National security experts are warning that camps in northern Syria that house the wives and children of ISIS fighters are a serious national security threat as those children are starting to turn into military-aged males who have been indoctrinated by their militant mothers and hardened by violence in the camps.
A recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/us/politics/syria-isis-women-children.html">report</a> in The New York Times on Al Hol detention camp highlighted how the camp is becoming a breeding ground for terrorism for the tens of thousands of women and children of dead or captured ISIS fighters.
Out of the women and children at the camp, which constitute more than 90% of the camp, more than half are children under the age of 12.
The report said that the children are &#8220;surrounded by hard-line, militant women&#8221; and that many of them have to be transferred to wartime prisons for ISIS fighters because of how violent and radical they become. Experts are growing increasingly concerned that the camp is turning into a networking space for adolescents who are becoming terrorists.
The network of prisons, which are controlled by Kurdish forces, house approximately 10,000 adult males, which the report states are &#8220;suspected ISIS fighters&#8221; whose countries of origin do not want to repatriate them.
The report added that a significant part of the threat presented by the camps comes from the fact that the Kurdish forces who provide security at the camps are allied with a group that Turkey considers to be a terrorist group.
Turkey has attacked the group, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which causes the area to become destabilized and could lead to ISIS fighters escaping prisons if prison guards are having to be deployed to fight against Turkish forces.
Brig. Gen. Claude K. Tudor Jr. of the Air Force, the commander of the Special Operations task force working to defeat ISIS, told the Times, “If a Turkish attack in fact comes down, we’re going to potentially have ISIS 2.0.”
The report warned that ISIS has tried to attack prisons in the area recently to try to set its fighters free.
It further warned that those who are responsible for operating and securing the camps and prisons do not have solid information about everyone in their facilities, thus further leading to a potentially destabilizing situation that could metastasize.

SYRIA-CONFLICT-IS-KURDS-CAMP

A Terrorism Ticking Time Bomb Brewing In The Middle East Could Lead To ‘ISIS 2.0’: Report

ISIS

Kurds

Radical Islam

Syria

Terrorism

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told media Wednesday that he returned a letter from President Donald Trump warning him not to be a &#8220;fool&#8221; and use a partial pullout of the American military to attack Kurdish forces during a &#8220;limited incursion&#8221; into northern Syria.
The Turkish president also took the opportunity at an Oval Office meeting to spread propaganda targeting Kurds, according to <a href="https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-am-b8fb6d1a-60e5-4e73-833d-4475b13db7c3.html">an exclusive report from Axios</a>.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle &#8212; including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell &#8212; expressed concern earlier this week, about the White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Erdogan, apparently fearing that the meeting could descend into a bizarre display between the two leaders, but remained hopeful that discussions would be productive.
&#8220;Although I have expressed concerns about granting President Erdogan such an honor in light of his recent actions, I hope the meeting produces better behavior from this important NATO ally,&#8221; McConnell told media Wednesday, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/11/13/after-syria-attack-trump-welcome-turkeys-erdogan-white-house/2563828001/">according to USA Today</a>. &#8220;I share my colleagues&#8217; uneasiness at seeing President Erdogan honored at the White House.&#8221;
McConnell&#8217;s concerns were, apparently, warranted. During a joint news conference between Trump and Erdogan, Erdogan claimed that he returned a threatening letter from Trump, warning him not to be a &#8220;fool&#8221; or a &#8220;tough guy&#8221; back to the president, undermining American efforts to exert some control over Turkey&#8217;s incursion into Syria.
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-13/erdogan-says-he-gave-trump-back-letter-warning-not-to-be-fool?utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_content=middleeast&amp;utm_medium=social">Bloomberg News reports</a> that &#8220;[Erdogan] returned the letter during a meeting at the White House earlier on Wednesday.&#8221;
President Donald Trump did not refute the allegation, but said, instead, that he was a &#8220;big fan&#8221; of the Turkish leader.
As the press conference kicked off, however, there were other signs that Turkey might not be listening to American warnings.
&#8220;At the outset of the news conference, Erdogan delivered a more than 10-minute long monologue, a few minutes longer than Trump’s opening remarks, while the U.S. president fidgeted at his lectern,&#8221; Bloomberg continued. &#8220;Erdogan complained about Kurdish forces in Syria allied with the U.S. that he considers &#8216;terrorists&#8217; as well as a Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan blames for fomenting a 2016 coup.&#8221;
Gulen lives in Pennsylvania, and the United States has repeatedly refused to extradite him to Turkey.
Erdogan&#8217;s diatribe did not end there, however. He also criticized a Congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide &#8212; blocked Thursday morning by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) after Graham took a meeting with Erdogan &#8212; and pushed the President to call on a Turkish reporter, whom, it appears, Turkey had placed among the press pool.
“A friendly person from Turkey, friendly,&#8221; Erdogan said, when asked to select a reporter for a question. &#8220;Only friendly reporters. We like to see, there aren’t too many of them around.”
That reporter asked President Trump why he hosted Kurdish leaders at the White House, calling them “terrorists.&#8221;
Trump laughed off the incident, but the question has darker connotations. Erdogan has cracked down on press freedom in his home country, jailing journalists who question his leadership.
Weirder still, Axios reports that during the White House meetings, Erdogan pushed Members of Congress to watch propaganda videos about the Kurdish Army, leaving some legislators confused.
&#8220;An Oval Office meeting with Turkey&#8217;s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday took a dark turn when Erdoğan pulled out his iPad and made the group watch a propaganda video that depicted Kurds as terrorists,&#8221; Axios reported. Senators present called the video &#8220;unpersuasive,&#8221; according to the national security news outlet, and legislators &#8220;in the meeting took turns pushing back on Erdoğan, while Trump sat back and watched, intervening occasionally to play traffic cop.&#8221;

Donald Trump Welcomes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan To The White House

