Last October, President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops in the northwest section of Syria, setting the stage for the Turkish invasion of Kurdish-controlled land.
However, President Trump decided to keep 500 military personnel in the region, which has led to conflict between the American forces there protecting U.S. oil interests and Russian troops backing Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad against Turkish and U.S. invasion/occupation.
Last Wednesday, near the city of Qamishli, U.S. military tanks and jeeps were stopped at a checkpoint by Russian-backed Syrian forces. Syrian citizens threw rocks and garbage at the American military vehicles, setting one on fire.
In response to the troops killing one of the protesters, an American spokesman said, “After coalition troops issued a series of warnings and de-escalation attempts, the patrol came under small-arms fire from unknown individuals. In self-defense, coalition troops returned fire.”
Shortly after, a human rights activist group reported, “Coalition warplanes targeted the village minutes after that.”
Criticism of the environment U.S. troops are being forced to endure in Syria came from Brett McGurk, former senior National Security Advisor to Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump. McGurk tweeted: “We have American soldiers with an ill-defined mission in Syria (‘protect the oil’) after abandoning ¾ of once stable territory on Trump’s orders, now forced to navigate roads controlled by Russian and Syrian regime forces.”
Despite America’s illegal presence in Syria, the U.S. has accused Moscow of breaking an agreement with Washington to keep their respective military forces out of each other’s way. The U.S. claims Russia and its Syrian allies have been pushing the boundaries of the agreement, increasing the odds of escalating the conflict between the two forces.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: Absent among the Washington establishment and U.S. media is any mention that America’s claim of “self-defense” is unsubstantiated, since America has illegally invaded a foreign nation that has posed no threat to the U.S. or its citizens. Yet, America’s “self-defense” refrain continues unabated, not only in Syria, but also in all the nations the U.S. has illegally invaded, bombed, destroyed, and is occupying.
Also barely mentioned is that some 600,000 Syrians have been killed since the war to overthrow the Assad government was launched in 2011, six million have fled the country, and another seven million have been driven from their homes yet remain trapped inside the country.
Turkey Threatens More Blood
The latest Turkish invasion into northeastern Syria, code-named Operation Peace, was conducted by the Turkish military and the Syrian National Army (SNA) against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Turkey considers a terrorist organization due to its close ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an ally of the United States.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated his military “offensive” (a.k.a. invasion) into Syria is an attempt to stop the pouring of Syrian refugees into Turkey. There are now some four million refugees who have fled across the border to avoid murder, destruction, and violence of the Syrian War launched by the U.S. and its Arab League allies in 2011.
Over the past few weeks, Syrian and Russian troops have been fighting in Idlib, the last rebel-held area, and the nearby Aleppo region, causing some 800,000 residents to flee toward the Turkish border. Over 5,000 Turkish troops have since invaded the Idlib region.
Last Tuesday, Devlet Bahçeli, chairman of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party, said, “Assad is a murderer, criminal, illegal and a source of strife… if necessary, the Turkish nation should plan to enter Damascus.”
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: As with the U.S., which has illegally invaded Syria and vows revenge for any attacks on its troops by Syrian forces to repel them from their country, last week Erdoğan stated, “If any harm comes to our troops at the observation posts or anywhere else, we will hit the regime forces anywhere, without limiting ourselves… To achieve that, we will do whatever is necessary on the ground and in the air without any hesitation and without allowing any stalling.”
Again, absent from the reporting and commentary is the overt illegality and criminality of foreign nations invading a sovereign nation with the prime motive being regime change, occupation, and control of the nation’s natural resources and strategic location.
