U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday expressed concern over Kurdish allies after President Donald Trump announced a change in the deployment of troops in Syria.
Blackburn said in a statement, “For the past several years, American forces have fought alongside our Kurdish allies in Syria to provide safety and security to the region. As the Syrian people seek stability post-conflict, we ought not to give ISIS any room to regain territory. Syria’s location leaves it vulnerable to adversaries, and an American presence preserves the possibility for peace.”
Breitbart on Monday reported the White House had clarified the disposition of American troops in Syria following concerns of Turkey’s involvement in that nation. After President Donald Trump on Sunday night tweeted it was time to bring troops home, a “senior White House official” on Monday spoke to reporters to say 50 troops would move within Syria for now. While the president wants to leave that country, this is not the time, the official said.
Blackburn has a history of supporting the Kurds.
On Jan. 31, U.S. Sens. Blackburn and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) wrote a letter requesting that Trump “develop and implement a strategy to help protect the security and diplomatic equities of our Kurdish partners serving in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during and after the withdrawal of United States military forces from Syria.”
“Achieving this goal requires guarding against armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and Kurdish SDF forces that fought alongside the United States in support of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS,” the letter states.
The full letter may be found here.
Blackburn included a provision in the Senate-passed 2020 National Defense Authorization Act to support the U.S. partnership with the Kurds in Syria.
The largest Kurdish diaspora in the United States is in Nashville.
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Don’t worry. Assad will call back in the Russians to clean up the mess, no fly zones and stuff like that.
–CCW
[…] On Monday, Blackburn began sharing her concerns for the Kurds in Syria, The Tennessee Star reported. […]
The House and the Senate have the delegated power to rectify this if the so desire:
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
But since WWII, they’ve handed off to presidential warlords–or peacemakers.
The House and Senate who are critical of the President should take back their lawful delegated power to name the enemie to be destroyed or from which to receive an unconditional surrender and either declare war or grant a Letter of Marque and Resprisal for non-state enemies. At that point, the President becomes Commander-in-Chief to wage and win the Constitutional war ASAP.
Marsha, if you’re so brave and patriotic, go risk your OWN life in Syria. Don’t play with the lives of our young people!
Perhaps Sen. Blackburn should concern herself more with the safety of American lives that are destroyed, young Tennesseans maimed and killed, by engaging in endless wars, wars that have been ongoing since the beginning of recorded history, and the economic disaster and personal tragedy those wars have wrought on our fellow Tennesseans.
Perhaps too, she should visit refugee camps inside Turkey, and the misery those wars have wrought on the Syrian people – the Turks are also fed up with housing and feeding refugees, as is Jordan – they have their own daunting problems. The Turks are also fed up with Syria being a safe haven for Kurdish terrorist groups that cross the border to commit acts of terror against Turkey.
It is up to Syria, as a sovereign nation, to defend its people. That’s the first role of legitimate government. If the Kurds want an ally to fight terrorism, the Syrian army would love to have them on their side and they would have no fiercer advocate in that endeavor than President Assad himself.
Since that’s unlikely, then maybe they’d be wise to at least stop offering safe haven to terrorists that cross the Turkish border to commit acts of terror.
Syria, in turn, has a military ally (Russia) with advanced weaponry that went in and did the heavy lifting necessary to defeat ISIS. We had the opportunity to do so in 2015 and, instead, we aided and abetted forces inside of Syria such as Al Nusra, aka Al Qaeda in Syria, that committed all manner of terrorist acts against innocent Syrians who just wanted to live life. Rebranding them as SDF doesn’t change that fact.
Marsha supporting #ForeverWar. She knows where the shekels come from.