Turkey’s Erdogan Says He Gave Back Warning Letter From President Trump

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey

President Trump on Wednesday announced that Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria will begin a &#8220;permanent ceasefire&#8221; as he renewed his pledge that the United States military will leave the region.
&#8220;Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand,&#8221; Trump said in the Diplomatic Room at the White House, accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien. &#8220;We were supposed to be there for 30 days. That was almost 10 years ago. So we&#8217;re there for 30 days, and now we&#8217;re leaving. It&#8217;s supposed to be a very quick hit, and let&#8217;s get out, and it was a quick hit except they stayed for almost 10 years,&#8221; he added.
Trump said that he heard on Wednesday morning that the ceasefire would begin. “Earlier this morning, the government of Turkey informed my administration that they would be stopping combat and their offensive in Syria and making the ceasefire permanent,” he said.
&#8220;I do believe it will be permanent,&#8221; he said. &#8220;How we define the word ‘permanent’ in that part of the world is somewhat questionable, we all know that, but I believe it will be permanent.&#8221;
&#8220;This was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else,&#8221; he added. &#8220;&#8230; we&#8217;ve done something very, very special.&#8221;
&#8220;I want to again thank everyone on the American team who helped achieve the cease fire in Syria, saved so many lives. Along with president [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan of Turkey, a man I&#8217;ve gotten to know very well, and a man who loves his country,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;And in his mind, he&#8217;s doing the right thing for his country.&#8221;
But Trump also said other countries had helped.
“Others have come out to help, and we welcomed them to do so; other countries have stepped forward,” Trump said, referring to negotiations in Sochi, Russia, on Tuesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan. “They want to help and we think that’s great.”
Under a 10-point deal worked out by foreign leaders, Russia and Turkey will give Kurdish fighters 150 hours starting at noon Wednesday to withdraw from the border. Russian and Syrian forces would then move into the area to ensure Kurdish fighters move at least 20 miles back from the border. After 150 hours, a joint Russian-Turkish patrol would begin along a six-mile-wide demilitarized zone on the border of Turkey and Syria.
The president also said that with the ceasefire, the United States would lift sanctions against Turkey. The U.S. imposed sanctions this month on Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense and its Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. “As a result of the cease-fire, and at the direction of President Donald J. Trump, Treasury is delisting two Turkish ministries and three of the country’s senior officials,” Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
But Trump said if Turkey does not adhere to the ceasefire, sanctions could be reimposed. &#8220;The sanctions are lifted unless something happens that we&#8217;re not happy with,&#8221; he said.

Trump

Trump Announces ‘Permanent Ceasefire’ In Syria Between Turkey And Kurds

Donald Trump

On Sunday, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney appeared on &#8220;Fox News Sunday&#8221; with host Chris Wallace.
During the segment, Wallace brought up the ongoing issue of impeachment with Mulvaney, claiming that a Republican insider told him that some in the party appear to be peeling away from the president:
<blockquote>WALLACE: There seems to be a growing number of Republicans in Congress who are, if not breaking with the president, distancing themselves from the president. You had Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader who wrote a scathing article about Syria this week.
[Wallace then quoted the McConnell op-ed: &#8220;Withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria is a grave strategic mistake and a strategic nightmare for our country.&#8221;]
WALLACE: House Republicans voted against the Trump policy in Syria 129-60, more than 2-1. And I talked to a very well-connected Republican in Washington this week, somebody whose name you would know well, who says that if the House votes to impeach and it gets to a trial in the Senate, there is now a 20 percent chance he believes – obviously, it&#8217;s just an estimate – now a 20% chance enough Republicans will vote with the Democrats to remove the president.
MULVANEY: Oh, that&#8217;s just absurd. But let&#8217;s deal with the issue of Syria.
WALLACE: No, let&#8217;s deal with the issue of whether Republicans – you&#8217;re losing your support.
MULVANEY: Same thing. This comment about a 20% chance, the person clearly doesn&#8217;t know what they&#8217;re talking about.
But talk about the reaction of the Republicans and Democrats up on the Hill to the decision in Syria, [the] president knew that was going to happen. He recognizes the fact that it&#8217;s not a politically popular in this town to make the decision that he made to move the troops out of Syria. He ran on it. He told people he would do this if he won, and he&#8217;s doing it now because he won.
WALLACE: Forgive me for interrupting, we are running out of time, I just want to ask you, though – is there any concern that the president is losing those support of Republicans in Congress?
MULVANEY: No, the president is extraordinary popular back home, more popular in the swing districts now that impeachment has started.
WALLACE: I&#8217;m talking about here in Washington.
MULVANEY: Yes, but they have to go home eventually as well. So, no. Do I have to understand that there are certain folks, especially the neoconservative wing of the party, who are upset about the Syria decision? I absolutely do. The president knew that was going to happen. Again, elections have consequences on foreign policy. That&#8217;s where we started this conversation, and that thankfully they do.</blockquote>
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The vote to which Wallace was referring took place on Wednesday. The House of Representatives voted 354 to 60 on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-votes-overwhelmingly-to-condemn-trumps-military-pullback-in-turkey">H.J. Res. 77</a> to condemn and oppose the president’s foreign policy decision regarding Turkey and Syria. Of the 354 &#8220;yea&#8221; votes, 129 were Republicans.
Wallace’s source isn’t the first person to claim that a certain percentage of Senate Republicans might vote for impeachment.
On September 26, former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pelosi-on-losing-the-house-in-2020-over-impeachment-doesnt-matter">told a crowd</a> at the 2019 Texas Tribune Festival that if the vote were anonymous, dozens of Senate Republicans would vote to impeach:
<blockquote>Somebody mentioned yesterday that if there were a private vote, [there] would be 30 Republican votes. That’s not true. There’d be at least 35 — or maybe more if it were a private vote, but that’s not possible.</blockquote>
The American public’s mood on impeachment appears to have changed markedly over the past several weeks.
A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/while-polls-favor-impeachment-inquiry-ken-starr-says-impeachment-doomed-to-fail">Politico/Morning Consult</a> poll conducted between September 24-26 asked: &#8220;As you may know, the 􏰀first step toward removing a president from office is impeachment. Do you believe Congress should or should not begin impeachment proceedings to remove President Trump from office?&#8221;
43% of respondents said &#8220;yes,&#8221; while 43% said &#8220;no.&#8221; 13% were unsure.
According to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-trump-losing-to-biden-warren-by-double-digits">Gallup</a> survey released on Wednesday, 52% of Americans want the president “impeached and removed from office” given “what [they] know at this point,” while 46% don’t want the president impeached and removed. 2% had “no opinion.” That’s a 7% swing since a Gallup asked a similar question in June.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-trump-losing-to-biden-warren-by-double-digits">FOX POLL: Trump Losing To Biden, Warren By Double Digits</a>

Trump.

