President Trump Withdraws Troops from Syria

Rhys Polcari

F - Block History

October 18, 2019

On October 13, President Trump decided to withdraw troops from Syria, abandoning the Kurdish army. Prior to this event, ISIS (the Islamic State) inhabited parts of Syria, causing the U.S military to deploy troops. In between Syria, Iraq, and Turkey lies the Kurdish region. The Kurds are allied to the U.S, and they agreed to help the U.S army fight against ISIS. Turkey is also an ally to the U.S; however, they hate the Kurds. Turkey disapproves of the Kurds because the Kurds want their own country. The Kurds have been attempting to take chunks of land from each country to build their own, which would be referred to as Kurdistan. Turkey did not want to give up a part of their country to the Kurds, resulting in conflict, which has spilled over into Syria territory. Following the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Syria, the President ordered that the Turks not attack the Kurds that were battling in Northern Syria. Shortly after, the Turks ignored President Trump and attacked the Kurds. The Turkish attack went directly against the U.S.’s request not to attack the Kurds in Syria. With the absence of the U.S. in the region, the Russians deployed troops to protect the Syrian government from Turkish attacks within Syrian territory. The Russians have been a supporter of the Syrian government for many years. Russian support of the Syrian government has resulted in conflict with the U.S and Russia because the U.S does not want the Russians to support Syria. The U.S supports a group in Syria called the Syrian Rebels, who are a group seeking to overthrow the Syrian government to make Syria a democracy. Russia approves of the Syrian government; meanwhile, the U.S hopes the rebels can overthrow the government. Perhaps the contrasting support between the U.S and Russia could result in a war. Following President Trump’s decision to pull the troops out of Syria, the House of Representatives voted on the President’s decision making. The resolution vote showed that the House opposed the President’s choice. The total vote was 354 opposing, and 60 agreeing. The House of Representatives thought that President Trump abandoned the Kurdish soldiers. The majority of the House vote is significant as many republicans had voted against Trump. Sen. Jack Reed (Rhode Island), the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, claimed that “The weakness and incompetence that this president has shown when it comes to national security is stunning.” Senator Jack Reed is saying that the President did not do a great job with this judgment. Overall, President Trump has taken a lot of heat from the people, as he abandoned the Kurdish troops. Read this article from the Washington Post and answer the following questions.

Should President Trump have pulled out US Troops from Syria?

What do you think the President is going to do about Turkey?

Do you think the conflict between the U.S and Russia is going to be a big issue?

Have you ever had two friends that hate each other? What was the resolution? If not, what do you think would happen if you had two friends that hate each other?

Nancy Pelosi Announces an Official Impeachment Inquiry

On Tuesday the 24 of September, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, announced a formal impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, for abusing his power as President of the United States for his political gain. Pelosi states that President Trump “must be held accountable - no one is above the law”. So far, it is unsure whether Trump will be impeached or not, but if he is, he would be only the 4th president in the history of the United States to be impeached. The President’s response to this news was that it was “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT”, and “witch hunt garbage”. In the past few years, most talk of impeachment was about what Special Counsel Robert Mueller found in his report about the Russian interference in our previous election. Now there is evidence of Trump using his presidential power to get information on Joe Biden, his possible opponent for the 2020 elections. An anonymous whistleblower reported that Trump had a phone call with the Prime Minister of Ukraine, asking for information about Joe Biden’s son, who had dealings in Ukraine in the past. Soon after the call, he froze over 391 million dollars in aid to Ukraine. President Trump has confirmed that he did have that phone call but insists that he acted appropriately. Pelosi has directed the chairmen of six committees to continue investigating Trump under the category of impeachment. The house did not however set a specific timeframe for the impeachment inquiry, and many people are frustrated, but some people believe that it is not worth it to go through an impeachment inquiry if it won’t get bipartisan support. Read this article from the New York Times and answer the following questions

1. Do you think that the president is in the wrong in this case?
2. What do you think the House of Representatives should do?
3. The current president has changed politics a lot, especially by using modern social media platforms to communicate his thoughts. How do you feel about this?
4. Have you ever felt as if you were all alone against a large group of people?