As Donald Trump strived to enforce message discipline among Republicans in the face of a building threat that he will be impeached, new forces beyond the US president’s control appeared likely to accelerate the congressional impeachment inquiry further in the coming week.
Forces beyond his control will drive him maaaaaaaad!
The betrayal was inevitable but nonetheless sickening. Since Turkey invaded Afrin it has been ethnically cleansed and populated by jihadist creeps. I am hoping the SDF can work something out with the Syrian government and Russia to keep Rojava safe.
The US is saying that the SDF are expected to deliver their ISIS prisoners to Turkey. Since ex-ISIS fighters made up part of Turkey's ground forces in Afrin, that is very bad news. I'm guessing/hoping though that this fight won't be as easy for Turkey's thugs as Afrin was.
The US is saying that the SDF are expected to deliver their ISIS prisoners to Turkey. Since ex-ISIS fighters made up part of Turkey's ground forces in Afrin, that is very bad news.
Yes, I expect that in a few years another large islamic group will have mysteriously developed in the region.
What's this about trump tweeting something about Turkey and Kurds claiming ".. in my own infinite wisdom ... blah blah... " !!?? How does he manage to tweet without an adult stopping him?
Well, he is apparently God's Chosen One, the successor to Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ (who, presumably, is now out of a job), so 'infinite wisdom' goes with the territory...
But yes - if only someone would stop him, before he destroys us all.
What's this about trump tweeting something about Turkey and Kurds claiming ".. in my own infinite wisdom ... blah blah... " !!?? How does he manage to tweet without an adult stopping him?
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!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!
Apparently realizing that selling out Kurdish fighters is appalling even his most obsequious Republican lapdogs Trump decides to "reassure" everyone that he can keep Turkey in line with sternly worded tweets or he'll destroy their economy. (Like he did before?!?) Trump does not have a sense of humor (at least not one that doesn't revolve around the suffering of others) and certainly doesn't have any sense of irony, so this can only be taken as him being serious.
What's this about trump tweeting something about Turkey and Kurds claiming ".. in my own infinite wisdom ... blah blah... " !!?? How does he manage to tweet without an adult stopping him?
In his bumbling way he is just continuing a long US and Western tradition of shafting the Kurds after using them for this or that.
Between NATO ally Turkey and a radical feminist-socialist enclave in Syria, the US was bound to side with the former, no matter who was in the White House.
EDIT: Oh I didn't see that latest Tweet. That's bizarre. In this case, I honestly hope he means it.
EDIT: Oh I didn't see that latest Tweet. That's bizarre. In this case, I honestly hope he means it.
The question isn't whether he "means it", the question is whether his self-promotion has become completely untethered from reality. "I, in my great and unmatched wisdom . . . " sounds like some cartoon version of an overly-grandiose despot. The fact that he "means it" when he says he's the wisest person in the world and that he's destroyed the Turkish economy in the past is the problem!
Come on, whoever is programming the Matrix. You've had your little joke. No way is this an accurate simulation of a rationally comprehensible universe any longer...
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!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!
Apparently realizing that selling out Kurdish fighters is appalling even his most obsequious Republican lapdogs Trump decides to "reassure" everyone that he can keep Turkey in line with sternly worded tweets or he'll destroy their economy. (Like he did before?!?)
Read the genius-like words carefully. He doesn't say it's Turkey's economy he's destroyed... Apropo of nothing, I really ought to check my retirement savings...
The Republicans are all bent out of shape about it, not because they care about the Kurds, but they want Syria to continue to be divided and weak as long as possible.
Come on. Must you attribute the worst possible motives to them? They've enough totally obvious sins to answer for, without "they want Syria to continue to be a horrific mess" being heaped on top of it.
Look, making the Republicans out to be demons incarnate is really not helpful to changing hearts and behavior. Making ANY group out to be demons incarnate is not helpful. Be as angry as you like, but try to avoid adding extra horns and tails, would ja?
It’s not making them demons incarnate, it’s what they actually say. They are saying Trump is giving a gift to Iran and Russia. They add ISIS to the list too but this is really about maintaining troops in Syria to stymie geopolitical rivals. It’s the same reason Saudi, Qatar, and Turkey flooded Syria with arms and foreign jihadists. The US ignored the Kurds until it became obvious that the “moderate rebels” we were arming were unreliable (to put it delicately) and the Kurds and allies were the only people on the ground who could fight and were not bloodthirsty sectarian headchoppers.