WATCH: Chris Wallace Cites ‘Well-Connected Republican’ Who Suggests ‘20% Chance Enough Republicans’ In Senate Will Vote To Impeach

Chris Wallace

Impeachment

Mick Mulvaney

On Wednesday, the United States House of Representatives passed <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-joint-resolution/77/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22actionDateChamber%3A%5C%22116%7CH%7C2019-10-16%5C%22+AND+%28billIsReserved%3A%5C%22N%5C%22+OR+type%3A%5C%22AMENDMENT%5C%22%29%22%5D%7D&amp;r=43&amp;s=1">H.J. Res. 77</a>, titled: &#8220;Opposing the decision to end certain United States efforts to prevent Turkish military operations against Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria.&#8221;
The resolution, which passed 354 to 60 (129 Republicans voted for the resolution along with 225 Democrats), reads in part:
<blockquote>Whereas thousands of Syrian fighters, including Syrian Kurds, fought courageously with the United States against the brutality of ISIS throughout Syria, liberating nearly one-third of Syrian territory from ISIS’ so-called “caliphate”&#8230;
Whereas Turkey has historically threatened, forcibly displaced, and killed Syrian Kurds, including during military operations in the Afrin District&#8230;
Whereas, during the counter-ISIS campaign in Syria, the SDF captured thousands of ISIS fighters, including foreign terrorist fighters from around the world who pose threats to our allies in the region &#8230; Whereas the SDF has warned the United States and international community that a Turkish incursion into Northeast Syria would significantly decrease the SDF’s ability to combat ISIS and to continue providing security and management for ISIS detainees and their family members&#8230;
Whereas an abrupt withdrawal of United States military personnel from certain parts of Northeast Syria is beneficial to adversaries of the United States government, including Syria, Iran, and Russia: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress—
(1) opposes the decision to end certain United States efforts to prevent Turkish military operations against Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria;
(2) calls on Turkish President Erdogan to immediately cease unilateral military action in Northeast Syria and to respect existing agreements relating to Syria;
(3) calls on the United States to continue supporting Syrian Kurdish communities through humanitarian support, including to those displaced or otherwise affected by ongoing violence in Syria;
(4) calls on the United States to work to ensure that the Turkish military acts with restraint and respects existing agreements relating to Syria; and
(5) calls on the White House to present a clear and specific plan for the enduring defeat of ISIS.</blockquote>
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have condemned President Trump’s decision to pull American troops from northern Syria, allowing Turkish forces to move into the area.
On October 6, the White House released an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-85/">official statement</a>, which noted that following a phone call between Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Trump, &#8220;Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria.&#8221;
The press release went on to state that the U.S. military would &#8220;not support or be involved in the operation.&#8221;
The president defended the move in a tweet: &#8220;As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I&#8217;ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over the captured ISIS fighters and families. The US has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8230;.the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1181232251390042118?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
During a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-orders-u-s-forces-withdraw-further-syria-esper-says-n1065516">recent interview</a>, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper stated that approximately 1,000 American troops will be withdrawn from northern Syria. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-orders-u-s-forces-withdraw-further-syria-esper-says-n1065516">NBC News</a> reports that according to two U.S. military officials, only 300 troops are set to remain at the al-Tanf garrison located near Syria’s southeast border with Lebanon and Iraq.
The Turkish advance has led to death and chaos in the area.
The <a href="http://www.syriahr.com/en/?p=144050">Syrian Observatory for Human Rights</a> claims that more than 250,000 civilians have been displaced in the days following the Turkish advance, and as many as 71 civilians have been killed.
<blockquote>The death toll among the Syria Democratic Forces, military councils and internal security forces since the start of the Turkish military operation on Wednesday afternoon have risen to 158, while the number of deaths among Syrian factions loyal to Ankara and the pro-Turkey cells killed in the attacks and clashes with the SDF during the same period reached 128&#8230;</blockquote>
The <a href="https://www.apnews.com/7e90fd08a89e49d9bcae6a85a131a64a">Associated Press</a> reports that &#8220;hundreds of Islamic State families and supporters escaped from a holding camp in Syria amid the fighting between Turkish forces and the Kurds.&#8221; The camp is located in the subdistrict of Ain Issa.
Amidst the chaos of the Turkish advance into Syria, there are fears that Kurdish forces currently guarding thousands of ISIS detainees might have to abandon their posts in order to join the fight, possibly giving the detainees room to flee their cages.
During a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-gen-mattis-says-isis-will-resurge-if-we-dont-keep-the-pressure-on">recent interview</a> with ABC’s &#8220;This Week,&#8221; former Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis appeared to echo such fears, saying that &#8220;if we don’t keep the pressure on, then ISIS will resurge.&#8221;
One of President Trump’s loudest critics on this issue has been Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who, during a Wednesday interview on CBN, said he would become the president’s &#8220;worst nightmare&#8221; if things didn’t change.
&#8220;I am looking to President Trump to change this. I will do anything I can to help him, but I will also become President Trump’s worst nightmare,&#8221; Graham told host Pat Robertson. &#8220;I will not sit along the sidelines and watch a good ally, the Kurds, be slaughtered by Turkey and watch Iran move into Syria and become another nightmare for Israel. This is a defining moment for President Trump. He needs to up his game.&#8221;
Graham added that if the United States pulls out of Syria, the Islamic State (ISIS) will return and Iran will &#8220;take over.&#8221; The Senator then implored Trump to be more like Reagan and less like Obama, and &#8220;stand up to Erdoğan,&#8221; or face losing in 2020.
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Also on Wednesday, Trump addressed Graham, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-says-lindsey-graham-would-like-to-stay-in-the-middle-east-for-the-next-thousand-years">saying</a>: &#8220;Lindsey Graham would like to stay in the Middle East for the next thousand years with thousands of soldiers and fighting other people’s wars. I want to get out of the Middle East.&#8221;
But Graham isn’t the only Republican lawmaker questioning the president.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has also condemned Trump’s move, saying that while we cannot stay in &#8220;foreign theaters forever &#8230; we still have major national security interests in Syria.&#8221;
The senator stated that ISIS cannot be allowed to regroup, adding:
<blockquote>It would also be DISGRACEFUL if we sat idly by while Turkey slaughters the Kurds, as public reports suggest that Turkish leader Erdogan explicitly told President Trump he intends to do. Kurds risked their lives—for many years—to fight alongside us.
Our enemies and rivals (Iran, Russia, etc.) don’t abandon their allies; if we want allies to stand with America in the future, we shouldn’t either. Honorable nations stand by their friends.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Our enemies and rivals (Iran, Russia, etc.) don’t abandon their allies; if we want allies to stand with America in the future, we shouldn’t either. Honorable nations stand by their friends.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1181275477815824384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
On Thursday, Sen. Graham and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced <a href="https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/558353c0-2323-4ea1-8545-637af1cbf7e0/graham-van-hollen-turkey-sanctions-bill-outline.pdf">legislation</a> that would severely sanction Turkey as a whole, as well as Turkish leaders specifically.
Graham and Van Holden’s legislation includes sanctions against those who would engage in the sale of military equipment or services with Turkey, and &#8220;prohibits the sale of U.S. defense articles, services, technology, [and] materials to the Turkish Armed Forces &#8230; [as well as] ammunition sales and transfers to the Turkish Armed Forces,&#8221; reads the summary text from Sen. Graham’s website.

