'You know what? It's yours': Trump reportedly threw his hands up on Syria during phone call with the

[UpInArms]

Source: Business Insider

'You know what? It's yours': Trump reportedly threw his hands up on Syria during phone call with the Turkish president

Capping off what has been a tumultuous week for the Trump administration are reports from multiple outlets that offer some clues as to why President Donald Trump made his decision to pull US troops out of Syria that prompted Defense Secretary James Mattis to resign.

That development materialized last Friday during a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after Erdogan asked Trump why there were still 2,000 US troops in Syria if the Islamic State had been defeated.

"You know what? It's yours," Trump said, according to The Washington Post. "I'm leaving."

The Associated Press reported that members of Trump's national-security team, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mattis, wrote out talking points to dissuade Turkey from bringing troops into northern Syria and attacking Turkish Kurds, which would put US forces at risk. The US is allied with the Turkish Kurds in Syria, providing them with supplies and training in the fight against the Islamic State.

But both The Post and the AP explain that Trump went rogue.

Read more: https://amp.businessinsider.com/trump-syria-us-troops-pullout-turkish-president-erdogan-2018-12

---

Oh.dear.god.

This ... 👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼.... is not how diplomacy happens ....

(Understatement)

[vlyons]

2. So how do we know about this call?

or what Trump said to Erdogan? This is a serious question. Who leaked this bit of information? Is the CIA or FBI recording his phone calls?

[UpInArms]

7. The longer version of this article is at the Washington Post

But ... sometimes it gets behind a paywall for some ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/a-tumultuous-week-began-with-a-phone-call-between-trump-and-the-turkish-president/2018/12/21/8f49b562-0542-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html?utm_term=.e78ba19eea1f

The call, shorthanded in more or less the same words by several senior administration officials, set off events that, even by the whirlwind standards of Washington in the Trump years, have been cataclysmic. They ended, for the moment at least, with Thursday’s resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

This account of the tumultuous past week is drawn from interviews with government officials in the White House and across national security departments, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity while the dust was still settling. The White House and the Turkish Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

[onit2day]

37. Speaker ph so aides could hear. Trump doesn't care about security

He just wanted to avoid conflict in his already overwhelming day. "Fine, fine. whatever you say"

[watoos]

3. It is suspicious, there do seem to be an inordinate amount of leaks going on.

[TJKatd]

29. I'm as Dem as they come...

Last edited Sat Dec 22, 2018, 04:03 PM - Edit history (1)

But I admit I have a red streak on things like this. National security and diplomacy need absolute secrecy, and I'll risk the occasional bad behavior that may not get disclosed. Whoever leaks things like this need their dicks smashed. I know many on here will gasp, but even the person who leaked the transcript of the call between Flynn and the Russian ambassador needs to be Flynn's roommate behind bars. IT'S THAT SERIOUS.

And yes, I know the violated sometimes release this type of info too, feigning the other side released it. They need to go to jail for doing so.

Transparency is a good thing. But not with all things.

Rant over

[politicaljunkie41910]

34. According to the OP, Pompeo and Mattis, wrote out talking points for Trump to follow, and he

obviously didn't, so Trump is the one who went rogue. I'm glad someone is monitoring his calls, and calling him out when Trump goes off the reservations. He can do whatever the hell he wants with Trump Tower and Mira Lago, but this dumb as a brick used car salesman doesn't have the right to sell out our country, our allies, and our troops, for 17 pieces of silver.

[karynnj]

31. Trump's absolutely chaotic, incoherent actions that are often against the advise of even his team,

cause this inordinate amount of leaks. On this, Mattis and Special Envoy, McGurk resigned over Trump taking a policy completely at odds with our interests. The characterization of that conversation shows that Trump has no ability or patience needed to consider all the issues and forces at work in that area. I remember in 2016, Secretary Kerry speaking about how it was the most complex situation he had seen in his over 30 years (when he was either on the SFRC or Secretary). He listed the many simultaneous conflicts that ALL needed to be considered and resolved.