Of course the establishment democrats have the same thinking.
If the US really cared about the Kurds they would not have inhibited rapprochement between Rojava and Damascus. In the long term Rojava must strike a deal with Damascus to have any future.
Look, making the Republicans out to be demons incarnate is really not helpful to changing hearts and behavior. Making ANY group out to be demons incarnate is not helpful. Be as angry as you like, but try to avoid adding extra horns and tails, would ja?
I'm not even sure it's fair to say that all congress-critters of the Republican persuasion "want Syria to continue to be a horrific mess." No doubt some do. Others may have different motives, some of them doubtless equally base, maybe some less so. To describe a group of 50-odd people as if they were the Borg Collective is a bit much, even under the present ridiculous circumstances.
Really, what I'd like to see is if we can start describing the behavior and actions of people without imputing evil motives that would require us to be God himself to determine. Or at the very least to say something like "Based on what X, Y and Z said to CNN this week, it looks like ... " (and add your pejoratives here). That would at least have the merit of not being a pure assertion of the Martin54 variety.
I'm not even sure it's fair to say that all congress-critters of the Republican persuasion "want Syria to continue to be a horrific mess." No doubt some do. Others may have different motives, some of them doubtless equally base, maybe some less so. To describe a group of 50-odd people as if they were the Borg Collective is a bit much, even under the present ridiculous circumstances.
Really, what I'd like to see is if we can start describing the behavior and actions of people without imputing evil motives that would require us to be God himself to determine. Or at the very least to say something like "Based on what X, Y and Z said to CNN this week, it looks like ... " (and add your pejoratives here). That would at least have the merit of not being a pure assertion of the Martin54 variety.
Just because they do terrible things it doesn’t make them terrible people?
He's right about his wisdom being unmatched. Who else has ever managed to roll -20 on 3d6?
Please explain.
Yes, D&D joke. Traditionally players rolled each of their character's abilities, of which Wisdom is one, on three six sided dice. My joke was that somehow, whoever created Trump had managed to do the impossible and have them add up to -20.
He's right about his wisdom being unmatched. Who else has ever managed to roll -20 on 3d6?
Please explain.
Yes, D&D joke. Traditionally players rolled each of their character's abilities, of which Wisdom is one, on three six sided dice. My joke was that somehow, whoever created Trump had managed to do the impossible and have them add up to -20.
He seems to have a Self Awareness modifier of -6 as well
I have been walking around the house spitting chips at Trump's decision to abandon the Kurds to the mercy of the Turks. I want to shout at people and shake them and scream, "Do you realise that your President is a man without honour? Who will fight for you now? Who will send their children to die so that you might be safe?"
I know I'm overreacting because I didn't sleep after work today. I know that the Kurds had no choice but to fight. The battle came to them. American help saved them, enabled them to fight ISIS for me as much as for the USA.
But it sticks in my craw that Trump is dudding these people, just as it sticks in my craw that people who help allied troops are not given sanctuary when our forces leave.
Trump has a phone call with Erdoğan Monday afternoon and agrees to let Erdoğan do whatever he wants in northern Syria. Trump apparently does not speak with his advisors, either before the call or afterwards, to discuss the long term consequences of any action or what steps need to be taken to protect U.S. forces in the area.
The decision to stand aside is announced, both to the rest of the U.S. government and the world, via a White House press release later that evening. It reads, in its entirety:
Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey by telephone. Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial “Caliphate,” will no longer be in the immediate area.
The United States Government has pressed France, Germany, and other European nations, from which many captured ISIS fighters came, to take them back, but they did not want them and refused. The United States will not hold them for what could be many years and great cost to the United States taxpayer. Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years in the wake of the defeat of the territorial “Caliphate” by the United States.
Naturally this caused an uproar with U.S. Defense officials who objected to having to, suddenly, without warning, and for no clear reason, pull a bunch of U.S. troops out of the path of a Turkish assault. They're none too pleased with the prospect of abandoning an ally either. (Yes, they've actually heard of the iterated prisoner's dilemma.)
