Mulvaney. Where are you? Left out of Baghdadi’s end. What else are you left out of? Still settling for “fill-in” Chief of Staff, or whatever the position under Trump?
It is odd that this does not mention the US occupation of a large corner of Syria near Iran. That is Syria's rather limited oil fields, and some good ag land.
There is no legal justification for an occupation of Syria. It has never been authorized by Congress.
It is just our warfare state making moves to prepare to fight Iran. It has nothing to do with ISIS or even Syria itself, despite various excuses made.
This will become a real problem when many different factions settle down to impose casualties on the Americans. Almost everyone in that land would be happy to do so.
The Americans will blame it on Iran, and try to use that as another excuse for war on Iran.
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Assad, Putin, Erdogan, Trump.
Do any of those names put you at ease?
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A US administration has aided and abetted the invasion of a sovereign country. Do Kuwait and Saddam ring a bell?
A US administration has aided and abetted the ethnic cleansing of an entire region. Do Bosnia and Milosevic ring a bell?
A few short years ago, it seemed America stood for something.
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Jeffrey’s forlorn comment at the end of the story skips over how bad judgment brought us to this state.
Tens of thousands dead, massive destruction, refugees, heighten tensions along side Syria and its border with Israel, Jordan, and Turkey, concerns about stability in Lebanon and Iraq, increased chances of war with Iran, renewal of al Qaeda, ISIS, worldwide jihadism, fear of terrorism, and the list goes on.
The decision to overthrow Bashar Asad let loose these problems. And this was not done from ignorance. There were many who warned of such consequences. In March 2011, AP reporter Zeina Karam wrote “Instability here would likely have ripple effects outside the country’s borders.” Dov Zakeim, who worked for Bush 2, wrote “The last thing the United States need is to get enmeshed in Syrias troubles.” Retired CIA analysts Paul Pillar noted “that regime change could turn out very poorly for both the US and Israel.” Maha Azzam of Chatham House observed “Stability in Syria is important for its neighbors.” Patrick Seale wrote “If things go south in Syria, blood-thirsty sectarian demons risk being unleashed, and the entire region could be consumed in an orgy of violence.”
The warnings were there, but those who pushed for regime change disregarded everything. Wisdom was, remains, in short supply in DC. The blame for this mess goes far beyond Syria’s borders.
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Vladimir Putin is the greatest political genius of our time. He has exploited the excesses of the Western elites to effectively destroy the post Cold War world order and project Russian influence over the world in ways it would not otherwise have been able to do.
And he has taken his revenge on the United States by effectively turning it into a third world country.
Sorry folks, in this movie, the bad guys win.
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Russia now controls the bulk of Middle East - and the Black Sea. The entire operation forcing the Kurds out of the Turkish Border was too smooth to be unplanned. The US hightailed it to Iraq but then headed to Syrian oil fields - was this the exchange Trump made? Time to get the records of all Trump’s phone calls. I was heartened to hear Washington chant “lock him up”. The growth that Obama nourished is below 2%, manufacturing is tanking, we are subsidized farmers whose crops are unsold, and no signs of Trump’s trade deals. His supporters are welcome to chosen path of suffering but I am not.
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Trump has brought our troops back again after pulling them out, to northeast Syria to steal their oil as even he admits now - “We’re keeping the oil” he says. It is really all about controlling oil and having our soldiers die for oil. It is time to get our soldiers out of the Middle East. The US is in Syria illegally against the UN. Does the US believe in the UN anymore or is US imperialism now ok.
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There is no UN. It’s a facade. Totally useless. Another League of Nations.
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The Trump administration's policy has shifted our country's emphasis from protecting people, the Kurds in particular, to illegally seizing or 'protecting' oil fields in Saudi Arabia and now Syria. Where the money is is where we send our power and forces. There has been an illusion that american emphasis has been on working for the well being of people, but Trump has made it clear that democracy or even good government is not what lies behind American positions, but rather the influence of the interlocked attainment of more power and money that rules in all corners of the world, but is most clearly seen in the shenanigans of trump Assad, Erdogan and Putin.
Perhaps my idealism has been misplaced as the power of money and its control has always been with us, but Trump in his over the top corruption has made it all obvious.
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Amazingly (not in a good way), it seems the U.S. is now the wildcard in this whole process. Sure, our diplomats are doing their work behind the scenes, and we still have plenty of leverage, but there are about two dozen ways Trump could torpedo the process at any moment.
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We have no leverage. Like Vietnam and Afghanistan we lost.
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The West should not be giving a penny in reconstruction aid to Assad, what possible reason would there be to give him aid?
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These Syrian talks aren’t to provide peace, they are intended to ratify Russian, Turkish, and Iranian hegemony, and seal the dismal fate of the Kurds.
All as a result of Trump, once again, doing Russian bidding.
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If people finally stop dying and some semblance of peace can come of this, I will be happy. If peace is achieved, it's undoubtedly going to be touted by Trump as one of his foreign policy achievements.
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