According to this article one executive editor Kevin Baron captioned this video posted by RT:
“Russia was “gloating on their global television propaganda network” as U.S. forces left the area .
Another RT video with a tweet read: “Syrian Army meet US troops on a highway as American forces move out from Kobani. Wondering if they waved to each other…”
Russian journalists are also documenting cheerful Russian soldiers apparently moving into deserted U.S. military outposts.
“Video scenes from Manbij #Syria this morning. US troops out of base, Russia comes in. Putin & Assad making most gains out of US withdrawal & #Turkey operation:”
Videos circulating on social media appeared to show a Russian-speaking man filming himself walking around a recently evacuated United States military base in northern Syria, punctuating the message that the Russians were now in charge.
Acting Secretary
of Defense Mark Esper “
disputed the notion that the U.S. could have stopped Turkey from invading in the first place. He said Erdogan had made clear he was going to launch his incursion “regardless of what we did.” Esper went on to say:
“President Donald Trump had directed U.S. troops in northern Syria to begin pulling out “as safely and quickly as possible.” He added:
“We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies and it’s a very untenable situation.”
Andrew Milburn, a Marine colonel who retired in March as the deputy commander of U.S. special operations forces in the Middle East, told NBC News that the small number of U.S. troops in Syria “bought us a lot for a very low price. By withdrawing these guys, who knows where this will end,”
Abandoning them, he said, will cost the U.S. “the last vestige of credibility we had in the region,” because the U.S. relied on Kurdish militias to defeat ISIS and gave them an implicit guarantee that they could live peacefully in a semi-autonomous region.
He added: “Trump definitely could have stopped it from happening,” Milburn said of the Turkish incursion, “We’ve stopped the worst of Turkish territorial ambitions in the north a number of times” by threatening to respond with force to any Turkish attack on the Kurds.”
The
Russian Defense Minister said “the Russians were patrolling near the strategically important city of Manbij, vacated by the Americans and Syrian Kurds and now occupied Syrian government troops. The statement also said Russian troops were coordinating “with the Turkish side.”It’s not necessary for me to add much to this. We kept the peace and stuck by the Kurds for several years because they did the ground fighting for us against ISIS. We were there because ISIS is a threat to our country. We managed to keep that area stable. It is reported over several years 6 American servicemen and 11,000 Kurds died fighting ISIS.
We also did it despite Turkey’s displeasure knowing as long as we were there Turkey would not bother our allies the Kurds. Suddenly Trump green lights Turkey’s adventure. We run. Esper says we had no choice but we did. All we had to do was tell Turkey not to do it. Would that have worked? It seems to be working for the Russians.
The result is the slaughter of many Kurds by Turkish militias. Here’s one example, a woman working for peace named Harvin Khalaf. She was the future Syrian Party general secretary. She was dragged from her car and executed along with others civilians.
Turkish state-backed media Yeni Safak reported that the military had “neutralised” Ms Khalef in a “successful operation.”
For the first time ever the United States military ran when threatened. It abandoned a close and long-term ally in its flight. It allowed the Russians to do what it feared doing. This is one of our darkest hours. Our prestige in the world has plummeted. How many other nations will turn to the Russians to protect them seeing that the United States runs.
Related
According to this article one executive editor Kevin Baron captioned this video posted by RT:
The result is the slaughter of many Kurds by Turkish militias. Here’s one example, a woman working for peace named Harvin Khalaf. She was the future Syrian Party general secretary. She was dragged from her car and executed along with others civilians. Turkish state-backed media Yeni Safak reported that the military had “neutralised” Ms Khalef in a “successful operation.”
wallahi! Wake up. The armed forces are debt collectors for corporate America (Smedley Butler USMC). Military force is the way USA controls the world economy. That is the reason America has troops stationed all around the planet. Won’t pay the bill? How about taking a 2000 lb. JDAM down the chimney? That’ll learn ya. Violence is the premier tool of all great empires. The American world hegemony is no different than any of the globe girdling oppressive regimes of the past. US neo-colonialism is sustained by force.
All power to the dialectic!
The Russian Masterpiece in Syria: Everyone Wins
“Turkey, solely as a result of its defeat in Syria, now finds itself in active dialogue with Moscow and Tehran. As Ankara experiences worsening relations with Washington and other European capitals, Moscow saw a great opportunity to bring Turkey closer to Damascus.”
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/10/16/the-russian-masterpiece-in-syria-everyone-wins/
Trump is really applying the pressure–tariffs on Turkish steel! (US imports 0 steel from Turkey.)
Now that we are energy-independent (at least till the ant-fracking and pipeline Dems screw THAT up) we have no dog in that fight. We fought with the Kurds against a common enemy, ISIS which also is opposed by the Turks and Syrians. We’re done. For now.
I wish I had a few acres to fertilize.
Viet Nam??
