Break Out the Champagne!

"As far as he [SDF commander, Mazloum Kobani] is concerned the ceasefire is only where there’s active fighting and he totally rejects the idea of any kind of withdrawal, any removal of heavy weapons." 
"So everyone seems to be talking a different language, which can only spell more trouble."
Charles Lister, Syria expert, Middle East Institute

"They’ve [Turkey] had terrorists, they had a lot of people in there that they couldn’t have. They suffered a lot of loss of lives and they had to have it cleaned out."
"This outcome is something they’ve been trying to get for 10 years."
"[The Kurdistan Workers Party -- PKK -- a militant group launching attacks inside Turkey for Kurdish independence] is probably worse at terror and more of a terrorist threat in many ways [than the Islamic State]." 
"So it's a very semi-complicated -- not too complicated if you're smart. But it's a semi-complicated problem, and I think it's a problem that we have very nicely under control."
U.S. President Donald J. Trump

"I worry we will not have allies in the future against radical Islam, ISIS will re-emerge and Iran's rise in Syria will become a nightmare for Israel."
"I fear this is a complete and utter national security disaster in the making and I hope President Trump will adjust his thinking."
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham

Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighters in the border town of Tal Abyad. The US-Turkey agreement calls for a 120-hour ceasefire in a “safe zone”. Photograph: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters

This very smart man incapable of fully comprehending the complexity of the Middle East, its ancient sectarian rivalries, its ethnic divisions, its tribal animosities and its general penchant toward blistering rhetoric followed by threats and armed invasions mindlessly slaughtering perceived opponents, speaks of the simplicity of solving not very 'complicated' issues by following his simple-minded advice. His intention to extract American military personnel from critical roles in defence of allies and supporting the military-capable among the Middle Eastern players to defeat the forces of psychopathic Islamism is his solution to settling an entirely new threat targeting faithful regional allies is a new low, even for this troglodyte.

Speaking from the Oval Office this man who is president of the great United States of America claims to have had no impact whatever on the new theatre of war playing out in northern Syria with Turkey's Erdogan deciding he will no longer wait for a more opportune moment to send in his troops to decimate the hated Kurds whom his territorial greed has deprived of an agreement to cede to this ancient people their own ancestral land to form the basis of a new independent country to finally establish a homeland for the largest minority group of 40 million people, without a recognized country of their own.

Trump harrumphed that the issue over territory between Turkey and the Kurds was "over land that has nothing to do with us", in defending his decision to abandon a faithful ally in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which had successfully recruited support world wide for their jihadist-centrist caliphate whose missionaries were dispatched to capture, torture and murder victims in the most gruesome manner their diseased minds could invent and re-invent. The 'land that had nothing to do with the U.S.' was territory the U.S. had plundered for its oil for almost a hundred years.

The Kurds, asserted this astute philosopher and judge of human merit, were "no angels". This, of a people whose values and comportment set them aside and well above the norms for the Middle East, in their humane treatment and equality views of other ethnic and religious groups, in their recognition of equality between the sexes, in their well-ingrained recognition of human rights and their practise of good governance and concern for peoples' lives, extending protection to those persecuted like themselves by the region's tyrants.

The long-suffering Kurds who know intimately what ethnic cleansing and virulent hatred of themselves by their neighbours was capable of doing to the human spirit, acted in defiance of tribal and religious exclusion of others, extending the courtesy of consideration to those outside their group. "There's a lot of sand they [the protaganists, Turkey and the Kurds] can play with", Trump said dismissively. "It's possibly never going to be very stable."

"History will look upon you favourably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don't happen. Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool! I will call you later", he wrote companionably to his good friend and trading partner Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Who, it was later reported, deposited this very instructive, well-intentioned advice directly into the nearest trash disposal, and carried on with his intended decimation of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units.

Trump is complacent in his studied belief that American "didn't need to worry about terrorists 7,000 miles away". His short attention-span and memory deficit was unable to dredge up the thought of the 9/11 conspirator-terrorists who came from that distance for the very particular purpose of informing the United States that there is no distance sufficient to leave that country with the illusion that it will remain an island of security from Medieval Islamist jihad. Trump, in any event, views himself as having engineered the downfall of Islamic State and he gives himself full credit.

His delusional belief in himself persuades him that the sacrifice of the only reliable fighting partner the U.S. had in Syria and Iraq battling the Islamic State terrorists with the assistance of American air cover were merely expendable mercenaries. What he has accomplished in dismissing America's allies so peremptorily with casual disregard for their safety and security, is to have advised his other allies in the Middle East -- Israel and Saudi Arabia come to mind -- that their reliance on U.S. honour under this administration, more egregiously failing than the previous one -- is sadly misplaced.

"[The agreement that pauses Turkey’s military operation will be focused on] those areas where the Turks had penetrated into northeast Syria."
"We use the word ceasefire, the Turks do not because it's not in the agreement. What we mean is, and we define this very carefully, a ceasefire is no forward movement of troops on the ground and no military action other than self-defense."
James Jeffrey, the US Special Envoy for Syria

The great man pronounced his interpretation of the 'spat' between Turkey and America's erstwhile allies in the battle against ISIL: "Sometimes you have to let them fight a little while… right? Sometimes you have to let them fight. It's like two kids in a lot, you got to let them fought [sic] and then you pull them apart." And when you do, lo and behold, an agreement that secures for Turkey its military objectives, ceding a swath of territory within Syrian borders, formerly a majority Kurdish autonomous enclave, "validating what Turkey did and allowing them to annex a portion of Syria and displace the Kurdish population", in the word of an anonymous senior U.S. official.

 

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

This is a great day for civilization. I am proud of the United States for sticking by me in following a necessary, but somewhat unconventional, path. People have been trying to make this “Deal” for many years. Millions of lives will be saved. Congratulations to ALL!

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2:13 PM - Oct 17, 2019