Turkish troops launch offensive into northern Syria, says Erdogan

[tumppu]

Quite honestly, it's nonsense. You can say whatever you like but it's a fact that Turkey got ~4 million mouths to feed out of nowhere and they are not interested in keeping this up for long. It is a huge burden and one that Turkey seeks a way to lessen.

They don't need 4 million refugees to push EU, people just ran away there and Turkey welcomed them, despite how much you might hate the idea.

Your standard reply, I see. "Nonsense". You do know, turkey got paid by the eu to the tune of three billions to feed all those refugees, so it's not like it's coming from their pocket. It's a great tool for them to keep pressuring eu with and that is one of the reasons they are more than happy to keep the war going. Others include killing kurds, which is also something the turks seem to enjoy doing and I guess we will see just how big of a "buffer zone" that little dictator wants. I'd wager on any size that spells "free of kurds".

[Azerul]

Your standard reply, I see. "Nonsense". You do know, turkey got paid by the eu to the tune of three billions to feed all those refugees, so it's not like it's coming from their pocket. It's a great tool for them to keep pressuring eu with and that is one of the reasons they are more than happy to keep the war going. Others include killing kurds, which is also something the turks seem to enjoy doing and I guess we will see just how big of a "buffer zone" that little dictator wants. I'd wager on any size that spells "free of kurds".

Turkey with it's mediocre economy has spent over 40 (FOURTY) BILLION DOLLARS for Syrian Refugees, and EU with its major economic powers have given Turkey 3 (three) billions.

You call this "turkey got paid by the eu to the tune of three billions to feed all those refugees, so it's not like it's coming from their pocket." ?

You are wasting worlds oxygen.

[Gaidax]

Your standard reply, I see. "Nonsense". You do know, turkey got paid by the eu to the tune of three billions to feed all those refugees, so it's not like it's coming from their pocket. It's a great tool for them to keep pressuring eu with and that is one of the reasons they are more than happy to keep the war going. Others include killing kurds, which is also something the turks seem to enjoy doing and I guess we will see just how big of a "buffer zone" that little dictator wants. I'd wager on any size that spells "free of kurds".

What Turkey got from EU is like a drop in the sea. You don't realize just how much 4 million people is and what is the real cost.

Heck, just to show you how funny that EU "assistance" is - 3 billion Euros... split it by 4 million refugees. Each refugee got a one time off budget total of 750 euros there for years to come... nice.

You have no idea. That 3 billions was probably enough to feed, clothe and support these refugees for maybe a couple of months TOP.

Turkey is frikkin' desperate to offload that insane burden and I can understand them there.

[ati87]

So what do you think, that turkey "took in" all those refugees because they're the great humanitarians of our time, or because they really like the idea of having a few million refugees/migrants around that they can use to threaten europe with?

You know, many of those refugees might have willingly returned to syria once some semblance of order is restored, but now they can't, because turkey decided to restart the whole fucking war. So as things now stand, seems turkey really likes the idea of them "not going back".

I know there are some fantasies about shooting refugees on sight but if you are a bit smart then you know that for most countries that isn't feasible. If the current official numbers are right there are more than 3M refugees and probably about close to 1M of non registered refugees, if you go down the stupid route this number could have been easily reversed.

You know there was a recent article about how Turkey was slowly sending people back to Syria (dozens) and how that was worry some. Given that this article contradicts your point of ''semblance of order'' argument I would argue that there was nothing restored in Syria and that the country was still in a state of war.

Maybe Erdogan had a long term evil scheme but the fact is that even though people came up with different conspiracy theories about his motive non of those actually matter.

[Edge-]

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/14...isoners-syria/

As Turkey wages a violent campaign against Kurdish fighters and civilians across northeastern Syria, Turkish-backed proxy forces with ties to extremist groups are deliberately releasing detainees affiliated with the Islamic State from unguarded prisons, two U.S. officials confirmed to Foreign Policy.

The claim pours cold water on U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion on Twitter that the Syrian Kurdish fighters tasked with guarding the prisons released the detainees to grab U.S. attention after the Defense Department ordered all U.S. troops to evacuate the region.

Cool, so Turkish backed forces are releasing ISIS prisoners from prisons abandoned by Kurdish forces in the wake of the assault.

[Deja Thoris]

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/14...isoners-syria/



Cool, so Turkish backed forces are releasing ISIS prisoners from prisons abandoned by Kurdish forces in the wake of the assault.

Man, it seems setting policy by tweet isn't such a good idea.

His policy is directly causing many deaths of people who were allies until a couple of days ago, as well as walking back the hard won gains of years.

And still people support him.

[Gaexion Ramza Beoulve]

Let them fight.

[caervek]

Russia is backing Assad because they want strong presence in Middle East

In fairness to them, not wanting a country <400 miles from their border to fall to Islamic extremists probably did play a factor too.

