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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019.Trump threatens to 'obliterate' Turkish economy over Syria incursion plan
By Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler WASHINGTON/ISTANBUL©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
80 Comments
Chip Star
Donny reacts to the last person he hears instead of doing his due diligence because he is too intellectually lazy to do the research to be fully informed.
Chip Star
Your boy Donny has abandoned the Kurds. Why do you refuse to criticize him?
u_s__reamer
"Great and unmatched wisdom" is another gem of Trumpspeak for the PTL (Presidential Twitter Library) which translates into English as "ignorant foolishness", or "foolish ignorance". While Trump is right to warn Turkish militarists and nationalists to desist from violent clashes with the Kurds, his use of an increasingly violent vocabulary like "obliterate" and "decimate" perhaps attests to the growing desperation of a man under siege, hunkered down in a bunker with his enemies closing in.
Alistair Carnell
Spoken (or tweeted) like a true narcissistic megalomaniac with anger issues.
Yubaru
Cripes, has Trump not learned that when the president of the US makes comments like this they are akin to firing the first shots in a real war?
SuperLib
Brett McGurk, the former US envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS:
"Donald Trump is not a Commander-in-Chief. He makes impulsive decisions with no knowledge or deliberation. He sends military personnel into harm’s way with no backing. He blusters and then leaves our allies exposed when adversaries call his bluff or he confronts a hard phone call."
Sh1mon M4sada
like Nixon threatened to obliterate the viet cong (communist North Vietnamese) if they break the signed armitice with South Vietnam?
Empty words to back the dumbest move yet of Trump's presidency. All the gains wiped out in support of a president who just bought Russian missiles.
Chip Star
It's kind of cute that you think Donny has the intellectual capacity to learn.
Strangerland
In today's episode of "let's distract the people from my impending impeachment for using foreign powers for personal political gain", Trump freaks out on, just wait... back after this commercial break.
...Turkey!
[the crowd goes wild]
Sh1mon M4sada
that would be a compliment to Trump given the circumstances. The facts paint a much more grim picture, it says this is the dumbest POTUS on record, and at the current rate, USA would cement itself as the most unreliable partner in any corner of this globe by the 2020 election.
CrazyJoe
OMG, how is this not a complete betrayal of the Kurds who have fought with us in Syria and Iraq?
Trump is betraying yet another one of our allies. The Turks are going to massacre the Kurds and he will not only do nothing to stop it, but is facilitating it. God help this nation. How would anyone in their right mind ever trust us again.
IloveCoffee
Then why does he care what Turkey does in Syria?
I am curious what he means by "our''. If he means the arms manufacturers, then those endless wars are very much to their benefit. If by "our" he means the average person, then non of the overseas interventions are of any benefit.
The two main reasons Trump got elected is because he was seen as good for the economy, and because he promised to end the foreign wars. He has not delivered on either one of these two promises.
Strangerland
But it worked with NK, and proven by his love letters, and the fact that they've denuclearized.
Tokyo-Engr
An unbelievable move and then an unbelievable statement afterwards. I do not care so much about his narcissistic statement. We all know he is a narcissist (as have been many other Presidents). What concerns me;
This is insanity.
I am not nearly as "anti-Trump" as many people here but I have always felt he was not fit for office but this action and follow up statement proves this for me.
They need to get him out of office as soon as possible.
nippon22
“How would anyone in their right mind ever trust us again”
...already nobody does.
Tokyo-Engr
From what I understand and have heard Turkey has already launched an incursion into northern Syria.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/turkey-to-launch-military-incursion-in-northern-syria-as-us-announces-troop-withdrawal/vi-AAIoJPg
I have never in my long life seen such an illogical move.
ulysses
Moscow Mitch not supporting Russia?????
At least Donny doesn't bite the hand that feeds him!!!
SuperLib
More from McGurk:.
"Trump then (twice) abruptly reversed course after 1) a foreign leader call and 2) without consulting his own military advisors. If anyone still believes Trump cares about Syria, they’re mistaken. He doesn’t and his erratic swings heighten risk to our personnel on the ground."
https://mobile.twitter.com/brett_mcgurk/status/1181289248172863489
plasticmonkey
Our resident Trumpsters are strangely silent on this thread. Perhaps they are waiting for talking points from Sean Hannity.
sunfunbun
As Michael Che said, 'are we sure it's OK to make fun of this guy?' Trump is the real joker. Insane.