The U.S. Secretary of Defense went so far as to tweet "DOD does not endorse a Turkish operation in northern Syria. We will work with our NATO allies & Coalition partners to reiterate to Turkey the possible destabilizing consequences of potential actions to Turkey, the region, & beyond." I'd like to link to that tweet but it's been deleted. Here's a screenshot.
Less than 24 hours after the call, Turkey attacks Kurdish forces in northern Syria and Iraq. It's unclear if U.S. forces remain in the area and what, if anything, they're supposed to do if they come under fire from Turkish or Kurdish forces.
So you can see there are lots of reasons why Republicans would be nervous well beyond any putative malice towards Syria or supposed affection for the Kurds.
The president* reversed a longstanding U.S. security position on a whim after a phone call with an autocrat, apparently consulting no one else either before or after about the logistical, strategic, or diplomatic ramifications. Given that the current U.S. security posture is based on a series of alliances, the basis of which is an assumption of American reliability, this could have ramifications far beyond one corner of Syria.
Trump has given no credible explanation about his thinking here. During the recent Ukrainian scandal he's been very open about using his political office for personal benefit. Did Erdoğan promise him some kind of payout? If that's the case, what's next? Withdrawing American forces from South Korea and Japan in exchange for building Trump Tower Pyongyang?
Trump is also fairly obviously "undergoing some kind of dementia", to quote @SirPalomides. This also seems like legitimate cause for concern for Congressional Republicans. What if Trump decides to deploy troops to the Land of Oz to shore up the Lollipop Guild? Or takes some other, less humorous action at the urging of the phantoms in his mind?
Finally, Congressional Republican may not care much about sending other people's kids to die in what they think is a good, or at least arguable, cause. What they probably don't want is to go to some town hall in their home state during Congressional recess to explain that Sgt. Local Boy, USMC will be coming home in a box after getting caught in the crossfire between two putative U.S. allies, but it's all worth it because the Turkish government leased a bunch of space in Trump Towers Istanbul for significantly above market rates.
There is, apparently, very genuine affection toward the Syrian Kurds from members of the US military who have worked closely with them. I imagine quite a lot of anguish going through the ranks.
The betrayal is compounded by the fact that, when Turkey invaded Afrin, the Kurds had the option of reaching a settlement with the Syrian government to take over defense of Afrin. The Americans promised, instead, that if the YPG/YPJ abandoned Afrin to the Turks, the US would ensure no other Turkish incursions in the remainder of their territory. Then, to appease Turkey, the US had the Kurds demolish their defenses in their remaining territory. Then, when the Kurds tried reaching out to Damascus, the US sabotaged that, ensuring they had no allies once the Americans pulled out.
So it's a thoroughly horrible betrayal. Honestly though it was bound to happen one way or another, even if it could have been done less precipitously. A radically egalitarian, socialist experiment in northeast Syria was never going to outweigh our longtime ally Turkey.
If there is any light at the end of this grim tunnel I don't know, but here's hoping the brave young women and men of the YPJ/YPG make this as costly for Erdogan as possible. I would encourage everyone to look into what they accomplished in these past few years, not only in defeating one of the most evil organizations in the world but in striving to build a truly free society. Biji Rojava!
I see that the POTUS and his family are now refusing to pay the legal costs awarded against them in the long-running saga over the offshore windfarm near his Menie golf development.
SDF talking to Damascus again. Up to now Syria and Russia have been pretty unreceptive to allowing autonomy for Rojava; the Kurds might not be entirely without leverage, though, because their region has most of Syria' oil wealth. Would Assad rather give that to the Turks or have it administered by an autonomous region? God help them.
For those who appreciate dark humor here's President Supervillain, a twitter feed that takes Trump quotes and puts them in comics featuring Marvel's Red Skull.
One of the less-commented upon things in this whole mess is that second paragraph in the White House press release:
The United States Government has pressed France, Germany, and other European nations, from which many captured ISIS fighters came, to take them back, but they did not want them and refused. The United States will not hold them for what could be many years and great cost to the United States taxpayer. Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years in the wake of the defeat of the territorial “Caliphate” by the United States.
