Thread by @csdickey

Read This: "Kurds Have Been Preparing for Trump’s Syria Betrayal—With a Vengeance" ⁦@AnneSpeckhard⁩ thedailybeast.com/kurds-have-bee…

"The military, remembering Trump’s December order out of Syria and subsequent reversal, is waiting to learn if Trump will follow through with withdrawal this time."

'Trump wrote, "if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!)."

There was no expression of concern for the Kurds.'

'Alongside every major highway and criss-crossing the entire Northern Syria area, in fields, cities and towns, we saw digging for an extensive system of tunnels.

“We’re ready either way,” Kurdish leaders told us when we asked if they trusted the Americans.'

"Nobody who fought ISIS in Syria in one vicious battle after another has forgotten that the huge Turkish army stood by and did nothing against the Islamic State as its killers carried out genocidal campaigns"

Maybe the most shameful statement of all: “The Kurds fought with us, but were paid massive amounts of money and equipment to do so.”
— U.S. President Donald J. Trump

"YPG and YPJ (Women’s People’s Protection Units) fighters lost over 1,000 lives fighting ISIS and it is common to see Kurdish men and women in on crutches, in wheelchairs, suffering from serious injuries sustained in the battle to retake ISIS dominated areas, including Raqqa."

'In our recent visits to north and east Syria from May through August, relying on our primary intelligence sources, we were told that approximately 2,000 of 8,000 Islamic State prisoners were considered “foreign terrorist fighters” from North Africa, Europe, and the Americas.'

"According to a UN Report as of April 2019 an estimated 75,000 women and children were being held. Our data suggests that at least 60,000 are Syrians and Iraqis. At least 8,000 children and 4,000 wives of foreign fighters remain in the camp."

"Turkey also has a responsibility in the rise of ISIS, having allowed over 40,000 foreign fighters to cross over its border into Syria, many unabashedly on their way to join the Islamic State. Many prisoners tell us of Turkish complicity with their journey into ISIS-land."

'"Turkey asked on many occasions for a safe zone.” This would be a demilitarized zone where it would provide ISIS with whatever it wanted, but only inside Syrian territories.'

So, it seems Erdogan hoped ISIS would help Turkey kill and contain Kurds in Syria. But the Kurds working with US killed ISIS. Oops. Now Trump, for whatever venal reason, has opened the door for the Turks to try to do the job of Kurd-killing themselves.

And I ask myself, looking at the record of a man without shame or honor, why @LindseyGrahamSC and other GOPers suddenly are surprised at Trump's deadly betrayal of the Kurds. Most likely because they, too, are without shame and without honor.