Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday made a surprise trip to Iraq, greeting U.S. troops stationed there and meeting with Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani.
Pence was there to reassure Iraqi Kurds that the U.S. continues to support them after President Donald Trump withdrew troops from northern Syria two months ago. It was the vice president&#8217;s second trip to the region in less than five weeks: Trump sent him to Ankara, Turkey, last month to help negotiate a ceasefire after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent troops to hit Kurdish fighters in northern Syria when the U.S. withdrew.
The vice president flew in a C-17 military cargo jet in order to keep the high-level trip secret. He landed in Erbil, where he met with Barzani. Pence also received a classified briefing at Iraq’s Al-Asad Air Base, the base that was the main headquarters for the operation in Syria last month that led to the death of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Pence also spoke by phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Reuters reported.
Pence said he welcomes “the opportunity on behalf of President Donald Trump to reiterate the strong bonds forged in the fires of war between the people of the United States and the Kurdish people across this region,&#8221; <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-usa-pence/pence-visits-u-s-troops-in-iraq-holds-call-with-prime-minister-idUSKBN1XX0C6?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=topNews&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29">R</a><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-usa-pence/pence-visits-u-s-troops-in-iraq-holds-call-with-prime-minister-idUSKBN1XX0C6?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=topNews&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29">euters</a> said.
The vice president&#8217;s trip &#8220;also served to bolster U.S. troops ahead of next Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. The vice president and his wife, Karen, served a traditional meal to U.S. military personnel during the visit.&#8221;
&#8220;&#8216;While you come from the rest of us, you’re the best of us,&#8217; Pence told service members in a dusty hangar at Al-Asad,&#8221; the <a href="https://apnews.com/effb7b53dac54c12ba852ef8e5633691">Associated Press</a> reported. &#8220;He said the Trump administration is working to secure another pay increase for the armed services and suggested the ongoing impeachment inquiry in Washington was slowing the way.&#8221;
“Partisan politics and endless investigations have slowed things down in D.C.,” Pence said.
On his trip, Pence &#8220;hailed the cease-fire as the way to end the bloodshed caused by Turkey&#8217;s invasion, though he remained silent on whether it amounted to a second abandonment of America&#8217;s former Kurdish allies, many of whom are branded as terrorists by Ankara,&#8221; the AP reported.
<blockquote>On Nov. 13, Trump feted Erdogan with a White House visit over the objection of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who argued Erdogan should be denied the honor of a West Wing visit in the aftermath of the invasion and because of his decision to purchase Russian-made surface-to-air missiles over the objection of NATO allies.
Barzani thanked Pence for the U.S. military support in the fight against ISIS, adding that his “visit at this particular time is an important indication of your continued support to Kurdistan and Iraq.”
Weeks after declaring the near-complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, Trump decided that roughly 800 would stay to keep eastern Syria&#8217;s oil fields from falling back into the hands of the Islamic State.</blockquote>
Barzani thanked Pence for the U.S. military support in the fight against the Islamic State group, adding that his “visit at this particular time is an important indication of your continued support to Kurdistan and Iraq.”

Pence Joins GOP VA Gubernatorial Candidate Ed Gillespie At Campaign Rally

Pence Takes Surprise Trip To Iraq To Greet Troops, Reassure Kurds

Mike Pence

Syria

Since December 2017, a sort of “rolling rebellion” has been occurring across Iran. It is bigger, deeper and stronger than the Green Revolution of 2009 and taking place in great measure outside Tehran, <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2017/01/04/non-persian-iran/">where the population is more diverse</a>. There have been strikes of truckers, bazaar shopkeepers, teachers, farmers, and students. See #WhiteWednesday on Twitter to watch brave Iranian women go into the streets and take off their head coverings. Sometimes they dance. Sometimes their husbands, fathers, and brothers go with them. Sometimes they are arrested and sometimes they go to jail. Unfortunately, it took the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-10-04/death-of-irans-blue-girl-casts-spotlight-on-iranian-women-and-a-growing-movement-for-equality">suicide of a young woman</a> facing seven years in prison for attending a soccer match to get the attention of the Western press.
In May of this year, <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/05/03/the-iranian-mullahs-are-nervous/">widespread upheaval</a> convulsed the country and thousands were arrested. This weekend, news of increasing protest in Iran comes from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) — an organization with a mixed record of acceptance by the U.S. government, but with indisputable reach inside the country. According to NCRI’s Washington office, at least 65 cities have seen violent demonstrations, with people killed and injured by authorities. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/Mojahedineng/videos">Videos, presumably from cell phones</a>, show that pictures of the Ayatollah Khameini have been set on fire and demonstrators are chanting “Death to the Dictator” and “Death to Rouhani.” You can follow <a href="https://twitter.com/AlirezaNader">@AlirezaNader</a> for more.
As Iran spreads its tentacles abroad and builds its illegal nuclear capability, it is clear that the regime cannot fund domestic priorities and international revolution on the same budget — especially as that budget contracts.
Imperial overreach was the ruin of the Roman Empire, the Byzantines, Egyptians, Ottomans, Nazis, and Soviets. Could it be catching up with Iran? Wait, you say, Iran isn’t an empire. Not in the traditional sense. But it was always the belief of the hegemonic mullahs that instability across large regions, managed with a relatively small group of well-trained Iranian professionals and a lot of proxy fighters, would create a world in which Shiite supremacism held sway.
And it was working.
The Shiite Crescent — from Iran through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to the Mediterranean — was a “lid” over Iran’s Sunni enemies Saudi Arabia and Jordan, plus Israel. It was also a wedge between Sunni Turkey and the Sunni countries below — Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the Gulf states. Most of the proxy soldiers were Iraqi militias, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Pakistanis and Afghans brought to Syria under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The result was millions of Sunni Syrian refugees in the Middle East and Europe.
Sunni Hamas and Shiite Palestinian Islamic Jihad were both recipients of Iranian funds, weapons, and training to harass Israel.
There is also an underside Crescent, which is less well understood. It encircles the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia in the Gulf of Aden with a base in Yemen and a Houthi proxy at the bottom of the Red Sea, threatening the Bab el Mandeb Straits and the exit of Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to the Gulf and the Indian Ocean. And the American base in Djibouti.
And Africa. Iran incubated Sunni jihadists in the poor, corrupt, and vulnerable states of the second tier — Sudan, Chad, Niger, and Mali. The result was waves of migrants headed north. The North African countries — Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria — were all in the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue group that helped control safety and security in the sea until the Obama administration toppled the Libyan government in 2011. Libya, no longer a member of the Dialogue, has become a hole in the dam through which hundreds of thousands of African migrants reached Europe.
But has the empire reached too far?
American-led sanctions have been an enormous financial blow to the mullahs, but sanctions are misunderstood. Not a mechanism for toppling a government, they are a means of forcing a government to make choices — between, revolution and agriculture, between weapons and water and sewer systems, between Palestinian jihadists and schools, and so forth. That is what Iran faced in 2011 and that is what led to the Iran/P5+1 negotiations. The fact that President Obama collapsed and paid off the mullahs allowed them to avoid those very choices and set back the operation by years and millions of deaths in the Middle East and Africa.
The restoration of sanctions means Iran has less to pay off its proxies — as well as less for its own people. European businesses, and even China, are leaving Iran and taking their money. Iran tried to compensate by stealing Iraqi oil.
And that’s where empire begins to break down.
There are explicitly anti-Iranian <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-missing-the-point-of-the-latest-middle-east-protests">riots in Lebanon and Iraq</a>. Hezbollah fighters have announced they will <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2019/1112/Inside-Hezbollah-How-Lebanon-protests-are-breaking-fear-barrier">refuse to return to Syria</a> for Iran. Iraqis have <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/10/29/missing-the-point-of-the-latest-middle-east-protests/">attacked Iranian bases and depots</a>. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/HeshmatAlavi">@HeshmatAlavi</a> for the latest Iraqi moves and Iranian counter-moves. But most of the mainstream press isn’t there.
But the biggest changes may be coming in Iran itself.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is senior director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a>. Portions of this article appeared in the Jewish Policy Center magazine, inFOCUS Quarterly.

Iranian flag on conference table

BRYEN: Has The Iranian Empire Overreached?

