BREITBART NEWS
Washington (AFP) – The Pentagon said Sunday President Donald Trump had ordered the withdrawal of up to 1,000 troops from northern Syria — almost the entire ground force in war-torn country — amid an intensifying Turkish assault on Kurdish forces.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the move came after the US learned that Turkey was pressing further into Syria than had been expected.
And the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are seeking a deal with the Syrian regime and Russia to counter-attack against the Turks in the north, Esper added.
“We find ourselves as we have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies and it’s a very untenable situation,” Esper told CBS’s Face the Nation.
“So I spoke with the president last night after discussions with the rest of the national security team and he directed that we begin a deliberate withdrawal of forces from northern Syria.”
Esper said he was unable to provide a timeline because of the rapidly changing situation on the ground, but added that the withdrawal would be carried out in a “very safe, deliberate manner.”
“Look it’s a very terrible situation over there. A situation caused by the Turks… Despite our opposition they decided to make this incursion into Syria,” Esper told CBS.
“And at this point in time in the last 24 hours we learned that they likely intend to expand their attack further south than originally planned and to the west
“We also have learned in the last 24 hours that the… SDF are looking to cut a deal, if you will, with the Syrians and the Russians to counter-attack against the Turks in the north.”
– ‘Immediate defensive action’ –
Asked if troops would be leaving the country altogether, Esper clarified that the withdrawal was just from northern Syria, “which is where most of our forces are.”
Fighting raged along the border on the fifth day of an offensive that has provoked an international outcry and left dozens of civilians and fighters dead.
Ankara launched the long-threatened offensive against the SDF, which it considers “terrorists” linked to insurgents inside Turkey, after Trump ordered American special forces serving as a trip wire against Turkish action to pull back from the border.
The US withdrawal provoked a bipartisan firestorm of outrage and accusations that Trump was abandoning a loyal ally in the fight against Islamic State militants.
Trump tweeted Sunday that it was “very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish Border, for a change.”
“The Kurds and Turkey have been fighting for many years… Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them! We are monitoring the situation closely. Endless Wars!” he said.
Hundreds of relatives of foreign jihadists escaped from a displacement camp in northern Syria, Kurdish authorities said Sunday, as the number of people fleeing the Turkish assault soared to 130,000.
US troops near the northern border came under artillery fire from Turkish positions on Friday, the Pentagon said, warning that the US was prepared to meet aggression with “immediate defensive action.”
The US military confirmed an explosion within a few hundred meters of its post near the town of Kobani, in an area “known by the Turks to have US forces present.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Friday that Trump had authorized — but not yet activated — new sanctions to dissuade Turkey from further offensive military action.
“We can shut down all US dollar transactions with the entire government of Turkey,” Mnuchin told ABC on Sunday.
“It’s something we may do. There’s full authority and something at a moment’s notice the president can tell me to do.”
@ Bear Klein:
You are absolutely right about all of this. This is something that the code pink republicans just don’t understand. They are more like the left than they are willing to admit when it comes to national defense. So ignorant and shortsighted.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
You so easily believe conspiracy theory websites. Turkey is in fact bombing the Kurds. It’s not fake. I don’t know why you are an apologist for evil erdogan.
You just don’t get it. This isn’t about altruism. It isn’t about it being someone else’s fight. The Kurds lost thousands in defeating isis on our behalf. Why are you ok with throwing allies like them under the bus? By doing so, we won’t have any allies for long. Not to mention it is not the moral thing to do.
Al-Quida had stated that after it took down the two USA embassies in Africa and the US response was token it decided to hit the US on its own territory.
Weakness perceived by enemies invites attacks. What the USA has NOT done to Iran in response to their belligerent actions invites attacks on the US. This stab in the back of the Kurds will also be looked at by friend and foe as a weakness.
This invites attacks on US soil in-spite of being 7000 miles away. Terrorists can get into the USA many ways. It is very likely Hezbollah and Iranian terror cells are already in the USA. If they need others to come for an operation they are in large numbers in South America and could easily make there way to the US.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Sebastien…lets be realistic. “Bracketing”, is…. shells landing on either side of a target. Then they get the next one in the middle….Did that happen….NO it didn’t. The “bracketing” was very carefully,….. as the report said, ” a few hundred metres away… and the one I read, mentioned only one shot and also pointed out that the Turks knew the US troops were there.. Not that it matters. There was no danger to the US military, and the Turks were very careful not to hit them.What I said above is still valid.
