You may have caught Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Face the Nation Sunday talking about the withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria. He gave it the usual anti-war spin, at an attempt at making it sound positive, but what the withdrawal really is, is a pro-Erdogan ploy, which plays right into ISIS’ hands, and our allies are getting slaughtered — and our troops are appalled, and what else could they be?

Pete Buttigieg: “If you take away a soldier’s honor, you might as well go after their body armor next, that is what the commander-in-chief is doing right now," he said insisting Trump was “systematically destroying American allies and American values" https://t.co/8h2L9A4Lqu — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) October 13, 2019

My cousin was in Syria, he’s EOD was helping the Kurds. He called today and said “They’re great fighters and great people, and we fukd em hard” civilians dead, raped, heads being cut off. New ISIS, same as the old ISIS. Fuck you Trump. You have shamed us, you pathetic loser — Christopher Titus (@TitusNation) October 13, 2019

This is not only a horrendous misfire of foreign policy, this is murder — genocide, to be more specific. Daily Beast:

A U.S. official told CNN that U.S. policy “has failed” and that the campaign in Syria to defeat ISIS is “over for now,” giving the terrorist group “a second lease on life with nearly 100,000 [people] who will re-join their jihad.” The mixed messaging by the Trump administration is making it difficult for even his most ardent supporters to help unravel his foreign policy on Syria as it spins out of control. Just days after Trump announced the withdrawal of American troops from northern Syria where they have been providing weapons and cover to allied Kurdish fighters on the border between Turkey and Syria, Turkey began a military incursion that has sent the region into a level of chaos it has not seen in recent years. The Daily Beast first reported Friday that claims made by the Trump administration that U.S. troops had been withdrawn were false. “We are out of there. We’ve been out of there for a while,” Trump said Wednesday. “No soldiers whatsoever.” Two officials told The Daily Beast that in fact the U.S. military had only pulled back–not completely out–of northern Syria. They had simply abandoned two small observation posts from which they supported Kurdish allies in the fight against Islamic State fighters.

If this doesn’t depress you enough, the New York Times reported that several dozen “high value” ISIS POW prisoners just escaped:

The American military was unable to transfer about five dozen “high value” Islamic State detainees out of Kurdish-run wartime prisons before the Pentagon decided to move its forces out of northern Syria and pave the way for a Turkish-led invasion, according to two American officials. In the same area on Sunday, hundreds of Islamic State sympathizers escaped from a low-security detention camp in the region, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Turkish ground invasion and the accompanying strikes. Both developments underscored the pandemonium unleashed by President Trump’s sudden decision to order American troops to evacuate part of the Syrian region bordering Turkey.

“Chaos” “pandemonium” “bloodshed” “crime against humanity” “genocide” — these are the words you’re going to be seeing a lot, along with rape, decapitation, death and all the usual descriptors that depict when a catastrophic military blunder has just been made. Donald Trump had people snowed back in the day that he had “defeated ISIS” because his zombie followers were listening to right-wing media and buying into it. The Trump lie is the norm, but the horror that he’s unleashed in the past few days is extra special. And that is, that ISIS.Is.Back. And you think Trump cares — or even knows? Hell, no. He’s the rich man on the links. Welcome to Amerigeddon — our version of the fall of Rome.

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Many thanks and a tip of the hat to our fellow Zoomer L Mendoza who contacted me with this tip.