Americans for Intelligence Reform

Brad Johnson, President, and retired CIA Senior Officer and Chief of Staff. Insight into current events from an intelligence angle.

Brad Johnson on Turkish moves in Syria

https://youtu.be/bf4JHyDMNAM
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Brad Johnson it is February 12th 5:20
00:04
yes yeah just always like to check that
00:06
February the 12th of 2020 and I saw you
00:10
know thanks to my amazing readers at
00:12
flyed tempest who send me in just a
00:15
tremendous amount of really important
00:18
news articles and and so on so on from
00:21
ranging from the geopolitical to the
00:23
effects of Islam in the West and of
00:25
course communism on the west and this
00:27
this was a memory clip I think it’s
00:29
there too one specifically threatening
00:32
it looked like he was saying that he
00:34
will accept any excuse to wage all-out
00:36
war I mean it was like any tyrant he
00:40
wasn’t saying directly I’m gonna go to
00:42
war against Syria in totality he’s
00:44
saying if Syria does anything to stop me
00:48
from waging war on Syria then I will
00:51
consider it a casus belli to wage total
00:53
war on Syria least that’s how I read it
00:55
please tell me how you read it yeah an
00:58
interesting situation interesting
01:00
development I mean just let me lay the
01:01
groundwork for it first basically you’ve
01:04
you’ve got Syria the say northern third
01:08
or maybe quarter somewhere there was is
01:11
traditionally been where the Kurds have
01:13
been and that’s where the United States
01:14
was previously active before our
01:16
withdrawal now that is all in the
01:20
northern part of Syria
01:21
which to the north of Syria is turkey so
01:23
it abuts Turkey on the other side where
01:25
the Kurds are then you have the area
01:28
around Aleppo which is to the north and
01:30
west in in Syria and that’s what’s been
01:35
fought over refugees know that that’s
01:37
still being fought over and Syrian
01:39
troops that are you know Assad Syrian
01:42
troops are moving back into that area
01:44
and there’s so there’s a lot of fighting
01:46
going on and there’s a bunch of groups
01:48
that are active in that area so it’s not
01:50
like clear one side against the other
01:53
sort of conflict so there’s a lot of
01:56
fighting and the in the in the Kurdish
02:00
area which is in the the north from the
02:03
central part all the way out to the
02:05
eastern part of of Syria that curtisha’s
02:07
zone that’s where the Turks did a 30
02:11
mile bang
02:12
along the Turkish border so they’ve
02:14
they’ve they’ve gone into Syria to
02:18
control that land now they are saying
02:20
that their justification for that is
02:22
because they’ve got I don’t know how
02:24
many of they’re saying now but millions
02:26
of Syrian refugees that are which is
02:29
almost certainly exaggerated whatever
02:31
the number is that are in Turkey hiding
02:34
out so they want to take control of that
02:36
area so that they can bring the Syrians
02:38
back in now that’s the Turkish position
02:40
the point of conflict now which air to
02:44
gun is talking about in his speech which
02:45
two things on that one a lot of what
02:47
he’s saying is for domestic consumption
02:49
he wants to be the strong man and Pro
02:52
Turkey and all of these sorts of things
02:53
so it is being played for domestic
02:56
consumption also though however he does
02:58
believe all of that he wants to
03:00
reinstate the Ottoman Empire and so he’s
03:03
trying to expand his borders and areas
03:05
of influence in every way he can very
03:07
active in a number of areas so having
03:09
this strip of Syria is a great interim
03:13
step into taking far greater control of
03:16
that area and it allows him to use that
03:18
area fill it with what he’s done is a
03:22
lot of former Isis fighters and people
03:24
like that who want to come in and kill
03:26
Kurds so he’s achieving multiple things
03:30
out of this by doing that now the stance
03:32
he’s just taken the hard light stance
03:34
he’s just taken is that if anyone
03:36
attacks any of the observation posts the
03:39
Turkish militaries has put up in that
03:42
area
03:42
if anyone attacks anything like that
03:43
they’re going to take that as an attack
03:45
on Turkey and respond in kind that’s
03:47
essentially the statement that he made
03:49
so as the Syrian troops move in that is
03:53
the potential conflict now an
03:55
interesting aspect of all of this now of
03:57
course everybody points out Turkey’s
03:59
part of NATO Syria is not now of course
04:02
Syria is heavily backed by Russia
04:04
Russian troops are in there supporting
04:06
the Syrian army and Russian mercenaries
04:10
are in you know lending strength to the
04:13
Syrian troops so it’s it’s turning into
04:17
a very interesting conflict in that way
04:19
so they’re moving back in and of course
04:21
their goal is to take back all of Syria
04:24
into Syria
04:26
the Turks have claimed this land and
04:28
their this 30-mile strip along the
04:30