Foreign Policy

Iran

Iraq

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Israel

Lebanon

Middle East

Nuclear Weapons

Radical Islam

Saudi Arabia

Last week, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-born-isis-bride-says-everyone-deserves-second-chance-n1075046">NBC News</a> offered another sympathetic interview to Hoda Muthana, the New Jersey-born daughter of a Yemeni diplomat who left Alabama in 2014 to join the Islamic State in Syria and subsequently married three terrorists. Though she helped the terrorist group carry on its barbaric campaign for years and infamously tweeted in 2015 to American-based jihadists, “Go on drive-bys and spill all of their blood,&#8221; she told NBC she deserves &#8220;a second chance&#8221; because she &#8220;regrets every single thing.&#8221;
On Thursday, a judge ruled against Muthana and in favor of the Trump administration, which contends that she is not in fact a U.S. citizen because she was born on American soil while her father still had diplomatic status in the U.S.
&#8220;Judge Reggie Walton said there was sufficient evidence that Muthana had been born while her father, who once represented Yemen in the United Nations, still had diplomatic status in the US,&#8221; Buzzfeed News reported Thursday. &#8220;<a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?&amp;node=se8.1.101_13">Federal regulations</a> and international law state that children of foreign diplomats born in the US are not subject to the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">14th Amendment to the Constitution</a>, which guarantees birthright citizenship, because they are born under the jurisdiction of another country.&#8221;
Along with determining that Muthana does not deserve U.S. citizenship, Judge Walton ruled that her former diplomat father cannot provide financial support to her or her young son, born in ISIS-controlled territory (the child&#8217;s father is reportedly the third terrorist Muthana married). To do so would be providing material support to terrorism, Walton ruled.
Muthana&#8217;s layer, Christina Jump, told BuzzFeed following the ruling that they believe they can appeal the case and &#8220;pursue any additional options which may be available solely to [her] child.&#8221;
As reported by the <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/14/judge-rules-isis-bride-hoda-muthana-is-not-a-us-citizen/">New York Post</a>, Muthana&#8217;s father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, filed a lawsuit on behalf of his daughter claiming that he surrendered his diplomatic status on June 2, 1994, before she was born. But the Trump administration has made clear that they reject the argument.
&#8220;Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States,&#8221; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Feb 20, 2019. &#8220;She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States. We continue to strongly advise all U.S. citizens not to travel to Syria
The same day, Trump tweeted: “I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!”
The Obama administration agreed, informing Muthana&#8217;s family in 2016 that her passport was revoked and that she is not a U.S. citizen.
Following the terrorist group&#8217;s collapse, Muthana has been living with her 2-year-old son in a tent in the al-Roj refugee camp in northeast Syria for the last 10 months. The camp, which is guarded by an all-woman Kurdish militia, contains about 500 women who likewise joined the failed jihadist campaign.
In her interview with NBC last week, Muthana painted herself as a victim, living in perpetual fear of retribution from fellow former ISIS supporters for openly denouncing her past views and actions. “I am risking my life doing these types of interviews,” Muthana told NBC.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/woman-who-urged-jihadists-to-spill-american-blood-pleads-again-to-get-back-in-u-s-trumps-made-clear-where-he-stands">Woman Who Urged Jihadists To Spill American Blood Pleads Again To Get Back In U.S.; Trump’s Made Clear Where He Stands</a>

Islamic State flag is seen on an android mobile phone with

U.S.-Born ISIS Bride’s Attempt To Get Back Into Country Crushed By Judge

Islamic State (ISIS)

Terrorism

In a moment reminiscent of her husband’s 2008 narcissistic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2pZSvq9bto">claim</a> that his clinching the nomination for the presidency was the moment when “the rise of the oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal,” former First Lady Michelle Obama, speaking at the Obama Foundation Summit at the Illinois Institute of Technology, posited that people all over the world feel that Barack Obama <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/michelle-obama-claims-so-many-people-around-the-world-feel-like-barack-obama-is-their-president?utm_content=bufferbe0f6&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=tw-theblaze">is their president</a>.
Michelle Obama stated:
<blockquote>Barack&#8217;s presidential library could have been anywhere in the world because there are so many people who feel like he is their president all over the world. New York wanted it; Hawaii wants it; because it’s also an economic engine because it will be a visited presidential library. Because it’s going to be a live, It’s a first. So we had to think of where will we put this resource, because it will be a resource.</blockquote>
Perhaps Michelle Obama might want to check with the people of Poland. In 2009, Obama canceled an anti-ballistic missile system. In 2012, President Bronislaw Komorowski slammed Obama saying, &#8220;Our mistake was that by accepting the American offer of a shield we failed to take into account the political risk associated with a change of president. We paid a high political price. We do not want to make the same mistake again. We must have a missile system as an element of our defenses.&#8221; The <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/9456610/Polish-president-accuses-Obama-of-betraying-Poland.html">Telegraph</a> noted, “Mr. Obama&#8217;s decision to scrap George W Bush&#8217;s original missile shield dismayed the Polish government, especially as many Poles saw it as an attempt to appease Russia, Poland&#8217;s historical and Cold War foe.”
Or Michelle Obama could ask the people of Israel, who watched during the 2014 Gaza War against the terrorist group Hamas as Obama <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-official-confirms-us-nixed-missile-sale-pm-blamed-for-soured-ties/">suspended a shipment of Hellfire missiles to Israel</a>, endangering Israel, which was under siege from rocket attacks. Or the people of Israel could remember Barack Obama ignoring the numerous murderous terrorist attacks launched in Israel by Palestinian Arabs, saying as a presidential candidate in 2008:
<blockquote>This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York.” Obama didn’t mention Israel.</blockquote>
Or Michelle Obama could ask the people of Crimea, who watched as Russia’s Vladmir Putin launched an annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Obama’s White House weakly protested, calling it a &#8220;breach of international law.&#8221; As <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-declares-war-1393773084?tesla=y">The Wall Street Journal</a> mocked Obama in an op-ed, “That will have the Kremlin quaking.” The Journal added, “The only concrete U.S. action was to suspend participation in preparations for June&#8217;s G-8 summit in Sochi.” The Journal concluded, “The Ukrainians can&#8217;t be left alone to face Russia, and the Kremlin&#8217;s annexation of Crimea can&#8217;t be allowed to stand.”
Or Michelle Obama could ask the people of Syria, who watched after Syrian president Bashar al-Assad allegedly launched a Sarin nerve gas attack that “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/16/syrian-chemical-attack-sarin-says-un">killed more than 1,000 people</a>, hundreds of them children,” as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/10/epic-failure-of-our-age-how-west-failed-syria">The Guardian</a> reported, and Obama, who had insisted that use of chemical weapons would be crossing a “red line,” announced the U.S. would not attack the Assad regime.

Barack And Michelle Obama Speak At Obama Foundation Summit

Michelle Obama Boasts: The World Feels Barack Is ‘Their President’

Barack Obama

Crimea

Michelle Obama

Poland

It took a dog meme to reveal the full extent of the mainstream media’s decay. The saga began yesterday, when The Daily Wire posted a joke on our social media accounts that depicted President Trump awarding a bronze paw print medal on a two-dimensional blue ribbon to the dog who chased down Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The caption read, “Please, @realDonaldTrump.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Please, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>. <a href="https://t.co/nYSJSGlJ8L">pic.twitter.com/nYSJSGlJ8L</a>
&mdash; The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1189241705746386944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The president apparently liked the joke and reposted it, tweeting, “AMERICAN HERO!” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
AMERICAN HERO! <a href="https://t.co/XCCa2sGfsZ">pic.twitter.com/XCCa2sGfsZ</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1189601417469841409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
The exchange offered a pleasant moment of levity. Even in an age as politically divided as ours, at least we can still come together and laugh at a picture of a goofy-looking dog to celebrate a military victory.
Or so we thought, until the mainstream media decided to take the picture seriously. “A WH official said ‘the dog is not at the WH,’” tweeted CNN&#8217;s Jim Acosta.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A WH official said &quot;the dog is not at the WH.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/eJLqBMyKna">https://t.co/eJLqBMyKna</a>
&mdash; Jim Acosta (@Acosta) <a href="https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1189658623431102465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Voice of America’s Steve Herman rushed to fill the gaps in Acosta’s groundbreaking report. “I’ve requested details from the @WhiteHouse on this photo,” he tweeted. “There was no such canine event on today’s @POTUS schedule but there is a Medal of Honor ceremony set here for later today for an active duty Green Beret.” 
USA Today also deemed the tweet newsworthy and described the meme as a “doctored image.” The New York Times assigned not one but two investigative reporters to cover the joke, which it described in its headline as a “faked photo.” Apple News users received a push notification using the same phrase.
<div id="attachment_59649" style="width: 289px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59649" class="size-medium wp-image-59649" src="https://editorial.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IMG_2062-279x300.png" alt="" width="279" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/IMG_2062-279x300.png 279w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/IMG_2062-768x826.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/IMG_2062-953x1024.png 953w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/10/IMG_2062.png 1120w" sizes="(max-width: 279px) 100vw, 279px" />(Apple News/Screenshot)</div>
“Fine, just the president of the United States disseminating a doctored image created by a right-wing propaganda site,” wrote S.V. Date of HuffPost, a left-wing propaganda site.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Fine, just the president of the United States disseminating a doctored image created by a right-wing propaganda site. <a href="https://t.co/Ky26zdDaXe">pic.twitter.com/Ky26zdDaXe</a>
&mdash; S.V. Dáte (@svdate) <a href="https://twitter.com/svdate/status/1189602652511965187?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Then The Washington Post published the pièce de résistance. “Trump tweeted a photo of a Medal of Honor recipient — who was edited out and replaced by Conan the dog,” read the headline. 
The Post’s story marked the media’s third distinct attack of the day. The first round of reporting about the dog meme wondered if the image had been an act of deception — fake news from The Daily Wire. The next narrative suggested Trump had unwittingly spread an intentional joke. Neither attack gained traction beyond the widespread mockery of normal people stunned by the humorless press. So The Washington Post settled on the third and strongest charge: Trump had somehow disrespected the actual Medal of Honor recipient in the photograph by mashing up the image with the hero pup.
That attack too fell flat because the hero from the original photo found the dog meme funny. The Washington Post tried and failed to track down 73-year-old Medal of Honor recipient James McCloughlan, but the Times managed to reach him by phone. McCloughlan laughed, assured the reporters he did not take offense, and even applauded public recognition of the dog. “This recognized the dog is part of that team of brave people,” he explained. “They are very courageous.” So much for that angle.
Undeterred, the Post continued to insinuate wrongdoing on the part of the meme-makers. “Jeremy Boreing, the chief operating officer at The Daily Wire, dismissed emailed questions about whether the altered photo originated from his publication,” reported the Post. 
In fact, Jeremy responded directly to reporter Alex Horton’s request that he confirm The Daily Wire had “digitally removed Medal of Honor recipient James McCloughan and replaced him with a dog.”
“Alex,” wrote the Daily Wire COO. “On the record: You’ve got to be f***ing joking. Please quote me on that.” The Post was not joking, and it did not publish Jeremy&#8217;s response.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
So, WaPo asked my business partner, <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremyDBoreing?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jeremydboreing</a>, about our Medal of Honor dog meme. His glorious response is screencapped below. Their report then suggested Jeremy refused to answer questions about the picture. Um, no. We just think you’re being f***ing insane. <a href="https://t.co/pEyOH96hEr">pic.twitter.com/pEyOH96hEr</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1189757002408267776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The most dishonest headline of the day came from the Sun: “Donald Trump baffles internet with bizarre Photoshopped pic of him giving medal to hero dog ‘Conan.’”
 Trump didn’t baffle the Internet. He didn’t baffle anyone — other than the mainstream press, which has become so consumed with hatred of the president and his supporters that it can’t recognize an obvious joke.
You can tell fanatics by their lack of a sense of humor, which requires a sense of proportion and reality. An image of a dog receiving a presidential medal is a funny joke. But it&#8217;s not as funny a joke as the fanatical leftists in the press who took it seriously.