In WW2 the American forces retreated to Bataan in the Phillipines. They eventually surrendered to overwhelming Japanese forces. They had no choice. They didn’t run.In the 80s Reagan sent the Marines to Lebanon as peacekeepers. 200 lost their lives to a terrorist truck bomb. 75 Israeli soldiers lost their lives to a terrorist truck bomb in Lebanon. Reagan withdrew all the Marines. Israel vacated southern Lebanon. Were those withdrawals prudent or should their forces have stayed? They didn’t run. The deployment was the mistake not the withdrawal. The Turks our NATO ally and the Kurds our friends have been fighting for centuries. It isn’t our fight. Trump is right to stop these regime change wars that Bush and Obama gave us. Syria, Libya Iraq and Yemen were all failed adventures. Henry and Fitz are both right. Give peace a chance.
The Fitzgerald Family
166 Old Field Road
Plymouth, MA 02360
President Donald J. Trump
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
September 11, 2019
Dear President Trump:
My oldest friend, a retired Navy Commander, advised me that his son, an officer in the Marine Reserves, has been activated. He expects to be returned to Afghanistan for his third tour there in the spring. As he has always answered his call to duty, he will report leaving his wife and children home, to serve again with courage and honor. He truly is one of our finest.
On this sad anniversary on the horrible attacks on our nation in 2001, I share my concerns about his deployment along with another 8,499 soldiers who will be stationed in Afghanistan. My own limited military service had been as an Army Reservist in the 1970’s. I claim no expertise in things military. However, as an old man who had spent a career in law enforcement and investigations, I have researched a little about our presence in Afghanistan.
I understand that we have lost 2,400 soldiers there. Some 20,320 others have been wounded and another 1,720 civilian contractors killed since 2001. Despite my many years as a financial investigator, I cannot begin to comprehend the monies spent in this effort since FY 2001 through FY 2018 . Is $ 737,529,000,000 even a number?
Placing life far above dollars, and still mourning the five men killed in the last couple of weeks, my concern is that this war may very well be unwinnable. After 18 years, it is troubling to read in the Military Times, August 18, 2019 edition, that “Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters that any U.S. deal with the Taliban will be based on security conditions on the ground and that Afghan forces aren’t yet able to secure the country without help from allied forces.”
There are several obvious, yet unanswered, questions.
Is the insurgency diminished after so many years of military effort? Apparently not based on General Dunford’s recent statement.
What are our objectives and tactics? I rely on the president’s pledge as a candidate: “I will never send our finest into battle unless necessary, and I mean absolutely necessary, and will only do so if we have a plan for victory with a capital ‘V.
Would our withdrawal allow the Taliban to harbor international jihadists? The Taliban appears intent in regaining their hold in Afghanistan in this civil war rather than crafting a worldwide war.
What humanitarian catastrophe might our withdrawal create? President Trump has pledged not to send our military to intervene in civil wars, using humanitarian grounds to justify their deployment.
Mr. President, you have inherited this dilemma from previous administrations. Your goal, to reduce our presence from 14,000 to 8,500 troops, appears to be a move in the right direction. However that reduction does not assuage my concern for those remaining troops that will shortly include my old friend’s son: the 8,499 and ONE!
My senators, Markey and Warren, and my congressman, Keating, have held federal elective offices for a combined total of almost 60 years. Both senators indicate that they support ending this war. The congressman, who serves on the Committee on Armed Services, certainly understands the toll it has taken on our servicemen, many of whom have endured multiple tours there.
I have not, however, heard them offer their bipartisan support to you, as Commander-In-Chief, to end this endless conflict. Petty politics must never override national interests or the safety of our servicemen.
On this anniversary of the infamous attacks on 9/11, work together and resolve this conflict. Bring our soldiers home from that graveyard that is Afghanistan.
Sincerely,
William F. Fitzgerald
CC: Senators Markey and Warren
Congressman Keating
Not the first nor last time US troops ‘strategically retreated,’ Matt.
“The Kurds have been used and betrayed since 1918. They always seem to get the short end of the stick. The old Kurdish saying, ‘no friends but the mountains,’ is painfully true. Washington does not want to get involved in a new Kurdish state carved out of Syria or Iraq even though Israel is pushing it hard to further splinter the Mideast. Iraq’s and Syria’s oil deposits are still a powerful lure for imperial-minded powers.
Trump rightly calls the fracas in Syria ‘a stupid war.’ But many pro-war forces play on this tired, confused president who has gotten himself deep into the Syrian morass, a problem of largely American but also Turkish making. Ironically, former president Barack Obama foolishly authorized America’s effort to overthrow Syria’s Assad government under the guise of a phony civil war. This was one of the few Obama policies that Trump chose to follow. The neophyte president was unwilling or unable to prevent the deep state in Washington from encouraging the war.”
https://ericmargolis.com/2019/10/turkey-beats-the-war-drums/