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Why Turkey's "ISIS-Free Zone" Is The Most Ridiculous US Foreign Policy Outcome In History
The truly incredible thing about US foreign policy outcomes is that there are seemingly no limits on how absurd they can be. Indeed, Washington’s uncanny ability to paint itself into policy corners and create the most thoroughly flummoxing geopolitical quagmires in the history of statecraft knows absolutely no bounds.
This was on full display back in April when Iran-backed Houthi rebels armed with some $500 million in small arms, ammunition, night-vision goggles, vehicles and "other supplies" that the Defense Department "donated" and then subsequently lost track of when US-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled to Riyadh, looked set to loot the Aden branch of Yemen’s central bank. Then there was the extremely unfortunate situation that unfolded in Mosul, Iraq last summer when militants that may well have received training from the US at some point overran the city and captured some 2,300 humvees and at least one Black Hawk helicopter which would not have been parked in Mosul in the first place were it not for Washington’s ill-advised decision to invade Iraq for the second time in barely a decade in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
As ridiculous as those incidents most certainly were (and there are of course countless other examples), the situation currently playing out on Syria’s border with Turkey may mark a new high (or low, depending on how you look at it) point for US foreign policy - and that truly is saying something.
Over the past several days, we’ve traced the escalating violence in Turkey to the ongoing conflict between Ankara and the PKK and to a landmark election outcome which saw President President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lose his absolute majority in parliament for the first time in over a decade. Here’s a brief recap:
Last week, it became abundantly clear that Turkey’s newfound zeal for accelerating the demise of Islamic State is motivated chiefly by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s desire to nullify a ballot box victory by the pro-Kurdish HDP, which grabbed 13% of the vote and won party representation in June in an election that also saw AKP lose its absolute majority for the first time in over a decade. Now, Erdogan looks set to call for new elections as "efforts" to build a coalition government have largely failed. Erdogan needs but a two percentage-point swing to restore AKP’s absolute majority, which would in turn pave the way for his push to consolidate power by altering the structure of the government. A conveniently timed suicide bombing in Suruc that killed 32 people in late July was promptly pinned on ISIS sympathizers, setting off a chain of events that would culminate in NATO backing a renewed Turkish offensive against the Kurdish PKK. The escalation of violence between PKK forces and the Turkish army should help Erdogan undermine HDP's popularity ahead of new elections. Long story short: Turkey is essentially using a mock campaign against Islamic State to justify a renewed conflict with the PKK (they’re all “terrorists” after all) which Ankara will promptly cite as evidence of why voters should not back HDP when elections are held again in a few months.
In exchange for backing Ankara’s offensive against the PKK and by extension, Erdogan’s political agenda, the US gets to use Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base to launch strikes on ISIS. As noted above, Turkey is ostensibly also executing airstrikes against the group (that’s part of the deal) but it’s abundantly clear to everyone involved that Ankara - which has long been suspected of cooperating with ISIS and has provided funding to other extremist groups fighting for control of Syria - is only concerned with eradicating the PKK, and if that means weakening YPG, PKK’s Syrian affiliate in the process, then so be it.
The problem here - and this is where one can begin to see why this particular situation wins the blue ribbon for US foreign policy gone awry - is that YPG is extremely effective when it comes to fighting ISIS and indeed, the US has conducted airstrikes to support the group’s efforts to drive Islamic State from northern Syria. Here’s WSJ with more:
The U.S.-led coalition fighting the extremist group has conducted numerous airstrikes over the past year to back the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria, which has proved to be the most effective ground force fighting Islamic State.
Before Syria’s war erupted four years ago, the country’s Kurds were concentrated in three enclaves spread along the northern border. Over the past year, they have risen up to beat back advancing Islamic State fighters, most notably in the border town of Kobani.
The YPG advances have allowed Kurdish forces to establish authority over more Syrian territory than before the war, according to the Institute for the Study of War, which tracks control of land in the fight against Islamic State. In recent months, backed by U.S. airstrikes, the YPG has forced Islamic State fighters out of 2,000 square miles of territory in northern Syria—an area the size of Delaware—according to the U.S. military.