Are you intimating that this was the beginning of a shooting war….??……..this storm in a teacup…?? Nah. No way.
@ Edgar G.:U.S. forces say Turkey was deliberately ‘bracketing’ American troops with artillery fire in Syria https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/10/12/us-forces-say-turkey-was-deliberately-bracketing-american-forces-with-artillery-fire-syria/
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Sebastien, If Erdogan got the Turks into a shooting war with the US, they’d take him out and hang him from the nearest lamppost. Or in time honoured fashion, sew him into a sack and drop him in the Bosphorus…Don’t doubt it… Those thousand men, a miniscule number, represented the power of the US. and kept the Turks away.
Like the line in the sand that the Roman Senator drew for Antiochus….
@ Laura:
Wasn’t it in their’s as well? And, is it in our interest to go to war with Turkey in Syria, now?
Trump is imposing sanctions but I think that’s most we should do.
What’s the legality of going to war with a NATO ally on behalf of a secessionist group on their border who is on our own terrorist watch list, the YPG, who I might add, is cozy with both Assad and the Iranians who are our enemies? There are different factions of Kurds. It’s not a country.
Moreover, there is some question about how much of the atrocity news is fake. Look at this:
AKES
ABC News Broadcasts Fake Syria Bombing Video That’s Actually From a Kentucky Military Show in 2017
Matt Novak
Today 11:53AM
•
Filed to:
ABC NEWS
209.2K
141
1
https://gizmodo.com/abc-news-broadcasts-fake-syria-bombing-video-thats-actu-1839028685?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2dg0nCw35_G855hNUOUxc680bR7Ai5v6QyxyozJ5AeA0a8JG2mRwAfeZE
@ Sebastien Zorn:
It’s not an altruistic war. The Kurds lost 11,000 fighters defeating isis on our behalf. Defeating isis was in OUR interest.
@ Bear Klein:
I’m in complete agreement with this statement.
@ Sebastien Zorn:Just read this. Even the Turks did not think Trump would back off. Erdogan was bluffing.
Full article at: https://www.axios.com/trump-erdogan-turkey-syria-invasion-bluff-fc761d8f-e33b-473b-8ece-d0b8b3a51f26.html
@ Sebastien Zorn:You are basically the US should be Isolationist. I think in the end the USA pays more when they do not demonstrate strength.
History has shown this more than once.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
You asked:
Fair question.
Based on the past actions of Erdogan he does not tangle with anyone who can do him serious damage. He only fights those without air-forces. He has backed fighting even Syria without Russia. He has backed off fighting Russia. He is ONLY interested in one sided affairs and slaughtering Kurds.
My view is also supported by General Jack Keane and the Pentagon.
Erodgan does not want to lose a lot of Turkish soldiers. In fact in this invasion most of his infantry are Jihadis from western Syria.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
It wouldn’t require war with Turkey, just ONE strong action, to show the US meant business. Turkey would desist. The US in war with Turkey is LAUGHABLE. Pouff!!! Turkey gone.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
Just one thing…The US influence has not “waned,” but it is as strong as ever. The Turks were restrained all this time by those US few troops. They only began the invasion when they were sure the US was leaving. If Trump reversed course and announced that he was sending 5000 troops back to North East Syria, the Turks would scuttle back to Turkey immediately. After a little bit of bluster of course. They have to be allowed that much.
I’m waiting to see what “crushing” sanctions, he will impose…..is any but mild.
“Beware of foreign entanglements.” – George Washington Farewell address.
And let me get this straight. Crimea breaking away from Ukraine is criminal but not militarily helping the YPG break territory away from Turkey isn’t? By the way, if Crimea seceding from the Ukraine was a violation of their sovereignty, wasn’t the Ukraine breaking away from Russia a violation of Russia’s. LOL. For that matter, doesn’t Russia have a right to reclaim Poland, Finland, the Baltic states, Mongolia, and Central Asia? What did I leave out? All in the name of their “right to self-determination?” a wonderful phrase we owe to Wilson and Stalin. Ha Ha.
