RFK Jr. says Trump wants American troops out of northern Syria

11/14/2024 / By Laura Harris

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has revealed that President-elect Donald Trump plans to remove American troops from northern Syria rather than leaving them as “cannon fodder” should conflict erupt between Turkey and Syrian Kurdish forces.

Since 2014, the United States has provided support to the Kurdish-led Syrian opposition group the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of military units, militias and ethnic groups led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in their fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).

Turkey claims that the YPG and the SDF are extensions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization. This classification has led Turkey to launch multiple invasions of northern Syria to weaken the SDF’s presence along the Syrian-Turkish border.

With the reelection of Trump, there could be potential shifts in U.S. foreign policy, especially in regions where American troops play strategic roles. And now, Kennedy, a prominent Trump ally, has backed this possibility in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson. (Related: Mike Adams and Texas Rep. Cloud discuss the implications of RFK Jr. supporting Donald Trump.)

“When I was with President Trump, we were talking about the Middle East and he took a piece of paper and he drew on it [a] map of the Middle East with all the nations on it, which most Americans couldn’t do,” Kennedy told Carlson.

“He was particularly looking at the border between Syria and Turkey, and he said, ‘We have 500 men on the border of Syria and Turkey and a little encampment that was bombed.’ He said there’s 750,000 troops in Turkey. There’s 250,000 militants in Syria. If they go up against each other, we’re in the middle.”

Trump then warned Kennedy during the plane journey that any escalation between Turkish and Kurdish forces could jeopardize the safety of American soldiers caught in the crossfire. Generals even told Trump that American troops would be “cannon fodder” if Turkey and the Kurdish forces clashed. And so, he told Kennedy: “Get them out.”

U.S. support helps SDF contain ISIS elements in the region

The SDF is the military arm of the region of northern Syria known as Rojava, or formally the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Rojava has stated its goal of becoming an autonomous unit within a federalized Syria. Bashar al-Assad’s government in the capital of Damascus, meanwhile, seeks to reclaim all territory lost since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011 and a return to the pre-civil war status quo.

Assad’s government has frequently clashed with Kurdish forces, Turkish-backed rebel groups in northern Syria and even with Turkey itself.

In addition to de facto governing everything in Syria northeast of the Euphrates River and overseeing regional security, the SDF is currently detaining over 10,000 ISIS fighters, including around 2,000 foreign nationals whose home countries have refused to repatriate them.

In support of the SDF’s efforts, the U.S. Senate voted in 2023 to keep American soldiers in Syria. There are an estimated 900 U.S. soldiers in the country, most of whom are deployed in northeast Syria to support the SDF, with smaller units deployed to aid allied Syrian rebel groups in the country’s southeast.

Check out RFKJr.news for more stories about RFK Jr.’s role in the second Trump administration.

Watch Howard Lutnick, head of the second Trump transition team, discussing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s potential position in the president-elect’s second term.

This video is from the Thrivetime Show channel on Brighteon.com.