Since regime forces withdrew from Kurdish areas, the Syrian Kurds have secured a degree of newfound autonomy that has fueled aspirations for independence across the region. They have set up their own administration and defense forces that have started taking responsibility for security in the three Kurdish cantons. The YPG victory over Islamic State in the town of Tal Abyad this summer established a physical link between two of the three Kurdish cantons for the first time.
So essentially, YPG has defeated ISIS in northern Syria, taken complete control of the area, and indeed, only one swath of land separates the group from commanding the entire border with Turkey.
Great, right? Wrong. Here’s The Journal again:
The U.S. and Turkey have reached an understanding meant to assure the Ankara government that plans to drive Islamic State militants from a proposed safe zone in northern Syria won’t clear the way for Kurdish fighters to move in.
The U.S.-allied Turkish government is embroiled in a decades-old conflict with its own Kurdish minority. Turkey has resisted working with the YPG out of concern that the militants are laying the groundwork for the creation of a new Kurdish nation along Syria’s northern border with Turkey.
Two weeks ago, Turkey agreed to launch airstrikes targeting Islamic State fighters in Syria and allow the U.S. to use bases on its soil for the first time to do the same. At Turkey’s urging, the U.S. agreed to use airstrikes to protect a border zone free of Islamic State and controlled by moderate Syrian rebels.
The Syrian Kurdish militia has pushed toward the eastern banks of the Euphrates River, the edge of Islamic State-controlled areas on the other side. The border zone the U.S. and Turkey want to set up is on the western side of the river.
YPG leaders said Monday they would work closely with allies, including the U.S.-led coalition and moderate rebel forces such as the Free Syrian Army or FSA, in the fight against Islamic State—also known as ISIS or ISIL.
However, they said they had made no commitment not to cross the Euphrates.
"The initial plan is to move to liberate the western side of the Euphrates once the areas to the east have been cleared of ISIS," said Idres Nassan, a senior Kurdish official in Kobani.
That may have been the "initial plan", and indeed it certainly sounds like a good one, especially considering that, as is clear from the map above, it would mean YPG would have succeeded in driving ISIS completely off the country’s northern border, but that plan will apparently have to change now because Washington, after supporting YPG on the battlefield for the better part of a year, will now deliberately prevent the group from doing what they do best (defeating ISIS in northern Syria) because Ankara wants to ensure that the imagined "ISIS-free zone" (that’s the actual term) is also a Kurd-free zone:
The area where Turkey hopes to establish the border zone is filled with ethnic Turkmen and Arabs and Turkish leaders fear that the Kurdish fighters will try to drive them out.
"That’s a red line," said one Turkish official. “There are almost no Kurds in the area that would be the ISIL-free zone. Forcing the issue would trigger a new wave of ethnic cleansing, which is unacceptable to us."
To be sure, Washington isn’t entirely oblivious to how ridiculous this looks:
Keeping Kurdish fighters from moving farther west restricts America’s ability to work in northwestern Syria with a Kurdish militia that has proved an effective fighting force. U.S. officials have offered Turkey reassurances that they won’t rely on the YPG in that area, but have sought to give themselves wiggle room to work with the Kurdish fighters in that area if the needs arise.
Crystallizing the above and putting it in context is admittedly quite challenging because after all, trying to make sense of something so thoroughly nonsensical is probably an exercise in futility, but nevertheless, we'll try to untangle the situation as best we can. Turkey has long been criticized for not taking an active role in combatting the ISIS threat that is quite literally on the country's doorstep. Quite possibly, that reluctance stems from an amicable relationship between ISIS and Ankara and that relationship might well have remained amicable if Erdogan hadn't lost his grip on parliament in June. Now, the country's relationship with the militants will become a casualty of Erdogan's ruthless politically-motivated crackdown on the Kurdish PKK which, thanks to their classification as a "terrorist" group, is now sanctioned by the US which is of course using ISIS as an excuse to facilitate the ouster of Assad, a goal Washington shares with Ankara. Lost in the shuffle is YPG who, unlike the US and Turkey, is actually concerned with defeating Islamic State and is indeed on the verge of doing just that, but will sadly be stopped in their tracks by the same US military which has so far supported them because allowing YPG to complete their sweep of northern Syria risks aggravating Turkey which is a NATO member and which the US figures it may need once Assad is gone and the Qatar-Turkey natural gas pipeline gets the go ahead.