SuperLib
It makes me wonder....what was Trump offered?
bass4funk
That’s one way of looking at it, there’s another angle, what did we get for being in the Middle East?
And how have our allies backed us in maintaining peace and stability? Europeans want to moan and groan, don’t want to get involved in any conflict, but they want us to to do all the fighting and dying, so how is that justified?
Hmmmm....Turkey is an allies, we have to defend them, they are hosting and securing a lot of our weaponry. We should protect the Kurds, but blow off our NATO ally? This is how crazy and convoluted this has all gotten in the ME. Trump campaigned on bringing the troops home, no one should be surprised, he campaigned and said he was going to do this. He’s got the support of most Americans that have been pushing to have our troops come back home.
lincolnman
Oh come on - even the Trumpers can't defend a flat out psychotic statement like "great and unmatched wisdom". This is what nut-jobs locked away in psycho wards say.
The Kurds sided with us during the Iraq War and have assisted in pushing back both Al Queda in Iraq and ISIS and now we're going to turn our back on them?
I agree - this is Donnie pulling another dodge and distract move - another Whistle Blower comes forward, more info on he and Rudy buying off officials in Ukraine, and a loss in keeping his taxes secret in court yesterday.
But if it's not a dodge, and Donnie actually thinks this, then we need to bypass impeachment and go right to the 25th Amendment to get him out of the Oval Office soonest...
There's only one person that benefits from all this - Putin. Not surprising, is it....
Sh1mon M4sada
But how long can they stay home? The Kurds are going to be too busy running from Turkish bombs to be guarding captured ISIS fighters. Are you saying let ISIS regroup and run amok again with impunity?
This all besides the point that no one will trust USA in the future.
Sh1mon M4sada
more like what has Russia got on Trump, and what Putin has tgreatened Trump with....
It's an illogical move that can only be rationalised by threat to his personal wellbeing.
takeda.shingen.1991@gmail.com
He's probably still planning a Trump Hotel Moscow. No way can he piss off Putin if he wants that hotel.
Sh1mon M4sada
Nah, Turkey is out for self oreservation, cheaply, like all the other NATO ally. Turkey is now smelling blood in the water and slowly pivoting away from USA.
It was a big deal buying Russian S400, it was a bigger deal knowing they will be denied F35s. Your narrative requires ignorance of these facts.
Laguna
Lets not forget the Turkish genocide in Armenia. Sometimes, a country decides that the most expedient way to deal with an intractible problem is simply to kill them all. I fear this may be on the horizen.
Joe Blow
No, it's just a warning shot to Turkey to stay in line.
bass4funk
Yes, you can. What as a country over the last 12 years did we get out of being there. Focus for a moment, it’s a sincere question.
I understand, you are right, but at the same time, we have to throw Turkey which is a COUNTRY as well as a NATO ally under the bus for the Kurds? The Turks have also been there for, they allowed us to use their military bases to launch attacks where no one else would, carry and house many of our most lethal weapons.
lincolnman
Kim in nK, the Mullahs in Iran, the Taliban in Afghanistan, all look at this Idiot who says one thing then says something opposite an hour later and think, who would negotiate a deal with this guy?
Is it any surprise we've had failure after failure completing treaties reducing tensions and enhancing peace around the world?
"Great and unmatched wisdom?" Great and unmatched stupidity....
Chip Star
As usual, an irrelevant response.
It's not a binary situation. This ally you are praising also purchased the s400 from Russia, which puts our forces at risk. Just admit that you're only praising Turkey to support Donny.
gaijinpapa
Imagine being a President and having to deal with incredibly difficult decisions regarding foreign policy, but having to put up with Democrats who spend every day since they lost the election trying to get rid of you.
Just glad someone like Beto isn’t the President.
Chip Star
Yeah, it's the Dems fault! It couldn't be Donny's incompetence and refusal to educate himself. Damn Dems!!!!
bass4funk
Doesn’t matter, Turkey is the gateway to the ME and Turkey is that last bridge between west and east gap for us.
Yup.
That is true, but getting back on center. It should be questioned if we should stick our necks out over helping and assisting our NATO over the Kurds?
lincolnman
"great and unmatched wisdom". Really? That's what a Kim, Ayatollah, or Idi Amin would say - or those in a psycho ward. Talk about delusions of grandeur.