Also, I read accounts of the various Obama era plans to deal with ISIS. In brief the plan was to have the boots on the ground being local people, especially the Kurds, in both Iraq and Syria with US and allies supplying guidance and air power. Obama and his allies worked to involve the Iraqi government and pushed them to make their government more inclusive. In addition to the military, there was a strong effort to restore goverence and rebuild in the areas reclaimed. Norway and the US led on a demining effort and there were efforts to get pledges from governments to fund rebuilding totally decimated cities. The effort was to try to avoid the situation that occured in both Iraq and parts of Afghanistan where we and allies succeeded in winning areas -- only to lose them after we moved on. Developing good goverence was key to Iraq keeping the areas won back.

Syria was always more complicated because there was a civil war and we could not ally with Assad. We "deconflicted" with Assad, Russia and Iran to avoid hitting each other as we all fought ISIS. The US was part of the diplomatic efforts that began in 2011 to end the civil war. In 2015, John Kerry and Sergi Lavrov did succeed in getting a resolution passed. This included the very heavy lift of getting both Saudi Arabia and Iran on board. There were also many ceasefires, that never held for long. One part of the UN resolution is it would lead to a UN led election that would also allow the various people who left Syria to vote. As noted in the UN document, the role of Assad was not agreed upon. https://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc12171.doc.htm

This resolution was the basis of the January 2018 UN effort and current efforts. Here is a recent statement - https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/note-correspondents/2018-12-18/note-correspondents-statement-of-behalf-of-the-un-special-envoy-for-syria-staffan-de-mistura

The problem here is that Trump never joined the diplomatic effort to end the chaos. That weakens the power of our allies in the coalition and has increased the voice of Assad, Russia and Iran.

Here is a link to a summary of the UN diplomatic efforts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_peace_process. Note that since mid December 2016, the US has not been involved. The lame duck Obama administration was specifically NOT invited to the first Russia, Turkey and Iran effort, but they extended an invitation at that time for the Trump administration to join when he took office that was reported by the WP and others ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/first-sign-of-enhanced-us-russia-relations-under-trump-an-invite-to-syria-talks/2017/01/13/81d443d6-d9b9-11e6-9f9f-5cdb4b7f8dd7_story.html?utm_term=.b0fe747c9258 ) As can be seen from the time line, the US has been absent for the last two years in these diplomatic efforts.

[rampartc]

4. "You know what? It's yours, I'm leaving."

i guess thats how ivana got the house

and marla got her settlement

and stormy got her non disclosire money

and ........

actually, i've said the same thing.

[True Blue American]

8. Smile

[2naSalit]

23. If we're really lucky...

he'll leave the WH like that right about January 5th.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

28. Nope, it'll be Jan 23.

Why limit Pence to a 6-year potential presidency when he can wait a few days and make it a 10-year potential presidency.

The longer Repubs own the White House, the more right-wing fundie Supreme Court justices they can enthrone.

[duforsure]

5. Once again...

...trump is aiding and abetting ISIS , Putin , and Erdogan by doing this for an enemy of this country. Remember he outted an agent to putin who was undercover in ISIS already helping russia and ISIS. When he claims he's defeated ISIS its like W's mission accomplished moment .

[Just a Weirdo]

24. Yup. The very definition of treason.

Yep, we have a treasonous President.

[Achilleaze]

6. republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief deserts the US military

surprise surprise

[pazzyanne]

21. He didn't desert the military, he never joined in the first place!

Talk is cheap. Case in point is tRump saying that he knows more than all the generals. A 5 time draft dodger knows more than the generals? Give me a break. I know more strategy from playing Risk than the orange clown never will, and I rarely win at Risk.

[Botany]

9. I might be wrong but Trump might be doing this so Erdogan doesn't release the tape of ....

Last edited Sat Dec 22, 2018, 09:28 AM - Edit history (1)

.... Khashoggi's brutal murder. Which by the way Jared might have helped to set up.

[watoos]

11. Spot on. Erdogan has Trump compromised.

Remember, Khashoggi wrote unflattering things about Trump too.

[Botany]

12. And Kushner gave the Crown Prince a PDB (Presidential Daily Briefing) that had ....

.... something to do with Khashoggi and that we knew that MBS wanted to kill him.

about 1:15 into the video

Trump is compromised by the Saudis, Putin/Russia/Erdogan

[Jedi Guy]

26. At this juncture...

We should list who hasn't compromised 45. It'd be a shorter list.

