'No friends but the mountains': History repeats itself with latest US betrayal of Kurds https://t.co/CjWZDBcNvP pic.twitter.com/H4Yx5Urj7I
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 7, 2019
As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!). They must, with Europe and others, watch over…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2019
Basically the US persuaded the SDF Kurds to dismantle defensive positions that deterred Turkey, promising security guarantees in exchange. Then once the SDF Kurds became defenseless, Trump gave Erdogan the green light to invade. Hard to imagine a more sinister sequence of events. https://t.co/Of9wloQKv1
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) October 7, 2019
Based on our confidence in the #US efforts in the Security Mechanism agreement, we implemented all our commitments to remove military fortifications between Tal Abyad & SereKaniye, withdraw combat forces with heavy weapons, risking a security vacum as a result of the agreement.
— Coordination & Military Ops Center – SDF (@cmoc_sdf) October 7, 2019
Exclusive: The Syrian Democratic Forces Chief Just Called Me. Here’s What He Said. – @DefenseOne by @gaylelemmon #Turkey #Trump #Syria #SDF #Kurds #commentary https://t.co/PdjhJRTgsQ
— Defense One (@DefenseOne) October 7, 2019
Indeed, US officials signed the SDF up to a “security mechanism” plan by which it removed all defensive barriers on the Syrian side of the border to forestall a Turkish incursion. EUCOM issued this just yesterday. Was Trump ever even briefed on this plan? https://t.co/0SGOfRDvek
— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) October 7, 2019
The WH statement tonight on Syria after Trump spoke with Erdogan demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of anything happening on the ground. The “United States” is not holding any ISIS detainees. They are all being held by the SDF, which Trump just served up to Turkey. pic.twitter.com/vYr7j0q6mR
— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) October 7, 2019