While US President Donald Trump continues spouting claims of bringing troops home from Syria and exchanges threats of sanctions with Turkey, the mainstream narrative is neglecting to acknowledge the two nations' history of carving up Syria and the dozen US bases actively blocking Damascus from its own resources.
Friday marked the third day of Turkey's “Operation Peace Spring” along the Syrian border, and despite Washington's decision to shift some 50 soldiers out of the way, US Special Forces near Aleppo's Kobani still ended up on the receiving end of the offensive.
Though a Friday evening Pentagon release noted that no Americans were injured by Turkish artillery fire, the Trump administration and the Turkish Foreign Ministry are still trading threats on an economic front.
In response to US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's Friday announcement of possible US sanctions to curtail Turkey's offensive, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a response that explained Washington was well-informed concerning “the target and scope of the operation” and that Ankara is prepared to “respond in full” against any actions from the Trump administration.
These higher-level exchanges, along with French President Emmanuel Macron's talks with Trump, have dominated corporate media headlines and stories while simultaneously neglecting Turkey's main objective and the US' overwhelming presence in the region the Kurds call Rojava.
Ben Norton, a…