Baghdadi Raid Dog

KNOWLES: Democracy Dies In Barkness

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Dogs

Donald Trump

Media

Media Bias

Military

The Central Intelligence Agency was able to positively pinpoint Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s location, a Syrian Democratic Forces official claimed Monday, thanks to an enterprising Kurdish spy who stole the terror leader&#8217;s soiled underwear.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/isis-al-baghdadi-underwear-spy-dna-test-kurds">Fox News reports</a> that, in a debriefing held just days after the United States&#8217; most wanted terrorist blew himself up in a daring raid by U.S. Special Forces, Kurdish forces revealed that they were instrumental in tracking and keeping tabs on al-Baghdadi, even though the terror leader moved frequently and was due to depart his Idlib, Syria, safehouse any day.
Kurdish intelligence gatherers managed to follow al-Baghdadi to the compound several weeks ago but, apparently, ran into trouble figuring out precisely how to prove to the CIA, which was also watching al-Baghdadi, that they had their sights on him without giving away details of their operation. So one enterprising Kurdish spy came up with an idea: steal his undies.
&#8220;Before al-Baghdadi could move, a Kurdish undercover operative was able to reach him and retrieve the self-styled &#8216;Caliph’s&#8217; underwear,&#8221; according to Fox News. &#8220;Through a DNA test, he said they were able to confirm &#8216;100%&#8217; that the person of interest was al-Baghdadi.&#8221;
The tale comes from SDF senior advisor Polat Can, who detailed the Kurdish operation on Twitter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
3 &#8211; Our own source, who had been able to reach Al Baghdadi, brought Al Baghdadi’s underwear to conduct a DNA test and make sure (100%) that the person in question was Al Baghdadi himself.
&mdash; بولات جان Polat Can (@PolatCanRojava) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolatCanRojava/status/1188877318179164160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;One of our sources was able to reach the house where Al Baghdadi was hiding. Al Baghdadi changed his places of residence very often. He was about to move to a new place in Jerablus,&#8221; Can wrote. &#8220;Our own source, who had been able to reach Al Baghdadi, brought Al Baghdadi’s underwear to conduct a DNA test and make sure (100%) that the person in question was Al Baghdadi himself.&#8221;
Can&#8217;s version of events is as-yet uncorroborated by American forces. In the rest of the thread, Can claims that the Kurds were instrumental in directing the raid and seems to suggest that the Kurdish army participated, in some way, in the raid that resulted in al-Baghdadi&#8217;s death. A separate source told Fox News that the Kurds provided an &#8220;inside man&#8221; to the U.S. military, who helped direct American soldiers once they were inside al-Baghdadi&#8217;s compound and was helpful in mapping out the escape tunnel system where al-Baghdadi blew himself up.
President Donald Trump and other Defense Department leaders have credited the Kurdish army for their help, but were clear that only the United States military was involved in the final raid.
The Trump Administration has been forthcoming with details about the Special Forces operation in Syria, and while defense officials have been unable to publicly confirm elements of President Donald Trump&#8217;s narrative of the raid, which he gave during a press conference Sunday &#8212; specifically that al-Baghdadi was left &#8220;whimpering&#8221; and cornered in a tunnel &#8212; they were able to describe how al-Baghdadi&#8217;s remains were positively identified following the operation: The blast decapitated al-Baghdadi, leaving plenty of him available to DNA experts.
&#8220;Al-Baghdadi’s head remained intact following the blast, allowing commandos to use biometrics, specifically facial recognition, to immediately identify him. Trump said they had also brought along samples of al-Baghdadi’s DNA to verify his identity with an onsite test that produced positive results in only 15 minutes.&#8221;

IRAQ-IS-AL-BAGHDADI

REPORT: Al-Baghdadi’s DIRTY UNDERWEAR, Stolen By A Kurdish Spy, Gave Him Away

President Donald Trump released a photo of the U.S. military dog who was credited for helping track down ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a raid on Saturday that resulted in al-Baghdadi&#8217;s death.
Trump tweeted: &#8220;We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi! <a href="https://t.co/PDMx9nZWvw">pic.twitter.com/PDMx9nZWvw</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1188909031403900928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
Newsweek <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-isis-leader-killed-in-trump-authorized-military-raid">reported</a> late on Saturday night that al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid in northern Syria which had been authorized by Trump the week before.
On Sunday, Trump held a press conference where he gave the following <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-death-isis-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi/">remarks</a> about the raid:
<blockquote>Last night, the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. He was the founder and leader of ISIS, the most ruthless and violent terror organization anywhere in the world.
The United States has been searching for Baghdadi for many years. Capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my administration. U.S. Special Operations Forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid in northwestern Syria and accomplished their mission in grand style. The U.S. personnel were incredible. I got to watch much of it.
No personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him. He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. The compound had been cleared by this time, with people either surrendering or being shot and killed. Eleven young children were moved out of the house and are uninjured. The only ones remaining were Baghdadi in the tunnel, and he had dragged three of his young children with him. They were led to certain death.
He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast. The tunnel had caved in on it, in addition. But test results gave certain immediate and totally positive identification. It was him.
The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him.
We were in the compound for approximately two hours, and after the mission was accomplished, we took highly sensitive material and information from the raid, much having to do with ISIS origins, future plans, things that we very much want.
Baghdadi’s demise demonstrates America’s relentless pursuit of terrorist leaders and our commitment to the enduring and total defeat of ISIS and other terrorist organizations.
Our reach is very long. As you know, last month, we announced that we recently killed Hamza bin Laden, the very violent son of Osama bin Laden, who was saying very bad things about people, about our country, about the world. He was the heir apparent to al Qaeda.
Terrorists who oppress and murder innocent people should never sleep soundly, knowing that we will completely destroy them. These savage monsters will not escape their fate, and they will not escape the final judgment of God.
Baghdadi has been on the run for many years, long before I took office. But at my direction, as Commander-in-Chief of the United States, we obliterated his caliphate, 100 percent, in March of this year.
Today’s events are another reminder that we will continue to pursue the remaining ISIS terrorists to their brutal end. That also goes for other terrorist organizations. They are, likewise, in our sights.
Baghdadi and the losers who worked for him — and losers they are — they had no idea what they were getting into. In some cases, they were very frightened puppies. In other cases, they were hardcore killers. But they killed many, many people. Their murder of innocent Americans — James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller — were especially heinous.
The shocking publicized murder of a Jordanian pilot, a wonderful young man — spoke to the King of Jordan; they all knew him, they all loved him — he was burned alive in a cage for all to see. And the execution of Christians in Libya and Egypt, as well as the genocidal mass murder of Yazidis, rank ISIS among the most depraved organizations in the history of our world.
The forced religious conversions, the orange suits prior to so many beheadings, all of which were openly displayed for the world to see, this was all that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — this is what he wanted. This is what he was proud of. He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone. Baghdadi was vicious and violent, and he died in a vicious and violent way, as a coward, running and crying.
This raid was impeccable, and could only have taken place with the acknowledgement and help of certain other nations and people.
I want to thank the nations of Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. And I also want to thank the Syrian Kurds for certain support they were able to give us. This was a very, very dangerous mission.
Thank you, as well, to the great intelligence professionals who helped make this very successful journey possible.
I want to thank the soldiers, and sailors, airmen, and Marines involved in last tonight’s operation. You are the very best there is anywhere in the world. No matter where you go, there is nobody even close.
I want to thank General Mark Milley and our Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I also want to thank our professionals who work in other agencies of the United States government and were critical to the mission’s unbelievable success.
Last night was a great night for the United States and for the world. A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, has violently been eliminated. He will never again harm another innocent man, woman, or child. He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place.
God bless America. Thank you.</blockquote>