So the US is now quite literally impeding the progress of the group which has so far "proven to be the most effective ground force fighting Islamic State," and the general public is so obtuse that most people will completely miss the completely ridiculous fact that the excuse the US and Turkey are giving for their efforts to stop YPG from routing ISIS in northern Syria is that the two countries are currently working on building an "ISIS-free zone" and YPG, which has in fact made virtually the entire northern border region "ISIS-free", is not welcome due to its fighters' ethnicity.
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From the sublime to the stupid. There is so much further to fall folks. The only question left is are we a one or two banana republic?
So, much like "gun-free" zones, this is where the worst massacres will take place.
Hey, what do you expect from community organizer Obozo and his horse - John F'in Kerry?
Correction, Kohn, (Cohen - Pharisee), not Kerry. Don't libel us Irish!!!
The Kurds are about to understand what it's like to be a sacrificial pawn of Uncle Satan.
After a long history of this crap doesn't anyone get the idea that just maybe it is intentionally harmful to the USA, our allies and the recipients of our liberation bombs?
What the world needs is a "Zionist Free Zone."
If you dispute that, please take it up with the Palestinians, or look up "Dancing Mossads."
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
Half of Turkey is filled with ISIS and their sympathizers. Who are they trying to fool?
....... The Most Ridiculous US Foreign Policy Outcome In History .....(So Far)
....FIFY...... you're welcome...
One only has to recall Hill 937 (better known as Hamburger Hill) or hill 875 and a hundred other hills just like it to see how idiotic US military strategy sometimes becomes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-9EpYO04qE
Do a full frontal assault with everything you can muster for days, with a enormous cost of both lives and euqipment and yes, you take it over only to move off the next day and allow it to be retaken without a shot. An islamic free zone is just as stupid and will last about as long with the same result.
Or trying to destroy the Ho Chi Min trail by bombing it daily for years. ITs a fucking Jungle trail in Camfuckingbodia, you just fill the holes in with dirt and keep rocking.
Or LBJ thinking you can bomb a country back to the stone age who had never left it. LoL. But the worst part is, they do not learn from the lesson and 50 years later try to bomb Afganistan back to the stone age when it still lives in one, and the dumb asses wonder why your still standing around a base with your thumb in your ass 15 years later.
FUCKING GURUS , THE LOT OF THEM.
a thumb up the ass is no better than a watch up the ass, for that long a time.
Yeah, some credit were credit is due; to the kurdish heroes fighting IS.
They must be pretty tough, since we're led to beileve Turkey (ranked #10 in military strength) needs Uncle Scam (ranked #1) to "help" gang up on them.
I wonder how J6P in Turkey feels about being a USSA bitch/pawn.
http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp
Yeah, but those lists are pretty rubbish also. The supposed Nr1. power in the world couldn't even deal with a handful of Iraqi insurgents, and the Israelis which actually have a competent army got ass whooped by Hezbollah.
That's true, I'm skeptical of ISIS being the second coming of Rommel and his 7th Panzer division too..
Gee, the US stabbed the Kurds in the back? Who could have ever imagined it? It's not like there's a precedent or anything.
Maximum senseless violence and war = maximum corporate profits for the MIC
What's so hard to understand? It's not supposed to make sense by design. This is only confusing to people who drink political koolaid.
ISIS = US & UK.
Hence YPG is spoiling their fun and has to go.
Did you leave out Israel intentionally or did you just forget it?
It's all well and good to analyze the situation but who remembers why the US is officially in Syria? Come on, who?
Harboring WMD's?
They sunk a US destroyer?
They harbor Al Queda?
They're terrorizing their neighbours?
The Samantha Powers Doctrine: A "deep concern" about human rights abuses.?
Because America has spent the past 35 years trying to get the rest of the Middle East to take out Iran for them.
Assad's Syria is a client of Russia, God forbid the Middle East has Russian influence!
If you understand what ISIS really is, then you understand why the US and Turkey don't want them defeated.
What happens when a so called "No Fly Zone" appears?
What has happenned so far on so many occasions?
Why do you think it has NOT been played?
Basic level article. Heres the real deal. http://www.voltairenet.org/article188337.html
"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce."