What to do about captured ISIS fighters has been a bee in Trump's proverbial bonnet for quitesometime. There's no clear reason for this that I've ever come across. He seems to be obsessed with the cost and, while I imagine it's a large number as most people would estimate such things I suspect it's akin to a rounding error when compared to the size of the U.S. military budget. Maybe this focus on penny-ante details is like his obsession with carpet swatches, something small and simple he can focus on.
At any rate, I suspect that Erdoğan latched on to this and promised to take those prisoners off his hands. This is a pretty easy promise for him to make since most of those prisoners are in Kurdish custody and the likelihood of there being anything like an orderly prisoner transfer between the Kurds and Turks is minimal in the wake of Trump's acquiescence to Turkey's intention to attack the Kurds.
Turkey has already found ex-ISIS militants useful in its occupation/ ethnic cleansing of Afrin. Captured ISIS officers have also reported that the group is reorganizing in Afrin and Idlib.
Really, what I'd like to see is if we can start describing the behavior and actions of people without imputing evil motives that would require us to be God himself to determine. Or at the very least to say something like "Based on what X, Y and Z said to CNN this week, it looks like ... " (and add your pejoratives here). That would at least have the merit of not being a pure assertion of the Martin54 variety.
Fair warning: US perspective; might not work applied more globally.
Much as US folks all might long for a re-boot of the world in which it's possible to offer the benefit of the doubt to people whose politics simply differ from ours, I think that world is lost and gone forever. We know too much.
This, after all, is the heart, soul, and root of Trump's actual genius (and yes, I've been forced to conclude he has one). The "good old days" of the 1950s which some people recall fondly and long for a return of were rendered "good" by two factors:
1. Public acknowledgement--even celebration--of the real, undeniable benefits parceled out by our institutions (decent wages leading to widespread prosperity, fairer tax system ditto, GI Bill, housing efforts, national infrastructure, etc, etc.)
2. Parallel institutional suppression of awareness of how these social goods were routinely and ruthlessly denied to selected groups.
Beneficiaries could afford to revel in their good fortune, praising and pledging fealty to the systems benefiting them, shielded and insulated from knowledge of the damage wrought to those excluded from these benefits (because they somehow "didn't count" or "didn't matter" or were themselves somehow at fault for their exclusion.
We've had decades of education since then, a gradual raising of awareness of the excluded (PoC, women, sexual minorities, and more) and the devastating harms and loses these groups have suffered. Trump's genius lies in recognizing not only that what was once hidden is now out in plain sight for all but the willfully blind to see, it can now be openly acknowledged precisely because it's become obvious, and precisely because willful blindness is now seen as a legitimate option. Why must we continue to pay attention to what is now out in plain sight?
"Yes, the current tax and economic systems are ruinously unfair to 99% of the population. So? What are you gonna do about it? We hold all the levers of change; sucks to be you."
"Yeah, people of color / women / sexual minorities / poor people / fill-in-blank-affecting-you / have it tough, and we're gonna make it even tougher because (A) we can, and (B) we're sick of hearing about you and your issues. So? What are you gonna do about it? Just shut up, go away, and stop bothering us."
Trump's genius lies precisely in releasing people burdened by their own circumstances from the additional burden of giving a shit about people burdened by other circumstances.
So when voters select leaders based (for example) on a sincere belief that abortion is murder, we all--including the voters making that choice--understand that choice can also condemn some woman with an ectopic pregnancy to death.
In other words, we can no longer operate under cover of real ignorance (as many people may have done back in the 1950s, when victims of injustice suffered "out of public (institutional) view." Willful ignorance, of course, offers no moral cover and never did. We make our political choices in full awareness not only of achieving our own goals but also of the harm those same choices will inevitably cause someone else.
Have our politics been permanently poisoned? How can Voter A be expected to maintain dispassionate respect for Voter B when each voter risks actual personal harm from the other's vote?
I'm not even sure it's fair to say that all congress-critters of the Republican persuasion "want Syria to continue to be a horrific mess." No doubt some do. Others may have different motives, some of them doubtless equally base, maybe some less so. To describe a group of 50-odd people as if they were the Borg Collective is a bit much, even under the present ridiculous circumstances.
