
I very much understand the desire to pull out of quagmires and to bring our troops home. I agree we never should’ve invaded Iraq and gotten so deeply involved in the region but that is history and in the famous words of Colin Powell if you break it you own it. We can decide we have no responsibility to a people who have fought for us even though we let them down twice before but that will make it only harder for others to trust us. Why would outright opponents like NK or the PRC ever trust a deal with us if we don’t even stand by allies? While the President and many out there may not care about the Kurds this has implications far beyond just what happens in northwestern Syria. Also while yes this a war and one where US servicemen have paid the ultimate price for it the operation to take down DAESH has been very successful at a relatively small cost in blood and treasure to us. It’s mainly been fought by the Kurds and others with backing of US air power and US special forces. In many ways this is the ideal of how overseas battles could be fought with allies in the region leading the fight supported by us. Another consideration too is that standing by and protecting the Kurds need not be a major commitment of troops on out part. We could’ve made it clear to Turkey that we are standing by the Kurds and since Turkey is also a US ally it would be unlikely they would want to risk a confrontation with the US that might threaten their own position in NATO. At the same time we could use our influence in the Kurds to restrain them from attacking Turkey or aiding the PKK in Turkey. With a precipitous and unexpected withdrawal though all of that leverage goes out the window. We won’t have a presence on the ground to deter Turkish forces and the remaining Kurds left are likely to be very embittered at both Turkey and us. Finally even if we are determined to withdraw from Syria it is very irresponsible to do it this way. Following a call with Erdogan with little to no diplomatic or military discussion inside the Administration or with other partners in the region. Many people wanted Trump because he was going to be a chaos President and disrupt things. Will this is chaos and disruption and the Kurds might pay for that with their lives.
Let’s hear from the trump supporters on this one. What do you have to say about the president willing to see people die so he can claim yet another building with his name in another country. He is the ultimate narcissist
