Trump annihilated ISIS forces in Iraq, crushing 100% of their occupied lands.
A crushing that NEVER would have occured under Barack Hussein Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton.
There are 10,000 ISIS prisoners in Northern Iraq, mostly held by Kurdish forces. Most of these ISIS POW's are European muslims, and Trump has for 2 years pressured European nations to seize custody of the fighters from their respective nations, they have not done so.
At some point, Trump had to act.
I would have given them a year's warning before doing so, but maybe Trump actually did this, behind closed doors with European and Arab leaders.
In the case of the Kurds, as you are probably aware, there are Kurdish chunks of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, and for decades, if not hundreds of years the Kurds have fought against these nations, to attempt to slice away a "Kurdistan" from all 4 nations. That is why all 4 of these nationss have been slaughtering Kurds for decades.
Further, the atrocities of the Kurds almost equal those of ISIS. They have conscripted children into service as frontline combat soldiers, they have raided and terrorized and raped towns of other minorities, particularly Yazidis and Christians. They treat Christians as second class citizens, seizing their homes and property. So the Kurds are bastards too, but over the last 18 years, they've been our bastards.
And the Kurds have also initiated terrorism and combat against the Turks within Turkey, as well as across their border. So while the Turks are genocidal maniacs too, it can't be portrayed as if the Kurds are just innocent victims. Over several decades, they have initiated conflict with the Turks, and the Turks wish to prevent Syrian Kurds from allying with and causing more chaos within Turkey itself.
The U.S. only had about 1,000 troops remaining in Northern Syria, so I question how essential U.S. military presence is at this point in Northern Syria. I think their presence at this point was to risk escalation of U.S. presence, if they were attacked.
But as long as they remained in Syria, they remained ducks in a shooting gallery, who were at risk of being shot at by all sides: Russians, Turks, Kurds, the Syrian Assad forces, or multiple other islamic groups. Even friendly forces could fire on them and blame the other side, to trick the U.S. into escalating its military action on the other side.
VERY CLEAR: 6 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Syria this year alone, out of only 1,000 posted there. So it's not like there isn't an incentive to leave.
And gee, what a shock, the Democrats immediately jump on this withdrawal and allege that Trump is aiding the enemy, or in your partisan liar words, that Trump is an "employee" of ISIS. The complete annihilation of ISIS forces, except for 10,000 prisoners in Kurd hands, is testament to that, hardly an employee of ISIS.
If I were the Kurds, and what these ISIS prisoners have done to Kurds and other minorities, I would slaughter them in their camps before ever allowing them to escape and regroup.
Europeans and Arab nations had the opportunity to take custody of them, despite at least 2 years of Trump appealing to these nations to take part of the load. What Trump is doing with a sudden departure is not what I would have done, but at some point U.S. forces needed to leave. And U.S. lives were at risk every day we remained.
In the short term, Trump has threatened to "destroy the Turkish economy" with sanctions if they attempt genocide on the Kurds in Syria. I would further back that up with no-fly-zones, air-strikes, missile attacks and drone strikes to push back Turks if they continue an attempt at genocide.
This in some ways reminds me of the 1991 U.S. withdrawal from Iraq after the Gulf War, where the U.S. should as a condition of pulling out in 1991 not have allowed Saddam Hussein's government to move helicopters and other military equipment that could be used to slaughter Kurds and Shi'ites in Iraq.
Now we are seeing that same situation potentially play out in Syria. Or perhaps Trump made such a deal with these conditions, but Turkey broke it, gambling that the U.S. and other nations won't do anything about it.
