Audrey Conklin on October 11, 2019
Former U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice said President Donald Trump gave Turkey the “green light” to attack Kurds in Syria during a Friday morning Axios conference.
Rice’s comments came two days after the Turkish Armed Forces launched an offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, killing at least seven people in ground and air attacks after the White House ordered the remaining 50 U.S. soldiers in northern Syria out of the region Sunday.
Rice was responding to a question about whether the U.S. has “clarified its position” on Turkey’s offensive in Syria “clearly enough” when she said, “Yeah, the position is: green light.”
Shout out to @margarettalev for a great conversation this morning @Axios on Syria, the Nobel prize and #ToughLove — thanks for having me and for everyone who came out! https://t.co/TVYoJI2Bzd
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) October 11, 2019
“I think there’s been an effort to try to clean up a huge mess that the president made with his base here in Washington,” she said. “I think it’s absolutely political. … First, the president gave Erdogan the green-light on the first.”
“We continued to provide them aerial imagery until Monday when the offensive was about to begin, we did nothing to defend the Kurds when they were under assault from the air and deliberately ordered U.S. military personnel not to intercede to help the Kurds. Now, we’re just having a few more days of the Trump bluster about, you know, ‘I didn’t tell them they could do that,’” Rice continued.
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President Donald Trump said the U.S. “in no way” has “abandoned the Kurds” after Erdogan announced his “Operation Peace Spring” offensive.
“The United States does not endorse this attack and has made it clear to Turkey that this operation is a bad idea,” he added. “There are no American soldiers in the area. From the first day I entered the political arena, I made it clear that I did not want to fight these endless, senseless wars — especially those that don’t benefit the United States.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. did not green-light Turkey’s offensive in Syria in a Wednesday interview with PBS NewsHour.
Trump said during a Wednesday press conference that he would “wipe out” Erdogan’s economy if his forces in Syria wipe out the Kurdish population. The Kurds, an ethnic group, reside in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Armenia.
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Why is anyone listening to Susan Rice, she was willing to go out on National TV, 5 Sunday talk shows no less, and tell a flat out lie about Benghazi. It, was bad when Bush decided to go into Iraq, but Obama and his administration, put the middle east on fire. Now, they want us to take on Turkey to add more fuel to the fire. I really feel sorry for the Kurds, and I hope we get them away from this mess. But, Trump didn’t set this problem up, Obama did.
A typical lying statement from a socialist democrat. Take a world situation and twist it to match your agenda. It is not our job to protect these religious lunatics so don’t pretend that we are responsible for their bloodthirsty actions.
that’s a man baby!
No Susan, if you would have listened to candidate Donald Trump in 2016, and even up to 10 months ago when he informed the Kurds and our military this was about to happen, you would definitely have been aware that the President was bringing the troops home. But of course you were too busy blabbering to the press to pay attention. So go suck a thumb now and don’t pout.
So says a woman who lied for her administration which killed an American ambassador and helped to destabilize the Middle East even more than it already was. Thought the Democrats claimed that Turkey was our ally? Member of NATO and all of that.
Rice did not throw Trump under the bus. Trump managed to step off the kerb, all by his self aggrandised self.
Susan Rice is all of a sudden shown her ugly head back in public to be the Obama/Clinton Bulldog. Just like she did during Benghazi. The AG must be getting close to her masters. She’s more like a Pomeranian anyway.
word is she can beat The Obama arm wrestling.
Susan Rice, Obama, Clinton, and the others in the Obama administration should learn to keep their mouths shut with all of the blood, lies, and criminal activity on their hands. If we had a justice department with the back bone to put these Dems behind bars, we might be able to have some good people in our government fighting for our country and citizens.
Obama financed the Iranian nuclear program to the tune of $150 billion dollars. In reality, Obama gave Iran a green light to attack the rest of the world with nuclear weapons.
The middle east will always be in conflict as long as this WORLD exists and the LOCUSTS are all over this WORLD to destroy, plunder and RAPE!! They will not learn PEACE because they want to RULE over ALL lands and countries!! OUR OWN house of representatives proves any person in POWER can be for WORLD DICTATORSHIP!! POWER hungry PEOPLE will ALWAYS believe in LIES as long as they stay in POWER but once it applies to their FREEDOM they use the LAWS for THEIR own AGENDAS so that there not BROUGHT to JUSTICE but any person that doesn’t think THEIR AGENDA is the only way! Then THEIR PEOPLE start fighting at rallies and intimidate any person with their POLITICAL rivals! Stop this madness AND finally end this POLITICAL WITCHHUNT!!