Trump

Trump Releases Picture Of Dog That Got ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

Radical Islamic Terror

The Islamic State may already have a new leader, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/isis-new-leader-baghdadi-running-things-1468025">Newsweek reports</a>, less than a day after the head of the group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed by United States Special Forces at a compound in Syria, but the group itself may be crumbling, in part due to lack of agreement on direction.
According to Newsweek&#8217;s source &#8212; &#8220;one regional intelligence official asking not to be identified by name or nation&#8221; &#8212; Abdullah Qardash, the group&#8217;s director of &#8220;Muslim affairs&#8221; will take al-Baghdadi&#8217;s place as the leader and figurehead of the Islamic State and the so-called &#8220;Caliphate.&#8221;
ISIS&#8217;s public relations arm released the news last night in a statement that also served as a tacit admission that their leader, al-Baghdadi, had indeed been killed in a raid on his temporary safe house near Barisha. The group also admitted that its lead spokesperson, Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, was also dead.
Supposedly &#8220;little is known&#8221; abot Qardash (including how, precisely, to spell his name), other than that Qardash is a &#8220;former Iraqi military officer who once served under late leader Saddam Hussein&#8221; and was handpicked by al-Baghdadi as his own successor, after appointing him to the role of ISIS&#8217;s &#8220;outreach director&#8221; to the Muslim world.
But Newsweek&#8217;s report also indicates that ISIS may be on its last legs, in part because of defeats suffered at the hands of American and allied forces in Iraq and Syria, and also because of internal disagreement. Although Qardash was al-Baghdadi&#8217;s choice to run the terror network if al-Baghdadi was killed, his elevation to a key role within the ISIS heirarchy was never officially approved by the group as a whole, and his leadership will likely be in question.
Newsweek, of course, like many other media outlets, also downplayed al-Baghdadi&#8217;s current role within ISIS, calling him a &#8220;symbolic&#8221; leader who wasn&#8217;t involved in the group&#8217;s day-to-day operations, other than to give the occasional &#8220;yes&#8221; or &#8220;no&#8221; to a major operation.
That may, however, be a function of ISIS&#8217;s demise as a whole. Although President Donald Trump was widely mocked for suggesting that ISIS had been &#8220;defeated&#8221; in Iraq and Syria, news reports from across the globe seem to pinpoint February of 2019 as ISIS&#8217;s last stand.
At the time, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/final-battle-of-isis-is-in-its-final-days-says-jia-furat-commander-us-backed-syria-forces/">CBS News</a> claimed the group had been reduced to controlling little more than a quarter square mile in Syria, and that &#8220;hundreds&#8221; of ISIS fighters and 1,500 civilian tagalongs (including wives, children, servants, and slaves), had fled the group, indicating that the once-powerful radical Islamic terror organization was in its final days. The group was driven out of Iraq in 2017.
Regardless of importance, however, the U.S. saw al-Baghdadi as a top target in the war on terror, particularly for his involvement in forming and leading ISIS during its rein of terror across the Middle East. Al-Baghdadi presided over more than 2,000 murders, and was known to have a predeliction for beheadings and rapes. Under al-Baghdadi&#8217;s leadership, ISIS became a presence in at least 30 countries and terrorized, tortured, and enslaved thousands.
Al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid on his secret location in Syria sometime late Saturday, Washington, D.C., time.

SYRIA-CONFLICT-IS-SURRENDER

REPORT: ISIS May Have A New Leader But Terror Group Facing Internal Strife

President Trump made good on a campaign promise with the U.S. Special Operations raid on Barisha, Syria that sent Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi into a dead-end tunnel, where he blew himself and three of his children to bits. In May 2019, Mr. Trump had announced “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-islamic-state-caliphate-completely-eliminated-11553273709">the end of the caliphate</a>” in the territorial sense, but the Americans have now eliminated its theological master and terrorist dictator. Bravo to the brave, intrepid, and patriotic men and women who proved once again, as President George W. Bush said, that “you can run, but you can’t hide.”
Let’s clear the quick and stupid stuff first: No, this is not the end of ISIS ideology or terrorism spawned by it; no, it doesn’t fix the problem of Syria; no, it doesn’t make things right with the Kurds; no it doesn’t slow Iran’s desire for a hegemonic land bridge to the Mediterranean. And, yes, The Washington Post is an <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1188473675894284289">idiot</a>.
Now, the implications. Most important for the future of the region and elsewhere, the ISIS concept of a land-based “caliphate” has probably expired. A <a href="https://libertyunyielding.com/author/rightbrain/">retired naval commander</a> notes:
<blockquote>It’s not 2013 anymore, when the progress of ISIS as a territory-gobbling guerrilla-terrorist force became evident. Their progress was defined by the Euphrates River, which they were following from the general area of Raqqa, from one side, and a general area between Ramadi and Haditha on the other, to link up between the Syria-Iraq border and Deir-ez-Zor. The fact that they were trying to consolidate and control that area was an arresting indication of their intentions, and then in 2014 they stormed into Mosul in the north.</blockquote>
The ISIS plan was different from that of al-Qaeda, which hid in caves in Afghanistan, as remote from its targets as it could be — and thus believed itself safe from retaliation. ISIS planted itself and its flag in the middle of Syria and Iraq: The benefit being oil fields with their revenue, land for training and operations, the ability to levy taxes on the population, and show how a “real” Islamic civilization would work. Not too many people were impressed.
Its one thing to coerce and threaten people to live in the “caliphate” under the rules you set for them, and entirely another to have people embrace those rules. Far more people were coerced than embraced the cause — and thousands who embraced the cause are presently sitting behind barbed wire, further reducing the appeal of a physical entity with governing powers.
Kurds and Arabs, who didn’t agree on much, agreed on that. Turkey’s Recip Tayyip Erdogan, a Muslim Brotherhood supporter and Islamist himself, found it in his interest to cooperate with the United States on the raid. Iraq, in the midst of an uprising of millennials unhappy with Iranian interference in their country, provided intelligence to the U.S. Russia, long a foe of Sunni jihad — and fearing its return to southern Russia in Chechnya, stood down for the Americans and had its Syrian satrap do the same.
The president, rightly, thanked them all.
There is an emerging thread of political thought in the Middle East that “political Islam” <a href="https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/political-islam-decline/">is on the decline</a>. Professor Hillel Frisch points to the absence of reaction to the death of Mohammad Morsi in Egypt, and the absence, over the past few months, of religious demands by protesters in both Algeria and Sudan. To this can be added the incendiary protests in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/world/middleeast/iraq-protests-generals-court.html?module=inline">Iraq</a> and <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/lebanons-hezbollah-under-rare-street-pressure-114903448.html">Lebanon</a> — that, if anything, show an extreme distaste for religious leadership.
The physical demise of ISIS, followed by the ignominious death of al-Baghdadi, can only enhance a positive trend.
We don’t know exactly how the Americans got in, did their job and got out. And we don’t need to know. What we do know, according to the president, is that al-Baghdadi went <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/10/27/trump-says-isis-leader-al-baghdadi-died-whimpering-and-crying-and-screaming-all-the-way/">“whimpering and crying and screaming”</a> into that tunnel — as cowards do. As people willing to kill, rape, pillage, and force others into the vilest forms of servitude do when it is their turn to pay.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is senior director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, D.C.

