🇺🇸❌🇹🇷 Author for the Washington D.C. think tank, Middle East Forum (MEF), Michael Rubin:

The United States Needs to Prepare to Kill Turks in Syria

Turkey’s Actions Already Cross the Rubicon and Place American Forces and Interests in Jeopardy

The celebrations that ended the more than half-century of Assad family tyranny in Syria are over. In the short term, Russia and Iran are losers; Turkey is the winner. After all, Turkey was the prime backer of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham rebel group that swept through Syria.

Many defense professionals still embrace Turkey because of Turkey’s role in NATO. It was one of only two NATO countries to border the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and it has the second largest military of any NATO country. Troop numbers, however, are a meaningless metric; what matters more is the potential to utilize them for NATO missions.

While the strategic importance of Incirlik Air Base has declined with the openings of alternatives in Greece and Romania, as well as more advanced amphibious assault vessels capable of transporting F-35s nearly anywhere in the world, the bureaucratic dynamic remains in the Pentagon loath to forfeit any base access. In effect, like Qatar with the al-Udeid Air Base, Turkey leverages the Incirlik as a get-out-of-jail-free card to avoid accountability for any number of malign behaviors. Defense professionals argue that Turkey’s early warning radar station at Malatya is essential to detect any launch of a potential Iranian nuclear weapon.

It may be diplomatically impolitic to say directly, but if Turkish-backed forces encourage terrorism and continue to pose threats to American forces countering the Islamic State in the region, it behooves the United States to begin a conversation about whether it may be necessary to target Turkish terror sponsors in the region. Turkey is a NATO member, but striking at its forces outside Turkey’s boundaries would not trigger NATO self-defense clauses. Nor should there be outrage at such discussion.

If Turkey is willing to kill Americans operating in pursuit of official American policy inside Syria, then the United States should adopt the same policy and be willing to kill Turks outside Turkey’s own borders.

📝: No. The situation calls for a withdrawal of US forces from Syria. Pres. Trump has a golden opportunity to open a new page w/Turkey by negotiating an orderly departure of troops. The US interest is not served by a prolonged troop presence.

🔗 https://www.meforum.org/mef-observer/the-united-states-needs-to-prepare-to-kill-turks-in-syria