>> Let someone else fight over this long, blood-stained sand.
>> That's Donald Trump characterizing Syria as nothing more than blood-stained sand.
He had a press conference today in which he spouted a number of lies about his terrible
decisions in Syria, particularly northern Syria.
He not only lied to the American public, but he also took a victory lap, as if his decisions
were great for the Kurdish allies that he abandoned abruptly after one phone call with
the president of Turkey, Erdogan.
So let's go to the first video, that gives you a sense of how he feels about Syria, and
the types of lies he spouted throughout this press conference.
>> When we commit American troops to battle, we must do so only when a vital national interest
is at stake.
The nations in the region must ultimately take on the responsibility of helping Turkey
and Syria police their border, we want other nations to get involved.
We've secured the oil, and therefore, a small number of US troops will remain in the area
where they have the oil.
>> So I actually wanna apologize to you guys, because that video included the statements
where he was telling the truth.
That video included the statements where he's essentially saying, yeah, I want other countries
to come in and do what they wanna do.
As long as we have control of the oil, who cares about our Kurdish allies?
Who cares about whether or not they feel abandoned, whether or not they'll be slaughtered?
Whether or not they'll be victimized by ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Turkish government,
who cares?
We got hold of the oil, that's all that matters.
So that was actually the most honest part of his press conference.
But then later when he starts talking about the Kurds, that's when you get a sense that
he is, of course, peddling all sorts of lies.
Now, let me talk a little bit about the countries who are involved in this conflict in northern
Syria.
So apparently, Russia and Turkey are now working together.
One day earlier, Russia and Turkey agreed to a plan to push Syrian Kurdish fighters
from a wide swath of territory just south of Turkey's border.
Cementing Russian President Vladimir Putin's preeminent role in Syria, as American troops
depart and US influence wanes.
Now, I wanna be clear about something, I don't care about US influence.
I think US influence in the Middle East has been a complete and utter disaster.
But our relationship with the Kurds in northern Syria was important.
Noam Chomsky even cited it as one of the things that we were doing right, working with the
Kurds in order to deal with the very real problem we were having with ISIS.
Not only did the Kurdish fighters fight on our behalf, they were guarding ISIS fighters
that had already been detained in these prisons.
And so Donald Trump just abandoning them is the issue that I have.
But as always, the hawkish media likes to talk about US influence.
It's not about US influence, it's about staying committed to the promises that we made to
our allies.
>> Yeah, there's so much to this story to try to unravel.
Because it was just filled with not only lies, but tropes and traps that were very intentional
talking points and dog whistles to his base.
One thing that I do wanna highlight is that, again and again, we are framing this region,
one, in incredibly simplistic terms.
And also in a national security framing that the disconnects our culpability to the region.
So we're not there just because we're trying to help the Kurds ward off ISIL, why is ISIL
even there?
Because there was a destabilization that got brought on by the invasion in 2003.
Wherein ISIL, wherein al-Qaeda did not exist, but was born in response to the aggressive
militarization and occupation and takeover of Iraq.
And that's what people didn't see because we didn't keep eyes on what happened to the
rest of the region.
So Trump wants to talk about the responsibility of other nations dealing with what was happening
in Syria.
Well, they were taking full responsibility for what we did in Iraq.
So Syrians absorbed a large portion of Iraqi refugees during that time period, and they
didn't have the infrastructure to support them.
So when there is an overspill of a group of people that I refer to as mercenaries.
Because I don't like this language of Islamic fundamentalism, or the way that we're framing
them in terms of being terrorists and Muslim terrorists.
They're mercenaries, and they took advantage of an opportunity where there was a vacuum.
And not only are the Kurds, were they fighting off what we created, they're fighting off
the Syrian regime.
And that gets lost in the conversation as well.
Because the Syrian regime was responsible, like Turkey was too, for repressing them.
Kurdish people in Syria were not allowed to speak Kurdish, they were not even allowed
to have citizenship, and they couldn't name their children Kurdish names.
So this was news to me when I started to put together a book in 2012 about the uprisings
in the region.
And Kurdish folks are fighting for their life, because they have multiple forces trying to
extinguish them.
But I also wanna say, just closing this off, that there are a lot of other ethnicities
that are being slaughtered too, that nobody's thinking about.
Which is the Yazidis, the Assyrians, the Assyrians were the ones who fled the Turkish genocide
and settled this area, and created a little bit of a buffer.
