[Pops]

trump tweeted on Thursday that Mattis was, “retiring, with distinction, at the end of February,”.

So which is it, he had to have someone explain "how things are done in business" or had to have someone explain that Mattis said he was a threat?

It must be disheartening to feel like you need to come up with excuses for every twitter tantrum from someone so ill suited to be a mayor, let alone our president.

[Cog]

Sorry your girl lost Pops.

[asg70]

By signing the DOD order to carry out Trump's strategic decision to declare victory and pull out of Syria, Mattis is now complicit in the decision. This makes it seem like his resignation wasn't triggered by the decision to withdraw

My god the mental backflips you jump through in order to spin things this way and that. You really believe this dogshit? Do you expect anyone else to buy it? What a reality-distortion-field you live in.

[Plantagenet]

NPR had a story about the Kurds this morning. They had a reporter there in Syria, and after the usual Trump bashing they discussed what the Kurds were going to do to defend themselves from the Turks after the US troops pull out.

"Oh"...said the Kurd......"we'll have to find someone to replace the US troops. We've been talking with the Syrian government about joining forces to defend Syria from the Turks."

------------------------------

What exactly is so bad about the Kurds in Syria joining forces with the Syrian government to defend their country from the Turks? Isn't that a step towards peace? Doesn't that make perfect sense?

Shouldn't the Syrians be the ones defending Syria? Why in heck is that the job of US troops?

If pulling US troops out of Syria triggers reconciliation and peace between Syrian Kurds and the Syrian government.....then that is a GOOD THING!!!

Cheers!

[asg70]

Plant, it's not whether or not the pullout is a good thing. It's the fact that whatever Trump decides to do, good or bad, you will defend it in pure tribal/cult-like fashion, because he's your flavor of the month. And the inverse, like with Obama, is also true. That's how your mind works and everyone can spot it a mile away, which is why your political analysis here isn't worth a hill of beans.

[Cog]

I thought the left believed in "No Blood for oil" meme.

[Plantagenet]

The whole reason we are in Syria is Obama's idiotic idea that we should get involved in overturning the Syrian government. So Obama sent in the CIA to arm and train the Islamist rebels.. But then the Islamists turned into ISIS and Obama had to send in US troops. And that did't work out either.

Well, So Obama's plan didn't work out. So what. Nothing new in that.

Its time to admit obama's plan was stupid and wrong and its time to pull out and turn Syria back over to the Syrian government. The Caliphate is destroyed and ISIS is reduced to another crazy islamist ideology now.

Now its time to make friends with the Syrian government. At least they aren't crazy jihadis and Islamists like the people Obama wanted to install to run Syria.

Cheers!

[asg70]

The whole reason we are in Syria is Obama...

Plant, admit it. You died years ago and this is just a bot taking your place.

[Plantagenet]

[Plant, admit it. You died years ago and this is just a bot taking your place.

mos/ennui/asg, admit it. You were declared brain dead years ago and this is a bot taking your place.

--------------------------

Enough of that. Your psychotic trolling has gotten so icky that even mirroring it back at you is tedious, especially now that it is Christmas. Soooo---I will just rise above it all and spread peace and light instead.

In the spirit of the holiday season---the season of forgiveness--- I forgive you mos/ennui/asg. I want to wish everyone here at PeakOil.com a very MERRY CHRISTMAS.


Cheers!

[Newfie]

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all.

[Plantagenet]

As US troops align, Kurds in Syria make peace with the Syrian government.

us-troops-out-syrian-army-manbij-handed-back-damascus-turkey-poised-invade

If the Turks invade Syria to attack the Kurds now, they'll be fighting both the Kurds AND the Syrian government forces.

This move by Trump is turning out to be brilliant. By reversing Obama's idiotic policy of trying to topple the Syrian regime, Trump has created the conditions for PEACE in Syria with the ongoing reconciliation between the Kurds and Syrian regime.

Turkey already has troops in Syria, and they may try to expand the area they hold. But now they'll have to face both Kurds AND the Syrian regime, and the US can still help out with air support if Trump decides it is in our own best interests to do so.


The reconciliation between the Kurds and the Syrian regime engineered by Trump should largely end the civil war in Syria.

Cheers!

[Newfie]

Salon article, if you can stomach the adds.

https://www.salon.com/2019/01/09/god-he ... something/

[asg70]

This move by Trump is turning out to be brilliant.

Um, yeah. Mission accomplished.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/16/politics ... index.html

[Plantagenet]

Salon article, if you can stomach the adds.

https://www.salon.com/2019/01/09/god-he ... something/

Salon is right on this one. Even Trump does something right once in a while.

Meanwhile the Ds, in their haste to oppose and resist everything Trump does, have transmogrified themselves back into NeoCons who think the solution to every problem in the world is sending in the troops.

Cheers!