You don't abandon a friend and ally. You use diplomacy to defuse the situation. But that takes wisdom and Donnie has done neither...
cleo
He gets more and more Roman Empirish as the days go by.
Strong parallels with Nero - pampered childhood, given power beyond his capabilities at an early age, lavish spender (of others' money), serial adulterer and philanderer, harsh reaction to perceived disloyalty, accusations of treason against him.....
And with Caligula - links to Germany (!), narcissistic tendencies, cruelty, inappropriate feelings for female family members.
Looks like the mighty empire of the United States of America is treading the same path as the mighty Roman Empire - and reaching its conclusion in a fraction of the time it took Rome to fall.
Invalid CSRF
bass4funk
Huh? Well, gotta admit.....that’s a new one....original, give you that.
Serrano
This has really got the anti-Trumpers triggered, hehe.
"Great and unmatched wisdom"
He is, after all a stable genius :D
I support Trump's decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.
ThePBot
So Erdogan talked to Trump and convinced him to pull US troops out of Northern Syria and abandon the Kurdish allies.....
Then Trump gets criticized by his fellows and so he then warned to destroy Turkey's economy if they crossed some line....
If the Kurds and the Turks somehow find peace through the utter distrust of the US, then I will admit that Trump has, indeed, an 'unmatched wisdom'.
Luddite
He thinks he's Napoleon.
Numan
The US president talks like he is the Supreme Leader of North Korea.
Will Breibart start running articles that the president was born through immaculate conception? Or that the president hit 20 hole-in-ones at the golf course?
lincolnman
Triggered laughing....
And a faithful husband....
We know - Putin talked, Trumpers lips moved....
Serrano
Trump is getting us out of these endless wars and the anti-Trumpers freak out.
What gives?
Serrano
We know - Putin talked, Trumpers lips moved.
Keep beatin' that dead horse, lincolnman!
SuperLib
Let's go ahead and get this clear: Everyone wants the troops home. What we don't want is a poorly planned exit without consultation that stabs people we fought with in the back.
TheLongTermer
I see allot of hate for Trump about this Syria move, but do tell me this, how long is the US supposed to stay over there?
1glenn
One year, three months, thirteen days to go.
TheLongTermer
Nothing gives. Trump could hand out bars of gold to all of the haters, they would still hate. They will never cease until their dream of a socialist or communist or hybrid thereof, appears and "saves" them from....themselves??
SuperLib
Garbage supporting garbage.
rgcivilian1
that line of obliterating the economy would have been more comical if he borrowed the words from RocketMan "ring of fire" to them .
Numan
It seems like Pat Robertson (not the anti-Trumpers) just threatened to pull his support from the US president's reelection campaign. I believe he will change his plan to leave Syria; even though, he was following the orders of the Russian president.
Pat Robertson: Trump Will Lose His ‘Mandate of Heaven’ if He Pulls Out of Syria
https://news.yahoo.com/pat-robertson-trump-lose-mandate-205831579.html
Numan
@Longtermer
The ultra conservative Trump supporter Pat Robertson also criticized the US president for not punishing Saudi Arabia. Other Republican congressman and Fox has also criticized the president for pulling out of Syria.
Strangerland
We don't need to imagine, we watched it happen to Obama for eight years. And now you guys whine when it's done back to you. Except the difference is that Obama was qualified for the job and did great - you guys hated him with partisanship - whereas with Trump, the only people who like him are the partisans.
lincolnman
Donnie's #1 Rule - throw your friends and allies under the bus to save yourself....
Sells out our Kurdish Allies - all for his Trump properties in Turkey...
Sells out Rick Perry on the Ukraine call...(Pompeo your turn is next)...
All you'd have to do is look back at how he ran the Trump Org and see he's done this all his life...
No honesty, no integrity, no loyalty....
And certainly no "great and unmatched wisdom"...
Flute
If we assume he is right, we have to assume his only purpose is to start WW3.
He should be happy that people think he is a idiot. We had 2WW, we know the consequence so what would it make someone purposely trying to start one for what ? Money, power, post war period, ... ?
bass4funk
Trump doesn’t need to save himself, he kept his promise like he was supposed to as if Trump had magical powers to stop the Democrats obsession with trying to remove him, lol.
or maybe he realizes we’re not getting anything by being there, it’s not our fight.
