Thu 10 October 2019:
Donald Trump has defended his decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria and abandon America’s Kurdish allies to a Turkish invasion because ‘they didn’t help us with Normandy’.
Trump also suggested that he isn’t worried about ISIS fighters being held by the Kurds escaping amid Turkish attacks, because ‘they’ll go back to Europe.’
‘That’s where they want to go, they want to go back to their homes, but Europe didn’t want them’ he said on Wednesday night.
‘That’s all I want, I don’t want an edge I just want reciprocal… It’s not a fair deal for the United States.’
Trump spoke out just hours after Turkey began bombing Kurdish strongholds in northern Syria and marched troops across the border in order to establish a ‘peace corridor’ in the north of the country.
It comes after Trump agreed to withdraw US troops from the region and hand security operations over to Turkey during a routine call with President Erdogan.
Erdogan says he wants to drive terrorists – by which he means the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces – away from Turkey’s border so he can resettle some 2million Syrian refugees there.
However, critics say the move will destabilise the region, lead to civilians being killed, and may cause an ISIS resurgence.
Of particular concern are prison camps being run by the SDF which contain some 10,000 ISIS fighters, around 2,500 of them foreigners – mainly from Europe.
Under Trump’s plan, Turkey would take responsibility for these prisoners.
‘The Kurds are fighting for their land,’ Trump told reporters gathered in the Roosevelt Room of the White House for a briefing about business deregulation.
‘As somebody wrote in a very, very powerful article today, they didn’t help us in the second World War, they didn’t help us with Normandy as an example.
‘They mentioned names of different battles. But they’re there to help us with their land and that’s a different thing’
The article Trump appears to be referencing was penned by conservative Kurt Schlichter for Town Hall.
Schlichter took a strong position against abandoning the Kurds last time Trump floated the idea in December last year, but appears to have changed his mind since.
Despite giving his support to Erdogan in their phone call, Trump has since said he thinks attacking the Kurds is a ‘bad idea’ and warned of ‘a big economic price’ if Turkey ‘doesn’t treat Syrian refugees and Kurds humanely’.
However, he refused to be drawn on exactly what his red lines would be.
Trump added that Turkey had committed to ‘ensuring no humanitarian crisis takes place – and we will hold them to this commitment.’
Turkey’s defence ministry said Thursday morning that they had struck 181 targets east of the Euphrates River since the incursion started.
The SDF said Turkish warplanes had caused ‘huge panic’ when they attacked the Kurdish-held territory, and claimed the bombardments had killed and wounded civilians.
Video footage released by Turkey’s Defence Ministry shows ‘hero’ commandos moving through fields under cover of darkness and firing rounds after Operation Peace Spring was launched on Wednesday afternoon.
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