BRYEN: ‘Whimpering And Crying And Screaming’

It&#8217;s proving rather difficult for some in the political world to assign credit where it&#8217;s due on the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Sunday morning, the White House confirmed that al-Baghdadi, one of the world&#8217;s most wanted terrorists, was killed in a daring raid by United States Special Forces &#8212; an operation that has been weeks in planning. In a press conference, President Donald Trump spoke about al-Baghdadi&#8217;s final moments, and hammered home that his administration had made capturing or eliminating al-Baghdadi a top priority.
“He was a sick and depraved man and now he’s gone,” Trump said. “He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is a much safer place.”
Defense Department officials echoed Trump on the importance of killing al-Baghdadi, particularly the significance to the Islamic State, which has been occupying border towns in Syria, scrounging for supplies and prominence, after being driven from Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper called the loss of al-Baghdadi a &#8220;major blow&#8221; to ISIS.
But not everyone was as enthusiastic about the demise of a major terrorist leader, whose network once operated in at least 30 countries and who may have been responsible for the death, torture, and enslavement of thousands. Leftists &#8212; and, in particular, members of the media and officials from the Obama Administration &#8212; were rather clipped in their praise.
It took mere minutes for leftists to connect the al-Baghdadi raid to an international Russia-driven conspiracy designed to keep Donald Trump in power.
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OK I get it now. Trump gave Syria to Assad and Putin, and they threw Trump the Baghdadi bone. <a href="https://t.co/Xof37MW1xw">https://t.co/Xof37MW1xw</a>
&mdash; Devin Duke (@sirDukeDevin) <a href="https://twitter.com/sirDukeDevin/status/1188449802041942017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
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CNBC&#8217;s John Harwood was quick to downplay the significance of al-Baghdadi&#8217;s death, suggesting that Americans won&#8217;t be interested in the demise of a major terrorist leader because they don&#8217;t know al-Baghdadi by name (even though it&#8217;s unlikely Americans have somehow missed out in ISIS).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
it’s great that Baghdadi is gone. credit to the skill and bravery of US special forces
it’s very unlikely to influence public opinion much since
a) most Americans don’t know who he was
and
b) Trump has claimed over and over that he had already obliterated ISIS
&mdash; John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1188449549406392321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
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MSNBC host Alex Witt wondered whether the demise of al-Baghdadi will be the resurrection of al-Baghdadi&#8217;s terrorist empire: &#8220;It might it also incite rage from those who followed him as if there was a lack of respect shown to him, and then, you know, get their blood boiling, if you will.&#8221;
Thankfully, at least for leftists, such a major strategic victory in the global war on terror was no reason to take their eye off the ball.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It’s an accomplishment by US special forces Baghdadi is dead. Full stop. 
Trump will still be impeached.
&mdash; Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenBeschloss/status/1188451972732485632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Obama Administration National Security director James Clapper was the first Obama-era official to actively downplay the victory, claiming on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; that al-Baghdadi&#8217;s death was immaterial because ISIS is bigger than one man.
&#8220;What is going to be interesting is the extent to which this negatively affects ISIS or does it galvanize ISIS, the remnants of ISIS, which still survives as an ideology and has franchises in other places besides Syria,&#8221; Clapper told host Jake Tapper.
&#8220;ISIS is more than just Baghdadi, as important as he was. 14,000 to 18,000 fighters yet remaining and the franchise are branches in other places — notably, Afghanistan where of course we still have forces. ISIS did participate in losing leadership,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So they decentralized and groomed people to assume the role. Now, I don’t know that they have anybody would have the symbolic importance of Bagdadi, but I don’t think we can say at this point that we can stop worrying about ISIS.”
The most popular criticism, though, seemed to be reserved for Trump&#8217;s Sunday morning presser, where the president gave a sometimes-gory blow-by-blow of the operation to locate and kill al-Baghdadi, and seemed to take particular glee in the fact that al-Baghdadi killed himself with a suicide vest in an escape tunnel while running scared from the American military.
That&#8217;s just not how we&#8217;re supposed to treat terrorists, Obama Advisor Sam Vinograd told CNN&#8217;s &#8220;Reliable Sources.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The intelligence community played a key role in the successful raid against Baghdadi, but the President&#39;s engagement with the media post-op indicates he may not be listening to them after the raid&#39;s conclusion. High risk period &#8212; more with <a href="https://twitter.com/brianstelter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@brianstelter</a>  <a href="https://twitter.com/ReliableSources?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ReliableSources</a> <a href="https://t.co/0VJpGfihdn">pic.twitter.com/0VJpGfihdn</a>
&mdash; Sam Vinograd (@sam_vinograd) <a href="https://twitter.com/sam_vinograd/status/1188486750408204289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
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And then there&#8217;s Obama&#8217;s Joint Chiefs Vice Chair James Winnefeld, who pre-emptively blamed Trump for whatever spate of radical Islamic violence comes next: &#8220;If you look back at the bin Laden raid, we treated his body with respect that is due under Islam,&#8221; he told CBS&#8217;s &#8220;Face the Nation.&#8221;
Regardless, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi remains dead.

President Trump Makes Statement On The Raid That Killed ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Leftists, Obama Officials Race To Downplay Al-Baghdadi Death

Obama Administration

President Trump on Sunday said he did not notify some members of Congress — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and senior Democrats on the committees currently working to impeach him &#8212; about a raid on the top ISIS terrorist because he was worried about leaks.
“We notified some [and] others are being notified now as I speak,” Trump said in a speech Sunday.
&#8220;We were going to notify them last night, but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;There’s no country in the world that leaks like we do, and Washington is a leaking machine.&#8221;
Those on the outside included Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA). Trump said that was the safest course of action.
“Washington is a leaking machine,” Trump said. “The only people that knew were the few people that I dealt with &#8230; A leak could have caused the death of all of them.”
&#8220;I told my people we will not notify them until our great people are out — not just in but out,&#8221; Trump added.
The president said he did speak with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Burr (R-NC) about the operation, but only after it had concluded.
&#8220;I wanted to make sure this was kept secret. I don&#8217;t want to have men lost and women. I don’t want to have people lost,&#8221; he said.
In his Sunday morning speech from the White House, Trump declared: “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead,” adding that the ISIS leader was &#8220;the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice.”
&#8220;As U.S. forces bore down on al-Baghdadi, he fled into a &#8216;dead-end&#8217; tunnel with three of his children, Trump said, and detonated a suicide vest,&#8221; the <a href="https://apnews.com/2c2c48e64f934d329c72a7af3dc284b1">Associated Press</a> reported.
“He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone,” Trump said. “He died like a dog, he died like a coward.” Al-Baghdadi’s identity was confirmed by a DNA test conducted on site, Trump added.
Trump&#8217;s decision mirrored that of then-president Barack Obama when U.S. forces raided a compound in Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden. While some congressional leaders were told beforehand, others were kept in the dark.
&#8220;Vice President Joe Biden notified congressional leaders of bin Laden’s demise shortly before 10:00 pm, according to FOX, while world leaders were also told of the news,&#8221; the <a href="https://nypost.com/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-killed-us-has-body/">New York Post</a> reported then.
Trump tweeted Saturday night that &#8220;something very big has just happened,&#8221; teasing his Sunday announcement. But he said he sent that tweet after U.S. forces had already returned safely from the mission. The president also said he had notified countries like Russia before the raid.
Schiff told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday that Trump had made a “mistake” by not notifying the congressional “Gang of Eight,&#8221; made up of the top Republican and Democratic members of the House and Senate intelligence committee as well as leaders from both parties.
“In terms of notifying the Gang of Eight, that wasn&#8217;t done. Look, the reason to notify the Gang of Eight is frankly more important when things go wrong. If &#8212; the president said it was dangerous flying in. The Russians could have shot down American planes,” Schiff said.
&#8220;Had this escalated, had something gone wrong, had we gotten into a firefight with the Russians, it’s to the administration’s advantage to be able to say, ‘We informed Congress we were going in, they were aware of the risks. We at least gave them the chance to provide feedback.’ That wasn&#8217;t done here. I think that&#8217;s a mistake,” the California Democrat said.