Bear Klein Said:
How do you know whether Erdogan would have backed off. How do you know if Turkey would be as easy to defeat as Isis. Do you advocate war with Turkey? What’s the legality of going to war with a NATO ally on behalf of a group on their border that our government stilll designates as a terrorist entity? An alliance that Obama initiated. And what’s the legality of going to war without consent from Congress? As far as our letting Al Queda go before 9/11 goes, do you remember why Bin Laden said he attacked? He gave as his reason the presence of U.S. troops on Saudi soil, irrespective of the fact that the Saudis had asked us for protection from — I forget — Iran or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. We seriously need to get out of there. We don’t even need their oil anymore. And we have never defended Israel with troops. Israel doesn’t need that. Let all these others defend themselves, too. Trump’s right. Time to get out.
A high-level Pentagon planner tells Fox News that military officials are ‘aghast’ and ‘horrified’ after being blindsided by the Trump administration’s troop withdrawal; Jennifer Griffin reports.
Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported details this afternoon on how poorly President Donald Trump‘s decision on withdrawing troops from northern Syria is going over at the Pentagon.
Griffin reported, “I’ve been on the phone with military sources since early this morning, and there is a lot of disappointment at the Pentagon and a sense that a key ally has been betrayed.”
She said top military commanders were “completely blindsided” and expressed fear that “it will be hard to find allies to fight alongside them in the future.”
“Top U.S. Commanders who have fought for years against ISIS are baffled by the president’s decision,” she added, “and now a spokesman for the Pentagon says it has removed Turkey from the air cooperation agreement along the boarder.”
Fox News Video reporting disappointed from Pentagon of Trump’s decision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-E8o3EtvN0
@ Sebastien Zorn: You said:
Spot ON! Turkey is verging on crossing the line from rival into enemy.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
General Keane is one of the super reliable sources. He reported this on Fox News. Then feel free tp disparage him. I will take his commentary and reporting over your views all day everyday.
@ Bear Klein:
Trump is a fool but even worse he is a treacherous person. i think his basic problem is that he thinks he is smart. You have all met that type in real life. the only thing that surpasses their pomposity is their treachery.
The reference to Clinton and Bin Laden is a good one. Do not forget that Bin laden and 9.11 was organised from inside Iran also, and Bin laden had a big hand inside of Yugoslavia, being a guest of Izetbegovic, while Izetbegovic was being backed by the US, the EU, Britain, Germany, as Bin laden was provided with a base on his way to Afghanistan..
I feel this is the end of Trump and Trumpism and I am not sorry because I have on examining the issue in recent months seen the extent of the lies being done against perfectly good and gentle human beings such as Michael Mann (remember Climategate which was really the stealing of emails and the selective combing of those emails for words and phrases to quote out of context)
At stake is still the independence of a nation and in this case the defence of a nation, America, against the Fascist becoming Democrats, but this independence of America can not ever be defended by Trump.
On this issue alone, of as an example the treatment of Michael Mann, Israpundit stands condemned and when i look back this is what is going to mark Israpundit and all connected with it, except for one person whose name begins with L.
Trump is a loser because he is a man who cannot stand by his friends.
There were two contradictory sides to American culture. One was the man of steadfastness who would not betray his friends. the other side was the ruthless destruction of the native Americans.
Hanging over this issue, and Brexit, is global warming, which is a weird word to describe the terror of our lives. I will be proven right on that as well.
Have a good life, as good as is possible, but you too will be caught up by the CO2 factor.
Here’s a completely different view from the region supporting Trump’s decision: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/10/syrian-christians-proclaim-trump-is-right-on-syria?fbclid=IwAR3IigucFRazILqXbo1-ApFut3ekwBdrsUCfRui-YF3kzL_5IVQmsZVv2mA
NATO is an anachronism. It was designed to fight the Warsaw pact not Islam. Turkey is a rival. Iran is our enemy. Nothing must distract from taking out Iran.