She’s just a DISGUSTING DEMOCRAT!
And Trump had the f*cking nerve to spit in the faces of the Kurds..
Everyone knows this is a lie but of course the Democrats and the lefties we’ll take it as the god truth,,as usual the disgusting Democrats and the left is out there are out to change our laws or make their own laws that don’t apply to them.
Well, I do not see how 30, 60, or 100 days would make a difference. They would just use the time to make their plans and would start a fight as soon as we were out of there. As far as the Kurds, living under the endless threat of war, should have been always prepared to defend themselves, not just stay forever under the umbrella of the USA. It sounds to me like Bernie Sanders promising “free protection” to the kurds… what they gladly accepted. Therefore, as you ended you explanation, I disagree with you thoughts, but that is OK. We are civilized people and will express our differences by voting in whom we believe would be better for the country. I stick with the president. Thanks again for your time.
As far as “what we have accomplished,” as I said in my comment “there is no easy answer” to our “policing the world.” I will say that as a former soldier, most of us didn’t really care or try to analyze the politics of the situation. Most of us joined because we wanted to make a difference and hopefully keep America safe from our enemies. We always hoped or believed the decisions of our commanders was in the best interests of America. Questioning every order or trying to analyze everything we were doing would have only hindered our ability to do our job. As far as the Kurds and our pullout, as I’ve said before I’m always hoping our commanders and politicians are making the right decisions, since we’ve voted them into office to do that very thing. As I am no longer in the military, I feel more of an obligation to question intent and motives of our so-called leaders. With that said, I feel maybe we could have sat down with the Kurds and informed them in advance (60 days?) of what was to occur so they could have been better prepared. I don’t like being a “Monday morning quarterback,” but there it is as a start, whether you agree or not.
Thank you for your well thought response. Unfortunately, after WW II, with perhaps except one, all the major wars we fought just spilled American blood and nothing was really achieved. Consider Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia. There were others that we “won” (Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq) but our enemies are still there. Iran is just about to acquire nuclear capability. So, please, just tell me what have we accomplished with such great loss of American lives? As far as right way to pull off, since you did not like the President’s way, I would love to learn your suggestion. If you can propose another way that was not attempted before and would not take another hundred years to succeed, I am with your! Be well.
I did say that “I wasn’t saying we should be there forever helping these people.” I do believe we stick our noses in and stay in places far too long, but there is a right way and a wrong way to pull out of these conflicts.
As far as “policing the world,” there is no easy answer to that. As long as there are countries capable of harming the U.S., like Russia for example, we have a global responsibility to help prevent future conflicts on our own soil. Russia has enough might to take over entire regions, if it wanted to. We can decide to pull out completely from the Middle East, but if Iran or someone else achieves nuclear capabilities to take over their neighbors, I’d say we could be in serious trouble from these radical religious nut bags. Or look at places like India, Pakistan, and North Korea that already have these capabilities. You just never know what may happen if we don’t take some kind of proactive prevention and allow a “vacuum” in a area that allows “bad” people to swoop in. Although, I do believe other countries have to be more involved. World War II is a good example of when we just didn’t want to get involved in world politics, but if we hadn’t eventually decided to fully enter the war (plus Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor helped), who knows how much damage Hitler could have done, before he was stopped.
As far as “fighting,” I have, and I am willing to fight, if where we are and what we are doing furthers freedom and democracy in the world.
So what? Is the US the police of the world? Do we have to fight other countries war, some hundreds, or even more, years going on? Do you have a son, a husband or another loved one fighting those endless war? Are you willing to get a weapon and join the fight, yourself? Or, rather, is just trying to play smart with other people’s blood?
Announce that you’re pulling out support for the Kurds without notice and then all hell breaks out? Sounds like a “green light” to me. So all the bombing and killing that Turkey is doing is just “fake news?” I’m not saying we should be there forever helping these people, but you promise support and then abruptly pull out, is not the best way to handle the situation. Pretty soon the world will think of us as cowards that won’t hold up our end of a bargain, and then Russian will scoop in and take up the slack in the usual way they do things.