[politicaljunkie41910]

35. And for that, his ass needs to go to jail for a long time. A PDB is a classified report. If Jared

shared it with MBS he and his father-in-law both deserve to be locked up for a long time. Trump just re-opened Guantanemo Bay to accept new prisoners. He should be the first and he puck ass son-in-law should be second.

[ewagner]

19. Good guess...

Protecting MBS and Jared...

[YOHABLO]

10. We can't abandon an ally to be slaughtered.

[watoos]

14. Trump just did.

I'm listening to Iraq/Afghanistan vets on TV saying they are getting texts from soldiers in the field wanting to know WTF is going on? If you were an ally of the U.S. would you give us sensitive top secret information right now?

Trump has ruined our country's reputation in 2 short years. It will take a long time to restore it.

Some day I will tell a story about when I was working in Chile in 2003 and a Chilean lost it on me for what Kissinger and Nixon did overthrowing Allende back in 1973 I think. I had to tell the Chileans in 2003 that I didn't vote for Bush to smooth things over. Chileans were very much opposed to our invasion of Iraq.

[LisaM]

17. I feel the same WTF that soldiers in the field

voted for Trump (and for that matter, W.) What did they think would happen?

[Codeine]

25. Kind of a running theme for us with the Kurds. nt

[oberliner]

32. Isn't Turkey a NATO ally?

[coeur_de_lion]

13. I think this was Putin's idea

not Individual 1.

[watoos]

15. Putin/Erdogan/Iran/Assad all stand to benefit.

I saw one tiny article where Israel was pissed off. You would think that Bibi would be out and about screaming at his buddy Trump? Iran may control territory now in Israel's backyard.

[coeur_de_lion]

16. Israel should be shouting

from the rooftop about how Individual 1 just screwed them. Why aren't they?

[ginnyinWI]

18. Just what we need: a hothead who doesn't think about long term consequences. n/t

[FakeNoose]

20. This is why Cheeto should never be allowed to talk to foreign govt officials by phone

He has created so many gaffes in the last 2 years over his lack of understanding and failures in diplomacy.
He'll probably start World War III while he's on the phone with the wrong person.

[watoos]

22. Maybe they are calling him,

calling in their markers? When the mob lends you money, one day they are going to want repaid.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. The Art of the Deal: If dealing with an authoritarian, give them whatever they want on a whim

If dealing with an elected congress still controlled by your own party who have nevertheless worked out a deal with the representatives of the rest of the country, tell them all it's either exactly what you want, or you screw up people's Christmas by shutting down government.

This is not "America First", unless that's the order in which countries suffer.

[uppityperson]

30. Rather than saying he was wrong, ISIS hasn't been defeated, he pulled "I'm taking my ball and

going home"???

[SWBTATTReg]

33. Another confirmation of his ability to govern, and inability to lead. What a joke. nt

[BigmanPigman]

36. Great foreign policy you have there, you fucking moron!

[pat_k]

38. The horror -- and peril -- of having a mentally ill person in control of foreign policy.

Also, from The Guardian

Mattis resignation triggered by phone call between Trump and Erdoğan

According to a version of events in the Associated Press, the US position going into the call was to demand that Turkey stall a planned offensive into Syria aimed at US-backed Kurdish elements of the SDF, which Ankara sees as indistinguishable from the Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

“The talking points were very firm,” one of the officials quoted by the Associated Press said. “Everybody said push back and try to offer [Turkey] something that’s a small win, possibly holding territory on the border, something like that.”

Erdoğan responded by saying that Isis had been 99% defeated.

“Why are you still there?” Erdoğan demanded, according to the account.

With the Turkish leader still on the line, Trump asked the same question of his national security adviser, John Bolton, who repeated US policy until then, that the defeat of Isis had to be “enduring”, preventing the possibility of a resurgence.

To the surprise of Bolton and Erdoğan, Trump instantly sided with the Turkish president.

According to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, whose account is similar to the Associated Press’s, Trump declared: “OK – do it.” Not hearing an instant response from Bolton, Trump demanded to know whether his national security adviser was still on the line. When Bolton said he was, Trump ordered: “Start the work.”

Even insane Bolton was shocked... Quite a feat.

[Grasswire2]

39. Take away his cell phone.

Surely Jared and Ivanka can take it away.