Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned ISIS will be a threat
once again following President Trump ordering U.S. troops out of
northern Syria ahead of a military invasion by Turkey.
"Meet the
Press" host Chuck Todd asked Mattis if the United States should be
worried about the future consequences of "abandoning an ally like the
Kurds."
"I think Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo, the
intelligence services, the foreign countries that are working with us
have it about right that ISIS is not defeated," Mattis said.
Department of Education says Duke-UNC program must include other religions, not just “positive aspects of Islam”
By Christine Douglass-Williams / Jihad Watch
“The Department of Education maintained that the joint Duke
University-University of North Carolina program needs to ‘expand’ to
include more religions beyond Islam to fulfill federal grant funding
requirements.” The problem is that the Duke-UNC program has been
disproportionately presenting “the positive aspects of Islam, while
there is an absolute absence of any similar focus […] Read in browser »
Op-ed: Leaving Allies Behind...or Are We? By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on
American Political Radio
“The Enemy of my Enemy is my
Friend.”
- 4th century B.C. “Indian
Machiavelli” Kautilya in the Sanskrit military book, the
Arthashastra
On October 7, 2019, President Trump
announced the withdrawal of our troops from along the northeastern Syrian/Turkish
border, and from the moment he did the consternation from
surprisingly both sides of the political aisle started
building...reaching a level of what amounts to a public crucifixion
of our president.
How so? Well for starters House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted that,
“The President’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from
Northern Syria is a deeply disturbing development that betrays our
Kurdish allies who have been instrumental partners in our mission to
eradicate ISIS.” And of course
Rep. Adam Schiff got his jabs in by saying that, “We will
be pouring over the intelligence to determine what steps Congress
might need to take to protect American interests in light of this
reckless, impulsive and dangerous action by the president.” Even
Trump supporting South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted that, "No
matter what President Trump is saying about his decision, it is
EXACTLY what President Obama did in Iraq with even more disastrous
consequences for our national security...So
sad. So dangerous. President Trump may be tired of fighting radical
Islam. They are NOT tired of fighting us.”
Hey
Lindsay, I'm sure President Trump knows that.
And Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was probably the worst for he issued
a statement that, “A precipitous
withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran,
and the Assad regime....As we learned the hard way during the Obama
administration, American interests are best served by American
leadership, not by retreat or withdrawal.”
In other words, Mitch McConnell compared Trump's leadership regarding
the Kurds to that of America-hating, islamic condoning
Barack HUSSEIN Obama...a political backstabbing of our president if
ever there was one.
It's one thing to disagree
with Trump's decision...a decision made by his focusing on the big
picture instead of on individual parts...but it's quite another to
shame your president without knowing all the facts...facts few are
aware of...but I guarantee they're facts President Trump knows well.
But let's begin
by giving credit where credit is due in that since 2014 the Kurds
have been our faithful ally in the ground war against our common
enemy ISIS. But one must also know that the Kurds are seen by the
Turkish government as an ally of the SDF Kurdish
separatists...separatists based in both Turkey and Iran who Turkey
claims has ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK), the party responsible for ongoing violent attacks within
Turkey itself...violence in name of the Kurds trying to secure a
Kurdish state. In other words, our Kurdish ally appears to be our
ally Turkey's enemy thus catching us in the middle of their fight...a
fight that we're no part of.
And so a dilemma arose for President
Trump...the very man who promised to start withdrawing our troops
now bogged down in wars that seemingly have no end. Do we support the
Kurds against Turkey as both sides brought their war to what is now
the “buffer zone”
between Turkey's southern border and Syria's northern border or do we
support an allied NATO partner...albeit a tenuous ally at best. And
while we all know that Turkey's President Recip Erdogen is an
islamist supporter who pretends not to be one, he has for the most
part stayed out of our and the Kurds way in regards to trying to rid
Syria of ISIS.
But all the players know well that ISIS is
not defeated but laying low until all American troops are
gone to make their return...just like the Taliban did in Afghanistan.
And Trump I'm sure knows that while we as a country have
witnessed numerous shifts in Turkish policy towards ISIS, Syria's
civil war, and towards the Kurds themselves...the one thing that's
remained an absolute constant for Turkey is their unwavering
opposition to Kurdish autonomy... especially if said autonomy means
that a Kurdish state would be sitting on and partly within what is
currently the area encompassing their southern border.
The truth is that Erdogen wants to extend Turkey's existing
so-called “buffer zone” into Syria's northern Afrin region
even if it means having to kill the Kurds currently living there and
replace them with at least two of the three million Syrians who
sought refuge in Turkey, thus ridding himself and his country of
people who are not only causing trouble but who are a drain on
Turkey's economy.
In fact, I believe former National Security Adviser John Bolton knew
of Erdogen's true motives, including that Turkish forces would start their ground and air onslaught against the Kurds as soon as we started pulling out... which they have in operation code name "Peace Spring." And more likely than not it's over the Kurds and Bolton's not wanting to pull out where he and
President Trump did finally break ranks. But if this be the case then even
John Bolton left out one key component in his thinking...the
Kurds and the Turks have been at each others throats for well over a
century in what amounts to a Turk/Kurd civil war...a civil war also seeing
no real end in site...a civil war we have no “skin in the game.”
And so if it's a game being played
who better to play it than Donald Trump.