[ROCKMAN]

P - I have to chuckle at both sides of the debate over our "massive" deployment in Syria. From a purely practical standpoint I don't consider the US to have a military presence in the country The US has more then 3X the number of troops deployed at Fort Wainwright as in Syria. How many here have any idea what country where Fort Wainwright is located without searching google? LOL. BTW Russia has 30X as many combat troops on the ground in Syria not counting logistical support, mercenaries or the naval base.

Not so funny is the reason for the troops being their: bait. Same reason the US put small base camps in "Indian country" in Viet Nam: to draw in the VC/NVA to concentrate them for US air power. Our military was useless against them when they were disbursed around the country side. From the NYT last Oct:

WASHINGTON — The artillery barrage was so intense that the American commandos dived into foxholes for protection, emerging covered in flying dirt and debris to fire back at a column of tanks advancing under the heavy shelling. It was the opening salvo in a nearly four-hour assault in February by around 500 pro-Syrian government forces — including Russian mercenaries — that threatened to inflame already-simmering tensions between Washington and Moscow.

In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. The others retreated under merciless airstrikes from the United States, returning later to retrieve their battlefield dead. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria — about 40 by the end of the firefight — were harmed.

The details of the Feb. 7 firefight were gleaned from interviews and documents newly obtained by The New York Times. They provide the Pentagon’s first public on-the-ground accounting of one of the single bloodiest battles the American military has faced in Syria since deploying to fight the Islamic State.

The firefight was described by the Pentagon as an act of self-defense against a unit of pro-Syrian government forces. In interviews, United States military officials said they had watched — with dread — hundreds of approaching rival troops, vehicles and artillery pieces in the week leading up to the attack.

[Newfie]

Rock,

That’s a tactical answer as to why we are there. What is the STRATEGIC answer? How does it unambiguously answer our presence? Even if not troops, why are we taking sides in this cluster? (As if one could define with any certainty which side is what.).

People are all in a tizzy because we don’t have 100% access to, transcripts and video of, discussions between Trump and Putin. What access does the American public have to our logic to being in Syria or about 10@ other countries.

[Cog]

I know where Fort Wainwright is since I spent the coldest month in my life there once learning the many ways the Arctic can kill you. When we left sunny Fort Ord California is was 70 F. We arrived in Fort Wainwright for our cold weather training it was -30F. Delightful time was had by all.

[Plantagenet]

P - I have to chuckle at both sides of the debate over our "massive" deployment in Syria. From a purely practical standpoint I don't consider the US to have a military presence in the country

???????

Cleary the US has troops in Syria, along with CIA agents, contractors, etc. ISIS just targeted the Americans in Syria for a martyrdom operation, killing four Americans.

The Neocon Ds reaction to the ISIS attack is to call for even greater US involvement in Syria. Senator Duckworth said we need to INCREASE our troop numbers there and begin to build democratic institutions in Syria.

Gosh...where have I heard that before?? AND How well has that strategy worked in Afghanistan? Or in Iraq? And now the Ds want to do it all over again in Syria??
'
SHEESH!

[Newfie]

April 15, 2018

PALATINE, Ill. ― Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) challenged President Donald Trump to state his administration’s “endgame” for military involvement in Syria following the U.S. military’s missile strike on a Syrian air field last week.

Speaking to a full house of constituents at a town hall in the Chicago suburb of Palatine on Tuesday night, Duckworth was asked what was accomplished with the first direct assault on the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and what the long-term strategy would be.

Duckworth said that she wants to know, too ― and that Trump needs to provide those answers quickly.

“The Trump administration needs to come forward and [state] its goal. Come forward and tell us the truth,” Duckworth responded.

Which is all pretty interesting since it was Obama who got us in there.

Jan18, 2019. http://www.wjbc.com/2018/04/15/durbin-s ... -approval/

Bottom line, I was appalled," she tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson of the attack. "[Trump's] unilateral decision against his military commanders and his then-secretary of defense, Secretary [James Mattis] to decide to withdraw, pull U.S. troops without any type of a plan out of Syria contributed to ISIS' increased boldness."

Aug 20, 2012. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authori ... al_Weapons

In his speech, Obama also said that, "while I believe I have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, I know that the country will be stronger if we take this course, and our actions will be even more effective."[35] Introduction of S.J. Res. 21 in the Senate soon followed.

April 27, 2015. https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2015 ... ng-islami/

U.S. forces have now surpassed 2,800 strikes against targets in Iraq and Syria under President Obama’s war against the Islamic State, all as part of a conflict Congress has yet to specifically authorize — and amid worries lawmakers won’t ever act.

Under intense pressure from Capitol Hill, Mr. Obama finally submitted a draft authorization for the use of military force against the Islamic State in February, but it’s since languished, caught in the stalemate between those who want tighter restrictions and those who want the president to have as free a hand as possible.

[Cog]

Its seems one's support for one issue or the other depends on what party is in power.