Gunfighter 09 said:
I am trying very very hard to view this through any lens that makes sense and the only one I can see is that if Trump was determined to be out of the Syria business regardless of any and all costs this is only about the 4th or 5th worst way to do it. I guess?
Reverend
Are there still nukes in Turkey? Give it some time, maybe?
Looking through Twitter, it looks like Turkey was very not into shooting at any of the Russians patrolling the border to the west. So they fucked up a city to the east, Ras al-Ain/Sari Kani (a lot of these cities go by Arabic and Kurdish names, depending), to create calls for international help with tens of thousands of new refugees. So that’s the pressure Turkey applied literally in the last day or two, and that’s what they negotiated away: five days to get the civilians out of the way.
So all they lost was the chance to kill a bunch of civilians and they only get to displace them now.
Beomoose
Trump says the Kurds have to be “cleaned out” of the 20-mile border zone Turkey has created.
Meanwhile, SDF say the deal can get stuffed
<DELETED TWEET>
[Edit: I will be including references to deleted Tweets because, as will discovered, there appears to be patterns of Twitter moderation that emerge over time.]
Well, that’s about the least unlikely thing ever.
They could have accepted those terms at any time. That is literally what they are fighting about.
So: What’s Russia’s next move?
Do they continue just cruising the western border and wait or do they have something else planned?
Couperin47
See my post #330, unless things have changed in the last few weeks, and it’s technically ‘secret’, it’s generally known we have 250 tactical devices [nukes] stored at Incirlik.
barbed wire Bob
This article is from 2017.
Arms Control Association: U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Turkey Raise Alarm
According to open-source estimates, the United States may store as many as 50 B61 gravity bombs at Incirlik. Those make up one-third of the approximately 150 nuclear weapons thought to be housed in five nations in Europe as part of NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements.
The original rationale for deploying U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe was to deter and, if necessary, defeat a large-scale attack by the Soviet Union. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has drastically reduced the number of weapons on the continent, but still deploys a smaller number to extend deterrence to NATO allies and as a political signal of the U.S. commitment to the security of alliance members.
The Defense and Energy departments are in the process of an extensive rebuilding of the B61, at a cost that may exceed $10 billion. (See ACT, November 2016.)Unlike the other bases in Europe that host U.S. B61s, Incirlik does not have dedicated nuclear-capable fighter aircraft that can deliver the weapons. Moreover, Turkey does not train its pilots to fly nuclear missions. In the event NATO were to make a decision to use the weapons now stored in Turkey, the United States or another NATO member would fly its own aircraft to pick them up.
As a matter of policy, the Defense Department does not comment on the presence of nuclear weapons in Turkey or anywhere else in Europe. The Air Force, in its fiscal year 2015 budget request, noted the presence of “special weapons” at “storage sites in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey.” Since 2000, NATO has invested $80 million in “infrastructure improvements” and as of 2014 planned to invest an additional $154 million “for security improvements.”
The B61’s bomb (actually it’s a weapons family) is the oldest nuke in the US Arsenal but it’s also extremely versatile which is why it is still in service. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it requires a specially fitted airplane to carry the bomb and currently none of the aircraft based at Incirlik are capable of carrying the thing. Also, security around the bombs is pretty tight and, more importantly the Permissive Action Links (PAL) and other safety features make extremely difficult to arm the bombs without the proper codes. Lastly, there’s no guarantee the bombs based at Incirlik would actually work. Nukes deteriorate with age and the B61s were scheduled for modernization but there’s no evidence that the ones in Turkey were ever modernize They were scheduled to be rebuilt but ho knows if the upgrade program ever got to Incirlik. Regardless, keeping any. U.S. weapon in Turkey is unwise and nukes should be transferred stateside ASAP.
More information on the B61’s can be found at the links below.
The B61 Bomb
The Drive: U.S. Reviewing Options For Pulling Nuclear Bombs Out Of Turkey, Here’s How They Might Do It
The rapidly evolving crisis in Syria may prompt the U.S. to finally remove its nuclear stockpile from Turkey, a move that some say is long overdue.
CousinTonyFromPadua
Just a couple days ago, some asshole confirmed there are still nukes in Turkey.
Rojava to Rock 