Really, what I'd like to see is if we can start describing the behavior and actions of people without imputing evil motives that would require us to be God himself to determine. Or at the very least to say something like "Based on what X, Y and Z said to CNN this week, it looks like ... " (and add your pejoratives here). That would at least have the merit of not being a pure assertion of the Martin54 variety.
Just because they do terrible things it doesn’t make them terrible people?
Worth a thread of its own.
Not the point at all. I am not defending the indefensible. Simply pointing out that boldly announcing a single motivation for an entire group of people (in this case, what--51 people?) is--unhelpful? foolish? Un-nuanced? Apt to cause more heat than light? All of which would hold true even if the single motivation was a positive one.
What I'm trying to avoid is what Elizabeth I referred to as "making windows into men's souls." Judge their deeds; God knows they are blameworthy.
Not the point at all. I am not defending the indefensible. Simply pointing out that boldly announcing a single motivation for an entire group of people (in this case, what--51 people?) is--unhelpful? foolish? Un-nuanced? Apt to cause more heat than light? All of which would hold true even if the single motivation was a positive one.
250 people. 53 Republican Senators plus 197 Republican members of the House of Representatives. (There were 199 Republican House members until recently, but Sean Duffy (WI-7) resigned to take care of his seriously ill newborn daughter and Chris Collins (NY-27) resigned to plead guilty to insider trading charges. Those seats remain vacant at the moment.)
Comments
[Edited to add that Hedgehog is correct.]
Forces beyond his control will drive him maaaaaaaad!
Yes, I expect that in a few years another large islamic group will have mysteriously developed in the region.
"Young Trump encounters his toughest challenge yet as the giant ImPeach rolls around to take him on an adventure."
But yes - if only someone would stop him, before he destroys us all.
Here's the tweet from President* Stable Genius:
Apparently realizing that selling out Kurdish fighters is appalling even his most obsequious Republican lapdogs Trump decides to "reassure" everyone that he can keep Turkey in line with sternly worded tweets or he'll destroy their economy. (Like he did before?!?) Trump does not have a sense of humor (at least not one that doesn't revolve around the suffering of others) and certainly doesn't have any sense of irony, so this can only be taken as him being serious.
In his bumbling way he is just continuing a long US and Western tradition of shafting the Kurds after using them for this or that.
Between NATO ally Turkey and a radical feminist-socialist enclave in Syria, the US was bound to side with the former, no matter who was in the White House.
EDIT: Oh I didn't see that latest Tweet. That's bizarre. In this case, I honestly hope he means it.
The question isn't whether he "means it", the question is whether his self-promotion has become completely untethered from reality. "I, in my great and unmatched wisdom . . . " sounds like some cartoon version of an overly-grandiose despot. The fact that he "means it" when he says he's the wisest person in the world and that he's destroyed the Turkish economy in the past is the problem!
That the guy is undergoing some kind of dementia seems scarcely in doubt. But maybe it'll buy Rojava some time.
Read the genius-like words carefully. He doesn't say it's Turkey's economy he's destroyed... Apropo of nothing, I really ought to check my retirement savings...
His trolley left the station long ago.
I know it is coming up on Halloween, but it is still scary when you see sock-puppets act like they have brains of their own.
Look, making the Republicans out to be demons incarnate is really not helpful to changing hearts and behavior. Making ANY group out to be demons incarnate is not helpful. Be as angry as you like, but try to avoid adding extra horns and tails, would ja?
Of course the establishment democrats have the same thinking.
If the US really cared about the Kurds they would not have inhibited rapprochement between Rojava and Damascus. In the long term Rojava must strike a deal with Damascus to have any future.
Please explain.
Agreed. They're bad enough without more editing.
Really, what I'd like to see is if we can start describing the behavior and actions of people without imputing evil motives that would require us to be God himself to determine. Or at the very least to say something like "Based on what X, Y and Z said to CNN this week, it looks like ... " (and add your pejoratives here). That would at least have the merit of not being a pure assertion of the Martin54 variety.
Just because they do terrible things it doesn’t make them terrible people?
Worth a thread of its own.
Yes, D&D joke. Traditionally players rolled each of their character's abilities, of which Wisdom is one, on three six sided dice. My joke was that somehow, whoever created Trump had managed to do the impossible and have them add up to -20.