And again, we're not talking about them, so I just wanna put those voices at the center.
And I do wanna say that there's a different way we could be talking about this story.
But we're taking our lead from not only the Trump-like figures, but the rest of American
imperialism that wants to really divorce itself from its culpability.
>> Well, a lot of the narrative is being dictated by Washington.
So it's in response to that narrative that I think a lot of our our rhetoric gets dictated.
But I'm glad you mentioned sort of the long-oppressed Kurdish minority.
And you mentioned these other minorities, which I must be honest, I had forgotten, even-
>> Yeah, and Armenians, I don't wanna forget them too.
>> In the cloud of all of this, from a politically bizarre, sort of the tactic that they've taken,
but this is the strategy.
It's his mission accomplished moment, that's really what Donald Trump has done here.
He's taken a situation which is a loser, and even his own military and Pentagon didn't
want any part of it.
And he's doing that, mission accomplished, well, we did it.
So everything's good, and let those guys fight over it.
But our role in this region is done and successful.
And if he says it loud enough and big enough, and with enough American flags around him,
maybe people will believe it.
That's what he's doing there, plain and simple.
>> So we have some more video elements that I really want you guys to comment on, so let's
go to the next clip.
This is Donald Trump mentioning how his actions led to a more peaceful situation between the
Turks and the Kurds in northern Syria.
>> Today's announcement validates our course of action with Turkey, that only a couple
of weeks ago was scorned.
And now people are saying, wow, what a great outcome.
>> There you go.
>> Wow, I mean, that lie, he doesn't even buy his own lies, you can just tell.
But this is what he does over and over again.
So he will make some sort of abrupt decision without talking to anyone in his administration,
without talking to the Pentagon, without having a single intelligence briefing on it.
He'll just have a discussion with a world leader, and then abruptly make these decisions
which lead to an escalation in violence.
Understand that at the time before Donald Trump made this decision, that area was relatively
peaceful, considering the US presence there protecting the Kurdish allies.
And then when he made the decision to pull US troops out of the region, that led to an
incredible amount of violence between the Turks coming into northern Syria and the Kurdish
forces there.
So he messes up the situation, and then he has his administration go in and try to clean
up the mess.
And that's what they allegedly did, with an alleged cease-fire.
And then he says, you see that, what I did led to peace in this area.
And it's so, he did that with North Korea, he's done it with so many different foreign
policy situations.
And I also wanna note that in this press conference, he said that he will lift the sanctions that
he implemented against Turkey just last week.
Now, those sanctions were so weak that Erdogan laughed at them.
And so wow, you're gonna lift those incredibly flimsy sanctions that Erdogan doesn't even
care about.
But one thing that did stand out to me, and I wanted to get your thoughts on this, is
if you're paying close attention to the story, and you understand the nuances and the complexity
of it, then you know he's lying.
But for the average American who watches that press conference, he uses a talking point
that's very effective.
Enough with these regime change wars, and that's all you need to say.
And people both on the left and the right sign on to it, without really understanding
what the commitment to Kurdish allies were.
And how these are people who have been used and abused and thrown away, time and time
again.
>> Right, yeah, I listened to this press conference first with my ears, and then second with his
base or a base that he's trying to win over.
And that's when I saw that what he was saying was probably effective to them, unfortunately,
even though it was riddled with contradictions in 15 minutes.
So one part of what he was saying was that Obama and his administration were interested
in regime change around Bashar al-Assad.
Well, that's not the case, because Obama had many opportunities to engage in regime change.
And actually, my contacts on the ground, their assessment of what was happening was that
the US was protracting conflict to sell weapons.
And that's pretty much bipartisan, every regime in the US does that.
And then there is regime change for other reasons, usually around American corporate
interest or imperialism, or neoliberal policies.
But that probably was effective to them, and he then said, well, I drew a red line.
And I responded when there was chemical attacks.
Except that he did strikes or targeted empty warehouses.
So clearly he wasn't trying to infringe on his partner Putin, who is very closely aligned
with Assad.
So all of that is just talking points, it's mere talking points.
And the other thing that he mentioned, which again was trying to really distance himself
from any responsibility in the region, was that, these guys, this is thousands of years
of sectarian conflict.
This is thousands of years fighting with each other, and we can't be involved in this, this
is not where our money should go.
Except I'm putting in trillions of dollars to our military.
