US envoy to anti-ISIS forces resigns

[_Chap]

US anti-Isis envoy Brett McGurk quits over Trump Syria withdrawal

This is worth reading.

Basically, the TL/DR for Trump's decision is 'US abandons allies with no warning because guy in White House wants to cause a distraction from the scandals closing in on him, his family and side-kicks from multiple directions'

The US envoy to forces fighting to defeat Islamic State has resigned, over Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria.

Brett McGurk’s resignation follows that of Trump’s defense secretary, James Mattis, who announced his departure this week.

As special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat Isis since 2015, McGurk was one of few Obama appointees to stay on under Trump. He is also a former supreme court clerk and served George W Bush as a diplomat, focusing on Iran and Iraq.

CBS News first reported McGurk’s move. Citing anonymous sources, it said he had planned to leave his post in February but had brought his move forward due to a “strong disagreement” with the president’s decision. He will quit at the end of this month and take up a post in academia. The Associated Press said McGurk’s resignation letter to the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, had been described to its reporters.

Mattis resigned on Thursday, issuing a letter of resignation that was implicitly strongly critical of Trump for his neglect of allies and reportedly angered the president. It was widely reported on Friday that the defense secretary quit after Trump made the decision to withdraw from Syria during a conversation with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

CBS said McGurk was in the region for talks with US Kurdish allies when Trump announced his decision. The Kurds fear attack by Turkey if around 2,000 US troops stationed in Syria are withdrawn.

On 11 December, McGurk told reporters at the state department he thought it was “fair to say Americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate, until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeat is enduring”.

He said then it would be “reckless” to consider Isis to have been defeated, a claim repeatedly made by Trump.

On Twitter on Saturday shortly after McGurk’s departure was reported, Trump defended his decision, writing that US troops had meant to be in Syria “for three months, and that was seven years ago – we never left”.

Trump’s claim was inaccurate. The Syrian civil war began seven years ago, in 2011, but US airstrikes there began in September 2014 and troops were not sent until the following year.

In words that will likely be greeted with dismay among Kurdish forces, the president added: “When I became president, Isis was going wild. Now Isis is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We’re coming home!”

The AP reported on Saturday that an anonymous US official said McGurk had been pushing for the US to allow Kurdish fighters to seek protection from troops allied with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

The envoy, the report said, argued that the US “had a moral obligation to help prevent the allied fighters from being slaughtered by Turkey”.

[_Jersey Girl]

Basically, the TL/DR for Trump's decision is 'US abandons allies with no warning because guy in White House wants to cause a distraction from the scandals closing in on him, his family and side-kicks from multiple directions'

I'm pretty sure that's his only strategy. His only consistency is distraction and chaos making.

[_Chap]

This is of course a version of what has been called the 'Dead Cat manoeuvre', described by the less than scrupulous British politician Boris Johnson thus:

“There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the dining room table – and I don’t mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point, says my Australian friend, is that everyone will shout, ‘Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!’ In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat – the thing you want them to talk about – and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.”

It's a great way of distracting public attention from things you don't want to be talked about.

In this case, of course, the dead cat is likely to be all the Kurdish fighters who have been allies up to now, and are likely to be killed by the Turkish army once the US is out of the battle.

[_Jersey Girl]

The question I have is how much more wrong headed harm's way decision making has to occur before we do something about it? The man has created nothing but chaos, has multiple pending law suits, he's on the hook for what is coming forth from the Mueller investigation (thank god for Mueller), he's an embarrassment to the nation, eroding our alliances, and might as well install a revolving door in the White House as the new official staff exit.

The few adults we counted on to keep him from going nuts are leaving because while they no doubt did their best, they refuse to attach themselves to disastrous decisions regarding Syria and Afghanistan. The guy has gone total cowboy and there is no one left to rein him in.

He's not only dirty as the day is long, he takes his cues not from his top advisors but from the President of Turkey itself (prob Russia as well) and his distractive performance art is putting great numbers of people at risk for slaughter not to mention that if these radical groups have enough running room to surge in number (which is a given) and we're not fighting them on foreign soil he might as well send them an invitation to come over here and terrorize the crap out of the US and he thinks MS13 is a problem.

My vocab isn't extensive enough to express how utterly pissed off I am that they're still playing political dodge ball over there in DC instead of growing a spine and a conscience and doing what the hell is right.

[_canpakes]

Some of us were sounding the alarm before the 2016 election, but, y’know, ehrmagerd, Hillary’s email ‘scandal’ was just the worst thing ever ever ever. I guess.

[Guest]

Hey, don't listen to the Democrats. Listen to the Vladimir Frolov, a Russian columnist and foreign affairs analyst.:

Trump is God’s gift that keeps on giving. Trump implements Russia’s negative agenda by default, undermining the U.S.–led world order, U.S. alliances, U.S. credibility as a partner and an ally. All of this on his own. Russia can just relax and watch and root for Trump, which Putin does at every TV appearance.

[_Jersey Girl]

Some of us were sounding the alarm before the 2016 election, but, y’know, ehrmagerd, Hillary’s email ‘scandal’ was just the worst thing ever ever ever. I guess.

Many posters here predicted that Trump could never win. They were wrong. He won because he appealed to many, others were driven to vote for him as a vote against Hillary and Comey didn't help matters any.

So it's not just his "base" that's on the hook for this crap. Had the Democrats had a more viable candidate we might not be in this mess.

Hindsight is 20/20 and not many folks here thought he'd even get the nomination much less win the Presidency so--so much for who was sounding what alarm around here, canpakes. No one here has a monopoly on political clairvoyance.

[_Jersey Girl]

Hey, don't listen to the Democrats. Listen to the Russians:

“Trump is God’s gift that keeps on giving,” said Vladimir Frolov, a Russian columnist and foreign affairs analyst. “Trump implements Russia’s negative agenda by default, undermining the U.S.–led world order, U.S. alliances, U.S. credibility as a partner and an ally. All of this on his own. Russia can just relax and watch and root for Trump, which Putin does at every TV appearance.”

I can't even believe or express how fed up I am right now.

[_canpakes]

So it's not just his "base" that's on the hook for this crap. Had the Democrats had a more viable candidate we might not be in this mess.

I understand why this became a popular talking point. But it really doesn’t play out logically.

If I’m shopping for a car that I need to commute with, and end up with a choice between only two - both having some type or number of perceived liabilities - then I still need to choose one or the other. And I have to think carefully about it. What doesn’t work is not making a choice - or blaming the deficiencies of the car that I did end up picking on the other car not being ‘viable enough’.

No one here has a monopoly on political clairvoyance.

There’s always some element of the unknown when making a choice between two candidates. But no clairvoyance was needed in this one. All a person needed to do was ‘run the carfax’ report between these two. The conclusion seemed straightforward enough based on their history.

But I understand; some folks read some liabilities differently than others. But that perception is oftentimes disconnected from certain realities.

[_subgenius]

All a person needed to do was ‘run the carfax’ report between these two. The conclusion seemed straightforward enough based on their history.

Yep, that's why Trump won.

But I understand; some folks read some liabilities differently than others. But that perception is oftentimes disconnected from certain realities.

Yep, and Hillary Clinton supporters are still disconnected from most realities...and stil in a different perception.