Thread: Trump approves Pentagon plan to arm Syrian Kurds despite Turkish objections

MAY 9, 2017, 12:18 P.M.REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON

Trump approves Pentagon plan to arm Syrian Kurds despite Turkish objections

W.J. Hennigan

President Trump has authorized a controversial Pentagon plan to supply weapons to Kurdish militias fighting Islamic State in Syria despite strong objections of the Turkish government, which views the Kurdish fighters as terrorists.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Tuesday that Trump approved the plan to supply weapons “as necessary to ensure a clear victory” as Kurdish fighters and other militias close in on Raqqah, Islamic State's largest and most important stronghold in Syria.

The Pentagon has long backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of rebel groups that operates chiefly in northern Syria, with airstrikes, intelligence information and training.U.S. officials view the Kurdish militias, known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG, as the most capable part of the alliance.

A member of the Kurdish police observes enemy positions from a lookout point in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah during fighting with regime forces. (Delil Souleiman / AFP/Getty Images)

But Turkey, a major U.S. ally and member of NATO, has angrily protested any American attempts to arm the YPG. The government in Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist force that seeks to create an independent Kurdish state in southern Turkey.

Bowing to those objections, the Obama administration declined to arm the Syrian Kurds. It instead supplied weapons only to Arab factions of the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.

Spicer said the decision to reverse that policy reflected a recognition that the full Syrian coalition, including the Kurdish militias, “are the only force on the ground that can successfully seize Raqqa in the near future.”

“We are keenly aware of the security concerns of our coalition partner Turkey,” he added. “We want to reassure the people and government of Turkey that the U.S. is committed to preventing additional security risks and protecting our NATO ally.”

Wary of sectarian conflict, the U.S. has worked to recruit more Syrian Arab fighters into the coalition's ground force as they advance toward predominantly Arab territories.

“The U.S. continues to prioritize our support for Arab elements of the SDF,” Spicer said. “Raqqah and all liberated territory should return to the governance of local Syrian Arabs.”

A long-planned offensive to retake Raqqah from Islamic State comes as Iraqi ground forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, are eight months into an assault on Mosul, the militants' self-declared capital in Iraq and the largest city under Islamic State control anywhere.

Victory in either city would deal a considerable blow to Islamic State's self-declared caliphate, which has steadily lost cities and towns over the last 18 months.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/wash...htmlstory.html

This is excellent news! The Kurds are the only pro-democracy, America-loving people in the middle east. They are good people. Turkey and their objections can go to hell. Turkey has been arming and supporting ISIS. Any of you who don't know who ISIS is, they are the largest terror group, larger than al-qaida, and they have been beheading thousands of people in Syria and Iraq in the name of allah, mostly Christians, for being "infidels". The Kurds are kicking ISIS's ass big time, and I am rooting for them 100%

I sure hope this is the right decision, and it probably is. I'm not that familiar with the Kurds and their dispute with Turkey, but I know they like the US and want peace and order in Syria, free of ISIS, and that is our mission. So this is a new strong move to change the present failed dynamic in Syria under Obama.

Originally Posted by Judy

I sure hope this is the right decision, and it probably is. I'm not that familiar with the Kurds and their dispute with Turkey, but I know they like the US and want peace and order in Syria, free of ISIS, and that is our mission. So this is a new strong move to change the present failed dynamic in Syria under Obama.

First, as far as Turkey goes, they have committed genocide against all of their Christian populations, like the Assyrians, Greeks, Armenians and any other Christian living in Turkey at the time. The Turks the the worst islamic terrorists against Christians in the history of islam. The only reason we are allies with them and allowed them to join NATO is because of our army base in their country, and the fact that they control the only entrance into the Black Sea. Our alliance with them is only because they have something we want, and nothing more.

As far as the Kurds go, I once mentioned how the bible talks about the Kurds, and how being on the Kurds' side automatically puts us on God's side, since God is on the Kurds side. Anyone who wants to read about this should google "Kurds in bible prophecy". God said in the bible that one day he will unleash the Medes, which are today's Kurds. This is any interesting time we're in.