-- Somebody Famous
....where's the Turkey "Kurds Kill Zone"?
Oh, everywhere, got it.
Cromwell To Ebenezer Pratt of the Mulheim Synagogue in Amsterdam,
16th June 1647:
— “In return for financial support will advocate admission of Jews to England: This however impossible while Charles living. Charles cannot be executed without trial, adequate grounds for which do not at present exist. Therefore advise that Charles be assassinated, but will have nothing to do with arrangements for procuring an assassin, though willing to help in his escape.” —
To Oliver Cromwell From Ebenezer Pratt, 12th July 1647:
— “Will grant financial aid as soon as Charles removed and Jews admitted. Assassination too dangerous. Charles shall be given opportunity to escape: His recapture will make trial and execution possible. The support will be liberal, but useless to discuss terms until trial commences.” —
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=32142
ISIS is just another New Model Army, murdering the descendents of the ancient civilizations of the Levant for profit instead of those of the Irish and Scottish Gaels.
Of course, it always just "happens" to be Jewish financiers and lobbyists whispering in the king's ears.
It always just "happens to be"
and the policy papers of the Likudnik Zionists
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=western_support_for_islam...
http://www.voltairenet.org/article178638.html
and Jewish fundamentalists such as those who periodically burn Palestinian orchards, homes, and children
http://www.ahavat-israel.com/eretz/future
and the express hatred of the non-Jew enshrined in Jewish law since before Christ
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/faxes/mmOnNachriim.pdf
http://holywar.org/jewishtr/open.htm
ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THAT MATTERS AND NONE OF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH ISRAEL, JUDAISM, ZIONISM, OR JEWISH HEGEMONY IN THE MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT AND FINANCIAL SECTORS OF THE US, UK, CANADA, UKRAINE, FRANCE, RUSSIA, AND MANY OTHER PLACES.
THE JEWISHNESS OF THE OLD BOLSHEVIKS IS NOW A NON-FACT, AS IS THE JEWISHNESS OF THE OLIGARCHS WHO STOLE RUSSIAN WEALTH AFTER THE USSR FELL
http://www.softpanorama.org/Skeptics/Pseudoscience/harvard_mafia.shtml
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v14/v14n1p-4_Weber.html
http://www.culturewars.com/2003/RevolutionaryJew.html
The claims by chief rabbis and elders regarding Jeiwsh supremacism has no basis in Jewish texts, no matter how often or voluminously they cite to it for their claims
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/07/why-is-the-us-honoring-a-racist-r...
http://newobserveronline.com/largest-funeral-in-israeli-history-for-gent...
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2010/10/gentiles-exis...
And all expulsions of Jews over 2300 years, ALL of them were due to "anti-Semitism" and that is not a tautology - it reflects an illness in the non-Jeiwsh mind.
And if you begin to suspect that maybe, just maybe, organized Jewry has been, in large part, a hostile element, even as "the average" Jew has little or nothing to do with it apart from tacitly supporting the Jewish mythos of chosenness and moral superiority - you may have caught this irrational illness yourself.
go
back
to
sleep,
goyim
I hope Trump brings this along to the debate on Thursday.
What, you thought Valerie Jarrett was providing good direction to the ventriloquist dummy in the CEO chair?
All this thinking and designing from the "smartest" guy on the planet, it almost appears doomed to failure. Does he just make this stuff up or is someone actually "advising" him. My understanding is it appears very tight at the top.
"...that Ankara - which has long been suspected of cooperating with ISIS..."
It's more than just cooperating. There's some documentary footage on RT.com with interviews of the suppliers and truck drivers who ship truckloads of supplies from Turkey to ISIS across its southern border.
Turkey is up to its neck in assisting ISIS in Syria.
So one premise of this article is right: the ISIS free-zone is cover for Turkey to attack the Kurds.
Two questions : 1 ) How do you know those supllies are going to ISIS? There are many ethnic turks at Syria who that time was in need of protection from ISIS. Supplies going to ethnics turks at syria story is more plausible in my opinion.
2) If indeed Erdogan and turkish goverment are puppets of USA, why the mainstream media both domestic turkish media and international media, BBC,CNN, fox news etc etc.. continously demonizing erdogan ? I thought that was the strategy when puppets REALLY turn their back to USA.