@ Bear Klein: What are these superreliable sources? The New York Times? The Jerusalem Post? They are about as reliable as Mad Magazine.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:It has been confirmed from super reliable sources that the Pentagon was and is completely against the withdrawal of US forces in Syria. This is basically Trump ignoring all the more experienced advisors he hired and those that are in the Pentagon.
The underlying reason why the U.S. permitted the Turkish invasion is the Pentagon’s stubborn refusal to acknowlede the fact that Turkey is no longer an ally and is now an enemy. The New York Times claims that Pentagon “sources” speaking off the record have said that Trump’s decision to let the Turks invade was taken against their advice. Assuming that the Times didn’t simply make up this story (they are capable of doing that kind of fake news thing),these Pentagon “sources” are outrageous liars. In a recent press conference, DoD Secretary Mike Espy made it chrystal clear that the Pentagon still considers Turkey an ally and is unwilling to end its relationship with Turkey. Far from making an “impulsive” decision, Trump’s “green light” to Turkey reflected the Pentagon’s advice to him that the Turkish alliance must be preserved at all costs. Whether or not the Pentagon explicitly supported his “green light” to Erdogan is therefore irrelevant. They must have known what he would do once they told him that the Turkish alliance must be preserved.
@ Bear Klein: One reason, I guess, why the U.S. military is withdrawing all remaining U.S. forces from Syria.
What is desperately needed now is for the U.S. to withdraw all of its forces from Turkey. I read somewhere that there are up to 60,000 U.S. troops stationed there. All potential hostages. But the Pentagon _____holes are apparently resisting pressure to do this.
This Reuters report indicates to my mind a possible possitive development. If Assad is going to provide some possible support for the Kurds, it might help tip the balance against Erdogan’s men. Really unfortunate, however, that the U.S. is taking Turkey’s part in this. Secretary of Defense Esper has condemned the Kurds’ apparent rapprochment with Assad (what Hutzpah!) and has announced the withdrawal of the remaining 1,000 U.S. troops from northest Syria (no one had said that there will still that many troops in Syria until today!).
Another faint ray of hope is that France and Germany have suspended arms shipments to Turkey, and that Trump is under increasing pressure from Republicans in Congress and from some individuals in his own administration, especially in the Treasury dept., to impose some sort of sanctions on Turkey. At least Erdogan has made himself very unpopular abroad. In the long run, that might prove helpful in getting rid of him.
In the real world Islamist Turkey is NOT a friend or ally of the USA or other NATO countries. They refused to fight ISIS and collaborated with them. They did not let the US troops attack from Turkey during the war with Iraq. There are many other things one could list. They just fired at US troops in Syria. The latest one is:
Turkey provocatively reveals exact locations of 10 US Syrian bases
Oct 13, 2019 @ 13:46
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Turks were never going to fight the USA air-power with combined with the 1000 special forces plus the Kurdish ground forces. By the way which is the combo that defeated the ISIS caliphate.
When the USA under Clinton ignored Al-Quida let Osama Bin Laden roam the world when they had the chance to take him prisoner they opened the door to 911. Let ISIS run free now exposes many in the world including the USA.
Leaving the door open for Iran to be aggressive is even more dangerous. Then one can go to endless rationalizations for Trump’s weak and bad decision.
The only thing a thousand troops could do is be cannon fodder, serving as a tripwire for total war against Turkey. Turkey is a crummy NATO ally but it is not our enemy. Iran is our enemy. It’s not our war. Congress has authorized no such mission. The last thing we need is to become embroiled in another hopeless quagmire, especially considering that we are incapable of remaining in a long-term war long enough to win. Grenada took a week. That seems to be about our limit. We fought with the YPG, this Kurdish faction, against a common enemy, Isis, now defeated. We can’t afford altruistic wars, a la Clinton.
So this is how it ends for the Kurds. After all the suffering, heroism, sacrifice and hope. Assad’s army will enter Kobani within 48 hours. Courtesy of the west. Predicted by Johnathan Spyer, those who follow his articles and broadcasts in recent days will know that he predicted this scenario, in the absence of a US ultimatum to Turkey. It means that the real winners of this will be Russia, Turkey, Assad and Iran. How shameful and disgusting!