Trump Adds Insult To Casualties As Turkey Kills Kurdish Civilians
President Donald J. Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the G20 Japan Summit Saturday, June 29, 2019, in Osaka, Japan. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
On Wednesday, the world awoke to the news of Turkey’s military incursion in northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wasted no time after being given the green light by President Trump on Sunday to begin their assault on the Kurds. Problem is, the Kurds, as steadfast members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were key allies in our fight against ISIS. President Trump has betrayed them.
“What we’re seeing is one of the greatest betrayals in military history.”@DominicWaghorn has the latest as Turkey launches its military operation in northern Syria.
Read more: https://t.co/vsG14H3WGn pic.twitter.com/usZHs4ssTb
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 9, 2019
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President Trump released a statement trying to distance himself from his own decision by calling Turkey’s incursion a “bad idea.” Trump went on to state: “Turkey has committed to protecting civilians, protecting religious minorities, including Christians, and ensuring no humanitarian crisis takes place—and we will hold them to this commitment…” As we saw today, that commitment has already been violated.
#SDF Press Office:
3 fighters & 5 civilians martyred.
Dozens of civilians injured due to large-scale indiscriminate Turkish shelling on all-long border-line towns of northeastern #Syria.— Coordination & Military Ops Center – SDF (@cmoc_sdf) October 9, 2019
Fleeing civilians tell CNN they don’t know where to go
CNN’s @clarissaward speaks to civilians who are attempting to escape the chaos in Syria. https://t.co/x3nqaK1xon pic.twitter.com/nKvhnzk71R
— CNN (@CNN) October 9, 2019
It can’t be overstated how reckless it was for President Trump to leave the Kurds (who helped us diminish ISIS) to die in Syria. As we’ve previously covered, this reduces America’s global standing, erodes our trust, and feeds into the hands of Russia, Assad, Iran, and ISIS. And of course, there’s the humanitarian disaster this causes. As reports of civilians being killed poured in, Trump berated the Kurds to try and justify his green-lighting of Turkey’s slaughter.
“The Kurds are fighting for their land… they didn’t help us in the Second World War, they didn’t help us with Normandy…”
Trump notes that the Kurds “didn’t help us in the Second War War, they didn’t help us with Normandy” — the idea being that this justifies not helping them against Turkey pic.twitter.com/SXdZOIqs1n
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 9, 2019
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President Trump then went on to send a startling message to our allies by essentially saying he’d be indifferent if ISIS was unleashed in Europe.
Trump indicates he’s not worried about ISIS fighters escaping northern Syria because if they do they’ll just end up in Europe pic.twitter.com/cBsbXQxjsg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 9, 2019
What Trump is referencing are the 10,000 ISIS prisoners being guarded by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This Turkish assault risks those prisoners being freed. As we’ve previously reported, this move has garnered widespread bipartisan backlash. Today, we learned about how some of the troops on the ground feel. This is from a Fox News National Security Correspondent:
I just spoke to a distraught US Special Forces soldier who is among the 1000 or so US troops in Syria tonight who is serving alongside the SDF Kurdish forces. It was one of the hardest phone calls I have ever taken.
“I am ashamed for the first time in my career.”
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 9, 2019
This veteran US Special forces soldier has trained indigenous forces on multiple continents. He is on the frontlines tonight and said they are witnessing Turkish atrocities.
“Turkey is not doing what it agreed to. It’s horrible,” this military source on the ground told me.
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 9, 2019
“We met every single security agreement. The Kurds met every single agreement. There was NO threat to the Turks – NONE – from this side of the border.” “This is insanity,” the concerned US service member told me. “”I don’t know what they call atrocities but they are happening.”
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 9, 2019
This American soldier told me the Kurds have not left their positions guarding the ISIS prisoners. In fact “they prevented a prison break last night without us.”
“They are not abandoning our side (yet).”
The Kurds are “pleading for our support.” We are doing “nothing.”— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 9, 2019
We don’t know how far Turkey plans to take this military incursion, but one thing is for sure: our allies can never trust an America under President Trump again.
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