Trump and Erdogan.

House Votes Overwhelmingly To Condemn Trump’s Military Pullback In Turkey

Lindsey Graham

U.S. House of Representatives

<div>
Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the Syrian Civil War to strengthen his strategic position against NATO and expand Russian influence in the Middle East.
Why is Russia Involved in the Syrian Conflict?
Since taking office, Vladimir Putin has been intent on restoring Russia as a great world power.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian military radically shrank and decayed. A strong navy is essential to project power and protect commerce but, despite 23 million miles of coastline, Russia does not have a single warm water port. Ports that are not frozen year-round are very shallow. In order for a Russian ship to access a world ocean, it must go through a chokepoint controlled by either a NATO member country or Japan, a close ally of the United States.
Putin has prioritized rebuilding the armed forces and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1356788000662?journalCode=tstc20#_i4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1356788000662?journalCode%3Dtstc20%23_i4&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHkWX4yQlDDZ0qE8UQxx_q8gARJQA">restoring</a> the Russian navy’s ocean-going capability in order to deter NATO, which he views as the greatest threat to Russia.
The Kremlin’s military strategy is designed to break out of “perceived NATO encirclement,” <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2015/10/06/us-russia-building-arc-of-steel-from-arctic-to-med/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2015/10/06/us-russia-building-arc-of-steel-from-arctic-to-med/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEvmaf9ato1RTP6xN3yYmV1AHODRA">according</a> to Adm. Mark Ferguson, commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe and the Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, by creating an “arc of steel from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.” In <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGy8X8ILTtYdhkU31jtSUCowetvOg">2013</a>, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu similarly stated the “Mediterranean region was the core of all essential dangers to Russia’s national interests” and established a naval department task force in the region on a “permanent basis.”
Tartus
During the Cold War, advanced ships from both the United States and Soviet Union were <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2013/december/russian-navy-rebalances-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGy8X8ILTtYdhkU31jtSUCowetvOg">present</a> in the Mediterranean Sea. More recently, American ships have been focused in the Persian Gulf and Western Pacific.
Russia’s only naval base outside the former Soviet Union is in Tartus, Syria. After the Soviet collapse, it was only used occasionally by Russian ships, but the Kremlin expressed renewed interest in the facility in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/oct/08/syria.russia" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/oct/08/syria.russia&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841640000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGp1pPoaYKG_By5IRaBoVsLH4OBIQ">2005</a>. Tartus is used for maintenance and is capable of holding 11 warships at a time, including nuclear submarines. In 2017, Syria and Russia signed a new lease for 49 years, with plans for <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-russia-turning-syria-major-naval-base-nuclear-warships-19813" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-russia-turning-syria-major-naval-base-nuclear-warships-19813&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG5F5GWbWVrYyupsXG2FlxxEpz_qg">expansion</a>.
Without Tartus, all Russian ships must sail through the Bosporus Strait, which is controlled by NATO member Turkey.
Putin began providing weapons to Assad to “fight terrorism” in 2011. However, the anti-ship cruise missiles and advanced air-defense systems the Kremlin <a href="https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHX4sHEqDhcMJmRYVIaCZEfLZmRgg">provided</a> were not to fight ISIS — a group with no ships or planes. “These systems are aimed at denying NATO the ability to operate freely in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as helping to crush all opposition to Assad,” Frederick Kagan and John Miller <a href="https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/the-new-cold-war-in-the-mediterranean&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHX4sHEqDhcMJmRYVIaCZEfLZmRgg">wrote</a>. “Russian submarines can threaten both seaborne and land targets and if they range the entire Mediterranean, no NATO capitol is safe,” Kagan and Miller continued.
The Kremlin has benefitted from the Syria conflict in a number of ways. Putin has used this regional instability to establish working relationships with Iran, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan; in every case, backing the status quo, as Leonoid Bershidsky <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEyaCEjEof3gn0W7B_1L2YQfb7zpQ">points out</a>. “Such a record endears Middle Eastern leaders to Putin: They can be reasonably certain he won’t pull a fast one on them. With the U.S., they can’t be so sure, since Washington has backed or directly performed several regime changes in the region,” Bershidksy <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/10/08/putins-russia-is-a-middle-eastern-country-a67624&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1571413841641000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEyaCEjEof3gn0W7B_1L2YQfb7zpQ">writes</a>.
Continued U.S. presence in Syria will not alter Russia’s strategic position in the Eastern Mediterranean. However, it is worth nothing that as U.S. credibility has decreased in the region, Russian credibility has actually increased.
&nbsp;
</div>
<div>
Morgan Wirthlin is Chief of Staff at the Center for Security Policy, located in Washington, D.C.
</div>

