We”ve green lighted an invasion and now after several days of atrocities we’ve managed to have Turkey call a temporary halt to it. The halt has been declared a great victory. It only requires us to betray our ally the Kurds by telling them they have to clear out of a stretch of land at least twenty-two miles from the Turkish border where they have lived for hundreds of years so that land can be settled with other people.
We’ve in effect gave in to Turkey ‘s demand that it be able to ethnically cleanse the Kurds from a great part of their homeland because they brutally attacked them after we left them in the lurch. We have committed to helping with the ethnic cleansing. Now where are the Kurds to go. Another Great Victory.
There is no comparison to this failure. Retreat or surrender when there is no other alternative is understandable to westerners. But since someone tried to compare this to the Bataan march it is understood that the Japanese brutality was occasioned in part by their belief that only cowards surrender. But this Syrian act wasn’t a retreat in the face of an enemy force – it was done without any pressure. A thoughtless act that will reverberate around the world.
And it has nothing to do with the “endless war” mantra. There was no war in that area of Syria and wouldn’t have been one had we remained firm and not run. And it has nothing to do with bringing the troops home because we are sending more troops to Saudi Arabia where we have foolishly caused major problems by walking away from a treaty that was working without any idea what we would do after we did it. And because one or two special forces people think Trump was right the overwhelming majority of special forces and generals decry what Trump has done.
There was a time America stood for more than itself. You can’t imagine Trump doing the Berlin Air Lift. “Not our borders” he would shout. He’d add, “Weren’t these people our enemies lately?” It was because of things like that where we stood strong for others that we had over 70 years of peace in a formerly war-torn Europe.
This was a bipartisan effort – every president, Democratic or Republican – bought into the need for America to act beyond its borders to keep peace. Now it’s different. Where do you think the “not our borders” will lead? Who do you think will fill this vacuum?
We should have learned from 9/11 that we cannot draw back into fortress America. Most agreed ISIS is a threat to us. Wasn’t that why we were there in Syria? It had nothing to do with endless wars.
Why are we in Afghanistan? Do you recall Al Qaeda prepped for 9/11 there? Do you remember what it was like under the Taliban? Women couldn’t leave their houses unless totally covered, girls couldn’t go to school, no music was allowed, stoning in public streets! Do we have an obligation to ourselves to see these things aren’t repeated?
Has our 65 year presence of troops in South Korea been considered part of the endless war? What about those in Japan or Germany? Hasn’t their presence advanced peace? What’s the purpose of our existence as the most powerful county in the world if we let ourselves be pushed around?
The analogy with Vietnam is this: We did betray our allies when we left, but the alternative was perpetual war. There has been relative peace in Southeast Asia for forty years, since the North Vietnamese Army destroyed Cambodia’s Pathet Lao around 1980.
In Libya, we were told if we did not intervene, there would be 10,000 deaths. We intervened and 50,000 deaths ensued and Libya is in chaos.
Obama and Hillary told us, “Assad must go”. Our intervention in Syria has brought great suffering to the Syrian people, as our intervention in Vietnam brought great suffering.
Our interventions in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen (supporting the Saudi-backed government) have not brought peace.
Let the people of the Middle East settle their own conflicts, as we let the people of Southeast Asia settle theirs.
2. America military forces have done and continue to do much good in the world. But like in Vietnam, the time has come in the Middle East for America to back off, and discontinue the use of military forces there.
3. Political, diplomatic, and economic approaches should now be the preferred approach.
4. Trump won, in part, on a promise of removing our forces from the Middle East. Even Elizabeth Warren said, at the last debate, that she favored the removal of all American forces from the Middle East.
I was wondering; is this approaching genocide going to be televised? I certainly hope so. I missed Rwanda.
Any of you Nouveau EYE-riche read the book A Problem From Hell? You should. It covers most of the genocides committed in the 20th Century. The Turks kicked off the party with a splendid farewell march-and-murder of about a million Armenians. The Turks know how to mess up your day.
So now we will see a new energy in the ISIS movement. It will not just be in The Sandbox. With their liberation and answered prayers of being able to continue their mission, new ISIS involvement around the planet will emerge. This is the signal they have been waiting for. This act of kindness by Bonespurs will be the confirmation, in their minds, that they can persevere against even the greatest most powerful country in the world and all of its infidel allies. What a pissa.
When did the killings start in Viet Nam? When we withdrew or when we entered.? Less death after we left. Did we bring peace to Libya by bombing them? Or to Yemen by helping the Saudis bomb them? The Assad family has ruled Syria for over 50 years. No one left before the civil war started that Obama and Hillary backed. Jihadists ISIS, Al Nusra controlled large areas. The Syrians fled the terrorists. Millions evacuated because of the war the U S sponsored not because of Assad’s rule.
