mistake. it s not the usual. the republicans in congress and, frankly, the commentator set that you see in the news are not representative of republican voter opinion or necessarily of american opinions regarding this. look, you know, this is a difficult situation. you re caught between a nato ally and turkey, a treaty ally, and a military ally in the kurds who are, frankly, a stateless people who are occupying, you know, other areas of land within dispute. you re caught between a lot of different moving parts, and yet the opinion is all generally going in one direction. and i find that to be really troubling in this day and age, that we haven t taken a step back from the last two decades of activity in the middle east which, clearly, the american people have soured on, and maybe injected some additional opinions into the mix, opinions that would be more representative of what we see from the american people and less just the conventional approach that washington republicans have had
the situation in syria right now? i never would have turned this country s back on our allies because not only does it dishonor our commitment to the kurds who, as you know, have fought on our behalf and significantly reduced the number of u.s. service members we needed to have in syria because they re willing to do so much on our part. i would never allow a treaty ally like turkey to go against one of our allies on the ground, of russia, of assad, of isis, which is exactly what s happened. this president has diminished not only our standing around the world but our security and our safety as americans. to renew these alliances and these friendships is fundamental to renewing our strength and our security and our standing around the world. and so that s what i would focus on.
states could have had a role in not escalating. yeah, thanks, ali, great to be with you. i couldn t agree more. in my article earlier this week in the atlantic, that s the point we tried to make. there were a number of options to try to prevent this. now that it is under way, it is in everyone s interest to bring it to conclusion and get the parties talking again. steven cook, i don t know how many years we have been talking about turkey and its unusual approach to foreign relations in the years since trying to join the european union, and that didn t succeed. turkey is a nato member, an official ally of the united states. this wouldn t have happened without u.s. clearance to allow it to happen. well, it is certainly the case that turkey is a treaty ally of the united states, harder to make the case it is actually a partner. in this circumstance, it seems
iraqi political and diplomatic space and you know there is the jockeying for competition and for greater influence is likely to continue for some time there was real showing good saudi arabia that the oil facilities there could be so easily targeted and destroyed so you know after the shock then comes the realization and that being that saudi arabia cannot defend itself as well as was assumed is there an added responsibility for the united states. well it is if the united states chooses to make it an added responsibility that saudi arabia has for a long time fallen under the u.s. security guarantee that said saudi arabia is not a treaty ally of the united states and not to signal matters so the u.s. is not obligated to come to the defense of saudi arabia that said given the longstanding security relationship between the 2 you know it is likely that the
against american interests in the region. and just to be clear, you re saying if they are getting more aggressive, you think that may warrant u.s. military action? that s what we need to debate here in congress. iran is testing our resolve, and my concern, frankly, is that in saudi arabia we also we have a challenge in that we have an uneven partner as you well know, the murder of khashoggi, washington-based reporter who was dismembered in a turkish consulate at the direction of the leadership of the saudi kingdom really has strained our relations as well as a number of other recent actions. we have a decade s long partnership with the saudi kingdom, but this is not a treaty ally like a nato country where we are obligated to respond with force if they are attacked. this is a long-time close partner, but one where that relationship has recently been tested, particularly by saudi conduct in the war in yemen. so there have been a number of attacks on the saudi kingdom by the houthis