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Nizhny Novgorod

WIRTHLIN: Russia’s Strategic Gain In Syria

Foreign Policy

Middle East

Russia

Vladimir Putin

Kurdish forces, facing a well-armed and aggressive Turkey, appear to have turned to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/14/middleeast/syria-turkey-kurds-civilians-isis-intl-hnk/index.html">the Syrian government</a> — meaning its sponsors in Iran and Russia — for rescue. It makes sense in historical terms, although it is likely to be bloody in current ones. Historical, in this case, means before the U.S. military presence in the northern part of the country.
The Syrian government is a minority Alawite (heterodox Shiite) one that had maintained control by allying with other minority groups in the country — such as Kurds and Christians — and with the Shiite rulers of Iran in order to keep a boot on the neck of the majority Sunni population. The war criminal Bashar al-Assad was simply following in his war criminal father’s footsteps —  in 1982, Hafez al-Assad <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/aug/01/hama-syria-massacre-1982-archive">massacred tens of thousands of Sunnis</a> in the town of Hama, ensuring general quiet until 2011. Young Bashar, being a less efficient criminal, has killed more than half a million people (the U.N. stopped counting in 2016) and creating what the <a href="https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/statistics/">U.N. estimated in 2018</a> to be more than 13 million displaced people — more than six million <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internally_displaced_person">internally</a> plus more than three million in Turkey and one million more in Lebanon.
Most of them are Sunni. Deliberately.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declared two goals in the current operation: To remove what he considers a threat from a terrorist organization, the PKK (set this aside for a moment), and to open the way to resettle more than one million Syrian refugees back in Syria. The refugees have become a political and economic liability for Turkey’s government.
Shiite Iran, one of Syria’s sponsors, was furious, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/iran-holds-military-drills-near-turkey-tells-it-stop-syria-attack-russia-accuses-us-1464124">warning Turkey</a> not to enter Syrian territory. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-opposes-military-action-in-syria-zarif-tells-turkey/">explicit</a>, denouncing military action and “urging respect for Syria’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty.” His statement stressed “the need for the fight against terrorism and for the establishment of stability and security in Syria.”
Iran is less concerned about Kurds — PKK or otherwise — than with the disposition of the mostly-Sunni refugees. Iran’s entry into Syria in command of tens of thousands of Shiite troops — not primarily Iranians, but Pakistanis, Afghans, and others commanded by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — was a wedge designed to <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/03/22/dividing-up-the-syrian-corpse/">ethnically cleanse the Sunni center</a> of the country. Alawites generally live along the Mediterranean coast and Kurds in the north and northeast. Decimating the center would allow Iran to move overland from Iran through Iraq and then into Syria and Lebanon, firming up the long-sought <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/09/03/the-shiite-crescent-and-regional-disaster/">Shiite Crescent</a> — Israel’s nightmare. American troops <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/2169776/tanf-tiny-us-special-forces-base-big-role-donald-trumps-syria">remain in southern Syria and in Jordan</a> to prevent consolidation of such a route.
Russia, Syria’s other sponsor, is mainly concerned with maintenance of its bases, air and naval, on the coast. Deeply committed to the Assad regime — and complicit in its crimes — Russia will be satisfied with whatever brings more of Syria under the control of Damascus. Russia’s position since 2011 is that Syria is a country in civil war and only forces invited by the government should be permitted there.
For now, two of America’s adversaries — Iran and Russia — are willing to push Turkey back on behalf of the Kurds, not to befriend the Kurds but to discomfit Turkey. This is the long-term nature of the conflict. Russia and Turkey are historic adversaries; Turkey and Iran are historic adversaries. Russia has coveted warm water ports, including Mediterranean bases; Iran has coveted the Crescent. Four hundred years of <a href="https://istanbulclues.com/ottoman-empire-maps-and-facts/">Ottoman Turkish occupation</a> of the region that at one point included the entire Levant, the Balkans to Hungary, North Africa, the Crimean Khanate, and a border with Iran in the Caucasus down to Basra, should suggest that Turkey has been a thorn in the backside of a lot of people for a long time. The Armenian genocide and the massive transfer of the Greek population in the early part of the 20th century were last gasps of the Ottoman Empire.
But in the 21st century, apparently, Erdogan has delusions. The Russians and Iranians have dealt with them before — the West hasn’t since the Siege of Vienna. The United States never has.
The Kurds are friends of the United States, and the U.S. has worked with them in Iraq and in Syria — more successfully in the former than in the latter. Their present situation is much to be lamented, but it is clear that the United States is unwilling — and ill-prepared — to destroy the government of modern Syria and redistribute the territory. That being so, it will not find an appropriate spot in the fight among three revanchist, expansionist regional powers.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is senior director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, D.C.

Turkish tanks in Syria

BRYEN: History Before And After America

On Sunday, ABC’s &#8220;This Week&#8221; played a Saturday-taped interview with former Secretary of Defense General James Mattis.
During the interview, host Chuck Todd asked Mattis about the ongoing situation with Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Mattis asserted that &#8220;if we don’t keep the pressure on,&#8221; a reemergence of ISIS is &#8220;a given.&#8221;
<blockquote>MATTIS: Well, what we see is the continued reliance that we have on allies. The fight against ISIS was fought largely by the Syrian Democratic Forces. We have lost, during several years of fighting in Syria, for example, less than a dozen troops, each one a tragedy, but the Syrian Democratic Forces, primarily the Kurds, have lost well over 11,000 killed, over 23,000 wounded. So, you see how we are fighting this enemy, doing it in a way by, with, and through allies that spreads the load, so it&#8217;s not just the American people, the American taxpayer, the American troops carrying the full load.
TODD: Do you feel as if, are we still doing this fight now? Or have we just pulled back, and it&#8217;s now up to the Kurds on their own?
MATTIS: Well, it’s in a situation of disarray right now. Obviously, the Kurds are adapting to the Turkish attacks. And we&#8217;ll have to see if they&#8217;re able to maintain the fight against ISIS. It&#8217;s going to have an impact. The question is, how much?
TODD: How would you turn this around now, if you could?
MATTIS: That&#8217;s a very good question, Chuck. That&#8217;s a very good question. You turn issues like this around based on trust. And re-instilling trust is going to be very difficult for the Americans, at this point.
TODD: There&#8217;s a movie called &#8220;Charlie Wilson&#8217;s War,&#8221; that the theme of it has to do with the Americans walking away from the mujahideen in Afghanistan. And of course, we all know what happens 20 years later. How concerned should we be about abandoning an ally, like the Kurds, that, maybe 20 years down the road, this comes to bite us?
MATTIS: Right. I think Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo, the intelligence services, the foreign countries that are working with us, have it about right, that ISIS is not defeated. We have got to keep the pressure on ISIS so they don&#8217;t recover. We may want a war over. We may even declare it over. You can pull your troops out, as President Obama learned the hard way, out of Iraq. But the “enemy gets a vote,” we say in the military, and in this case, if we don&#8217;t keep the pressure on, then ISIS will resurge. It&#8217;s absolutely a given that they will come back.</blockquote>
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h_zGSXvreYM" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
The Islamic State (ISIS) rose to prominence on the international stage when in June of 2014, it attacked the cities of Mosul and Tikrit in Iraq, reports the <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/timeline-the-rise-spread-and-fall-the-islamic-state">Wilson Center</a>. Lead by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the radical Islamic organization was dedicated to creating a modern-day caliphate.
Over the next several years, ISIS gained and lost various swaths of territory, all the while releasing gruesome propaganda videos featuring militants brutally executing captives, from journalist James Foley to aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Jordanian military pilot Moaz al Kasasbeh, among many others.
ISIS is also responsible for numerous terror attacks throughout the world, including the massacre at Charlie Hebdo, the November 2015 attacks in Paris, the 2016 Brussels bombings, and many more.
Although the &#8220;defeat&#8221; of the Islamic State is an ongoing process considering the disparate nature of the organization, their standing has been significantly diminished and their physical territory almost entirely recaptured.