As far as the shi**y Turks go, their is plenty of evidence that Turkey is the devil. Watch this video that a guy in England made that disproves some of these pastors nowadays who claim that Russia is going to attack Israel.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cq340CtbW4. The guy in this video disproves that it is Russia and proves that it is Turkey that is the anti-christ that will attack Israel.

The bible is precise, and this guy disproves the whole false Russia thing with a simple globe. It blows these stupid arguments that say that Russia is the anti-christ right out of the water, and by showing this using a globe stops this anti-Russian argument in its tracks.

Oh yeah, I remember where I posted this before on here. It was an article about Russia.

Originally Posted by Judy

I'm not that familiar with the Kurds and their dispute with Turkey, but I know they like the US and want peace and order in Syria, free of ISIS, and that is our mission.

Actually, it's because of Turkey's support for the ISIS terrorists that Syria and Iraq are in the mess they are in today. Turkey armed and gave free passage to ISIS. Look it up. And not only did Turkey arm the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists, but it also provided them with an enormous amount of revenue by buying oil from them, which ISIS stole from the Syrian and Iraqi people.

If it wasn't for Turkey's support for ISIS, this war would have been over a long time ago, and there wouldn't be half a million Syrians dead right now.

Thank you so much for all this information, 6 Million Dollar Man. It's interesting isn't it how our previous governments have manipulated US into thinking something about a country, when the complete opposite is true. I happened to know the falsehoods about Russia all these years because I studied it decades ago and time has proved it true. But I didn't know this about Turkey. I always associated the Kurds as being Turks and had a somewhat positive image of the Turks/Kurds, not knowibg about the crazy religious fanaticism of the Turks.

Always learn something new on ALIPAC!!!

I also blame Obama and the CIA because they secretly funded these other Syrian Rebels who just stole the money and equipment and handed it over to ISIS. Disgusting.

These other so-called moderate rebels we funded turned out to be no more than more terrorists like ISIS, like Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda, and others. These so-called moderate rebels even announced how they would execute anyone who wasn't a sunni muslim arab when they take control of Syria. These don't sound like moderate rebels to me. And this execution includes Syria's Christians. The Christians all ran to the Kurdish areas of Syria, where the Kurds are protecting them.

The same thing happened during the Iraqi war. All of Iraq's Christians ran to the Kurdish part of Iraq, where the Kurdish people protected them. The Kurds are good people. Our service men and women who were in the Kurdish region of Iraq during the Iraqi War have VERY good things to say about the Kurds.

And oh, instead of "Kurds in the bible", I should have said to google "Kurds in bible prophecy", which would bring more relavent results, because the Kurds (Medes) are mentioned in the bible quite a bit. I forget where I read this, but did you know that the 3 wise men from the East, that visited baby Jesus and brought him gifts, were Kurds? Yup, interesting stuff indeed.

No I didn't know that the three kings were Kurds who brought the gifts to our baby Jesus!

Kurds were active participants in the genocide against the Christian Armenians. What the Kurds claim as their land is actually Armenian, not Kurdish. Of course the Armenians are gone, dead, or driven out East into Russian lands where they continue to suffer at the hands of Islam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide

Led by intellectuals educated at European universities or American missionary schools in Turkey, Armenians began to question their second-class status and press for better treatment from their government. In one such instance, after amassing the signatures of peasants from Western Armenia, the Armenian Communal Council petitioned the Ottoman government to redress their principal grievances: "the looting and murder in Armenian towns by [Muslim] Kurds and Circassians, improprieties during tax collection, criminal behavior by government officials and the refusal to accept Christians as witnesses in trial". The Ottoman government considered these grievances and promised to punish those responsible, though no meaningful steps were ever taken.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armeni...he_Middle_East

The battalion left Aleppo on 3 February and reached Ras al-Ain in twelve hours ... some 12,000 Armenians were concentrated under the guardianship of some hundred Kurds ... These Kurds were called gendarmes, but in reality mere butchers; bands of them were publicly ordered to take parties of Armenians, of both sexes, to various destinations, but had secret instructions to destroy the males, children and old women ... One of these gendarmes confessed to killing 100 Armenian men himself ... the empty desert cisterns and caves were also filled with corpses ...

Most Kurds are Sunni Muslim.