Gunfighter 09

I really feel for the planners at CENTCOM and all of the other forces in the region right now. The amazing variety of threats, possible adversaries and potential missions that are in the realm of the possible right now is incredible. This is the worst Presidential level leadership of troops in combat since…..

kneemoe

No link (edit – added, below) but a spokesperson for Erdogan was on NPR’s morning edition this morning, was asked about the letter and essentially scoffed at it and claimed that they placed no value on it whatsoever due to the wording and content.

Trump’s on tilt, and everyone knows it.

https://www.npr.org/player/embed/770848622/770848623

about 4 minutes in

and holy crap – listening to it again she actually says their push into syria was their response to the letter. Clearly, that’s not true, this was all orchestrated before that letter in my mind, but that’s a curb stomp of the current administration, no respect for you.

Devizier

Trump really gave us our “Napoleon in Egypt” moment, didn’t he.

ZMart100

Bay of Pigs? That was probably a worse military disaster, but the scale was much, much smaller.

OilCanShotTupac

Well, part of his meltdown was to destabilize the most volatile region in the world and betray a staunch ally, so there’s a downside

[REDACTED COMMENTS: PLACEHOLDER]

BroodsSexton

This kind of response will drive Trump insane.

dhappy42

This is waaay more embarrassing than the failure of Desert One. Desert One was a rescue mission that ran into bad weather and went awry. Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds and hasty, unplanned retreat was on purpose.

However, Murphy is wrong about this being “maybe the worst” thing. The embarrassment of the U.S. military, the U.S. in general and damage to U.S. reputation is small compared to the long-term damage Trump has done to U.S. national security by revitalizing ISIS, not to mention the untold number of Kurdish dead.

Average Reds

If the objective is to prove that Trump is unfit, that’s what you do. And the responsibility for the consequences lies with those who supported and enabled him.

Beomoose

Bay of Pigs was a costly mess, but between the loss of the Kurdish alliance, the dire state of our Turkish relations, all the hay the Assad support network is making, Russia getting free Syrian bases built and furnished by the United States, the opportunity for ISIS to rebound, the harm this does to future Administrations when they attempt to form alliances/partnerships, etc etc…..this is worse. BoP with the Missile Crisis added on is more scary, but we don’t know yet what crisis the Syrian Tweets will lead to in the years to come.

dhappy42

If we could only get Russia to pick up the tab for Israel’s defense and wash our hands of the never-ending Palestinian-Israeli conflict mess. About 20% of Israelis are Russian, anyway, and Russian-born Avigdor Lieberman and his “Israel is Our Home Party” is the likely kingmaker in Israeli elections for the foreseeable future. Israel is 7,000 miles away too, after all.

BrazilianSoxFan

“I believe it’s important that we make a strong forward-looking strategic statement. For that reason my preference would be for something even stronger than the resolution that the House passed yesterday, which has some serious weaknesses,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.

The House passed its resolution formally opposing Trump’s troop drawback in northern Syria and urging Turkey to end its military incursion in a 354-60 vote.

But McConnell argued that the House resolution was too “narrowly drafted,” didn’t address Sunni Arab or Christian communities in Syria and was too “backward-looking.”

“It is curiously silent on the issue of whether to actually sustain a U.S. military presence in Syria, perhaps to spare Democrats from having to go on record on this question. So my first preference is for something stronger than the House resolution,” he added.

The Hill: McConnell says he wants ‘something stronger’ than House Syria resolution