James Mattis.

WATCH: Gen. Mattis Says ISIS ‘Will Resurge’ If ‘We Don’t Keep The Pressure On’

Islamic State (ISIS)

James Mattis

American military officials now say Turkey was aware there were United States Special Forces in the area when they opened fire on a base near the Turkey-Syria border late last week, calling into question whether Turkey is strategically targeting U.S. troops.
<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-forces-say-turkey-was-deliberately-bracketing-american-troops-with-artillery-fire-in-syria/ar-AAIGNOo">MSN reports</a> that the United States military now believes Turkey may have been trying to push U.S. forces further into Syria and out of the way of their incursion, paving the way for Turkey to potentially annex more land in northern Syria than what they outlined ahead of their current mission.
&#8220;One Army officer who has deployed to northeastern Syria and has knowledge of the situation said that multiple rounds of 155mm fire were launched from Turkey’s side of the border and that they had a &#8216;bracketing effect&#8217; in which shells landed on both sides&#8221; of a United States military outpost on a hilltop in northern Syria, according to MSN.
&#8220;The rounds landed about 9 p.m.&#8221; just a &#8220;few hundred yards&#8221; short of the base on Mistenur Hill, the outlet adds.
Turkey claims that they fired on the base in &#8220;self-defense,&#8221; and that they did not mean to target U.S. troops, accidentally or otherwise. An officer with knowledge of American operations in the area, though, told MSN that “[w]e had been [at the hilltop base] for months, and it is the most clearly defined position in that entire area.&#8221;
An American envoy who spoke to MSN was clear that he believes it was &#8220;not a mistake.&#8221;
Turkey began its incursion into Syria, with the Trump Administration&#8217;s blessing, last Tuesday, leaving many in the United States concerned that we are abandoning the Syrian Kurds, who have been steadfast allies in the Middle East for decades &#8212; and most recently in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria &#8212; and who occupy much of the territory Turkey is targeting.
The United States moved approximately 1,000 troops from the region as part of their agreement with Turkey, but did leave military forces in key roles on the Syrian border, including at the hill base that suffered Turkish fire.
That &#8220;bracketing fire&#8221; has left some foreign policy experts wondering if the United States may have to move more troops from northern Syria, and whether Turkey has much more complicated designs on the area than they outlined in their initial overture to the Trump Administration.
Acting Trump Administration Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/turkey-syria-mark-esper-secretary-of-defense-us-preparing-to-evacuate-all-troops-from-northern-syria-face-the-nation/">told CBS&#8217;s Face the Nation Sunday</a> that the Pentagon is preparing to evacuate American troops from more areas in northern Syria as a result &#8212; and to get out of the way of what may turn into a much larger international conflict.
&#8220;In the last 24 hours, we learned that [the Turks] likely intend to extend their attack further south than originally planned, and to the west,&#8221; Esper said. &#8220;We also have learned in the last 24 hours that the &#8230; SDF are looking to cut a deal, if you will, with the Syrians and the Russians to counterattack against the Turks in the north.&#8221;
&#8220;And so we find ourselves, we have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies, and it&#8217;s a very untenable situation,&#8221; Esper continued. &#8220;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.&#8221;
The United States isn&#8217;t able to pull out of the region completely, as American troops are still, technically, waging operations against ISIS in the area. Part of the agreement with Turkish forces was that Turkey would take responsibility to handling captured ISIS fighters and would take over some of the responsibility for controling the remnants of ISIS in northern Syria. By late last week, however, it became clear that Turkey was operating with little regard for ISIS in the area of its incursion.