Now that Biden is looking into things, the Dems can’t attack Barr it would make their plan or lack of it more obvious.
If you really stop and look at what the Dems tried and failed at, what Mueller and his corrupt minions tried to and yet, everything fails and this guy just bounces back and instead of being smart and trying to beat him at the polls, they just wheel, deal and continue to scheme with zero results. This is why Dems have to recycle their pathetic attacks. Dems don’t care about the country or integrity, they care about control, power and screw your constitutional rights.
Madverts
Wow even lying Lindsay Graham minced from the closet to criticise Dear Leader.
Nikki Haley made the biggest swipe though. I've got her top of the list for an Insane Party '20 inside challenge.
WilliB
Zichi:
Yep, that is the CNN propaganda angle, which I just watched during breakfast. Thanks for parrotting it.
In the real world, this is a complicated game, with the Kurds trying to establish their independent state in the border region, which neither Syria nor Turkey can tolerate.
It is a complicated sitation, in which the only interest of the US should be to prevent another ISIS state, and not the simplistic "orange man bad" story, to which the fake media wants to reduce it.
lincolnman
He certainly kept his promise to Putin..."we're leaving Syria Vlad, it's all yours"...
ISIS is not our fight? And Bush abandoned the Kurds and they got gassed...
Barr doesn't have to worry about the Dems - he needs to worry Trump will throw him under the bus like Perry...
WilliB
Chip Star:
By "do the research" you mean listening to the talking heads at CNN?
I would challenge you any time to give us a comprehensive explanation of the Kurdish situation in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria, which is complicated to say the least.
Guarantee the result would be... crickets.
lincolnman
Why don't you go ask Lindsey, Mitch, and all the other Repubs that are up in arms? I'm sure they'd give you a comprehensive explanation.
Afraid to ask your own party?
bass4funk
Ueah, but none of them are President, so whine all they want, Trump made that decision and that’s it. As to why so many liberals are upset over something he said he would do once he’s in office and he’s lived up to that promise. When he lies y’all get a fit, when he doesn’t y'all get a fit.
Velius
@bassfunk.
Umm ... Oil? The very thing for which the US has been meddling in that region for decades? Also, if the US pulls out of the ME, guess who rolls in? Russia! This is basic geopolitical relations 101. Just because the US retreats to its borders, doesn’t mean other powers won’t do the same. Putin will never rest until Russia’s sphere of influence expands very significantly beyond its own borders. The US has an obligation - to its own self-preservation! - to maintain power balances in the world. Otherwise it will be left behind by China and Russia and devolve to a secondary or tertiary player on the world stage in ALL matters: economic, social, political.
Well about that, an anonymous national security council official came out and said Trump was badly outmaneuvered and basically instantly folded to Erdogan on his call. With the cat out of the bag, Trump scrambled to reverse this using the only way he can - Twitter tirades, and not actual Leadership.
Furthermore, he incriminates himself on live TV by issuing statements (like asking China to meddle in US politics) that are a flagrant violation of the Constitution.
If we stick to the facts - and by that I simply
mean what we can see and hear with our own eyes and ears, the very things Trump is publicly saying - then we can’t avoid concluding that he’s a failed president and has very many things to “defend himself” about.
And then there’s this. “I, in my great and unmatched wisdom”. Not even the worst 20th century dictators had such megalomania! By this statement, Trump is saying that he doesn’t need advisors, that he knows better than anyone, despite his utter failures, both in his business life - endless bankruptcies, biggest loss in private wealth reported in the IRS (let’s not forget that one!) - as well as political life,
There’s just no avoiding the fact that Trump is very dangerous, unstable, and a menace to the US and the world and must be removed from power ASAP. It’s not even a matter of political opinion anymore, it’s a fundamental logical conclusion from just observing his actions the past couple of years.
Ah_so
@Longtermer
Of course there would be. Anyone who writes about their "great and unmatched wisdom" outside of a joke is clearly suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder. The man is going of the rails
Alex80
Syria, Iran, Iraq...It's America that messed up that region! And now Trump treats its Country like a victim of this mess. I am not even shocked anymore, I saw too much crap from America in the past two decades.