Romantic Works
Before we get started, you need some context: The first time I listened to
Rotten Fruit; Regular Orchard was Friday, January 8, 2021. It was two days after the attempted coup on the U.S. Capitol. I was reeling, but had to bottle everything up. I work in news and had to shut everything off so I could get the job done. I hadn’t allowed myself to feel it all. Then that Friday, I put my headphones in and turned on this album. It opened the gates to all that emotion I had been holding back and I just cried. This music hit me in a deeply profound way, and it helped me start to heal.
there s been a serious of mercurial decisions made by the president of the united states that has involved troop movements, troop withdrawals from northern syria that rattles the nature of troop movements in the middle east, american troop movements. do you get any sense from the pentagon, from people below the chairman of joint chiefs of staff, from colonels, people in charge of platoons, any sense of concern about what this is doing both to the morale of the american military and the idea of forced protection in the middle east for these withdrawing troops to various regions? well, i think the actions that the president took relative to syria are a colossal mistake. and while i haven t been able to talk to any of our troops, when they were leaving in their convoys they were being pummelled by rotten fruit by the
way. it certainly is not that way here in northern syria for the kurds. big success, they re running from their homes right now. villages are emptying out. 80,000 children are in desert camps. a safe zone has been created, yes, it has been created, by turkey, russia and the assad regime, all of them enemies of the kurdish people. the one people they did trust was the united states, but now u.s. troops have been forced to leave. big success for them. u.s. troops should be proud of the mission they did here. they, along with these very same kurds, defeated the isis caliphate. they killed 60 to 100,000 isis fighters. they imprisoned tens of thousands of isis members and supporters and they did it with the help of the kurds. now the troops are leaving. as they re leaving they re being pelted with rotten fruit. they re being called traitors.
i am trace gallagher and the news starts now. the pentagon planning to keep some u.s. troops in northeastern syria to protect oilfields from isis terrorists and the kurdish military leader tells fox news turkey is continuing to attack in violation of a cease-fire. all this is hundreds of u.s. troops are making their way from syria into neighboring iraq after president trump order their withdrawal. the kurds, the main allies in the fight against isis, calling it a betrayal. kurdish professors pelting u.s. army vehicles with shoes, rocks, rotten fruit. president trump repeated his call to bring u.s. troops home from syria. more on that in a moment but first defense secretary defense secretary mark esper said the majority of american troops in northeastern syria would be going to western iraq, not returning home.
fulfilled. we continue to fulfill. is that the feeling there? completely fulfilled and continue to fulfill? i don t know how we can possibly even say that. that this is to the benefit of the sdf. that means the kurdish forces. that is to the benefit of the kurdish people. hundreds of thousands of those kurdish people who are supposed to be protected by the sdf are now fleeing their homes. they are heading to iraq. they are dying in the hundreds. no. they do not feel like the united states has fulfilled its commitment to them. if you look, we saw today i think some of the worst images that will that will resonate throughout history. we saw them earlier today. u.s. troops leaving this country. they were being pelted with rotten fruit. rotten tomatoes. rotten potatoes. some stones. as they were leaving this country with kurds holding up signs saying to the u.s. troops, don t leave us. tell your children that kurdish children are dying while you,