President Trump: Situation on Syrian Border “Strategically Brilliant” For US
[guest post by Dana]
[Ed. Just highlighting a few comments the President made earlier today with regard to Syria, the Kurds, ISIS, and the future involvement of the US military therein. Because what is happening on the ground seems to be in as much of a state of flux as what is coming out of President Trump’s mouth, I’ll leave these tidbits here for you to unpack. ]
At the White House today, and with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at his side, President Trump discussed the Syrian situation with reporters:
So I view the situation on the Turkish border with Syria to be, for the United States, strategically brilliant. Our soldiers are out of there. Our soldiers are totally safe. They’ve got to work it out. Maybe they can do it without fighting. Syria is protecting the Kurds. That’s good.
And just ten days after the White House announced we would withdraw from Northern Syria and essentially abandon our Kurd allies ahead of a Turkish military offensive, President Trump felt compelled to say this:
Syria and Turkey may fight. Syria is friendly with the Kurds. The Kurds are very well protected; plus, they know how to fight. And, by the way, they’re no angels, but they were with us. They are no angels. But they are fighting.
Also, going a step further than last week’s tweet suggesting that ISIS prisoners had been released as a tactic to reconstitute US involvement, the President today made an actual claim, without providing evidence, that this had indeed, been done:
But you have a lot of countries over there that hate ISIS as much as we do; in some cases, probably more. So they can take care of ISIS. We have them captured. The United States captured them. Some were released just for effect — to make us look a little bit like, “Oh, gee, we’ve got to get right back in there.”
Interestingly, 7,000 miles came up several times today. First, during the Q&A at the White House, and later at a volatile meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders about Syria:
Q: You don’t think the country’s worried about ISIS? You mentioned earlier you think some of the countries might hate ISIS more than the United States.
TRUMP: Absolutely. Russia hates ISIS as much as the United States does. Iran hates ISIS. I mean, we’re fighting a war for Russia, we’re fighting a war for Iran? You look at Syria. Syria hates ISIS. We’re over there killing ISIS. Don’t forget, we’re 7,000 miles — so we’re killing ISIS, we’re 7,000 miles away. Russia is much closer. Iran is right there, Turkey is right there. They all hate ISIS. Turkey a little bit less so, but the others very much. Russia had a plane blown up by ISIS. Russia wants nothing to do with ISIS. Russia’s tough. They can kill ISIS just as well and they happen to be in their neighborhood.
All I’m saying is this, I’m not going to lose potentially thousands and tens of thousands of American soldiers fighting a war between Turkey and Syria. Syria’s not our friend. Assad is not our friend. That’s the way it goes.
About that 7,000 miles and fighting terrorists:
NEW DETAIL per three sources: Trump said several times in mtg he wasn't concerned about terrorists 7,000 miles away. After Pelosi & Hoyer left, @RepLizCheney spoke up to remind Trump that the terrorists responsible for 9/11 "came from 7,000 miles away" themselves. https://t.co/FySaRMsSzc
— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) October 16, 2019
President Trump also attempted to clarify what his plan is with regard to the deployment of US military forces throughout the world. Note that he made these two separate statements minutes apart:
But, really, the plan is to get out of endless wars, to bring our soldiers back home, to not be policing agents all over the world.
You read where we’re sending some troops to Saudi Arabia. That’s true. Because we want to help Saudi Arabia. They have been a very good ally. They’ve agreed to pay for the cost of those troops. They’ve agreed to pay fully for the cost of everything we’re doing over there.
Clearly, not all allies are equal.
You can read the entirety of the President’s remarks made today here.
–Dana