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Every single member of Trump's administration strongly disagrees with Trump. This includes the two who are in his inner circle and are the very most hawkish - Pompeo and Bolton. The three of them (including Trump) have two and only two concerns as far as that region: Iran and the Islamic State. And Trump's withdrawal strengthens the both. So how to explain this complete isolation of Trump from every single one of his administration, except possibly his family (Ivanka, Kusnher and Donald Jr.)? It simply doesn't make sense to me to explain it as a tactical division, not when nobody else agrees with him. Remember the last time he wanted to crawl out on a limb, when he wanted to invade Venezuela. He dropped that because he saw he was isolated in his own administration and the issue really didn't matter that much to him. As far as Erdogan: I agree, Erdogan doesn't have that much influence on him, but with whom is Erdogan closest? Putin. Given the circumstances, Putin could not directly communicate with Trump. So it makes complete sense that he'd use Erdogan as his messenger. That's why I had guessed so on Wednesday and then, the next day it turned out that the two (Erdogan and Putin) had been on the phone just two days earlier. Let's look at it another way: I think it's difficult to conceive of the President of the United States as being beholden to the Russian oligarchy vs. simply having a personal affinity. I've noticed that almost nobody on the left has taken up the issue of Trump's having served as a money launderer for these oligarchs. It's too weird to conceive of - a president of the United States having served in that capacity. Just like the fact that his former personal helicopter pilot is a convicted drug smuggler. I mean, if somebody had written a novel about this, we would tell the author to write something that at least has a shred of credibility. But think about this: If somebody had told you in 2014 that Trump, with all his weirdness, was going to be president, wouldn't you have said that person is nuts? I would have. In fact, I never thought he'd come close to winning the nomination and once he did I assumed that Hillary was going to be the next president. I know I'm not alone in that. My point is that we have to start looking at the world through new eyes. What's happening in the White House is a lot more weird than what meets the eye, and that's saying a lot. Once again, I urge the comrades to take a look at some of the articles <https://oaklandsocialist.com/?s=Trump+money+launderer> on Trump's role as a money launderer. They all are well documented, but this one <https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/07/28/we-dont-care/> has links to all the articles I know of that reveal the facts. And these are not articles from the conspiracy theorist web sites. The most recent article that I know of is from last Sunday's SF Chronicle, one of the two main bourgeois newspapers on California, and was written by US Representative Jackie Speier (D, CA). Again, to emphasize: I think it really has not sunken in that the *president of the United States is a money launderer for the Russian mafia.* In fact, I think a lot of comrades simply don't believe it in their heart of hearts. That's the only explanation I can find for why nearly nobody on the left is raising this fact. Once people start from that fact, then a lot of other things make sense. John Reimann On Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 10:20 PM Chris Slee <chris_w_s...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Erdogan may well have influenced Trump, but he was not acting as a > "messenger" for Putin. > > Erdogan has always been hostile to Rojava and the Democratic Federation of > Northern Syria. He has always complained about US support for the Syrian > Democratic Forces. > > Trump is returning to the longstanding US policy of full support for the > Turkish state against the Kurdish left. There was a partial departure from > this policy when the US began supporting the YPG against ISIS in 2014. But > it was only partial. During this period the US and its allies continued to > support Turkey against the PKK. They continued to ban the PKK as a > "terrorist organisation". > > Chris Slee > ------------------------------ > *From:* Marxism <marxism-boun...@lists.csbs.utah.edu> on behalf of John > Reimann via Marxism <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> > *Sent:* Friday, 21 December 2018 9:35:52 AM > *To:* Chris Slee > *Subject:* [Marxism] [UCE] What lies behind Trump's troop withdrawal from > Syria and what it means > > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > The main reason for his withdrawal is that he got his marching orders from > his paymaster, Putin. As I had predicted last night on Facebook, these > orders apparently came through Erdogan, with whom he'd been on the phone > just a couple of days earlier. This decision not only means a new stage in > Syria, it threatens to force an all-out war by the mainstream of the US > capitalist class against Trump, who has shown once again that he is Putin's > agent. Even his closest foreign policy advisors - Bolton and Pompeo - are > adamantly against this withdrawal. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is hinting at > raising Trump's links with and dependence on the Russian oligarchy. > > For international working class solidarity instead of relying on ANY > capitalist/imperialist force be it the US, Russia, or any other! > Read full article here: > > https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/12/20/trump-withdraws-troops-from-syria-what-does-it-mean/ > > -- > *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black > Jacobins" by C. L. R. James > Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/chris_w_slee%40hotmail.com > -- *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black Jacobins" by C. L. R. James Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
