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Everybody there is against IS already. They would do a good job without the US there.
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Well I am still unsure what to tell my family... One minute Trumpkin tells the world they are finished (because he was going to after real hard remember) but the next minute he and you tell me they are still there? Is the 'mission accomplished' true or not? Make up your mind.
Brave and bold decision to leave: America isn't cutting Russia/Iran off from access to Syria, Assad's rule is safe for now, America isn't going to rebuild that corner of Syria, there is a budding anti-PKK insurgency and protest movements, and the PKK is toxic.
What are you saying? Is there really no public debate under the Tsar Putin? This could be deemed as criticising the authorities for which there are severe penalties. .
Do you think it is right to leave your allies to be murdered? I mean that not as a policy question but as a human one
2. Murder is a legal term. The Turkish military killing armed PKK members and striking PKK infrastructure isn't necessarily murder.
3. The PKK is a terrorist group which sets off bombs in markets, uses suicide bombers, is making use of terror in Syria to keep itself in power, has fought shoulder to shoulder with the Axis (Russia provided them CAS), is facing a non-ISIS insurgency, and is the sworn enemy of our testy ally Turkey. Their response to finding out that yes America can and will get the hell out of this morass has been to screech that America owes them protection, for all time, and going to the Axis to make a deal based on the much stronger position American support allowed them to carve out.
So is everything until it happens.
Apart from the Kurds and the Brits and French not trusting them.
France has said it is staying. I expect the Brits will do the same but that could mean withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
Now you have fundamentally lost the plot. No country can stand alone. The more alliances you have the better.
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Neo-con and lib-interventionist writers had called at times for the US to push the PKK to the side and support Arab Islamists, leaving in this particular manner (with the PKK in control of territory populated mainly by Arabs which controls what little petrol Syria has) at least gives the PKK a bargaining position.
Let down by U.S., Syrian Kurdish leaders look to Russia and Assad
Ellen Francis
5 Min Read
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Alarmed by a U.S. decision to leave Syria, Kurdish leaders who run much of the north are urging Russia and its ally Damascus to send forces to shield the border from the threat of a Turkish offensive.
FILE PHOTO: Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters walk on the rubble of damaged shops and buildings in the city of Manbij, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria, August 10, 2016. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo
Their call for a return of Syrian government forces to the border, which Kurdish fighters have held for years, points to the depth of their crisis in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw forces.
While little has changed on the ground yet - U.S. forces are still deployed and Trump says the pullout will be slow - Kurdish officials are scrambling for a strategy to protect their region from Turkey before the United States leaves.
Talks with Damascus and Moscow appear to be the focus for the Kurdish leadership. Their worst fear is a repeat of a Turkish attack that drove Kurdish residents and the YPG militia out of Afrin city in the northwest earlier this year.
They are also trying to convince other Western countries to fill the vacuum when Washington withdraws some 2,000 troops whose presence in northern and eastern Syria has deterred Turkey so far.
The territory at stake spans about a quarter of Syria, most of it east of the Euphrates River, controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an umbrella group dominated by the Kurdish YPG. The area borders Iraq to the east and includes three major cities - Qamishli, Hasaka and Raqqa.
(Syria areas of control: tmsnrt.rs/2RgCxxb)
The SDF has been Washington’s main Syrian partner in the fight with Islamic State, but Turkey views the YPG fighters that form its backbone as a threat and has vowed to crush them.
Officials from northern Syria, who went to Moscow last week, will soon make another trip, hoping Russia will push Damascus to “fulfill its sovereign duty”, top Kurdish politician Aldar Xelil told Reuters.
“Our contacts with Russia, and the regime, are to look for clear mechanisms to protect the northern border,” said Xelil, an architect of autonomy plans in northern Syria. “We want Russia to play an important role to achieve stability.”
[...]
Although the autonomy they seek is at odds with Damascus, Kurdish forces have largely avoided direct conflict with the government during the war, at times even fighting common foes. They held political talks this summer that went nowhere.
But with their negotiating position severely weakened by Trump’s move, Kurdish authorities may be in a race against time to cut a deal as Turkey threatens to launch its offensive east of the Euphrates River.
Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdish PKK movement which has been waging a 34-year-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey. Ankara has drawn on Syrian rebel proxies to help fight the YPG in the north.
[...]
POLITICAL SETTLEMENT
In Turkey’s last assault in Afrin earlier this year, the SDF felt let down by Russia, believing it had given assurances that Turkey would not attack the region.
Turkey-backed Syrian rebels say they have been mobilizing to launch the next offensive, with their first target the town of Manbij that borders the territory under their control.
Ellen Francis
5 Min Read
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Alarmed by a U.S. decision to leave Syria, Kurdish leaders who run much of the north are urging Russia and its ally Damascus to send forces to shield the border from the threat of a Turkish offensive.
FILE PHOTO: Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters walk on the rubble of damaged shops and buildings in the city of Manbij, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria, August 10, 2016. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo
Their call for a return of Syrian government forces to the border, which Kurdish fighters have held for years, points to the depth of their crisis in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw forces.
While little has changed on the ground yet - U.S. forces are still deployed and Trump says the pullout will be slow - Kurdish officials are scrambling for a strategy to protect their region from Turkey before the United States leaves.
Talks with Damascus and Moscow appear to be the focus for the Kurdish leadership. Their worst fear is a repeat of a Turkish attack that drove Kurdish residents and the YPG militia out of Afrin city in the northwest earlier this year.
They are also trying to convince other Western countries to fill the vacuum when Washington withdraws some 2,000 troops whose presence in northern and eastern Syria has deterred Turkey so far.
The territory at stake spans about a quarter of Syria, most of it east of the Euphrates River, controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an umbrella group dominated by the Kurdish YPG. The area borders Iraq to the east and includes three major cities - Qamishli, Hasaka and Raqqa.
(Syria areas of control: tmsnrt.rs/2RgCxxb)
The SDF has been Washington’s main Syrian partner in the fight with Islamic State, but Turkey views the YPG fighters that form its backbone as a threat and has vowed to crush them.
Officials from northern Syria, who went to Moscow last week, will soon make another trip, hoping Russia will push Damascus to “fulfill its sovereign duty”, top Kurdish politician Aldar Xelil told Reuters.
“Our contacts with Russia, and the regime, are to look for clear mechanisms to protect the northern border,” said Xelil, an architect of autonomy plans in northern Syria. “We want Russia to play an important role to achieve stability.”
[...]
Although the autonomy they seek is at odds with Damascus, Kurdish forces have largely avoided direct conflict with the government during the war, at times even fighting common foes. They held political talks this summer that went nowhere.
But with their negotiating position severely weakened by Trump’s move, Kurdish authorities may be in a race against time to cut a deal as Turkey threatens to launch its offensive east of the Euphrates River.
Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdish PKK movement which has been waging a 34-year-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey. Ankara has drawn on Syrian rebel proxies to help fight the YPG in the north.
[...]
POLITICAL SETTLEMENT
In Turkey’s last assault in Afrin earlier this year, the SDF felt let down by Russia, believing it had given assurances that Turkey would not attack the region.
Turkey-backed Syrian rebels say they have been mobilizing to launch the next offensive, with their first target the town of Manbij that borders the territory under their control.
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