border which is as I said it’s
04:32
essentially in the Kurdish areas of
04:34
Syria they’re not gonna they’re not
04:37
going to give it up and because that is
04:39
all part of his his long term goal or
04:41
heir to Ghana and turkeys long term goal
04:43
so it’s it’s it’s shaping up into a
04:45
difficult difficult interesting conflict
04:47
what will happen if Syrian troops on
04:51
Syrian land get into conflict with
04:54
Turkish troops who are occupying a
04:56
portion of Syria and I don’t believe you
04:59
know of course I don’t know the ins and
05:00
outs of the legal system for NATO but I
05:02
don’t believe that would invoke the
05:05
protections under NATO where they’re
05:07
being attacked and therefore the NATO
05:09
countries would come to their aid I
05:10
don’t believe it does because it’s an
05:12
occupying force in a foreign country and
05:15
I don’t think that’s really covered by
05:18
this agreement so I mean I’m not sure
05:20
that a precise one for one thing like
05:22
this has ever happened before so it
05:24
hasn’t been tested but that’s where we
05:26
find ourselves right now now Aragon is
05:28
not gonna back down but I don’t think
05:30
Russian back troops back Syrian backed
05:32
by Russian troops are gonna back down
05:34
either so I think the possibility of
05:37
conflict is really going up quickly and
05:40
of course the Turks have put these
05:42
observation points out in areas that are
05:45
contested so them not being fired upon
05:48
would probably be a fairly low
05:50
percentage shot I think I think that’s
05:52
almost certainly going to happen so and
05:54
you will see the Turks they’ve already
05:55
been moving troops and mechanized units
05:59
up to the to this area up along the
06:01
border and into serious so they’re
06:03
preparing for this to turn into a
06:05
conflict Turkey and Russia have long
06:08
been at each other’s throats in the FATA
06:10
a cup two or three wars in history and
06:13
so they’re perfectly willing to fight
06:15
each other they don’t like each other
06:16
and so I can see where this is easily
06:19
going to turn into a shooting war right
06:21
now at least
06:22
other than who’s already there I don’t
06:24
see this widening that much bringing in
06:27
a lot of other players president Trump’s
06:30
position on this has been these guys
06:33
have had a long simmering conflict let
06:35
them fight it out settle it among
06:36
themselves and there’s really no
06:38
percentage in this for
06:39
you know who if we help somebody or get
06:42
involved you know how do we win by doing
06:44
that that’s basically his position the
06:46
only little area where he’s kind of
06:50
softened on that is he is still trying
06:52
to send aid in to the Kurds in this area
06:54
who have been longtime friends and
06:56
allies of the United States and done
06:57
quite a bit quite a few things jointly
06:58
with us taking out Isis that sort of
07:01
stuff fighting alongside and faithfully
07:03
well good troops that have fought
07:05
alongside of us so that is the one
07:08
weakness of this whole thing that I hope
07:09
doesn’t get forgotten in the mess but at
07:11
least at this point the Kurds are on the
07:13
side and the main area of conflict is
07:15
the Russians and Syrians on one side and
07:17
Turkey pretty much by itself on the
07:20
other so now there’s militias and
07:22
different people involved but they’re
07:24
the small players the important people
07:26
are Russians and Syrians and the Turks
07:29
so in other words to a degree it is him
07:32
advancing positions and saying I dare
07:35
you to attack this position and then
07:38
moving forward and saying I dare you to
07:39
attack this position yeah there’s there
07:42
some of that going on and I mean these
07:43
positions that he’s saying if you attack
07:46
them or fight back or all in Syria none
07:49
of them are in Turkey nobody’s moving
07:50
into Turkey it’s all in Syria well maybe
07:54
with any luck you’ll kill annoy the
07:56
Russians enough to tell that they’ll
07:59
push them back a little bit that was
08:01
really great thank you very much I think
08:02
that Turkey is one of those stories that
08:04
that goes unwatched and is not people
08:08
don’t recognize the importance because I
08:10
mean historically Turkey is usually a
08:13
world power yes it is and it’s it’s a
08:16
very important thing it’s something I’ve
08:18
talked about quite a little bit but
08:20
written about a lot more I do a lot of
08:21
op eds on what Turkey’s up to and if
08:24
anyone’s interested they well certainly
08:26
they can follow me on Brad Johnson on
08:28
and YouTube or go to my website intel
08:31
reformed org and you can follow and get
08:34
on the the list so you’ll receive the
08:35
letter that we put out and we put a lot
08:37
of information in that including the
08:39
op-eds and different things so Intel
08:41
reformed org or Brad Johnson on YouTube
08:43
highly both highly recommended thank you
08:45
very much for Agilent

 
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