framer
Well-Known Member
If your views on intervention have changed, where are the other spots that we should commit troops and treasure in the Middle East? Surely the Northern Part of Syria cannot be the only place, no?
"Democrat" is me being snarky about the 2016 Democratic Primary. I joked with the people I did a panel for (mostly Democrats) that the party kinda lost rights to the term Democratic after the super delegate fiasco. You are correct, I should retire it.
But seriously, my big thing is that I don't think many, if any of us, on this board have a clear understanding of what exactly is the deal in Northern Syria. I don't really think that the Iraqi Kurds are completely transferable to the Syrian Kurds and that maybe Turkey doesn't have a justifiable beef with members of that community. Is Turkey threatening the Kurds in Iraq? Although the current leadership of Turkey sucks, the issues between these groups spread back way before his rule. I don't know what is real, I can't trust politicians or journalism to get me the straight story without spinning it or serving up someone else's spin because they are ignorant of the situation.
I do have family that has served there and they tell me that the coverage and things we talk about and focus on are laughable. I'm kind of tired seeing them put in a situation where the most likely way they die is someone that they are fighting "for" kills them behind the wall that they are supposed to be defending together.
You talk about how it was better when Saddam could suppress the religious crazies and how that was better than what we have today and yet scream about the killing of Kashoggi like it was the worst evil ever perpetrated on Mankind. It was the same thing. Saudi Arabia was suppressing the Muslim Brotherhood with the hit, only it just killed one dude rather than gassing 100,000. Both are real bad, but our media class treats only Kashoggi as meaningful because he had a byline. Saddam and Assad gassing folk is pretty bad too. If Saddam's atrocities were beneficial for keeping the peace, why the different eye of judgement for Turkey, or Saudi Arabia.
Overall I don't think this is a game we are equipped to play. There is nothing about how things run out there that we can even begin to understand with our cultural background. The best thing we could do is achieve energy independence and encourage and reward obvious cultural reforms, without making too many commitments or promises. This is the play ALL of our NATO allies are making, minus the energy independent part. Not one of them is saying ANYTHING about the Kurds or lifting a finger to help. Why do you think that is? Hell Turkey IS a NATo ally, supposedly.
Not to mention the real contest isn't based in an 80's Cold War *** for tat with Russia in the Middle East, it's in Asia, and based on what we have seen in the past few days, China's influence is much more dangerous.
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