He seems to have a Self Awareness modifier of -6 as well
I know I'm overreacting because I didn't sleep after work today. I know that the Kurds had no choice but to fight. The battle came to them. American help saved them, enabled them to fight ISIS for me as much as for the USA.
But it sticks in my craw that Trump is dudding these people, just as it sticks in my craw that people who help allied troops are not given sanctuary when our forces leave.
Trump has a phone call with Erdoğan Monday afternoon and agrees to let Erdoğan do whatever he wants in northern Syria. Trump apparently does not speak with his advisors, either before the call or afterwards, to discuss the long term consequences of any action or what steps need to be taken to protect U.S. forces in the area.
The decision to stand aside is announced, both to the rest of the U.S. government and the world, via a White House press release later that evening. It reads, in its entirety:
Naturally this caused an uproar with U.S. Defense officials who objected to having to, suddenly, without warning, and for no clear reason, pull a bunch of U.S. troops out of the path of a Turkish assault. They're none too pleased with the prospect of abandoning an ally either. (Yes, they've actually heard of the iterated prisoner's dilemma.)
The U.S. Secretary of Defense went so far as to tweet "DOD does not endorse a Turkish operation in northern Syria. We will work with our NATO allies & Coalition partners to reiterate to Turkey the possible destabilizing consequences of potential actions to Turkey, the region, & beyond." I'd like to link to that tweet but it's been deleted. Here's a screenshot.
Less than 24 hours after the call, Turkey attacks Kurdish forces in northern Syria and Iraq. It's unclear if U.S. forces remain in the area and what, if anything, they're supposed to do if they come under fire from Turkish or Kurdish forces.
So you can see there are lots of reasons why Republicans would be nervous well beyond any putative malice towards Syria or supposed affection for the Kurds.
The president* reversed a longstanding U.S. security position on a whim after a phone call with an autocrat, apparently consulting no one else either before or after about the logistical, strategic, or diplomatic ramifications. Given that the current U.S. security posture is based on a series of alliances, the basis of which is an assumption of American reliability, this could have ramifications far beyond one corner of Syria.
Trump has given no credible explanation about his thinking here. During the recent Ukrainian scandal he's been very open about using his political office for personal benefit. Did Erdoğan promise him some kind of payout? If that's the case, what's next? Withdrawing American forces from South Korea and Japan in exchange for building Trump Tower Pyongyang?
Trump is also fairly obviously "undergoing some kind of dementia", to quote @SirPalomides. This also seems like legitimate cause for concern for Congressional Republicans. What if Trump decides to deploy troops to the Land of Oz to shore up the Lollipop Guild? Or takes some other, less humorous action at the urging of the phantoms in his mind?
Finally, Congressional Republican may not care much about sending other people's kids to die in what they think is a good, or at least arguable, cause. What they probably don't want is to go to some town hall in their home state during Congressional recess to explain that Sgt. Local Boy, USMC will be coming home in a box after getting caught in the crossfire between two putative U.S. allies, but it's all worth it because the Turkish government leased a bunch of space in Trump Towers Istanbul for significantly above market rates.
To some of us on this side of the Pond, the thought that Potus Blump can act in this cavalier (to say the least) manner is frightening.
How far will this madman be allowed to go before someone takes action, and stops him?
The betrayal is compounded by the fact that, when Turkey invaded Afrin, the Kurds had the option of reaching a settlement with the Syrian government to take over defense of Afrin. The Americans promised, instead, that if the YPG/YPJ abandoned Afrin to the Turks, the US would ensure no other Turkish incursions in the remainder of their territory. Then, to appease Turkey, the US had the Kurds demolish their defenses in their remaining territory. Then, when the Kurds tried reaching out to Damascus, the US sabotaged that, ensuring they had no allies once the Americans pulled out.
So it's a thoroughly horrible betrayal. Honestly though it was bound to happen one way or another, even if it could have been done less precipitously. A radically egalitarian, socialist experiment in northeast Syria was never going to outweigh our longtime ally Turkey.
If there is any light at the end of this grim tunnel I don't know, but here's hoping the brave young women and men of the YPJ/YPG make this as costly for Erdogan as possible. I would encourage everyone to look into what they accomplished in these past few years, not only in defeating one of the most evil organizations in the world but in striving to build a truly free society. Biji Rojava!