Let me explain. President Trump is
getting the blame for us being in Syria when it was Obama who put us
there to aid the so-called Syrian rebels in their battle against
President Bashir al-Assad's government forces. However, those rebels
turned out to be not rebels per se but ISIS fighters who themselves
wanted inroads into Syria. And so Trump kept our Obama committed
forces there, and with the aid of the Kurds together we drove most of
ISIS out. Our job there was done with what's left being the Turk/Kurd
civil war...a civil war we should not get directly involved in as
both sides, for better or worse, we consider to be allies. So why not
remove our troops from there, remove them but not bring them home, but move them elsewhere for strategical reasons.
And so just last week the pullout began as 50 U.S.
soldiers...50 special forces personnel...began leaving bases in Tel
Abyad and Ras al Ayn near the Syrian side of the “buffer
zone”...which many feel is a
mistake not unlike the mistake Obama made in Iraq, the very country
that has now ceded partial control of some of its territory to
Iran...not unlike the mistake JFK made in regards to the Bay of Pigs.
But what many are forgetting is never take President Trump at face
value for to do so is a mistake in and of itself.
President Trump is not only our president but
commander-in-chief of our armed forces, and as such he must make
important tactical decisions based not upon what seems on the surface
to be a simple solution, but upon military logistics as well. And
it's actually military logistics that's being overlooked as being but
a rash shift in our foreign policy directive when in reality it's
anything but.
Again let me explain. Right now we know many are quite angry
at President Trump for what they believe is the deserting of an ally
during a time of war...an ally who helped us win, if you will, the
battle against ISIS in Syria. And I must admit that I too was quite
peeved at first, after all American policy has always been that
America leaves no man...no troop...behind, and that such a policy
should extend to our allies as well. But the more I thought about
this the more unsettling it became as our president is not the type
of man to leave an ally behind. And that in turn led to the fact that
we have been equipping the Kurds with weapons of war for quite some
time and that those very weapons while used against ISIS are now
being used against another ally of ours..Turkey...all in the Kurds quest
for an autonomous state.
And while Turkey is an ally...an ally we best always
keep one eye open to...they're an ally nevertheless. And this led me
to the realization that our troops still stationed along the border
in question are but witnesses to yet another Middle East civil
war...albeit a smaller scale civil war...a civil war between two allies
that we were forced into the middle of.
And I believe this is why President Trump announced
this particular troop withdrawal at this particular time, but it goes
even deeper than that for I now believe he has a bigger plan in
mind...a plan it seems few if any have figured out yet. The
“Master of the Deal” has with this withdrawal sealed the deal
that might see all American troops being able to soon come
home...come home after one more battle that is...one more battle that
just might set the world on the road to long sought after peace.
To understand what I'm about to say you need to look at
the two maps below and the logistical end and my reasoning will fall
into place. Let's start with Map 1. Here you see the regions key
players...Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the
UAE, Egypt, and most assuredly Israel. Now add in the United States
as we have either troops and airbases in or have been allowed staging
grounds within all the above stated countries, except Iran of course.
Now comes the logistics and what I believe to be
President Trump's ultimate end game. First, President Trump is
withdrawing us from Syria, a war torn country no use to us, but
withdrawing is not for the reasons most think. Remember, Trump never
stated that those in Syria were coming home just that they were being
withdrawn. Second, I think he's sending them to either Iraq or
Afghanistan to help bolster our forces in the region. Third, we have
operational military bases in Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and
Afghanistan along with flyover privileges also from the Saudis and the
UAE as well as unwavering Israeli and Egyptian support. We even have
access to certain Pakistani military bases to use for logistics,
relief efforts, and as a launching base for drone operations as well
as us having access to use almost
all the military airfields of Turkmenistan, including the airport in
Nebit-Dag near the Iranian border. And Albanian officials have offered and we
have accepted the establishment of U.S. military bases in Albania.
Fourth, in other words the United States and our allies
have a military presence to the north, south, east, and west of
Iran...the very country that is not only the Middle East's but the
world's most destabilizing force.
And fifth, the bottom line is that I believe President
Trump's end game, to which he now has actually added more U.S, troops
to without most being aware, is that if you look below at Map 2 you will
see that we have Iran surrounded and that sooner rather than later we
will launch from those bases in allied and somewhat friendly countries, and that
together with Israel's, Saudi Arabia's, and Egypt's standing
alongside us go in and take Iran out.
Too many people think President Trump to be an
impulsive hothead, a tweeting cartoon character of what a president
should be instead of seeing him as the strong, smart, clever, and
patriotic leader that he is. President Trump knows that Iran must be
taken out as much as he knows that we have been bogged down in wars
that seem to see no end...but the no end is because Iran keeps
fueling the fires of war as they think they have everything to gain
and nothing to lose not realizing that they have already lost if only
the true battle would begin.
And I believe President Trump has now
set the stage for just that very battle...the only battle that really
matters as it's the only battle that could actually in the end bring peace...if
only Trump's naysayers would see the big picture and not focus on but one
small piece of what is a much larger and more important game.
So a big thank you must go out to the Kurds for helping us fight
ISIS, but now the time has come for the Kurds and the Turks to fight
their own battles...and the Kurds are already doing so with weapons
supplied to them by the U.S. And while we can still support them logistically we can do so without American troops being put in harms way. Their quest for autonomy is not our
battle as we have a bigger fish to fry...a fish I think President
Trump, after having seen the big picture, is now in the process of preparing to cast that final tactical net.
Copyright @ 2019 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved.
*********************************************************************************************************************************** For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, Alinsky's Rules for Rhetorical Radicals.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 15th, from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political
Radio,RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig
Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'Leaving Allies Behind...or Are We?'; 'Alinsky's Rules for Rhetorical
Radicals'; and important news of the day.
