| Jaicee said: Since this is related to U.S. policy, I thought it was worth mentioning this morning because it's really offensive to me: Turkey is massing troops on the border with Northern Syria where the Kurds are located and has announced its intention to and retake Kurdish-held territory "very soon", while Trump has announced that he's withdrawing our troops in response and won't do anything to stop the invasion. In fact, Trump went further last night by inviting Erdogan to the White House again as a reward! Reporting last night suggested that Turkey's "very soon" comment likely meant within 24 hours, so we're talking this slaughter is likely to begin today, before I get home from work! This is exactly what I feared would happen to them all along when Trump was elected and now it's going to actually happen. That's pretty much ruined the day for me. I'm extremely depressed right now. These people were sort of my beacon of hope in the world and now they're going to die. What's more, as a bonus, it's expected that the Turkish bombing campaign and invasion could free thousands of ISIS fighter, additionally, so there's that fun bonus too! So it's all good news, in other words. *sighs* The Kurds have announced a general mobilization of their forces to the border with Turkey to TRY, and inevitably fail, to repel the highly anticipated invasion. This is happening. And you know what the left and Marxists especially are broadly saying about it: 'Well, we don't belong in the Middle East anyway'. I mean yeah, these people only won the war against ISIS for us at a cost of some 10,000 of their soldiers, what do we owe them?! People who have followed my thoughts on this matter know that I have consistently supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and their struggle to bring democratic socialism and women's rights to the Middle East. That support does not end for me because our president likes some Islamic (my how his relationship to political Islam has changed!) quasi-dictator better. I am not a war hawk, but I'm not a pacifist either. Without our material support, these people will be drowned in blood and that's a complete and utter betrayal that only goes to show why we are so despised and distrusted by people in that part of the world. And it's frankly nothing less than DISGRACEFUL hypocrisy that the Marxists are all supporting this slaughter simply because the people in question embrace an anarchist variety of socialism rather than operating under the umbrella of Marxist theory! That is a very real betrayal too, IMO. ...Why can't we send Trump the front lines to be the first casualty? SERIOUSLY, THEY CAN HAVE HIM!! At least some good would come out of all this that way. So yeah, sorry for this rant, but I'm really, really depressed right now. This is the worst development all year for my taste. I'll never forgive Trump for this or anyone who supports it. The Marxists especially. They're disgusting. Sorry to bum you out this morning, I'm just really, really angry about this. I'm paying close attention to which Republicans are standing up for the Kurdish people at this time because, honestly, I'm sort of expecting that we'll have a Democratic sitting president in 2024 and that, in that situation, I might actually vote in the Republican primary for the first time. The White House believes that Nikki Haley in particular has been positioning herself for a 2024 presidential run for some time now. I'm not as wholly closed-minded to someone like Nikki Haley as I guess I'm supposed to be. Or Joni Ernst. Anyway, where a politician, Democratic or Republican, stands on this issue at this time will definitely be relevant to what I think of you going forward. This is my #1 foreign policy concern at present. |
It's my number one foreign policy concern as well (unless you count international cooperative action against climate change, I suppose, but even then this is equally urgent if not quite equally important). I think you'll find that there is a LOT more support among Dem voters and politicians for the Kurds than you think, and certainly more than certain segments of VGC would suggest, though even here you see plenty of support for them. So I don't think you'll need to go Republican or anything to save them, if they can be saved. I'm...pretty equally depressed about this too actually, it makes me so sick to my stomach, I can't think about it. It's just too horrible. They're our allies, and were always the bravest fighters against ISIS and the greatest hope for peace and democracy in the Middle East, even more than Israel, in my opinion. I can't accept that they're doomed to some horrible genocide yet. Call it denial, but I have to believe there's some chance they can be saved still.
I'd like to briefly say that, at least to my understanding, it isn't Marxists per se, but rather the "tankie" variety that supports this slaughter, as well as a certain portion of the far left that embraces a hyper-isolationist, hyper-noninterventionist extremism. We have a couple of them in this forum even. I'm not even sure how much they actually believe it's right so much as it makes them feel like they have some moral high ground by claiming to be bigger pacifists. Regardless it disgusts me too.
