Trump makes weird, muddled statement on Syria.

[Tommy Carcetti]

Where apparently the only one to blame was Obama.

Link to tweet

So if/when Assad falls (if he hasn’t already as we speak), what does his DNI pick Tulsi say about that?

How will this affect his relationship with Putin?

Will Putin use resources he was using on Syria on Ukraine?

Everything seems very unsettled.

[Ocelot II]

1. When did Trump *not* make a weird, muddled statement about anything?

[edhopper]

2. That is bullshit about Obama

As the GOP hounds howled for Obama to take action, he said he would as soon as they pass authorization. He said the nation must commit to this, not the act of just one man.
Needless to say, the politics calling out Obama for not going forward was more important to them than helping the Syrian People.

[karynnj]

3. So, because Obama did not hit Assad with a tactical hit, which was what he threatened,

he is responsible for ISIS related rebels moving against Assad, who they have been fighting before 2014 when Obama opted not to strike. Not to mention, the Russians were already there in 2014.

The red line crossed was that Assad used helicopters to gas people in an area held by these rebels. The Russians having bases there made the situation incredibly difficult for the US. The US was able to push Lavrov (Russian foreign minister) to get Syria to agree to allowing the US to have their chemical weapon stock pile which was destroyed. That was a more effective resolution to Assad using chemical weapons than a tactical strike ... similar to the destroying airport runways by Trump. The runways were fixed within a few weeks

What Russia did there was to attempt to blame the rebels for that attack and others, even though they had no planes and the attacks were from planes or helicopters.

In the years when we were fighting ISIS, the number of factions made for a complicated, perhaps unsolvable puzzle. Assad was, by 2014, a brutal tyrant as his father had been. The rebels against him ranged from pro democracy people, especially around 2012, and various jihadists. Even factions that were not jihadists were aligned with the jihadists who they saw as the most capable of those against Assad.

In parallel, in Iraq, ISIS converted many Sunni people who had been supporters of Saddam Hussein. By the time, Obama created a coalition to fight ISIS, ISIS controlled a large area of Syria and Iraq. The coalition deconflicted efforts against ISIS by Iran, Russia and Syria. Among the Iraqi forces working with the coalition, some of the strongest of whom were the Iraqi Kurds.

Turkey, a member of NATO, labelled various Turkish Kurd groups terrorists and they complicated working with Iraqi and Syrian Kurds. When Trump came to power he abandoned the Kurds.

The problem, then and now, is that both the Assad government and the jihadists are bad.

[crud]

4. I remember when

tsf abandoned the Syrian Kurds to the Russians and the Turks. The marines stationed there felt we didn't keep our word and betrayed the Kurds. I'm sure Putin and the Turks were happy to round up all the Kurdish resistance leaders, thanks to the idiot.

[Strelnikov_]

5. Good that he has Russia's best interests at heart

“. . May actually be the best thing that can happen to them.”

Daddy is not gonna like this statement. The naval and air base are their only footholds in the Med. Lakatia has been an asset since the 60’s for the Soviets.

[Tommy Carcetti]

6. Could be a piece in a larger "deal"

Syria was always a side project to Russia.

On the other hand, Russia views Ukraine as part of its larger birthright. And it’s a literal neighbor. So it would seem to take precedence.

Russia leaves Syria but then uses the extra resources to put extra pressure on Ukraine and force them into conceding lost territory?

I don’t know. Just thinking out loud here.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. trump has no idea what is going on in Syria

Link to tweet

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

8. Trump sounds crestfallen for Ass-ad and GasPutin.

[cadoman]

9. this guy a walking Logan Act violation and never gets charged

Biden is STILL THE PRESIDENT. It's fine if tfg pretends to be human and reaches out to meet other world leaders but Biden is STILL THE PRESIDENT and tfg needs to STFU!!

"DO NOT GET INVOLVED"

^ This is a command. POTUS elect is not permitted to give commands because they are NOT THE FUCKING POTUS!!!