[Blade Wolf]

Soon, but, apart from declaring war their abilities are limited here. I don't think Pelosi or McConnell could order troops out there, but they could (and probably want to) pass a bill throwing penalties at Turkey, and if they feel really vindictive, more funds to the UN or aid specifically to the Kurds.

Actually you have a good point. Didn't all this start right when Congress had a break?

- - - Updated - - -



At this point, I hope when Trump signs the sanctions, crying like a bitch, Erdogan takes it out on Trump's hotels. Based purely on how everyone is against this move except Trump, we know Trump didn't do it for party or country, so that leaves "his own money" as the driving force until a fourth option arises. And I think he should suffer a personal consequence for putting his own money over the will of his party (even a party I oppose in most regards, but we agree that the Kurds are allies), the credibility of his country, and of course thousands of lives.

Doesn't congress have the power to veto a presidents decision? Although at this point the veto wouldn't do anything since what we have no is a massive cluster fuck.

[Kreuger]

Doesn't congress have the power to veto a presidents decision? Although at this point the veto wouldn't do anything since what we have no is a massive cluster fuck.

Yeah they have, need 2/3 of both the house and senate to do so if I remember correctly

[caervek]

The years we stopped this from happening says otherwise.

It is kind of lol, for years armchair generals moan that the USA needs to stop trying to police the world and take their troops home, then the US army goes home from Syria and within a week the armchair generals are demanding the USA steps up to its responsibility and polices Syria xD

[CostinR]

Doesn't congress have the power to veto a presidents decision? Although at this point the veto wouldn't do anything since what we have no is a massive cluster fuck.

Yeah about that....

See American troops are actually illegally in Syria according to the War Powers act. So Congress could I suppose vote to say they at least disapprove of what Trump is doing....but how in the world you square that on any legal level with the fact the executive branch is blatantly violating the law is hard to say.

[Kreuger]

It is kind of lol, for years armchair generals moan that the USA needs to stop trying to police the world and take their troops home, then the US army goes home from Syria and within a week the armchair generals are demanding the USA steps up to its responsibility and polices Syria xD

I think people in general have more problem in wich manner the troops got pulled then that they were. If the removal would have been done smoother without the conflict escalating I doubt we would have that much controversy about it.

[Nurasu]

Took them a couple days, but apparently the talking points have come out, and we have the usual Trump defenders showing up to tell us how the Kurds were evil all along. Of course we also have a surprising number of Turkish nationalists on this forum, but I don't mind them as much, they are just rallying around the flagpole. It is all the Trumpers that are really selling themselves out, the Turks are just being patriotic.

I'm waiting for the talking points about our evil and/or inept military being in the way of Turkey's mortars next.

[Breccia]

Yeah they have, need 2/3 of both the house and senate to do so if I remember correctly

I'm not sure that's true. The laws and rules aren't exactly easy to follow, but
1) if the House and Senate could just put troops back, why haven't they done that by now? They clearly have 2/3rds, they did it last time.
2) I don't think they're allowed to overrule a purely military action by the Commander in Chief.

If I'm wrong, great.

[ParanoiD84]

Turkish backed troops acting like isis and now also releasing isis members, good stuff lmao who honestly didnt see this coming? i hope syria backs the kurds and engage turkey if needs be, then maby russia jumps on turkey too and later iran as they dont like erdogan one bit.

[Edge-]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/liz-ch...a=twitter_page

Liz Cheney found a new scapegoat for Trump's decision to leave the Kurds to die - It's the Democrats fault for launching an impeachment inquiry.

And no, she is not joking.

[Kreuger]

I'm not sure that's true. The laws and rules aren't exactly easy to follow, but
1) if the House and Senate could just put troops back, why haven't they done that by now? They clearly have 2/3rds, they did it last time.
2) I don't think they're allowed to overrule a purely military action by the Commander in Chief.

If I'm wrong, great.

Could be wrong, I googled it quickly and im not from the US either so lacking in knowledge.

Says that congress can go against a presidents veto with 2/3, but maybe in "war" and with military its different :/

[caervek]

Could be wrong, I googled it quickly and im not from the US either so lacking in knowledge.

Says that congress can go against a presidents veto with 2/3, but maybe in "war" and with military its different :/

I'm going entirely off TV/movies here but IIRC the executive branch (white house) has superiority over the legislative branch (congress) regarding matters of war.

We need some Americans to finish work early and explain it to us lol.

[Gaidax]

Doesn't congress have the power to veto a presidents decision? Although at this point the veto wouldn't do anything since what we have no is a massive cluster fuck.

My boy, nobody would veto anything.

Everyone is high, mighty and righteous about it, but I can assure you a lot of people behind the scenes over there are happy he pulled out, because it would happen one way or another, but he's the one taking the blame for it now instead of the next president whoever that may be.

Why I bet it's Democrats' wet dream that he pulls out some more troops from various pointless hellholes, so that they won't have to do it when their time comes.