Erdogan Fixin' to Serve Up a Hot Turkey InKURDsion Sammich

AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad

Oy.

You know, the whole 'brain-dead POTATUS' thing would really be a ton funnier if he and his diaper changers hadn't made sure the world wasn't going to Schlitz before he totally checked out.

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But that's what they did. 

And there isn't a miserable God-forsaken, Schlitz-hole on the Earth that doesn't have their slimy fingerprints all over it and could blow any second.

Oh, yeah. That's what they did.

While Trump is one helluva deterrent in his own right, that's all he is because while the world looks to him as president, he's not.

The vegetable no one sees for days on end still is. Technically.

The vanquished VP, who never was into a working gig to begin with, is just as happy living her life large and not in charge.

She has that devil-may-care, bon vivant attitude like, 'Don't expect me to do something NOW."

She's throwing up her hands...

...to signal for another bottle 'cuz she ain't playin'.

The world spins on without them.

Take Syria...please.

While Clarissa Ward was rescuing Assad regime torturers, Antony Blinken was welcoming the liberators, and the media was swooning over the 'moderate' Islamic fundamentalist terrorist (who wears a sports coat occasionally) who'd just taken over the country with all sorts of assistance from Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, that guy was busy getting the next step of his act together.

I'm not sure why it's a surprise, but everyone seems to be nonplussed to find that it would have something to do with wiping those pesky Kurds off the face of the Earth.

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Erdogan has let no jihadi dust settle under his feet.

While Russians rolled out and jihadis rolled into Syria, Turkish forces have been rolling right up to the border.

HIYA, PESTILENT NEIGHBORS

Senior U.S. officials say Turkey and its militia allies are building up forces along the border with Syria, raising alarm that Ankara is preparing for a large-scale incursion into territory held by American-backed Syrian Kurds

The forces include militia fighters, Turkish uniformed commandos and artillery in large numbers that are concentrated near Kobani, a Kurdish-majority city in Syria on the northern border with Turkey, the officials said. A Turkish cross-border operation could be imminent, one of the U.S. officials said.

The buildup, which began after Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell in early December, appears similar to Turkish military moves ahead of its 2019 invasion of northeast Syria. “We are focused on it and pressing for restraint,” another of the U.S. officials said.

Well, yoicks.

The Turks are not one for blustering force moves, either. The general rule is: if they build up, they're bringing it.

What should normally be a border dispute between one country and what it sees as a troublesome ethnic minority on the other side becomes fraught with danger in the Middle East, amplified by feckless, weak, and incoherent Biden 'policy.' No one has a clue what it is, everyone realizes whatever comes out of the administration has no teeth, and so they all will carry on as best suits their immediate interests unless there's some massive payoff involved. 

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That buys Blinken times but never any solutions.

There's some good antipathy history in this Xweet about the Kurds foiling Erdogan's fever dreams of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire. It drives everything he does.

The Kurds in Northern Syria have worked with the US for years in the fight against ISIS, and this is where many of the airstrikes the United States engaged in you may have heard about during the recent Syrian regime change originated from. US assets were pounding ISIS targets in Northern Syria to support Kurds who were now, besides ISIS, also under attack from Turkish-backed militias.

There are about 900 American troops who have been helping Kurds in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria keep ISIS at bay. Obviously, if the Turks overrun the Kurds, ISIS will flourish, but they've a more immediate problem, and the prospect is pretty horrifying.

The Kurds are holding more than 50,000 ISIS-related prisoners, and it would be the nightmare jailbreak of all time if that containment system were allowed to collapse.

...“This is essentially a terrorist army in detention,” said Joseph Votel, a retired general who led U.S. Central Command from 2016 to 2019, during the fight against ISIS. “I am very concerned.”

While the majority of the detained ISIS fighters are from Iraq or Syria, many others hail from Europe, Central Asia and North America — including the United States. Some countries have dragged their heels on repatriating the prisoners, leading to a yearslong legal limbo for some 9,000 battle-hardened ISIS fighters and about 50,000 other people, including wives and children.

The Kurdish groups, which refer to themselves as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, have been one of the United States’ most reliable allies in Syria in its campaign against ISIS. But Turkey, a key NATO ally, views the Kurdish groups as a major security threat. Its own proxy forces in Syria have launched several high-scale attacks against the SDF since Assad lost power this month.

The tense situation has burdened Kurdish forces as they continue to fight Turkish-backed militias and active ISIS cells.

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The threat to US forces in the region would be immediate and considerable.

...U.S. forces in Syria could face a new threat if the ISIS prison camp system collapses.

“This is something that can unravel fast,” said Caroline Rose, an expert on Syria at the New Lines Institute, a foreign policy think tank. “The potential risks are not only to our partners, but also the U.S. soldiers that are on the ground carrying out this advise-and-assist mission.”

Over the past week, the U.S. conducted dozens of airstrikes against ISIS positions targeting the group’s leadership. Central Command chief Gen. Erik Kurilla visited U.S. forces in Syria and met with SDF fighters as well before flying to Baghdad to huddle with Iraqi leaders.

“There should be no doubt — we will not allow ISIS to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria,” Kurilla said in a statement. “All organizations in Syria should know that we will hold them accountable if they partner with or support ISIS in any way.”

Blinken met with Erdogan in Anakara last week, looking for promises that Turkey wouldn't go after the Kurds. There were also talks ongoing between the Turks and the SDF, with the US as the mediator, but those collapsed on Monday. Bupkiss all around.

The Kurds noticed the Turkish buildup started immediately and appealed to the only authority it seems anyone pays attention to.

...Ilham Ahmed, an official in the Syrian Kurds’ civilian administration, told President-elect Donald Trump on Monday that a Turkish military operation appeared likely, urging him to press Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to send troops across the border.

...“From across the border, we can already see Turkish forces amassing, and our civilians live under the constant fear of imminent death and destruction,” Ahmed wrote to Trump.

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HELP US, OBI DON KENOBI - YOU'RE OUR ONLY HOPE

Trump has been pretty circumspect so far...for him.

Then again, he's NOT the damn president, is he?

Nope.

But the world expects him to act like it. 'All Trump has to do' is persuade "strongmen" worldwide because the sitting president is permanently out to lunch.

HOLD OFF YOUR JIHADIS

Just another day at the office he doesn't hold yet.

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