Trump Didn’t Notify Pelosi, Other Leaders, Before Raid On ISIS Leader

Adam Schiff

Nancy Pelosi

Defense Department officials are slowly leaking out details of the shocking raid in western Syria that resulted in the death of ISIS mastermind, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi &#8212; and there may even be video of the exact moment al-Baghdadi detonated his own suicide vest, killing himself and several members of his family so that he couldn&#8217;t be taken alive by the American military.
<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7618829/Inside-raid-killed-al-Baghdadi.html">The Daily Mail reports</a> that &#8220;between 50 and 70 members of the US Army Delta Force and Rangers flew in on six helicopters and surrounded al-Baghdadi during the overnight raid in Syria&#8217;s Idlib province,&#8221; per sources.
The attack had been planned for weeks, President Donald Trump told reporters during a press conference Sunday morning, and a special team of soldiers was amassed for the raid. The team knew, based on information from friendly intelligence sources in the area, that al-Baghdadi was &#8220;lurking in Syrian border towns, often wearing non-traditional or &#8216;regular&#8217; clothes, using a civilian car, and making sure anyone around him had no mobile phones or electronic devices in order to bypass detection,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/isis-leader-baghdadi-confirmed-dead-after-apparent-suicide-during-u-s-operation-sources">according to Fox News</a>.
Al-Baghdadi arrived at the compound where he ultimately perished a mere 48 hours before the U.S. military&#8217;s raid. He was accompanied there by two of his wives and several of his children, all of whom were outfitted with suicide vests.
Defense officials said Sunday that the team made several attempts to capture the ISIS bigwig &#8212; easily the world&#8217;s most wanted terrorist &#8212; but aborted them. The raid that took place sometime between Friday evening and Sunday morning in Syria was successful.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/defense-secretary-offers-details-military-raid-syria-al/story?id=66549371">told ABC News&#8217;s &#8220;This Week&#8221; </a>that &#8220;[t]he stars started lining up some time ago&#8230;It wasn&#8217;t until Thursday and then Friday the president chose his option and gave us the green light to proceed.&#8221;
Esper called the President&#8217;s move a &#8220;bold decision.&#8221; He added that special operations forces came in by helicopter and were on the ground for more than two hours, with less than 100 U.S. forces deployed in the raid. There were no American deaths, though two soldiers and one military canine reportedly sustained &#8220;minor injuries.&#8221;
The operation to capture or kill al-Baghdadi also appears to have come in the middle of a larger offensive on ISIS positions in and near Barisha, Syria. The Daily Mail reports that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented a two-hour air raid on known ISIS positions sometime late Saturday, involving eight helicopters and a &#8220;warplane.&#8221;
Photos of burned out buildings and cars in Barisha emerged Sunday morning.
<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-approves-special-ops-raid-targeting-isis-leader-baghdadi-1467982">Newsweek added</a> that a senior administration official confirmed a &#8220;brief firefight&#8221; between the ISIS leader and American forces before al-Baghdadi reportedly raced into escape tunnels that connected to his temporary home.
According to President Donald Trump, who detailed al-Baghdadi&#8217;s final moments in his statement to the press Sunday morning, al-Baghdadi was wearing a suicide vest and took several members of his family, including at least three of his children, with him when he detonated his own explosives.
&#8220;He reached the end of the tunnel as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;His body was mutilated by the blast. the tunnel had caved in on it, in addition. But test results gave certain, immediate and totally positive identification. It was him. The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him.&#8221;
Defense officials seemed to indicate that American forces eliminated al-Baghdadi&#8217;s compound after the terrorist leader was confirmed dead.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a video, appearing to show the detonation that marked the last moments of al-Baghdadi&#8217;s life, made the rounds on social media. The video has yet to be confirmed, according to CNN, but the location and timing of the blast shown in the video seems to match the timeline of the U.S. special forces raid.
<iframe src="//fave.api.cnn.io/v1/fav/?video=world/2019/10/27/us-military-strike-syria-isis-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-vpx.cnn&amp;customer=cnn&amp;edition=domestic&amp;env=prod" width="416" height="234" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Al-Baghdadi has been at the top of the United States&#8217; most wanted list since 2014, when he took the reins of the Islamic State, declaring himself the head of a &#8220;Caliphate,&#8221; and the mastermind of a terrorist network that operated in as many as 30 countries and is likely responsible for killing at least 2,000 people and enslaving, torturing, and displacing thousands of others.

IS leader al-Baghdadi allegedly killed in US raid in Syria

Defense Officials Release Shocking Details Of Al-Baghdadi Raid: ‘Six Helicopters,’ ’50-70 Members Of Delta Force’

President Donald Trump confirmed the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Sunday morning at a White House press conference.
The President began his address with just a few simple words, &#8220;Al-Baghdadi is dead.&#8221; He added that United States armed forces brought the world&#8217;s top terrorist to justice during a raid near Barishi, Syria, on Saturday after tracking the ISIS leader for several weeks.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: ‘Al-Baghdadi is dead’ Trump announces death of al-Baghdadi
In a Sunday morning statement made from the White House, President Trump announces the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after a raid by U.S. forces in Syria. <a href="https://t.co/5zlXL1gDJo">pic.twitter.com/5zlXL1gDJo</a>
&mdash; Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1188445958109126657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Last night, the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead,&#8221; Trump said. “Last night was a great night for the U.S. and the world. A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, has violently been eliminated. He will never again harm an innocent man, woman or child.”
Al-Baghdadi, as the head of the Islamic State, is believed to have directed a network of terrorists who committed more than 140 terrorist attacks in nearly 30 countries. His network has killed at least 2,043 people, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/17/world/mapping-isis-attacks-around-the-world/index.html">according to CNN</a>, and enslaved, tortured, and displaced thousands more. Al-Baghdadi, himself, reportedly had a taste for barbarism, and regularly presided over punishments and executions, including numerous beheadings.
<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/27/trump-statement-on-isis-baghdadi-raid.html">Witnesses told NBC News</a> Saturday night that an operation designed to target al-Baghdadi had been in motion for several weeks, and that U.S. troops made a handful of aborted attempts to snag the terrorist leader before the successful mission on Saturday.
Richard Engle reported that U.S. forces &#8220;didn&#8217;t just attack one target. They targeted multiple houses and a car in the area,&#8221; that the raid on al-Baghdadi&#8217;s compound took between three and four hours, and that al-Baghdadi&#8217;s ISIS bodyguards fought back, detonating at least one vehicle bomb near the location of the raid.
Al-Baghdadi was not killed by U.S. forces, however. The ISIS leader was wearing an explosive suicide belt and detonated it before the U.S. could take him into custody. Al-Baghdadi killed several of his own family members in the blast, including at least three of his own children.
“He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place,” Trump said Sunday morning. The President reported that al-Baghdadi was chased into a tunnel by members of the United States Special Operations and a group military dogs when he killed himself.
He died &#8220;whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” Trump added. &#8220;He died like a coward &#8230; The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: Al-Baghdadi killed himself and three children during U.S. raid, President Trump announces.
&quot;The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/PW2VrI6oX1">pic.twitter.com/PW2VrI6oX1</a>
&mdash; Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/1188446941388181512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Baghdadi’s demise demonstrates America’s relentless pursuit of terrorist leaders,”the President contined. &#8220;He was a sick and depraved man, and now he&#8217;s gone &#8230; The world is now a much safer place.&#8221;
There were no reports of U.S. casualties, and President Donald Trump was careful to mention that the military dogs involved in the pursuit were unharmed.
Al-Baghdadi was the well-known leader of the Islamic State and an influential figurehead for radical Islamic violence in the Middle East, and he is &#8220;the highest-ranking terrorist to be killed or captured since the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011,&#8221; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/27/donald-trump-isis-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-dead/2477808001/">according to USA Today</a>.
In the question and answer portion of his Sunday morning press conference, Trump added that he directed the United States military to pursue al-Baghdadi almost from the beginning of his presidency: &#8220;I kept saying, &#8216;Where&#8217;s al-Baghdadi? I want al-Baghdadi.&#8217; &#8230; I&#8217;ve been looking for him for three years.&#8221;
Trump told reporters that he watched the raid live in a White House situation room, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as other high-ranking military and intelligence officials. And although he went on to thank other forces involved in Syria, including Russia, Turkey, Iraq, and even the Syrian Kurds, Trump was careful to indicate that only American military forces were involved in the raid and responsible for al-Baghdadi&#8217;s death.
The United States military and the president himself were unusually forthcoming about the operation, likely in an effort to sustain a public relations victory against ISIS in the Middle East, particularly in areas where the Islamic State&#8217;s reach remains strong.
The president ended his speech with some statements on his administration&#8217;s Middle East policy which are likely to be controversial, including that the United States is remaining in Syria to &#8220;secure&#8221; oil reserves there, and not to keep the peace. But the White House was clear Sunday that they intend on elaborating on that in the coming days and weeks.

Trump Islamic State

WATCH: President Trump Confirms Death Of ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

