a nato ally i mean is is turkey in the dog helps with nato at the moment. the thing about nato is that it operates on consensus and nothing can be done if one ally is opposed to any measure so there s never a question that nato as a whole could move against one of its members because that simply can t happen when you need unanimity and if you ll recall a president trump walked back his displeasure with turkey and with president air to one in this phone call where he announced that everything had been worked out and there was going to be a permanent cease fire in northern syria and that very much curbs the criticism that his defense secretary marc esper had when he came here to brussels he d been very very angry with turkey and calling for investigation of possible work crimes and and sanctions against turkey and by the time he got to brussels after this phone call between presidents trump an heir to one he wasn t saying those things in
the thing about nato is that it operates on consensus and nothing can be done if one ally is opposed to any measure so there s never a question that nato as a whole could move against one of its members because that simply can t happen when you need unanimity and if you ll recall a president trump walked back his displeasure with turkey and with president air to one in this phone call where he announced that everything had been worked out and there was going to be a permanent cease fire in northern syria and that very much curbs the criticism that his defense secretary marc esper had when he came here to brussels he d been very very angry with turkey and calling for investigation of possible war crimes and and sanctions against turkey and by the time he got to brussels after this phone call between presidents trump an heir to one he wasn t saying those things in
well i m reading yesterday was the big turkey day and i m told it was very intensive discussion behind closed. criticize turkey not just for with russia to establish joint patrols very near nato s border today are on marshalling resources in case of urgent threats and of course the perennial european allies of defense spending later this afternoon the u.s. defense secretary marc esper will hold a press conference and there he will get some very direct questions about syria of course it was the u.s. pull out of its 50 or so soldiers from northern syria that allowed the kurds to move in so while the u.s. would very much like the focus to remain on criticism of turkey for its actions there are also some nato allies germany included who were not happy with the u.s.
our troops are coming home. that s vice president mike pence talking about syria yesterday. but in addition to the ceasefire appearing not to hold, defense secretary marc esper has said publicly many times that the troops pulled from syria are not heading back to the united states, instead, are currently on their way to iraq. after that, they still aren t coming home. according to a statement released by the iraqi prime minister s office, after meeting with esper this week, those troops in question will leave iraq within four weeks and head to kuwait or qatar. with us we have former treasury official steve rattner. president of the counsel on foreign relations richard haass. republican strategist suss san del percio, the host of msnbc politics nation and president of the action network reverend al sharpton. senior adviser of moveon.org karine jean tee, a, and coauthor of the play back jake sherman and columnist for the
endless war, he s not, he thought that would go over with the american public better than it be has and people like lindsey graham. i think the president did this impulsively. i m not sure he thought this through or cared to think it through. but it has boomer ranged on him. this is a rare showing of bipartisan opposition to the president. couple weeks ago we had 129 house members vote to essentially condemn this move. and i think richard is exactly right, we re not getting the troops home. we have lost i think face and lost influence in the region. the kurds are now being decimated. and, of course, there are isis prisoners who are now been let loose. and the president very cavalierly says well they can go to europe, who cares? i think the europeans care and we should care as well. yeah, that was an extraordinary moment when defense secretary esper said this week, well, the prison break of isis fighters hasn t been as bad as we thought was going to be.