You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Cut off from US help, Kurds fighting a desperate battle against Turkey on their own, says a former commando who describes himself as ‘disillusioned' and ‘embarrassed'
2019-10-12
[MilitaryTimes] They started out like the Minutemen and ended up as a seasoned fighting force that wiped out most of ISIS in Syria.

And now the Syrian Democratic Forces are fighting off a massive Turkish invasion with no assistance from the U.S. military, according to a former U.S. special operator who worked with Syrian Kurds while in uniform and now with the SDF through a non-governmental organization.

"What I understand, we have stopped any support," said the former commando, who spoke to Military Times on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the ongoing situation.

Officials from U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the region, referred questions to the Pentagon, which did not immediately respond to this or any other recent queries about the situation in northeastern Syria.

"I am disillusioned," said the former commando. "I am embarrassed. I am at a loss for words. Seventy-two hours ago, we were running patrols together. Everyone was waiving and continuing to clean up and watch for Daesh. Then, all of a sudden, the playground bully comes along and we ran away from our brothers, leaving them to fight the bully all by themselves."

Prior to Tuesday’s long-promised invasion by Turkish forces, which came in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull a small cadre of commandos out of the area, the U.S. provided the SDF with a wide array of military support, the former commando said. Based on what he is hearing from his personnel on the ground, the former commando says that it appears Turkey, a NATO ally, has far exceeded its initial goal of an 18-mile buffer zone that runs in a salient south of the Turkey-Syria border.
Also:
"I think this is completely idiotic, from a strategic aspect," he said. "We have seized all of eastern Syria and isolated the Assad regime from the Russians and Iranians. Now we are just going to open a ground bridge between Iran and the Mediterranean. For what, because (Trump) says we are fighting other people’s wars?"

Another problem created by the Turkish invasion is that in addition to taking the heat of ISIS, the SDF says it will no longer make containing ISIS prisoners ‐ said to number in the tens of thousands ‐ a top priority. Their escape would add to concerns that ISIS, which has yet to be completely defeated, will have a resurgence.

The Kurds "are great soldiers, very trainable," said the former commando. "They are probably the closest Western mentality for ethics that you could find in that region of the world."
Posted by:Whavimp Grath4899

#15  ....who describes himself as ‘disillusioned’ and ‘embarrassed’

A Kurdish Democrat. Who knew ?
Posted by: Besoeker   2019-10-12 16:20  

#14  the Kurds are supposedly descended from Assyrians and Turks, and them from Ishmael (?).

Ishmael? The guy from Moby Dick?
/looks around for ghost of pappy
Posted by: SteveS   2019-10-12 15:34  

#13  You don't just go about pulling pins off the map, Trump.

Except what was pulled off the map was two small forward bases near the border. The main base, deeper in Syria, remains fully populated.
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-10-12 15:05  

#12  Tar baby. Stay out.
Posted by: Lex   2019-10-12 14:00  

#11  It is not the fact that you pulled out: It is How you re-deploy that counts.
You don't just go about pulling pins off the map, Trump.

Learn some nuance
Posted by: newc   2019-10-12 13:53  

#10  Personally, I think Trump is just still PO'd because Saladin pwn'd Richard Lionheart....
Posted by: Mercutio   2019-10-12 12:41  

#9  'And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.'
- GAWD

While I don't put much faith in Josephus' account of genealogies, the Kurds are supposedly descended from Assyrians and Turks, and them from Ishmael (?).
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-10-12 11:29  

#8  No Abu, it's exactly right. Kurds ARE tribal.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB   2019-10-12 11:15  

#7  My latest theory is that if Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria all contributed enough territory for the Kurds to have their own country that it wouldn't be long before the Kurds started fighting among themselves for control of the new country. Then all the Middle East hawks in the US, and all the Euroweenies who could never do it themselves, would insist that the American military intervene in the Kurdistan Civil War to keep them from murdering each other. Boy, is that a far-fetched theory or what?
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2019-10-12 10:53  

#6  Whenever there is unity in the MSM about Trump abandoning the Kurds, it raises my suspicions.
Posted by: JohnQC   2019-10-12 10:43  

#5  I gotta agree with Herb on this one. Let the Russians ,TUrks and whoever else is in there kill each other. It's time too stop being the world police and and nation building shit when no one is ever grateful anyways.
Posted by: chris   2019-10-12 10:23  

#4  "I think this is completely idiotic, from a strategic aspect," he said. "We have seized all of eastern Syria and isolated the Assad regime from the Russians and Iranians. Now we are just going to open a ground bridge between Iran and the Mediterranean. For what, because (Trump) says we are fighting other people’s wars?"

Trump's not wrong. We ARE fighting other people's wars, and for what? What benefit is there to the American people? None. None whatsoever.

These people are SO locked in to their tiny worldview that they can't see outside it. It's like they're playing Risk by Milton Bradley and all they can see is that Trump made them pull their armies off a territory on the board. And they're hopping mad about it, because the object of Risk is to conquer the entire world.

Our objective isn't to conquer the entire world. It's to make a better life for the American people. These people are just blind to this aspect of life. All they can see is "conquer the next territory".
Posted by: Herb McCoy   2019-10-12 10:18  

#3  Syrian Democratic Forces is a lie. It's just a label that the unelected US government came up with to make their loose association of war criminals look better than the other loose association of war criminals.
Posted by: Herb McCoy   2019-10-12 10:15  

#2  Someone in the Kurds must have POed someone high up in the US administration.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance   2019-10-12 09:47  

#1  And again I ask, who shall fight the ⭔'s wars in this region in the future ?
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-10-12 09:16  

00:00