OPINION:
Donald Trump has proved himself willing time after time to upset the way things have always been done. He is proving that again in the Syrian civil war and the fight against the Islamic State.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is becoming more and more dictatorial and anti-democratic with each passing day. He is also turning formerly secular Turkey into an Islamic theocracy. In spite of Turkey holding NATO’s southern flank (not that we could trust them anyway), President Trump has decided to arm the Kurdish forces in northern Syria, in an affront to the Turkish leader. Turkey considers Kurdish forces a terror group, bent on establishing a Kurdish state on the southern Turkish border.
Trump has always said, America first. I guess he means it when it comes to fighting ISIS terrorists. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, are being armed with heavy weapons as the American-led coalition attempts to retake the ISIS capital of Raqqa.
The administration is likely to provide 120mm mortars, machines guns, ammunition and light armoured vehicles. It is not expected to provide artillery or surface-to-air missiles, reports The Independent.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis described discussions with Turkey over the Kurdish issue, “That’s not to say we all walk into the room with exactly the same appreciation of the problem or the path forward…We’re going to sort it out. We’ll figure out how we’re going to do it.”
President Trump will meet with Turkish President Erdogan next week in Washington, D.C., to “reaffirm” the NATO alliance.
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