President Trump has continued to defend his actions pulling U.S. Troops from Syria, while at the same time condemning Turkey for its airstrikes and ground troops pushing into Syria. Reuters reports that “Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies pushed further into Syrian territory on Thursday, opening up a new front in the eight-year-old Syrian civil war, and exposing Europe’s powerlessness and inability to influence the direction of the conflict.”
“This is a recipe for disaster, be it for the Turks, the Kurds or us,’ said a senior European diplomat. ‘This Turkish intervention is a complete distraction that will open up a Pandora’s box.”
President Trump has defended his actions largely by the fact that the biggest foreign policy mistake ever made was the United States getting involved in the Middle East. Trump says our involvement has become a ‘policing’ system which allows for Middle Eastern and European countries to have no responsibility in working towards the stability of their own region.
Ankara has said “it intends to create a ‘safe zone’ to return millions of refugees to Syrian soil, for which it wants Europe to pay, a plan European diplomats have said is unrealistic.” Looks like President Trump’s assessment of Europe unwilling to take responsibility, whether it be militarily or monetarily, is still the case despite the removal of U.S. troops and Turkish invasion.
Turkey currently hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees and is threatening to “open the gates’ to allow those already in the country to head for Europe unless it receives support for its plans.” One European diplomat said of the 2016 migration deal with Turkey “we need to put our house in order. There hasn’t been a collective solution to the refugee problem so we find ourselves exposed to this blackmail.”
Continue Reading: Reuters