Turkey Syria border Kurds

REPORT: Turkey ‘Bracketed’ American Troops In Syria, US Prepares To Evacuate

One of the central complaints of Donald Trump&#8217;s presidential campaign and subsequent presidency is that America&#8217;s NATO allies (Turkey included) don&#8217;t pay their share for the protection they enjoy from the United States military. Yet in the Middle East, there is a group that has paid its share in blood — blood that they shed to minimize our losses while defeating our enemies — and Trump threw them away.
It is often said that the Kurds are pro-American, but that is an understatement. To say that the Kurds love America is still an understatement. The Bible says &#8220;Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends&#8221; (John 15:13 KJV), and in this case that love is multiplied more than a thousand fold.
According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-pull-troops-from-northern-syria-as-turkey-readies-offensive/2019/10/07/a965e466-e8b3-11e9-bafb-da248f8d5734_story.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-pull-troops-from-northern-syria-as-turkey-readies-offensive/2019/10/07/a965e466-e8b3-11e9-bafb-da248f8d5734_story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1570847289196000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEpePltki-YB75BHIV7LhmYA7UEtA">The Washington Post</a>, in the battle against ISIS: &#8220;Syrian Kurdish fighters have served as the primary ground force against the Islamic State, with the United States providing logistical and air support. The Kurds have suffered more than 10,000 casualties in the fight. Four American service members have been killed in combat in Syria since 2014.&#8221; The loss of any American soldier breaks the heart of every patriot, but ISIS wants to kill every American man, woman, or child who will not bow to their dictates. If we are to continue to live safe and free, ISIS had to be defeated sooner or later — and it was done with very few American casualties, thanks to the sacrifices of the Kurds.
The president likes to say that there were only 50 troops in northern Syria supporting the Kurds. For those 50 troops, the United States had a battle-tested fighting force of 100,000 reliable friends — something quite rare in the Middle East — that the U.S. could call upon in case of an ISIS resurgence.
Terrorists arise, thrive, and can resurface in areas of instability. Until a few days ago, the threat of such a resurfacing of ISIS was low — thanks to the stability of the area governed by the Kurds. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-too-late-for-trump-to-rethink-a-dangerous-betrayal-of-us-allies-in-syria/2019/01/03/fb86739c-0f69-11e9-84fc-d58c33d6c8c7_story.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-too-late-for-trump-to-rethink-a-dangerous-betrayal-of-us-allies-in-syria/2019/01/03/fb86739c-0f69-11e9-84fc-d58c33d6c8c7_story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1570847289196000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGPKDNNyGOo5L94GZo171hKXOvnGg">According</a> to Thomas S. Kaplan and Bernard-Henri Lévy, who work directly with the Kurds, &#8220;Even as they [the Kurds] have waged a years-long war against the Islamic State in northeastern Syria, they have governed a population of about 2 million people with a degree of respect for religious freedom, gender equality and minority rights unknown in that part of the world.&#8221; (Last year, former Daily Wire correspondent Kassy Dillon, traveled to northern Iraq and saw first-hand what an area governed by the Kurds looks like. &#8220;I spent several day[s] with the Kurds last year and I was the only woman,&#8221; she <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/1181220006341705729" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/1181220006341705729&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1570847289196000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEQxGJ5XwKVQcEy841U0--C8t207A">tweeted</a>. &#8220;I was treated respectfully and had the opportunity to visit their front lines.&#8221; One of the Kurdish fighters she met, Mo, <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/1181191030097338368" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/KassyDillon/status/1181191030097338368&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1570847289196000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGrUZnvmA7hlZLdU0vUGOegr3y9uQ">wears</a> an American flag on his uniform &#8220;to honor all of the Americans who fought beside him against ISIS.&#8221;)
All of this is now being squandered by the president — and for what? What national security benefits did the unreliable, unstable, anti-American dictator of Turkey promise that convinced the president to abandon some of America&#8217;s most stalwart allies in the Middle East?
It&#8217;s a real shame. Alliances are built on trust. The Kurds trusted us and did their part. Next time the president complains about allies who don&#8217;t do their part, he should take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Donald Trump speaking

MITSOTAKIS: Trump’s Alliance Hypocrisy

NATO

For much of the past week, our political and media elites alike have been unduly obsessed with the nuances — or, as is more often the case, the <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1181250860552204288">pompously asserted</a> lack of any underlying nuance — of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-announces-troop-withdrawl-from-syrian-border-to-allow-turkish-invasion">present imbroglio</a> involving President Donald Trump, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rossomando-emerson-while-erdogan-slammed-israel-at-u-n-turkish-support-for-terror-was-revealed">Hamas-bankrolling</a> Islamofascist nut job Turkish kingpin Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Kurds of Northern Syria. I, for one, am genuinely shocked to see the ubiquitous nature of the bipartisan outcry. Who knew that everyone apparently cared so much about the stateless Kurds?
There are a lot of very smart, astute commentators and politicians on the Right who are pulling their hair out in agony over Trump&#8217;s decision to withdraw fewer than 100 troops — yes, we are literally talking here about <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-07/trump-syria-withdrawal-turkey-kurds-republicans">fewer than 100</a> U.S. troops — from their flank in northern Syria. Those with a longer memory may recall that, last December, Trump almost removed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/trump-syria-turkey-troop-withdrawal.html">2,000 U.S. troops</a> from Syria before ultimately changing his mind. The present withdrawal is roughly 5% of last year&#8217;s publicly floated withdrawal. And while it is true that the presence of U.S. troops in the region does protect the Kurds, whose peshmergas proved indispensable tactical allies in the elimination of Islamic State&#8217;s physical &#8220;caliphate,&#8221; there are at least three additional compelling factors that make the political calculus here much trickier than it may appear.
First, as Andy McCarthy <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/turkey-and-the-kurds-its-more-complicated-than-you-think/">notes</a> at National Review, the reality is that the Kurds are not necessarily the angelic, morally righteous figures that our political and media elites are holding them out to be. The U.S. should not generally be in the business of serving up its anti-Islamic State tactical partners as sacrificial offerings, but the reality is that Turkey&#8217;s Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), of which the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) is the U.S.-backed Syrian offshoot, is — and remains — a formally <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/10/09/us-downplayed-turkeys-concerns-about-syrian-kurdish-fighters-that-couldnt-last/">designated terrorist organization</a> under U.S. law. Second, Turkey, while horrifically transmogrified into a dictatorial, Islamist, Muslim Brotherhood-funding geopolitical nightmare under Erdogan&#8217;s rule, is — and remains — a NATO member. Third, there is simply no political will in the U.S. to have our soldiers continue to referee centuries-long internecine Islamic conflicts — such as the <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1182388689839820802">dispute between</a> the Turks and the Kurds — that lack a truly compelling U.S. strategic interest. Instead, as the always-incisive Caroline Glick hinted at earlier today, there is something to be said for what Sarah Palin <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/sarah-palin-let-allah-sort-it-out-096128">once said in 2013</a>: &#8220;Let Allah sort it out.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This seems like a rather positive development, in a Machiavellian sort of way. Turkey leads the Sunni jihadists. Iran leads the Shiite jihadists and they are priming for a war against one another?<a href="https://t.co/ES8UaGEmlL">https://t.co/ES8UaGEmlL</a>
&mdash; Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) <a href="https://twitter.com/CarolineGlick/status/1182268933321216000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Despite loathing Erdogan, therefore, I reluctantly find myself in agreement with <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/turkey-and-the-kurds-its-more-complicated-than-you-think/">McCarthy</a> — the situation on the ground is nuanced, there are complex factors that soberly caution against many of our understandable initial instincts, and it is difficult to fault the president too much for wanting to avoid a military conflict with a NATO member. Indeed, the political calculus would — or at least should — be very different in a world in which Turkey is kicked out of NATO. As it should be.
To be sure, it is nice to see Americans — especially those on the Left — finally waking up to the threat that is Erdogan&#8217;s Turkey. But here is the question I keep on asking myself: Where are all of these same political and media elites, who care oh so very much about the byzantine border intricacies of the Turkish/Kurdish conflict, when it comes to the harrowingly lawless situation on our very own southern border with Mexico?
Where are these same political and media elites when it comes to the John C. Calhoun-style neo-Confederates that comprise <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevi">Supremacy Clause</a>-defying sanctuary city jurisdictions? Where are these same political and media elites when it comes to the countless crimes — every single one of which is preventable, were we only to have the will to enforce our own enacted laws — committed by <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/judge-creates-a-right-for-deportable-aliens-to-be-tipped-off/">readily deportable</a> illegal aliens? Where are these same political and media elites when it comes to the need to secure the line, once and for all, with additional Border Patrol and, if need be, hard military assets? Where are these same political and media elites when it comes to the need to formally designate the leading human trafficking rings and transnational criminal cartels as terrorist organizations? Where are these same political and media elites when it comes to the need to end our bogus faux-&#8220;asylum&#8221; regime that, in combination with the mass catch-and-release promulgated by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-why-did-dhs-abort-its-re-writing-infamous-josh-hammer">erroneous Flores consent decree</a>, mandates mass havoc all across the land? Where are these same political and media elites when it comes, more generally, to the systemic fiscal, cultural, and security costs of the limitless <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1965">post-1965</a> immigration — both legal and illegal — to which We the People have manifestly not provided our societal consent?
It is truly baffling that so many people in America seem to care so much more about a highly complex, centuries-long Islamic ethnic war than they do about the very war collectively declared by the cartels, over the past <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration">record-breaking year</a>, upon our own national sovereignty. Indeed, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-who-will-stand-for-the-forgotten-american">forgotten American</a> cares far, far more about our own border security than he cares about the border security of an Islamic U.S.-designated terror group offshoot halfway around the world. But tragically, both political parties seem to have forgotten about the forgotten American.