“When did the killings start in Viet Nam?”
That would be 1946. And since we are on the subject of genocide, when did the Killing Fields of Cambodia begin? In 1975. That was the year we left Vietnam. It is not a coincidence. And with full knowledge that most horrid action was taking place, what did thee civilized countries of the world do about it? Nothing. If only Cambodia had rich oil reserves. Oh, well, what’s a couple million people, give or take? I can’t name even one of them.
Matt:
1. The fires started long ago in the Middle East. Obama accelerated some.
2. Obama green-lighted the civil wars in Syria and Libya, with hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees, and no outcries from liberals or neocons of atrocities. “According to SOHR, U.S.-led Coalition airstrikes have killed over 14,000 people across Syria (including) 4,036 civilians. The air strikes occurred in the period between 22 September 2014 and 23 August 2019.”
3. The historical model to consider is Vietnam. After the seemingly endless futile American involvement (10-plus years), the U.S. decided to pull out. The sky did not fall. The domino theory never materialized. Today, we have good relations with all the countries of Southeast Asia, even communist Vietnam and communist Laos.
4. Bring the U.S. troops home. End the era of Pax Americana, American Imperialism. We cannot be the World’s Policeman. The risk of another 9-11 is not justification for perpetually stationing American forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
5. Bring peace to Korea, north and south, as we brought peace to Ireland, north and south. This should be our goal, not perpetual American forces on the Korean peninsula.
6. We can’t impose American feminism on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia . . . . .it’s not our business if their women wear burkhas . . . .let them work out their own civil rights movements without American military interventionism.
CONCLUSIONS: As Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard reminded us of Abe Lincoln’s magnanimity: “Malice towards none; charity towards all.” Much less malice is warranted on the political front.
Also, as Washington and other Founding Fathers warned, “Avoid excessive foreign entanglements.” and as John Quincy Adams counseled, “We should not go abroad seeking monsters to slay.”
America’s involvement in the decades long wars in Syria and Libya and Iraq (fake news Weapons of Mass Destruction) should never have been initiated in the first place.
Bring the troops home from the MIddle East!
1. You don’t betray your allies. You don’t leave them in the lurch. They were in no danger and not threatening anyone when we pulled out leaving some of them to be slaughtered.them
2. You don’t bring troops home by sending them to Saudi Arabia.
3. You don’t withdraw American troops from Korea where they have kept the peace. The threat to leave in Korea comes from North Korea and not Americans.
4. American troops stationed overseas, and I have been one of them, are there for peaceful purposes. It is when they are withdrawn that the killings begin.
5. American ships and sailors stationed all around the world keep the seas safe and open for peaceful international trade.
6. Protecting the right of girls to go to school and for women to work in trades and dress as they wish is a noble enterprise. Feminism it is not but advocating for women and girls to have better lives it is.
7. Vietnam is totally not applicable. There we left when confronted with an overwhelming force against us. No one was forcing us out of Syria.
This is some of your best writing. To bad you were not the one going to be elected the next Senator from Massachusetts, not Kid Kennedy.
“Ben Franklin said Commerce with all War with none.”
He also said, “Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.”
Thanks to Trump we are energy independent. We don’t need the Middle East’s oil. As Congressman Gaites points out that region is only 3 or 4% of the world’s economy. No American should die for.oil we don’t need. Let the Europeans and China insure the flow of energy from there. 2. When Britain , France and Israel invaded Egypt in 1956 Ike stopped that war. Reagan extricated us from Lebanon. Trump is following Ike and Reagan’s policy of ending wars and saving lives. 2. Hillary, Obama, NATO and Turkey all supported the rebels in Syria. Most of whom were jihadists. The rebels drove 2-3 million Syrians into Turkey ( ethnic cleansing). Turkey is just trying to repatriate them. These endless regime change wars of the DC Establishment have only caused hardship, suffering and death. A different approach is needed. Ben Franklin said Commerce with all War with none.
1. We were energy independent before Trump took office. We’d be even more so if he wasn’t against solar and wind power we are now adding to American troops in Saudi Arabia.
2. Reagan extricated the troops from Lebanon. I don’t suppose you want to tell us who out them in there. It wouldn’t have been Reagan would it? Trump is stationing more American troops in Saudi Arabia. How is that ending wars and saving lives?
3. The Syrians fled their country because of the brutality of it’s leader, Assad. He used to be Trump’s enemy (remember poison gas and missiles) until he became his friend by making a deal that let him take back territory he had list.
America’s presence on the world stage had brought decades of peace and security to millions. We are involved in countries beyond our borders to maintain the oeace.