Today
Turkish Frontline Troops are ISIS & AL-Qaeda Terrorists ... Trump apparently has no plan for U.S Withdrawal
As Trump withdraws U.S. forces from northern Syria, his administration scrambles to respond
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...0e3_story.html
President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, where they had long kept an uneasy peace among competing forces, left the region in upheaval Sunday and the administration scrambling to respond to fast-moving events.
In urgent meetings and telephone conferences, top national security officials studied often-conflicting accounts of what was happening on the ground.
In public appearances, Cabinet secretaries denied that the United States had “abandoned” its Syrian Kurdish allies to invading Turkish *forces and threatened severe sanctions against Ankara.
“This is total chaos,” a senior administration official said at midday, speaking on the condition of anonymity about the confusing situation in Syria.
Although “the Turks gave guarantees to us” that U.S. forces would not be harmed, the official said, Syrian militias allied with them “are running up and down roads, ambushing and attacking vehicles,” putting American *forces — as well as civilians — in danger even as they withdraw.
The militias, known as the Free Syrian Army, “are crazy and not reliable.”
The perception that U.S. troops were in increasing danger as Turkey and its allies attacked border towns and continued its advance led to the new withdrawal announcement, U.S. officials said.
Turkey launched multiple artillery rounds Friday near a U.S. Special Operations outpost in the area, despite knowing its location, officials said.
In Congress, criticism of both Turkey and Trump was vocal and bipartisan.
“The weakness and incompetence that this president has shown when it comes to national security is stunning,” Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
Accusing Trump of “bending to autocrats,” Reed said that “instead of telling Erdogan to stand down, President Trump is in full retreat.
It’s shameful.”
Trump has played down concerns about the crisis for days, saying Turkey will be responsible for any Islamic State fighters who might break free in the chaos.
On Sunday, he tweeted before departing for his golf course in Virginia that it was “very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish Border, for a change” and accused “those that mistakenly got us into the Middle East Wars” of pushing the United States to stay in the fight.