Here's a still of the "great and unmatched wisdom" tweet.
[ x-posted with the Purgatory Trump thread ]
What to do about captured ISIS fighters has been a bee in Trump's proverbial bonnet for quite some time. There's no clear reason for this that I've ever come across. He seems to be obsessed with the cost and, while I imagine it's a large number as most people would estimate such things I suspect it's akin to a rounding error when compared to the size of the U.S. military budget. Maybe this focus on penny-ante details is like his obsession with carpet swatches, something small and simple he can focus on.
At any rate, I suspect that Erdoğan latched on to this and promised to take those prisoners off his hands. This is a pretty easy promise for him to make since most of those prisoners are in Kurdish custody and the likelihood of there being anything like an orderly prisoner transfer between the Kurds and Turks is minimal in the wake of Trump's acquiescence to Turkey's intention to attack the Kurds.
Fair warning: US perspective; might not work applied more globally.
Much as US folks all might long for a re-boot of the world in which it's possible to offer the benefit of the doubt to people whose politics simply differ from ours, I think that world is lost and gone forever. We know too much.
This, after all, is the heart, soul, and root of Trump's actual genius (and yes, I've been forced to conclude he has one). The "good old days" of the 1950s which some people recall fondly and long for a return of were rendered "good" by two factors:
1. Public acknowledgement--even celebration--of the real, undeniable benefits parceled out by our institutions (decent wages leading to widespread prosperity, fairer tax system ditto, GI Bill, housing efforts, national infrastructure, etc, etc.)
2. Parallel institutional suppression of awareness of how these social goods were routinely and ruthlessly denied to selected groups.
Beneficiaries could afford to revel in their good fortune, praising and pledging fealty to the systems benefiting them, shielded and insulated from knowledge of the damage wrought to those excluded from these benefits (because they somehow "didn't count" or "didn't matter" or were themselves somehow at fault for their exclusion.
We've had decades of education since then, a gradual raising of awareness of the excluded (PoC, women, sexual minorities, and more) and the devastating harms and loses these groups have suffered. Trump's genius lies in recognizing not only that what was once hidden is now out in plain sight for all but the willfully blind to see, it can now be openly acknowledged precisely because it's become obvious, and precisely because willful blindness is now seen as a legitimate option. Why must we continue to pay attention to what is now out in plain sight?
"Yes, the current tax and economic systems are ruinously unfair to 99% of the population. So? What are you gonna do about it? We hold all the levers of change; sucks to be you."
"Yeah, people of color / women / sexual minorities / poor people / fill-in-blank-affecting-you / have it tough, and we're gonna make it even tougher because (A) we can, and (B) we're sick of hearing about you and your issues. So? What are you gonna do about it? Just shut up, go away, and stop bothering us."
Trump's genius lies precisely in releasing people burdened by their own circumstances from the additional burden of giving a shit about people burdened by other circumstances.
So when voters select leaders based (for example) on a sincere belief that abortion is murder, we all--including the voters making that choice--understand that choice can also condemn some woman with an ectopic pregnancy to death.
In other words, we can no longer operate under cover of real ignorance (as many people may have done back in the 1950s, when victims of injustice suffered "out of public (institutional) view." Willful ignorance, of course, offers no moral cover and never did. We make our political choices in full awareness not only of achieving our own goals but also of the harm those same choices will inevitably cause someone else.
Have our politics been permanently poisoned? How can Voter A be expected to maintain dispassionate respect for Voter B when each voter risks actual personal harm from the other's vote?
Not the point at all. I am not defending the indefensible. Simply pointing out that boldly announcing a single motivation for an entire group of people (in this case, what--51 people?) is--unhelpful? foolish? Un-nuanced? Apt to cause more heat than light? All of which would hold true even if the single motivation was a positive one.
What I'm trying to avoid is what Elizabeth I referred to as "making windows into men's souls." Judge their deeds; God knows they are blameworthy.
250 people. 53 Republican Senators plus 197 Republican members of the House of Representatives. (There were 199 Republican House members until recently, but Sean Duffy (WI-7) resigned to take care of his seriously ill newborn daughter and Chris Collins (NY-27) resigned to plead guilty to insider trading charges. Those seats remain vacant at the moment.)