1) @realDonaldTrump's withdrawal from Syria is a big foreign policy mistake. The US is selling out yet another ally. But this was a mistake that predated Trump. US chose a poor ally. YPG is not the "poor Kurds" that the media makes it out to be. This is the PKK's Syrian branch.
@realDonaldTrump 2) If you insist on pretending the YPG is not the PKK, here are photos of US Special Forces at a "YPG" funeral in 2017. Note the PKK and Oculan flags flying at the funeral, with US armored vehicles flying Old Glory in the background.
@realDonaldTrump 3) This is disgraceful. The PKK is a specially designated terrorist organization. The PKK is responsible for killing tens of thousands of Turks during a bloody civil war.
@realDonaldTrump 4) The US, under the advice and direction of @brett_mcgurk, chose the "YPG" (PKK) as its ally to fight the Islamic State. There was no consideration of Turkey's very real national security interests and concerns.
@realDonaldTrump @brett_mcgurk 5) Let me be perfectly clear: I'm no fan of Erdogan. He has and continues to support terrorist groups, and is using HTS to battle the PKK right now. But if Erdogan was not president and the Turkish military was in power, it likely would doing exactly what he is doing.
@realDonaldTrump @brett_mcgurk 6) Ironically, @brett_mcgurk also whitewashed the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, the Iranian backed Shia terror groups, as it battled ISIS inside Iraq. The PMF is now killing Iraqis who are protesting. We shouldn't be shocked about what is happening there.
@realDonaldTrump @brett_mcgurk 7) When the US, under the Obama admin, pulled support from the Iraqi Kurds (the real good Kurds), as the PMF rolled over them in Kirkuk and elsewhere, where was the media and "experts" outrage. @brett_mcgurk, who has been vocal about the current betrayal. was silent on that.
@realDonaldTrump @brett_mcgurk 8) What is happening in Syria and Iraq today did not happen in a vacuum. These problems stem from a decade of bad foreign policy decisions. After withdrawing from Iraq as the Syrian civil war raged, the Obama admin wanted to outsource the war against ISIS...
@realDonaldTrump @brett_mcgurk 9) So the Obama admin outsourced the war & chose terrible partners (PKK in Syria, PMF in Iraq). The US chose terror groups to fight terror groups (Iraq is a bit more complicated as the Iraqi military was part of fight, but Iraqi govt backed PMF & even made it a legitimate unit).
@realDonaldTrump @brett_mcgurk 10 The @realDonaldTrump admin is not absolved. It has owned this problem for almost 3 years. Like the Obama admin, it made no effort to reform the YPG, make it drop its radical Marxist ideology, and convince the Turkish gov't that it was important it to fight ISIS.
@realDonaldTrump @brett_mcgurk 11) Instead, the US military and policy makers that continued to back the YPG/PKK kept kicking this can of problems down the road, without realizing the plug could be pulled at any moment. It was no secret Trump wanted to leave Syria. Why was no effort made to to mitigate this?
@realDonaldTrump @brett_mcgurk 12) Context to how we got here is key. There is little context in today's news reports on this topic. Most of it is vapid Trump-bashing. The YPG is treated as innocent Kurds when it is in fact the PKK. This problem was years in the making and did not appear out of the ether.
