10/15/19: Forced to trot out anyone they could find to defend the cut-and-run decision in Syria, it fell to that expert in U.S. geopolitical affairs, Lara Trump, Eric’s wife, to appear on Fox News and explain the situation. Ms. Trump made it clear she didn’t care about the Kurds and doubted most Americans did.
Most of us would have to Google, “Who are the Kurds?” to know anything, she said.
With Kurdish women and children dodging bullets and bombs, and tens of thousands fleeing slaughter at the hands of the Turks, her comments seemed beyond insensitive, especially when, generation after generation, Trumps have been adept at avoiding putting themselves in any lines of fire.
This blogger would be willing to bet that Lara and Eric’s children will keep that tradition alive.
That is, keeping family members alive.
*
WE ALSO LEARNED that on October 9, President Trump had mailed a letter to his Turkish counterpart, one that seemed so “puerile,” as a critic put it, he thought it must be a prank. As another pundit described the missive, in all its “batshit glory,” it read like a third grader might have written it using crayons.
In any case, Erdogan was unimpressed. According to the BBC, he deposited it in a waste basket by
his desk.
It wasn’t long before Jimmy Kimmel posted a parody (below) on
his late night show. This letter focused on how a past president might have
handled a foreign crisis, had he possessed half the deal-making skills of
Donald J. Trump.
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IT FINALLY FELL to Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo to travel to Turkey for conclave with Mr. Erdogan.
In miraculous fashion, in one day, they hammered out an “Art of the Deal” gem. According to Mr. Pence, Turkey agreed to a cease fire which would last five whole days!
The Turks almost immediately announced that what they had agreed to was not a cease fire, but a “pause in operations.”
They would stop bombing the hell out of our old friends, so long as the Kurds agreed to leave the lands where they had lived for centuries and take their armament with them. Or they could lay their weapons down and stay – and hope the Turks would refrain from slaughtering them like sheep. In return for this face-saving cease fire and/or pause, the U.S. would halt sanctions it had threatened to slap on the Turks, and everyone would live happily ever after.
Except our loyal allies, the Kurds.
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