Kansas Crimson

jhawks99 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 2:05 pm

Geezer wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 11:20 am Makes me want to puke.

I know. I'm sorry.

^^^

To have gone into combat and risked your life for our country only to see this happen to an ally, to the benefit of our enemies, has to be something you never could have imagined.

You can't keep up:



The substance of Graham’s conversation with Stolyarov, who was posing as Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, is newly relevant in light of the South Carolina senator’s push for sanctions on Turkey as punishment for their offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria. Graham labeled the Kurds a “threat” to Turkey in the call, seemingly contradicting what he has said publicly in recent days.

Graham also mentions Trump’s personal interest in a “Turkish bank case” in the call that appears to refer to a U.S. case involving Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader and client of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Trump had asked then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017 to help persuade the Justice Department to drop the Zarrab case.

...Graham also expressed sympathy for Turkey’s “Kurdish problem” and described the Kurds as a “threat.” Those private comments appear to contradict his public statements this week, in which he criticized Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria because it’s “wrong to abandon the Kurds, who have been strong allies against” the Islamic State.

“Your YPG Kurdish problem is a big problem,” Graham told the pranksters. He was referring to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, a group that began fighting ISIS as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces in 2015—with support from the U.S.—but is considered a terrorist group by Turkey because of its push to establish an autonomous state for the Kurds on the Turkish-Syrian border.

“I told President Trump that Obama made a huge mistake in relying on the YPG Kurds,” Graham continued. “Everything I worried about has come true, and now we have to make sure Turkey is protected from this threat in Syria. I’m sympathetic to the YPG problem, and so is the president, quite frankly.”

“And this case involving the Turkish bank, he’s very sensitive to that,” Graham said of Trump. “The president wants to be helpful, within the limits of his power.”

According to U.S. prosecutors, Zarrab and others used the Turkish bank Halkbank to “launder billions of dollars-worth of Iranian oil proceeds, ultimately creating a slush fund for Iran to use however it wished — the very harm that U.S. sanctions were put in place to avoid.” A senior banker at Halkbank was found guilty of working to evade sanctions on Iran, and Halbank itself could still face fines by the Treasury Department.

Zarrab also had ties to the Turkish government, according to a memo written in 2016 by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and was “engaged in a massive bribery scheme... paying cabinet-level [Turkish] governmental officials and high-level bank officers tens of millions of Euro and U.S. dollars” to facilitate his transactions.

[...]

An exception!

Retiring GOP Rep. John Shimkus won't support Trump after Syria pullout

...Shimkus, a 12-term congressman who announced in August that he wouldn’t seek reelection, said he was embarrassed by Trump’s Syria decision and “saddened for the Kurdish people.”

“I’m heartbroken,” he said. “We have just stabbed our allies in the back.”

[...]

So upstanding!

Disgraceful.

What have we become?

A satellite.

Geezer wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 10:42 pm What have we become?

As Trump would say, "a shithole country"?

Paul1 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 7:19 am

Geezer wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 10:42 pm What have we become?

As Trump would say, "a shithole country"?

Puppet State

Feral wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2019 4:30 pm An exception!

Retiring GOP Rep. John Shimkus won't support Trump after Syria pullout

...Shimkus, a 12-term congressman who announced in August that he wouldn’t seek reelection, said he was embarrassed by Trump’s Syria decision and “saddened for the Kurdish people.”

“I’m heartbroken,” he said. “We have just stabbed our allies in the back.”

[...]

An exception would be a GOP politician who is NOT already planning to leave office. It should be easy to speak your mind when you dont have to worry about Trumpites running you out of office.

And then send 3000 more to Saudi Arabia.

Geezer wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 3:23 pm And then send 3000 more to Saudi Arabia.

Yeah, but how can you say "no" to a country that was there for us at Normandy in WWII?

These ISIS escapes are Trump's. He, and his cowardly "conservative", "strong on national defense", "patriotic" republican enablers, own them.

WTF?

"

The Department of Defense "...remains opposed to the Turkish military move into Syria..."

Oh my gosh! What a relief! This, despite Trump moving our troops out of the way for Turkey while abandoning our ally the Kurds, is such a huge gesture on the "stable genius" part:

a few hundred meters... they weren't serious.