il miglior fabbro

John "Doc Zero" Hayward doesn't get a lot of attention because he plies his trade at Breitbart, but he's a wonderful writer and observer. He writes about foreign policy issues these days and this summation of the most recent Dem debate is spot-on, especially on the matter of Syria:

None of the Democrats wanted to discuss Turkey’s claims of a severe security threat from northeastern Syria, discuss why the international community did nothing to address those claims, or explain why the United States was held solely responsible for preventing Turkey from taking action. They treated the notion of Russian and Syrian involvement against the Turkish assault as inherently outrageous without explaining why the Syrian government should not be held responsible for protecting its own citizens and securing its own borders. They complained about escaping ISIS prisoners without discussing why thousands of them were still parked in Kurdish prison camps and how long they should be left there.

None of the Democrats was asked to present a war plan for fighting Turkey or discuss how much the U.S. depends on Turkish bases for operations in the Middle East. None of them, not even Biden, was pressed on how the Obama administration set the table for current events. None of them acknowledged the difficulty of getting reliable information from any party involved in the savage Syrian civil war, although Gabbard came close when she pointed out how dodgy some of the groups supported by the Obama administration were.

And of course, CNN would not dream of asking the Democrat candidates — several of whom are sitting senators — why their caucus did not authorize military force against Turkey to protect the Kurds, instead spending all of its time on an impeachment crusade against President Trump. Trump said he wanted to pull troops out of Syria almost a year ago, and Erdogan was threatening to invade long before that. The Democrats had plenty of time to pass the appropriate congressional resolutions and send a strong message to Turkey, but that would have involved putting real political capital on the line instead of sniping from the sidelines.

I asked a question about troop levels in Syria yesterday because I don't know these answers. But I recognize demagoguery when I see it. As always, read the whole thing.

Question for the audience

How many actual troops did we have stationed in Syria? And where are they going? I guess that's two questions.

Mind Over Mattis

It's the rarest of all things in modern Washington -- a resignation in protest:

My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. We must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances.

Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position. 

Those are the words of James Mattis, the current SecDef, who is resigning, most likely, because Donald Trump wants out of Syria. Is this a crisis? No. And Mattis is correct; if he can't get on board with what Trump wants to do, he should resign. In that regard, he's a hell of a lot more honorable than nearly all the major figures in the Department of Justice who have treated their offices as sinecures and sniper's nests.

Is Trump wrong about leaving Syria? I don't personally think so. Trying to discern the good guys in that particular place is a fool's errand. We have been doing the empire thing for over a century and over time I've grown increasingly skeptical about the value of what we do in many parts of the world. Engaging with the world does not mean subsidizing it. And we continue to put many people in harm's way for reasons that are often contradictory.

I'm glad James Mattis served our country. He is an honorable man. I'm sorry he is leaving, because honorable men and women are in short supply within the Beltway. Trump will find another individual to serve in his administration. We'll see how it plays out.

Meanwhile, in Ankara

Gavrilo Princip, call your office

An awful scene:

A gunman shouting "Do not forget Aleppo!" assassinated Russia's ambassador to Turkey at an Ankara art gallery on Monday in what leaders of Russia and Turkey called a provocative terror attack.

Ambassador Andrey Karlov's shooting was captured in real time in photos and video that quickly spread through the Internet worldwide.

It wasn't all he shouted, either:

"Allahu akbar (God is greatest). Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria! Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria!" [Mevlut Mert] Altintas is heard shouting in video of the incident.

"Only death will remove me from here. Everyone who has taken part in this oppression will one by one pay for it," he said.

He got his wish. I have a feeling we'll be hearing more about this story.

Do you believe your eyes?

So, who are the Syrian refugees, anyway? We get a lot of visuals but they aren't helpful. The first image that most of us saw was this heartbreaking image of a drowned boy:

A horrifying fate

Who wouldn't want to help prevent that? Once the Syrian refugees started to arrive, however, the images changed substantially:

So where are the women and children?

These guys were waiting to board a boat bound for Athens. Not a child or woman in sight. Or is this image a more accurate depiction of the crisis?

Women and children galore

That's a much more traditional scene. And what do you make of the following image?

Lemme get in on this selfie

If you do a Google image search, all of these images come up on the first page or two, depending on the terms you use. And isn't that the point? How do you even know what's real?

Other people seem a lot more certain of what's happening than I am. Here's a typical social media meme, which has appeared at least 4 times on my feed in the past few days:

So there!

That's a bit, ahem, categorical. On the other hand, from a right wing friend, I see this:

Clothes make the man

We have more information than ever. And we have more propaganda than ever. Someone is lying. Do you know who it is? Do you really?