Martha Stewart says hello.

So foreign policy is certainly not my wheelhouse, but I cannot imagine a defense of Trump's actions in regards to Turkey and the Kurds. This is disgusting and unforgivable. Every Republican who has enabled this President and made excuses for his rash and despicable behavior over the past several years is culpable here. Some are speaking up now and criticizing this move, but it is far too late. Irreparable damage to our allies is being done because some of us decided to "take a chance" on a horrible human being and after seeing who he would choose to be in office, they continued to back him because between all the damage he was doing, he would sometimes give a tax cut to the rich, or some other Republican fantasy.

Fuck everyone involved, be it in this particular bad decision or in making excuses for one of his other many bad decisions.

We need to pull our troops out of the middle east and stop being the world police.

The desperation is astounding...

https://youtu.be/mk9bs3LVK6I

Plus, what's with this middle east bullcrap? Turkey is 95% Asian in landmass and 5% European, so if anything it's mostly European.

I do not like Trump.

And? Still not our duty to police the world. The only thing left to do is kick Turkey out of NATO. I still don't know why we even try to even bring peace in some of these radical Islamic countries, when we know the end result will be anyways.

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.

Day two of the invasion: Turkey is capturing towns, civilians (including children) are already dying, tens of thousands are fleeing as I write this, and the Kurds may have to stop guarding prisons holding ISIS fighters in order to try and fight off Turkish forces. The Kurdish-led forces are reportedly being forced to turn to Russia now for aid in the form of their spearheading peace negotiations with Turkey.

Trump explains on Twitter that Kurdish fighters "didn't help us in the Second World War. They didn't help us with Normandy. ...With all that being said, we like the Kurds." Well that's helpful. Especially coming from a silver-spooned estate-dweller who didn't have the guts to serve his country when it called upon HIM to do so!! I mean they only won the war against ISIS for us at the cost of some 11,000 of their soldiers, what do we owe them?!?!

Also also, remember the "Free Syrian Army?" The Turkish-controlled "rebel" group in Syria who we supported before they decided not to fight ISIS so we had to turn to the Kurds because only they were willing to at the time? That Free Syrian Army? They're reportedly participating in the Turkish invasion!

A bill has been introduced to impose economic sanctions on Turkey in response to all this, and it appears to have broad bi-partisan support. I hope it passes. There should be sanctions and Turkey should be expelled from NATO at bare minimum, IMO. They are NOT our friends!

Honestly, I'm past anger at this point. I just want to cry.

EDIT: Here's the one Republican Senator who I've seen dare to defend this new White House policy, Rand Paul of Kentucky, on the subject: "I stand with @realDonaldTrump today as he once again fulfills his promises to stop our endless wars and have a true America First foreign policy." I'm not sure how this new policy constitutes ending a war so much as starting one, but okay moron! Also, as the National Review article notes, that wasn't Mr. Rand Paul's view back in 2015 when ISIS was at the height of its power in Syria. Here's Rand Paul back then, where he argued that the U.S. should defeat ISIS by arming the Kurds and pledging them their own country. So there's clearly a principle at stake here for Mr. Paul is my point, not just rank political opportunism and shameless hypocrisy!

ISIS came about after we got involved with the middle east. The truth is, the world is fucked up as it is. Why should we bring ourselves down with them? We need to worry about our interests first. All we should do is kick Turkey out of NATO, implement sanctions and never get involved with these useless wars. We should only use our military might to protect us and our Allie nations that truly has our back.