President Trump’s reelection campaign manager Brad Parscale, meanwhile, branded the impeachment inquiry a “seditious conspiracy” on Monday and called for the resignation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as another witness testified behind closed doors.
Tag: Trump foreign policy
US nuclear weapons are now being held as ‘essentially Erdogan’s hostages’ in Turkey: report
When President Donald Trump pulled American troops out of northern Syria, virtually giving Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the green light to attack the region’s Kurds, he likely didn’t anticipate a key factor that might get caught in the crossfire: control of U.S. nuclear weapons.
Erdogan’s forces have been raining down terror on the Kurds, long considered to be key U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS, exactly the horrifying scenario that critics of Trump’s move predicted. Turkey even fired on an outpost of U.S. special operation forces. It’s a fraught scenario for the United States to find itself in, made all the more dangerous by the fact that Turkey, itself a NATO ally, is home to an estimated 50 American nuclear weapons. The New York Times reported:
And over the weekend, State and Energy Department officials were quietly reviewing plans for evacuating roughly 50 tactical nuclear weapons that the United States had long stored, under American control, at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 250 miles from the Syrian border, according to two American officials.
View the complete October 14 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.
Five ways Trump’s Syria decision spells trouble
President Trump this week showed no sign of backing down on his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, stoking fears in Washington of worst-case scenarios from abandoning a crucial defense partner.
Trump’s move, which has paved the way for Turkey to proceed with a long-planned offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces who were instrumental in the fight against ISIS, has far-reaching implications both at home and abroad.
Critics, including many from Trump’s own party, argue the president is irreparably damaging the country’s standing as a reliable partner by abandoning a U.S. ally, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to be slaughtered by Turkey as well as fueling mayhem in the region that could allow ISIS to regain its footing.
View the complete October 12 article by Ellen Mitchell on The Hill website here.
Trump downplays U.S. alliance with Syrian Kurds, saying ‘they didn’t help us in the Second World War’
President Trump said Wednesday that it would be “easy” for the United States to form new alliances if Syrian Kurds leave the fight against the Islamic State to fend off a Turkish attack, noting that “they didn’t help us in the Second World War, they didn’t help us in Normandy” and were only interested in fighting for “their land.”
“With all of that being said, we like the Kurds,” he said in response to questions about Turkey’s incursion into Syria.
Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks, following a White House ceremony where he signed unrelated executive orders, came as the administration continued an effort to correct what it has called the misimpression that Trump enabled the offensive against the U.S.-allied Kurds that Turkey launched Wednesday. The president spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Sunday.
Congress set for showdown with Trump over Kurds
President Trump is barreling toward a showdown with Congress over his decision to pull back U.S. troops in northern Syria despite widespread opposition.
The announcement, which caught leadership and traditional GOP allies flatfooted, sparked a wave of condemnation, with Republicans calling it a “disaster in the making,” a “catastrophic mistake” and a “terrible decision.”
Lawmakers are already weighing how to respond to Trump’s decision, setting the stage for a high-profile clash with Trump as soon as Congress returns from a two-week break on Monday.
View the complete October 9 article by Jordain Carney and Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.
Donald Trump’s longtime business connections in Turkey back in the spotlight
The president’s decision to remove troops from Northern Syria has put renewed focus on his relationship with Turkish President Erdogan.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to pull U.S. troops out of Northern Syria late Sunday night has drawn harsh rebukes from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, raised alarm bells among America’s allies across the globe and sent the Pentagon and the State Department scrambling to contain the fallout.
While the president has defended the decision as part of his longtime promise to end U.S. military involvement in the region, even his staunchest supporters at home warned that it has essentially given Turkey a green light for a major military offensive against the Kurdish minority there, a key U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State militant group and a longtime target of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The president has denied that the U.S. is abandoning the Kurds, tweeting on Tuesday that, “we may be in the process of leaving Syria, but in no way have we abandoned the Kurds, who are special people and wonderful fighters.”
Trump Would ‘Love’ For Sondland To Testify — But Won’t Let Him
Donald Trump said on Tuesday that U.S. Ambassador the European Union Gordon Sondland was a “really good man and great American” and that he only wished he could let him testify before Congress about Trump’s questionable actions with regard to Ukraine.
Trump’s comments come just after the State Department abruptly cancelled a planned congressional hearing with Sondland on Tuesday morning. The ambassador had been scheduled to give transcribed testimony for the House impeachment inquiry about his role in Trump’s growing Ukraine scandal.
House Democrats have since said they will subpoena Sondland for his testimony and related documents.
View the complete October 9 article by Josh Israel on the National Memo website here.
Trump faces growing GOP revolt on Syria
Republicans are in a full-out revolt against President Trump over his decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria, a move broadly seen as putting the lives of Kurdish allies at risk.
The overwhelming opposition from GOP lawmakers is putting increasing pressure on Trump to reverse course. And it comes at a time when Democrats are moving full steam ahead with an impeachment inquiry.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s loudest congressional supporters, on Tuesday demanded a senators-only briefing on the Syria move, which he said betrayed the Kurds and would make it tougher for the U.S. to build alliances going forward.
View the complete October 9 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.
Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman lays out 3 ‘perfectly plausible’ reasons for Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds — and they’re all horrifying
The Trump White House shocked the U.S. military and the defense community over the weekend with an announcement that U.S. forces, which have been working with Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria, will be pulling out — a decision that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wholeheartedly agrees with. And economist and veteran New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman has three theories on the matter — all of which he asserts paint a troubling picture of Trump.
Monday on Twitter, Krugman posted, “So, did Trump just betray the Kurds because (a) He has business interests in Turkey, (b) Erdogan, being a brutal autocrat, is his kind of guy, (c) His boss Vladimir Putin told him to. Remarkable that all three stories are perfectly plausible.”
Trump, to be sure, has had very friendly relations with Erdogan. Prior to Erdogan’s presidency, Turkey was among the most liberal and democratic countries in the Islamic world. But it has taken an increasingly authoritarian turn under Erdogan, who Trump has repeatedly praised. Trump has been highly critical of long-time NATO allies like Germany and the U.K., but in 2018, he gave Erdogan a friendly fist bump and exalted him as the NATO member who “does things the right way.”
View the complete October 7 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.
You’re Supposed to ‘Completely Blindside’ the Enemy, Not the Pentagon
With the news that President Trump “completely blindsided” the Pentagon (according to Fox News) by suddenly deciding to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria and giving Turkey a green light to move across the border and attack our previous ally the Kurds, it seems like a good time to review one of the closing passages of Call Sign Chaos, the autobiography of James Mattis, our previous Secretary of Defense.
Mattis writes about how his time as commander of U.S. Central Command came to an end:
It was no secret in Washington that the White House was wary of my command at CENTCOM and increasingly distrusted me. While I fully endorse civilian control of the military, I would not surrender my independent judgment. In 2010, I argued strongly against pulling all our troops out of Iraq. In 2011, I urged retaliation against Iran for plotting to blow up a restaurant in our nation’s capital. In 2012, I argued for retaining a small but capable contingent of troops in Afghanistan. Each step along the way, I argued for political clarity and offered options that could give the Commander in Chief a rheostat he could dial up or down to protect our nation. While I had the right to be heard on military matters, my judgment was only advice, to be ignored or accepted. I obeyed without mental reservation our Commander in Chief and carried out every order to the best of my ability.
View the complete October 7 article by Jim Geraghty on The National Review website here.