When It Comes to Killing People, Trump Is Acting More Like Bush
by tristero
During my lifetime, George W. Bush holds the record for being the US president directly responsible for the most deaths through neglect and violence. Bush’s incompetence and profoundly deep psychopathy killed both Americans (also, here) as well as non-Americans (but he specialized in the latter).
So far, Trump’s death record — as awful as it is — doesn’t come close to this monstrous level. That’s about to change:
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday that Turkey’s military has launched a long-expected offensive into northeastern Syria targeting U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters who have played a central role in battling the Islamic State militant group.
“The Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Syrian National Army, just launched #OperationPeaceSpring against PKK/YPG and Daesh terrorists in northern Syria,” Erdogan wrote on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, referring to the Syrian-Kurdish force as well as the Islamic State.
“Our mission is to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border, and to bring peace to the area,” he said. Turkish media outlets aired footage of warplanes leaving from an air base in Turkey’s southeast and large explosions in Tel Abyad and another Syrian border town.
The offensive has presented the Trump administration with a dilemma, because of the Syrian-Kurdish forces alliance with the United States.
The White House announced Sunday that it was withdrawing U.S. troops from the area that Turkey planned to invade, igniting a firestorm of criticism. Republican leaders denounced Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds. Pentagon officials struggled with explanations, humanitarian workers warned of civilian casualties, and Kurdish commanders said they might be forced to abandon their Syrian prisons holding thousands of captured Islamic State fighters and head for the front lines against Turkey.
Anyone who thinks that America will be able to go back to pre-Trump norms or quickly recover global credibility is fooling themselves. That’s because even though the upcoming slaughter of the Kurds’ are on Trump, but all Americans will be blamed.
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