>> Yes, and not only that, I mean, while he tries to make the case that he is trying to
pull back from US involvement and intervention abroad, in reality, he just sent nearly 2,000
troops, 1,800 to be exact, to Saudi Arabia.
Why did he do that, and he is taking these US troops out of northern Syria, and he's
trying to station them where, in Iraq.
And the Iraqi government is like, no, we don't want this.
And so now Defense Secretary Mark Esper is traveling to Iraq to try to negotiate with
the government there, to get them to accept the US troops into their country.
So he is not in any way scaling back US involvement abroad.
If anything, he's actually amplifying war abroad, especially when it comes to Yemen.
So anything that you hear about, I'm against these regime change wars, it's complete and
utter nonsense.
He was very honest in the first clip we showed you, he will do what's necessary for US interests.
But when it comes to fulfilling our commitments to our allies abroad and protecting them from
being slaughtered, doesn't care too much about that.
>> We've never had as many troops in the Middle East as we, I should put it this way.
There are many more troops in the Middle East now than there were at the end of the Obama
administration.
So to whatever extent you wanna look at, as Ana says, Donald Trump is leading the parade,
getting troops out of the region, it's just not happening.
The troop numbers are rising under Trump as, again, to reiterate, more than there were
at the end of the Obama administration.
So yeah, look, it's tough to even fathom all the different facets of the situation.
But clearly, Donald Trump is a guy, just showed up to this press conference, declared mission
accomplished, read some stuff off the prompter, ad-libbed stuff that made no sense at all,
of course, and then he goes to play some golf.
I don't mean to make it too cartoonish, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, he's not
really engaged in this crisis in any sort of strategic way, apart from the political.
>> And then finally, I have one more video to show you.
And this was the most brazen lie, let's take a look.
>> I have just spoken to General Mazloum, a wonderful man, the commander-in-chief of
the SDF Kurds.
And he was extremely thankful for what the United States has done, could not have been
more thankful.
General Mazloum has assured me that ISIS is under very, very strict lock and key, and
the detention facilities are being strongly maintained.
There were a few that got out, a small number, relatively speaking, and they've been largely
recaptured.
I'm also sure that he will be issuing his own statement very shortly, we had a great
talk.
But we've saved the lives of many, many Kurds, he understands that.
>> I just wanna note that previously, Donald Trump claimed that the Kurds purposely released
ISIS fighters from these prisons in order to send a message to Donald Trump.
That wasn't rooted in any facts, there was no evidence for that.
But he insulted the Kurds by alleging that they purposely did that.
And now saying that, some of the Kurds got away, but we captured them again.
I don't believe anything he says in that regard.
But one other thing, when he says the Kurds are very happy with us, we kept them safe,
that of course is a complete and utter lie.
So going back to the deal between Russia and Turkey, and their influence in northern Syria.
The agreement that these two countries had will put Turkey and Russia in control of territory
that was formerly held by Kurdish forces once allied with the United States.
And as part of that deal negotiated by both Erdogan and Putin, Turkey will get a nearly
20-mile deep safe zone along its border, clear of Kurdish militias.
>> Right, and also let's decode that for a second.
Again, there is really no sort of culpability for Bashar al-Assad.
So the reason why the Kurds were fighting initially was against the Syrian regime.
And so ISIL troops came in, and then the US government decided that they would support
the Kurds.
Because for whatever reason, ISIL is the most frightening thing to Americans, when there
are more KKK members in the US than there are ISIL fighters.
And so that's the talking point that they love, because it allows them to use the counter-terrorism
rhetoric, that allows them to also talk about more military occupation in the region.
So we should also remember that, when they're saying that Russians get control of that area,
everything that the Kurds fought for just died.
Not only was there a potential massacre because of Turkey coming in, but Russia taking over
means that the regime just really entrenched itself as well.
>> And then one final point that I wanted to make, and this is according to USA Today.
Trump's top envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, conceded that Turkey may have committed war
crimes against the Kurds in their assault.
He may have been referring to the assassination of Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf.
So you have members of Trump's administration saying one thing, accusing Turks of committing
war crimes against the Kurds.
I mean, a Kurdish politician was assassinated.
And then on the other hand, you have Donald Trump doing this press conference and making
himself out to be this giant peacemaker, but the facts don't bear that out.
And what I worry about is, his anti-war rhetoric, which is not rooted in fact, is gonna resonate
with people who aren't paying attention.