HAMMER: Why Do Political Elites Care More About Turkey’s Border Than They Do About Our Own Border?

Illegal Immigration

Radical Islamic Terror

Southern Border

On Thursday, Sarai Idan, who was Miss Iraq, lauded Israel for its commitment to help the Kurdish people in the face of what Turkish dictator Recip Erdogan’s brutal assault on them. Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted Thursday morning, “Israel strongly condemns the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish areas in Syria and warns against the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by Turkey and its proxies. Israel is prepared to extend humanitarian assistance to the gallant Kurdish people.”
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Israel strongly condemns the Turkish invasion of the Kurdish areas in Syria and warns against the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by Turkey and its proxies. Israel is prepared to extend humanitarian assistance to the gallant Kurdish people.
&mdash; Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) <a href="https://twitter.com/netanyahu/status/1182268451269857281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Idan commented, “And people wonder why I stand with Israel … heard many countries say ‘They condemn’ but not a single one said they will extend assistance to #Kurds.”
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And people wonder why I stand with Israel&#8230; heard many countries say “they condemn” but not a single one said they will extend assistance to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kurds?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kurds</a> <a href="https://t.co/xsPEgpXlRD">https://t.co/xsPEgpXlRD</a>
&mdash; Sarai (Sarah Idan) Miss Iraq (@RealSarahIdan) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSarahIdan/status/1182359755517358081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
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As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/miss-iraq-posed-miss-israel-then-radical-muslims-hank-berrien">The Daily Wire</a> reported in December 2017, at the Miss International Beauty Pageant, Idan <a href="https://www.jta.org/2017/11/14/life-religion/miss-israel-and-miss-iraq-pose-together-on-instagram">posed for photos</a> with Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman, for their respective Instagram accounts. Idan’s caption read: “Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel.” Gandelsman <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/peace-and-love-as-miss-israel-and-miss-iraq-pose-together-on-instagram/">wrote</a>on her Instagram post, “Get to know, this is Miss Iraq and she’s amazing.” She added on Facebook, “Practicing bringing world peace.”
The backlash from parts of the Muslim world targeting Idan, 27, was so fierce that she posted a defense on Istagram, writing in Arabic on Instagram, “I want to stress that the purpose of the picture was only to express hope and desire for peace between the two countries,” but adding that the photo did not indicate support for the Israeli government and offering an apology if the photo was harmful to the Palestinian cause.
It didn’t help; as the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Family-of-Miss-Iraq-flee-country-after-photo-posted-with-Miss-Israel-518090?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter">Jerusalem Post reported</a>. Gandelsman, who had become good friends with Idan, told Hadashot that Idan’s family, which still lived in Iraq, had been forced to flee the country after receiving death threats for Idan’s photos with Gandelsman as well as Idan’s posing in a bikini.
Gandelsman added that Idan said she did not regret posting the photos. She said, “She did it to so that people can understand that it’s possible to live together. In order for people to see that we can connect, in the end we are both human beings.”
Seven months later, months after they had posted the selfie together at the Miss Universe competition Miss Israel and Miss Iraq <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5839563/Miss-Iraq-visits-Miss-Israel-Jerusalem-fury-selfie-together.html">reunited in Jerusalem</a>. Idan joined Gandelsman, for dinner in Jerusalem, then posted a picture online captioned, “Sister&#8217;s reunion.” The two also posted a video in which Idan told her followers “Shalom” while Gandelsman told her followers, “Salaam.” Idan told Israel’s Channel 2 News, “I don&#8217;t think Iraq and Israel are enemies; I think maybe the governments are enemies with each other. There&#8217;s a lot of Iraqi people that don&#8217;t have a problem with Israelis.” She told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/13/middleeast/miss-iraq-miss-israel-reunited-selfie-controversy/index.html">CNN</a>, “When I posted the picture I didn&#8217;t think for a second there would be blowback. I woke up to calls from my family and the Miss Iraq Organization going insane. The death threats I got online were so scary. The director of the Miss Iraq Organization called me and said they&#8217;re getting heat from the ministry. He said I have to take the picture down or they will strip me of my title.&#8221;

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