When he wasn&#8217;t dismantling the Democrats&#8217; latest impeachment &#8220;<a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/10/23/how-many-bombshells-can-there-be/">bombshells</a>&#8221; on Wednesday, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh spent some time addressing a big story involving President Trump the impeachment-obsessed media isn&#8217;t as interested in covering: his significant foreign policy achievement in Syria.
On Wednesday, President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gathered in the Diplomatic Reception Room to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-announces-permanent-ceasefire-in-syria-between-turkey-and-kurds">announce</a> the permanent ceasefire between Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria.
&#8220;Over the last five days you have seen that a ceasefire that we established along Syria’s border has held, and it’s held very well, beyond most expectations,&#8221; said Trump. &#8220;Early 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, and it will indeed be permanent.&#8221;
&#8220;This was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else. No other nation. Very simple,&#8221; said Trump. &#8220;Turkey, Syria, and all forms of the Kurds have been fighting for centuries. We have done them a great service, and we’ve done a great job for all of them. And now we’re getting out. We were supposed to be there for 30 days. That was almost ten years ago.&#8221;
&#8220;Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand,&#8221; Trump declared. &#8220;We were supposed to be there for 30 days. That was almost 10 years ago. So we’re there for 30 days, and now we’re leaving. It’s supposed to be a very quick hit, and let’s get out, and it was a quick hit except they stayed for almost 10 years.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s remarks, said Limbaugh, &#8220;feature many of the reasons he was elected president.&#8221;
&#8220;He gave a mini-barn-burner here,&#8221; said the host. &#8220;He ripped into Obama. He ripped into previous presidents for a bunch of basic dishonesty in committing American troops around the world. He pointed out that the Middle East has become more unstable as more troops have been deployed. The wars have never ended.&#8221;
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&#8220;And he made a great point, that as we have continued to send troops to these areas of the Middle East and as the chaos in these areas has ratcheted up, guess what else has happened at the same time?&#8221; Rush continued. &#8220;We have opened our borders to more refugees and more immigrants. And Trump says these days are over. We’re not gonna go sponsor chaos and then say out of compassion, &#8216;Well, come here,&#8217; and open our borders. We’re not falling for this anymore.&#8221;
It was &#8220;exactly&#8221; for this kind of action and these kinds of declarations that Trump was elected in 2016, said Limbaugh.
&#8220;He made it very clear what the game has been,&#8221; Limbaugh explained. &#8220;The State Department, the permanent Washington establishment commits American troops to little skirmishes here and skirmishes there, and nobody ever wins because they never end. We recycle troops. We sell more ammunition and more weapons. The areas become war-torn and unlivable and the people that live there flee, and they go to Europe and some want to come here.&#8221;
&#8220;At the same time, we open our borders, we open our borders to more illegal immigrants, and we open our borders to more refugees, and he said these days are over, this is not gonna happen any longer in announcing this permanent ceasefire,&#8221; Limbaugh added.
Among the sections of Trump&#8217;s speech Limbaugh highlighted was the president calling out those criticizing his handling of Syria:
<blockquote>TRUMP: There were some political pundits who responded to Turkey’s offensive in Syria by calling for yet another American military intervention. They are the ones that got us into the Middle East mess but never had the vision or courage to get us out. They just talk. How many Americans must die in the Middle East in the midst of these ancient sectarian and tribal conflicts?
After all of the precious blood and treasure America has poured into the deserts of the Middle East, I am committed to pursuing a different course. The same people pushing for these wars are often the ones demanding America open its doors to unlimited migration from war-torn regions, importing the terrorism and the threat of terrorism right to our own shores. But not anymore.</blockquote>
&#8220;That, to me, was the big point of the entire speech. This is it,&#8221; said Rush. He continued:
<blockquote>That encapsulates why he was elected, why he ran. The same people pushing for these wars, that create all of this chaos, that uproot so many people in their home countries, the same people making these things happen, the same people pushing for this are the same people demanding that America open its doors and borders to unlimited migration from these very war-torn regions, importing the terrorism and the threat of terrorism right to our own shores. Folks, that hits the nail on the head so strongly, I need to repeat it 10 or 12 times.</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="related_links">Transcript via <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/10/23/the-presidents-syria-speech-is-the-reason-he-was-elected/">RushLimbaugh.com</a></div>

Limbaugh: Trump’s Syria Speech Shows Again Why He Was Elected

Mike Pompeo

Rush Limbaugh

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 Announces ‘Permanent Ceasefire’ In Syria Between Turkey And Kurds

Kurds

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>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I4Zjtcml7lU?start=668" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
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

White House Press Secretary and Communications Director Stephanie Grisham appeared on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; on Friday morning, where she touched on a wide range of issues, including the recent meeting that Democratic leaders had with President Donald Trump.
&#8220;I&#8217;ll tell you what. I was in that meeting,&#8221; Grisham said. &#8220;The president walked in. He greeted everybody, as he does, and Speaker Pelosi started out the meeting – it was actually quite bizarre. She had no intentions of sitting there. We had military people. We had people there to brief them. And she was not going to listen.&#8221;
&#8220;She got up. She stormed out. Her focus was getting to the cameras,&#8221; Grisham continued. &#8220;It was funny to watch Schumer chase after her. I think he was a little worried that if he didn&#8217;t leave with her, that she would get angry with him.&#8221;
&#8220;The president was measured. He stayed behind and he worked with the Democrats who actually remained behind, too,&#8221; Grisham concluded on the issue. &#8220;And we continued the briefing, and that was it. Again, this president has work to do. We&#8217;re not going to be swayed by all of the Dems and the theater that they continue to perform every day.&#8221;
News of the meeting went instantly viral as Trump tweeted out a photo of Speaker Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s meltdown inside the room, writing: &#8220;Nervous Nancy&#8217;s unhinged meltdown!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Nervous Nancy&#8217;s unhinged meltdown! <a href="https://t.co/RDeUI7sfe7">pic.twitter.com/RDeUI7sfe7</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184597281808498688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
Outside the White House, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer addressed the media about what transpired, claiming that Trump called Pelosi a &#8220;third-rate politician&#8221; and told Democratic leaders regarding Syria, &#8220;There are communists involved, and you guys might like that.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Wide-ranging interview with Stephanie Grisham on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FoxAndFriends?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FoxAndFriends</a>. <a href="https://t.co/yVZch7hJZp">pic.twitter.com/yVZch7hJZp</a>
— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonrantz/status/1185383753004138496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
The following is the full transcript of White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham&#8217;s interview on &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; provided via Fox News:
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The economy is booming. Our people are prospering. Our country is thriving. And our nation is stronger than ever before. But the more America achieves, the more hateful and enraged these crazy Democrats become.
You know, I really don&#8217;t believe anymore that they love our country. I don&#8217;t believe it.
CROWD (chanting): Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE DOOCY, FOX HOST: I think he likes that part.
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX HOST: Right.
AINSLEY EARHARDT, FOX HOST: Four more years.
KILMEADE: Twenty-eight minutes now before the top of the hour.
Stephanie Grisham was there last night during the fun. And I imagine it seems like fun for just about everyone. We’ve had reporters there. And she joins us right now as White House press secretary among your many jobs.
Stephanie, how hard was it for the president to turn the page on what he left in Washington, and the chaos from the day before with the speaker leaving the meeting along with Senator Schumer, and go onto that stage and put that behind him?
STEPHANIE GRISHAM, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It wasn&#8217;t hard at all. The president is still working for this country. He went to Texas yesterday for an official event. He opened up a workshop, a new Louis Vuitton workshop that is supposed to bring 1,000 jobs into Texas. And then he went to that amazing rally. Full. More than 20,000 people there. He&#8217;s got no problem with continuing to work on behalf of the American people, talking about all that he&#8217;s doing for the American people. And the rest in Washington is just noise. It&#8217;s just the Dems doing what they do.
DOOCY: Well, what they&#8217;re doing right now is there&#8217;s this impeachment inquiry, which Congress has not voted on, and the president has made it very clear, he said, look, you know, he said the president says he&#8217;s never done anything wrong as president and they&#8217;re just trying to re-litigate the 2016 election that they lost and they don&#8217;t like it.
GRISHAM: That&#8217;s absolutely what they&#8217;re doing. It&#8217;s comical. You know, I mean, I was with the president on the campaign, of course, and then watching since the day we took office they have been throwing temper tantrum after temper tantrum trying to undo. And really it&#8217;s only gaining momentum. And the people of this country know what the Dems are doing. They&#8217;re tired of it.
And, like I said, the president&#8217;s just going to still continue to work. He&#8217;s going to work on immigration, on health care, on bringing jobs to this country, on the economy, on the opioids crisis. He is a man who has a goal. He&#8217;s been successful all along. And the Dems are certainly not going to stop. It&#8217;s the JV.
EARHARDT: So, Vice President Pence and Secretary Pompeo returned to Washington this morning. The president was touting the ceasefire. And then overnight there were more bombings and there was smoke in the air. Our reports are that civilians are losing their lives in this one city. They&#8217;re shelling. Smoke, machine gunfire. How is the president going to respond to this?
GRISHAM: You know, I want to just say that the president, as president, has an obligation to look out for the troops and to protect this country. And when President Erdogan made it clear that he was going to invade, the president acted decisively to pull our military out of harm&#8217;s way.
Now, he sent a delegation over and they were successful in a cease-fire, but that takes time. I&#8217;m not going to get into operations on the ground, of course. I&#8217;ll leave that to the Department of Defense. But the president is to protect our country. He is putting America first. He&#8217;s always said that. We&#8217;re not going to be in these never-ending wars anymore. And, again, as for the cease-fire, I&#8217;m really, really happy that our delegation was successful. And we&#8217;ll leave it at that.
KILMEADE: Stephanie, a couple of things. We know what happened at the White House the other day, or there&#8217;s two different accounts of what took place. And you say the president was calm, cool, and collected. Nancy Pelosi said he had a meltdown. Now she says she wants all the meetings recorded. Will you record every meeting for the speaker?
DOOCY: Yes, that worked out so well once upon a time.
GRISHAM: Well, I mean, we would love for these impeachment inquiries to be transparent as well. We&#8217;d love for those meetings to be recorded or for us to have access to that. So maybe once she agrees to opening up this kangaroo court of hers, we could record the meetings that happen in the White House.
I&#8217;ll tell you what. I was in that meeting. The president walked in. He greeted everybody, as he does. And Speaker Pelosi started out the meeting – it was actually quite bizarre. She had no intentions of sitting there. We had military people. We had people there to brief them, and she was not going to listen.
She got up. She stormed out. Her focus was getting to the cameras. It was funny to watch Schumer chase after her. I think he was a little worried that if he didn&#8217;t leave with her, that she would get angry with him.
I was in the meeting. The president was measured. He stayed behind and he worked with the Democrats who actually remained behind, too. And we continued the briefing, and that was it.
Again, this president has work to do. We&#8217;re not going to be swayed by all of the Dems and the theater that they continue to perform every day.
DOOCY: Well, I think that picture that we&#8217;re looking at right there is now Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s official Twitter picture where she is doing that right there next to the president.
Speaking of the president, yesterday it was announced that apparently the G-7 Summit, which is going to be next year, during the summer –
GRISHAM: Yes.
DOOCY: Is going to be at Doral –
GRISHAM: Correct.
DOOCY: Which is the golf course resort owned by his family. And a lot of people are saying, number one, in the summer it&#8217;s really hot in Florida. Just telling you ahead of time. But the other thing is, you know, while the president might say, I&#8217;m not making any money off this thing, the promotional value, the marketing value is off the chart.
GRISHAM: I don&#8217;t know if that&#8217;s the case. I&#8217;ll tell you what, the way the media, the mainstream media, is covering it, I don&#8217;t know that the Trump Organization would agree with that. I will tell you this, we –
DOOCY: But everybody knows about it now.
GRISHAM: Well, everybody knew about it before the president took office. I mean the Trump brand is known everywhere. And I do want to say this, we had members of our military office, Secret Service, advance teams, we had several people, the State Department, go out to 10 different states and look at 12 different sites. Doral was one of those sites. All of them came back and made the recommendations to the president that Doral is the perfect place to hold such a summit.
You&#8217;ve got to imagine the things that go into looking at these sites. You need hotel rooms that will allow for the foreign delegations to come and their staff. Transportation needs to be nearby. Airports, hospitals, helicopter landing zones. We had one site that we looked at, I won&#8217;t name what site it was or what state was it is, but the altitude could have make people sick and oxygen tanks would have been brought in. So there&#8217;s a lot that goes into these things.
KILMEADE: Denver.
EARHARDT: Colorado.
GRISHAM: Nope. Wrong.
KILMEADE: OK.
DOOCY: In the mountains. Somewhere in the mountains.
KILMEADE: Not New Mexico. Stephanie, why didn&#8217;t you do the press conference yesterday? Why did Mick Mulvaney? And will we see you do these press conferences, which is traditionally what the While House press secretary does?
GRISHAM: You know, right now, I&#8217;ve said this a bunch, if the president ever wants me to go out and take that podium, I will happily do it. I think as evidenced by yesterday with Mick, it was, again, more theater. It is about people wanting to be on TV and making names for themselves.
And Mick took 30 – he was over there for more than 30 minutes. He took probably 40 questions. People were talking over one another. He did a great job. He mentioned the same message over and over and over and now the media, of course, is, you know, we put a statement out clarifying some of the things that the media got themselves in a tizzy over.
But to answer your question, sure, I&#8217;ll do it if I need to, but this president speaks for himself every day. He offers opportunities for the press corps to ask him questions every day. And there really is no better spokesperson than the president.
I&#8217;m doing TV interviews. I am doing many, many print interviews. I am out there to defend and talk about all of the accomplishments of this president. And I will continue to do that. It seems to be working right now.
EARHARDT: Stephanie, the energy secretary, Rick Perry, told the president he plans to resign. Last night at the rally the president was complimenting him. So it seems – it appears that they still have an amicable relationship. What&#8217;s going on there? Why did he decide to step down? And what happens next?
GRISHAM: Absolutely. So as the president said, he&#8217;s known about this for months. This was the plan for Secretary Perry all along, that it was time. He&#8217;s been with us from the beginning. And there&#8217;s going to be some next steps for him. I&#8217;m not going to get ahead of him, but he&#8217;s going to go on to great things and we wish him really, really well.
KILMEADE: Right. So in other words –
(CROSSTALK)
DOOCY: So did Ukraine have anything to do with his departure?
GRISHAM: Absolutely nothing. No, this was in the works for quite a while. As I said, the president&#8217;s known about it. Nothing like that. We wish him well.
KILMEADE: Right. And he says that – the president said they already have somebody for the position already. Could you tell us who it is?
GRISHAM: No, I cannot get in front of that. No way.
KILMEADE: All right, do you want to tell Steve and then Steve could tell me later?
DOOCY: Good idea.
GRISHAM: Sure, I&#8217;ll do that after we&#8217;re done here.
KILMEADE: Oh, after we&#8217;re done. OK.
DOOCY: But the energy secretary has to have a lot of energy, right? We know that part.
GRISHAM: Yes.
DOOCY: All right.
GRISHAM: Like everybody in this administration.
DOOCY: We could figure that out.
KILMEADE: All right.
DOOCY: Stephanie Grisham, thank you very much for joining us from the bureau today.
GRISHAM: Thank you guys for having me.
EARHARDT: Thanks, Stephanie.

