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1. With tours in Baghdad, Basra, Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, and multiple deployments to Pristina, may I offer a little insight, that many of those talking heads on U.S cable news do not have, and should not be offered the privilege of taking about.
The U.S SF Troops that ... https://twitter.com/andrewsweiss/status/1184140156690939904
The U.S SF Troops that ... https://twitter.com/andrewsweiss/status/1184140156690939904
2. ...were deployed here, did so at great personal risk. But U.S troops arrived in N.Syria and cracked on w/ a task that, at the core, had the building of strong and therefore personal relationships w/ members of the SDF, who were critical to the U.S SF Operational Plan (OpPlan).
3. The OpPlan’s success would have been measured w/ the SDF by achieving objectives outlined in the OpPlan, ultimately leading towards the OpPlan’s Endstate. I would argue the SDF would have been the Centre of Gravity to the U.S SF OpPlan. As an operator, the success you achieve
4. makes the huge risks you take worthwhile. I’ve worked with the Iraqi Kurds, and know many that have worked with the Syrian Kurds. They are extremely good people who want to run their own lands according to their cultures. Trump’s decision, w/out consulting the Jt Chiefs’...
5. or the U.S’s Allies, causing the unpicking of years of risk-on work, w/ thousands of SDF/U.S lives lost, should disqualify him from the C-in-C role. #Kurds
6. Trump has blindsided the Pentagon, put his own troops lives at risk, betrayed the Syrian Kurds, the only U.S ally that had the loyalty, mettle and effectiveness to take on I.S. He has handed all influence in the region to Russia, U.S troops in Iraq will now question why they
7. are taking high risk. Iran’s reach in the region has now been offered a boost, and to cap it all off, Trump is now sending U.S troops to Saudi for cash. #Kurds
8. The C-in-C has to have respect for the lives and missions that he asks his troops to engage in. This isn’t just a betrayal of the Northern Syrian Kurds, Trump has betrayed his own military. Let that sink in. #Kurds
9. @PeteButtigieg sums it up perfectly here: ‘If you take away a soldier’s honor, you might as well take away their armor.’
#DemDebate https://twitter.com/petebuttigieg/status/1184278816702775296?s=21
#DemDebate https://twitter.com/petebuttigieg/status/1184278816702775296?s=21
10. And a note for @realDonaldTrump:
Your pledge to provide the U.S military ‘the equipment, the resources, and the funding they need to secure [the U.S] homeland’ — I promise you will be nugatory, if you shatter the morale of soldiers by blindsiding/betraying their Generals.
Your pledge to provide the U.S military ‘the equipment, the resources, and the funding they need to secure [the U.S] homeland’ — I promise you will be nugatory, if you shatter the morale of soldiers by blindsiding/betraying their Generals.
11. There are 2 main issues that create a myriad of clusters:
• Issue 1: The U.S has decided to withdraw its support to the Syrian Kurds, in the fight against I.S.
• Issue 2: the isolated approach that Trump took & the disastrous way the withdrawal was effected.
• Issue 1: The U.S has decided to withdraw its support to the Syrian Kurds, in the fight against I.S.
• Issue 2: the isolated approach that Trump took & the disastrous way the withdrawal was effected.
12. One of the US’s finest & selfless military officers, Admiral McRaven, makes a point that I echo and tried to make in my thread (below). There were countless missions that I flew, or planned on, where we as coalition soldiers knew we were risking our lives for the greater good
12. Most who join the military do not for financial gain, more, to make a difference. I worked with hundreds of U.S troops, officers and NCO’s over my career that had goodness at their core, values, compassion. Even when politically we have no say, we make good on the ground.
13. U.S & U.K soldiers will have grown to love working with the SDF in the pursuit of I.S. They will have seen the loss & sacrifice by SDF not touched upon by MSM. I saw it first hand by Iraqi Troops in Mosul when reporting there in 2017. This Iraqi soldier died in front of me.
14. My point? When US generals of the highest order are condemning catastrophic decisions by Trump in isolation, that blindside his own generals & cause abhorrent suffering of partners on the ground, that U.S troops will have respected & admired, you have to sit up & listen. END
15. In this thread I spoke about the strong bonds U.S soldiers will have formed w/ the Syrian Kurds. And the feeling of betrayal of their critical ally, when being told to hastily withdraw w no exit strategy. This image, a withdrawing U.S soldier wearing a YPJ badge, says it all.
