That didn't take long

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 02/20/2018 - 10:07am

Yesterday I pointed out that the Syrian government is coming to the assistance of the Syrian Kurds in the Afrin canton, who are under attack from Turkey.
This is how it went today.

It seems Russia stepped in.

The YPG hailed the arrival of the pro-government forces - which included militias allied to Assad but not the Syrian army itself - and said they were deploying along the front line facing the Turkish border.
But it made no mention of a deal that a Kurdish official said had been struck with Assad’s government for the Syrian army to enter Afrin.
Earlier on Tuesday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he had headed off the deployment through a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The (deployment) was seriously stopped yesterday,” he told reporters.

That's an interesting distinction. Shiite militias from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, but not the Syrian army. It's an awfully thin difference.

Just to be clear:

Turkey is an official NATO ally.

Syrian Kurds are an informal ally. But the Kurds aren't stupid. They know that America can't be counted on.

According to the NATO treaty, any attack on one is an attack on all.

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Submitted by Pricknick on Tue, 02/20/2018 - 10:37am
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was intentionally written to be as vague as possible. Article 6 says it only covers member nations territories.
I don't believe a majority of member nations would see what's happening in Syria as a condition requiring their militaries involvement. At least openly. The country to watch will be Germany. If they engage we're screwed.

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 02/20/2018 - 11:32am

warning: link to TOP

I could be much be wrong but from my layman perspective, this looks like a Putin masterstroke once again, and very likely a sequence of events resulting from a Russian-compromised Donald Trump.

The news reports are unclear but it appears that Putin is handing over Kurdish cities Afrin and Manbij to Turkey and without a peep in protest from Trump. This will corner Kurdish forces in these cities and prevent their retreat.

In just the first two paragraphs that was several totally wrong premises.

1) U.S. and Turkey already agreed to leave Manbij alone.
2) Putin doesn't want this at all.
3) Trump administration hasn't been silent.
4) Putin and Turkey haven't been working together on this.

*Trump’s treason is putting the US military in direct conflict with Russia.*

THAT is true. Of course it contradicts the rest of the diary.

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Submitted by k9disc on Tue, 02/20/2018 - 3:53pm
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Well, at least Putin is. Not sure about Erdogan. That dudes a fucking madman. I watched a few of his speeches of late and he scares me.

@gjohnsit

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 02/20/2018 - 1:13pm

that says it all

US-supplied weapons originally intended for moderate allies in Syria have ended up for sale on jihadist online forums in the country's northern al Qaeda heartland.
In a remarkable snapshot of the disastrous outcomes and thwarted ambitions of the West's six-year effort in Syria, an M16 assault rifle -- whose serial number suggests it was originally supplied as part of a US-taxpayer-funded effort to defeat extremists in the region -- was offered to CNN by a resident of the city of Idlib over the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
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