Trump slams U.S.-allied Kurds as 'not angels'

Source: The Hill | October 16, 2019 | Quint Forgey

The president forcefully defended his widely condemned decision to allow Turkey to invade northern Syria.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday insulted Kurdish forces under siege by the Turkish military in northern Syria, remarking from the Oval Office that those U.S.-allied soldiers who led the charge against Islamic State fighters in the region are “not angels.”

“The Kurds know how to fight, and as I said, they’re not angels,” Trump told reporters, appearing alongside Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

“They’re not angels, if you take a look. You have to go back and take a look. But they fought with us, and we paid a lot of money for them to fight with us, and that’s OK,” he continued. “They did well when they fought with us. They didn’t do so well when they didn’t fight with us.”

The incendiary comments marked perhaps the president’s most dismissive defense of his widely condemned decision earlier this month to allow Turkey to invade Syria, and come just days after the Pentagon’s announcement that Trump had directed the evacuation of the last U.S. troops still stationed in the West Asian nation.

Facing a sustained Turkish onslaught following the American withdrawal, the Syrian Kurdish militias have now aligned themselves with President Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus — a geopolitical rival of Washington backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Kurds actually are pulling back substantially from Turkey, and Syria is pulling in,” Trump said. “Syria probably will have a partner of Russia, whoever they may have. I wish them all a lot of luck.”

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