YES Remember Benghazi!!!
I believe we can SAFELY ignore ANYTHING this Obama worshiper says, after she made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows to dutifully repeat the “it was about a video” LIE about Benghazi! SMH. I think she would do ANYTHING for Obama! If he told her to jump off the roof of the Empire State Building, she would do it!
This is rich, coming as it does from a member of the most corrupt, criminal, treasonous administration in the history of this nation.
But you are NOT taking care of your country.The chaos is coming to you, over your borders,I see no difference between Obama’s movable red lines and axxx licking Iran, and Trump’s giving the Turks an open invitation to slaughter their enemies, So much for human rights, and America, the moral compass ! And my nephew fought in Iraq, Kept his legs but not his mind.
Sounds to me you just like wars…Are you a mercenary ?….or maybe a central figure in the military industrial complex ? as a veteran I’m disgusted and angry at the amount of money these wars cost the US,and we have run up quite a tab on our kids future…don’t you think ? I also have 2 boys who served in the Marine Corp,and both served in Afghanistan,1 coming home with NO LEGS ….Another useless war where the tenants of that country have been fighting for HOW LONG….Time for us to just take care of our country and let others fend for themselves.
If you understand white ants are eating every thing in their path, then you do not wait for them to invade your country. You destroy them on their own turf or you too will be devoured. Apart from the immorality of dumping your allies in their hour of need, the pragmatic motive for supporting the Kurds is that they are guarding thousands of rabid ISIL fighters, whose intention will be to invade the “free ” and “civilised “world, which sat back and made someone else–the Kurds, do their dirty work. They will be flooding over your vast, open borders. If you thought you had experienced terrorism—-you aint seen nothin’ yet. I understand rabid dogs should be shot, to contain the infection, but we missed that chance, and would nor allow the Kurds to provide justice, because we are so civilised and good.Israel, UK, should take note not to trust America.
irregardless you are as full of s**t as a Christmas goose and it’s plain to see you were never in any one of the so called wars/police actions….NUFF SAID…..
Ad “iregardless” that’s a made-up misnomer, a double-negative and “sometimes used instead of” excuse, just won’t cut it. “Regardless” and “irrespective” are the only correct synonyms. And those bs “dictionaries” are just worthless, making illiterate Americans even more illiterate.
Ad Korea – not Koreia, I never mentioned it. Declared or not, it was in fact a war, and calling it a “police action” doesn’t make the U.S. participation (under U.N. auspices) “policing”.
“Irregardless”; BeeDictionary.com. “Irregardless”; Scrabble Word Finder. “Irregardless”; AllWords.com. “Irregardless”; Vocabulary.com. “Irregardless”;
“Irregardless”; is a word sometimes used in place of regardless or irrespective……. And Koreia was never declared a war but was a police action….
Irregardless? There is no such word in any vocabulary! So it’s meaningless! As it’s meaningless the claim that the U.S. has ever been a “police force” anywhere in the world. The U.S. troops were inserted univited/invited, pretty much anywhere, wherever and whenever the Presidents and the Congress decided it served the U.S. national interests. These were mostly misguided “retaliatory” or “liberating” open-ended actions without exit strategies. There have been some exceptions, of course like Operation Desert Storm, the 42-day action and a few other quick in&out dito.
It’s about time that someone took a stand on fighting every country’s wars for them, They HAVE TO LEARN TO PROTECT their own country. WE CAN’T be the worlds POLICE FORCE any longer. The middle east has been at war for 2000+ years and will be at war for another 2000 irregardless of our participation and paying with our youths BLOOD……..PERIOD…
Words spewed by ANY obama-supporting admin types are not viable, and suspect the minute they’re uttered. Never forget Benghazi !
You mean she got the balls to get out in public again? With what this b!tch did and continued to do on national tv and proclaim Clinton and Obama acted like angels during the Benghazi coverup…. please.. we haven’t forgot about your shenanigans and the lady second emails to yourself in the whitehouse
Hey Susie – it’s all because of a video.
and Obama gave her the green light to lie for eight years.