Stephanie Grisham

Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham Shreds Pelosi Over Antics In Meeting With Trump

On Thursday’s episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” the Daily Wire editor-in-chief talked about President Trump and Nancy Pelosi’s meeting at the White House. Video and partial transcript below:
All of this resulted in a blow up at the White House yesterday. The Democrats showed up at the White House and they had this meeting, and they accused Trump of a meltdown, [and then] Trump accused them of a meltdown – so we have dueling meltdown statements here.
 According to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/16/house-opposes-trump-move-to-pull-forces-from-northern-syria.html">CNBC: </a>
<blockquote>Democratic congressional leaders said they walked out of a White House meeting Wednesday on Syria after what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called a &#8220;meltdown.&#8221; 
After top Democrats left the bipartisan meeting with Trump, Pelosi told reporters that the president appeared &#8220;shaken up&#8221; by a House vote condemning his decision to remove U.S. forces from northern Syria. …
&#8220;That&#8217;s why we couldn&#8217;t continue in the meeting, because he was just not relating to the reality of it,” Pelosi said outside the White House. …
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the meeting as more of a &#8220;nasty diatribe&#8221; than a &#8220;dialogue.&#8221; He said that Trump called Pelosi a &#8220;third-rate politician&#8221; – though Pelosi later clarified the president used the term &#8220;third grade politician.&#8221; House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., added that he had &#8220;never&#8221; seen a president &#8220;treat so disrespectfully a co-equal branch&#8221; of government.</blockquote>
Well, Barack Obama used to do that pretty routinely &#8212; not calling people third grade politicians, or third-rate politicians or any of that. Barack Obama just used to basically call his political opponents Tea Party terrorists. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Ji8IjRcxD8?start=1536" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">﻿</iframe>
In any case, [here&#8217;s CNBC again]:
<blockquote>House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican who voted for the House measure to oppose pulling out of northern Syria, told reporters that Pelosi &#8220;stormed out&#8221; of the meeting. He called her behavior &#8220;unbecoming&#8221; and argued that Pelosi tried to make the gathering unproductive. 
The White House declined to comment on whether Trump called Pelosi a &#8220;third-rate politician&#8221;&#8230;
The vote earlier Wednesday added to the pressure on the president. &#8230;
During the meeting on Wednesday, Schumer brought up former Defense Secretary James Mattis’ recent comment that the Islamic State group “will resurge” in Syria &#8230; Trump then called the former United States Marine Corps general &#8220;the world&#8217;s most overrated general,&#8221; saying &#8220;he wasn&#8217;t tough enough,&#8221; NBC reported.</blockquote>
Yeah, I&#8217;m pretty sure that James Mattis doesn&#8217;t have to prove his bona fides in the toughness category. [CNBC continues by saying], &#8220;Schumer on Wednesday urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to take up the resolution.&#8221;
President Trump also then tweeted about the Democrats. So he tweeted a picture of Nancy Pelosi standing there and lecturing him, and he tweets out, “Nervous Nancy&#8217;s unhinged moment.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Nervous Nancy&#8217;s unhinged meltdown! <a href="https://t.co/RDeUI7sfe7">pic.twitter.com/RDeUI7sfe7</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184597281808498688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
Then, he tweeted another picture of Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Steny Hoyer, all looking shell-shocked. He tweeted, &#8220;Do you think they like me?&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Do you think they like me? <a href="https://t.co/TDmUnJ8HtF">pic.twitter.com/TDmUnJ8HtF</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184595335794036737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
I mean, just top notch trolling by the President of the United States. He also called Nancy Pelosi “sick” after all of this. He said, “Nancy Pelosi needs help fast. There is either something wrong with her ‘upstairs’ or she just plain doesn&#8217;t like our great country. She had a total meltdown in the White House today. It was very sad to watch. Pray for her, she is a very sick person!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Nancy Pelosi needs help fast! There is either something wrong with her “upstairs,” or she just plain doesn’t like our great Country. She had a total meltdown in the White House today. It was very sad to watch. Pray for her, she is a very sick person!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184620202480193537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
I don&#8217;t believe that President Trump is going to pray for Nancy Pelosi. I&#8217;m just gonna put that out there. I don&#8217;t actually think that President Trump is going to get on his knees and pray to God for the health of Nancy Pelosi tonight. “Pray for her, she&#8217;s a very sick person.” Okay, so everything is going great, guys. Everything is going spectacularly. 
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President Trump Meets with Congressional Leadership

SHAPIRO: Pelosi And Trump Accuse Each Other Of Having A Meltdown

Charles Schumer

<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

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.

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