Oh Goody, Economic Sanctions On Turkey

Real people are fucking dying. Innocent people are fucking dying. Former American allies are fucking dying because of something that President Donald Trump deliberately did knowing full well the consequences.

So Donny Tariff pulls out his bucket of economic sanctions to punish the Turkish Miscreants.

Targeting Turkey’s economy, President Donald Trump announced sanctions Monday aimed at restraining the Turks’ assault against Kurdish fighters and civilians in Syria — an assault Turkey began after Trump announced he was moving U.S. troops out of the way.

In his sanctions announcement, Trump said he was halting negotiations on a $100 billion trade deal with Turkey and raising steel tariffs back up to 50%. Trump also imposed sanctions on three senior Turkish officials and Turkey’s defense and energy ministries.

“I am fully prepared to swiftly destroy Turkey’s economy if Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path,” Trump said.

We had about 1,000 American troops in Syria. They weren’t in an endless war…they were keeping the peace. Now we are trying to figure out how to get them all out safely…while Turkey wreaks havoc with the Kurdish population in Syria…and ISIS fighters and adherents escape from Kurdish guarded enclaves. This genie won’t go back in the bottle even if the Turks stood down immediately.

But don’t worry, we have tariffs, we have sanctions, and the president apparently shook a virtual finger at Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“President Trump communicated to him very clearly that the United States of American wants Turkey to stop the invasion, implement an immediate ceasefire and to begin to negotiate with Kurdish forces in Syria to bring an end to the violence,” (US Vice President Mike) Pence said.

What exactly did the president think was going to happen? Nearly all of the rest of us expected exactly this!

Trump said Turkey’s invasion is “precipitating a humanitarian crisis and setting conditions for possible war crimes,” a reference to reports of Turkish-backed fighters executing Kurdish fighters on the battlefield.

One last thing, our president, ever the foreign policy visionary, says:

In a series of tweets Monday, Trump defended his gamble that pulling U.S. forces out of Syria would not weaken U.S. security and credibility. He took sarcastic swipes at critics who say his Syria withdrawal amounts to a betrayal of the Kurds and plays into the hands of Russia.


“Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte,” he wrote. “I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away!”

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