Trump gives up our Kurdish allies to Dictator Erdrogan

Trump says Turkish group PKK probably a bigger 'terrorist threat' than ISIL as he faces criticism over his Syria move.


US President Donald Trump has hailed his surprise decision to withdraw US troops from Syria as "strategically brilliant", declaring that the Kurds were "not angels".

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long armed campaign against Ankara, were "probably" a bigger "terrorist threat" than the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) armed group.

Donald Trump said the US had to let Kurdish allies and Turkey 'fight a little while' before agreeing to a five-day ceasefire with Ankara. In a rally held in Texas, he said: 'Sometimes you have to let them fight like two kids in a lot, you gotta let them fight, and then you pull them apart.'

President Trump fired him (after he submitted his resignation) and earlier this week reportedly called him "the world's most overrated general," but former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had a few barbs of his own to sling in a speech he gave in New York on Thursday.

Delivering the keynote address at the 74th Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, Mattis — a retired four-star U.S. Marine general — said he felt he had finally "achieved greatness."

"I'm not just an overrated general, I am the greatest, the world's most overrated," he said to laughter.

"I'm honored to be considered that by Donald Trump, because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress," Mattis continued. "So, I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals. Frankly that sounds pretty good to me."

The jibes were a departure for Mattis, whose book Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, published last month, was met with criticism from some who said he had pulled punches in characterizing the president's erratic leadership style.

In an interview with NPR promoting his book, Mattis declined to discuss his relationship with Trump. "I don't discuss sitting presidents," Mattis said. "I believe that you owe a period of quiet."

Thursday's annual gala, named after the former New York governor who won the Democratic nomination for president in 1928, was hosted this year by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.

Mattis said he had been asked what he thought of Trump's remarks, which reportedly came during a White House meeting with congressional Democrats on Wednesday.

"I earned my spurs on the battlefield ... Donald Trump earned his spurs in a letter from a doctor," he said in a reference to a medical deferment for bone spurs that kept Trump from serving in the military during the Vietnam War.

Although Trump's nickname for Mattis was "mad dog" — a nickname the former general despised — Mattis said these days he feels more like "an emotional support animal."

"And that's really great, because now the airlines allow me to fly for free," he said.