President Trump

ISIS In Syria Being Decimated, Russia, Assad Call For US to Withdraw

Opinion: The Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) have continued to hammer the forces of the Islamic State (ISIS) that lay in front of them. The Syrian government of President Assad, along with their Russian allies are calling for the United States now to withdraw from the country.

“We also call on the United States, whose military units are on Syrian territory illegally, to leave the country,” the joint statement said.

The ISIS fighters are being squeezed into a four-square-kilometer sliver of territory along the Euphrates River. The fighting is fierce where the ISIS troops are now left with the prospect of having nowhere to run. In the recent fighting for the villages of Susa and Marashida, the Daesh, the Arabic word for ISIS are taking reprisals against the civilians who try to flee from the fighting. SDF troops, like everywhere ISIS has been are finding piles of bodies at every turn.

In the fierce fighting in Susa, SDF troops took the town, only to have ISIS counterattack and force them back out. But SDF augmented by Kurdish Special Forces troops, massive amounts of artillery and air strikes, routed the ISIS elements in the town, which lay in ruin now.

Because of the reprisals, ISIS has taken against the civilian populace, they’ll follow on with their next tactic out of their playbook which is to use the civilians as human shields. And the international community will call for them to be given another free pass like the one they were given at Raqua. ISIS made a deal with the SDF to allow “a few hundred” fighters and their families leave Raqua.

The BBC reported that 250 fighters were permitted to leave Raqqa. They left with 3,500 family members to ISIS-controlled territory. According to the BBC, their convoy included nearly 50 rented trucks, 13 buses, and more than 100 ISIS vehicles. Ten trucks were loaded with weapons. What was told was that just a few dozen fighters and their families would be let go. With no foreigners and no weapons.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about ISIS over the past several years, is that they deserve no quarter from anyone. Have they given any to any civilian anywhere? The U.S. and British would not attack the convoys as the vehicles were driven by civilians and the coalition said they wouldn’t bomb women and children.

That sordid affair was captured here in its entirety:

The Syrians and Russians are also calling for the U.S. to allow refugees in Rukban along the Syrian-Jordan border to be evacuated by Syrian and Russian troops. The regime is supplying buses to move the refugees in the camp where conditions are dire.

Rukban lies smack in the middle of the US-Russian demilitarized zone, created by the two superpowers so that no “mistaken” conflicts arise between the two countries. Neither the Americans nor Russians would take responsibility for the camp.

The nearby U.S. military base near al-Tanf also allows the US to be close to a supply route where Iranian weapons enter Syria from Iraq.

The Jordanians will no longer help the camp after ISIS attacked its troops near the border. The civilians in the camp (about 50,000) are stuck in the middle. They initially fled from the Assad regime and ISIS. Assad’s forces have not allowed aid to reach the camp.

The Russians claim that a recent poll conducted by the U.N. had 95 percent of its refugees wanted to leave Rukban and that 80 percent wanted to return to areas under Syrian regime control. Yet when the Russians opened a pair of “humanitarian corridors” to territory held by the Assad regime, not one refugee left.

The civilians (80% women and children) fear arrest, torture, and even death at the hands of Assad.

But yet, the Syrians and Russians try to lay the blame on the Americans. “The command of the US group in the al-Tanf zone interferes the exit, moreover, misleads the refugees about the inability to leave the camp, spreads rumors, that on the territory controlled by the Syrian government, they will be devastated, forced into conscription and arrested,” they said in their statement.

The Trump Administration had said that they were completely pulling out of Syria, which is exactly what the regime, the Russians and the Iranians have wanted. But after speaking with Turkish President Ergodan, Trump reversed his field and has decided to leave about 400 troops in the country at two different locations. That is about 20 percent of the currently 2000 troops in the country.

Erdogan has made it clear that his government will not tolerate armed Kurds on the border with Turkey as he considers the SDF the same as the YPG and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which his government sees as terrorists.

Meanwhile, freezing temperatures, lack of food, medicines, and doctors have the refugees on the brink. Eight children have starved to death in Rukban since the beginning of the year.

Now is not the time for the United States to leave too soon or to allow ISIS to leave the country unmolested. European nations are refusing to allow nationals who left to fight for ISIS back in their countries. The United States should adopt the same policy.

Photo: Getty Images

US Aid to Venezuela Thru Colombia Now is the Crux of the Crisis

Opinion: The United States is pushing the envelope against the authoritarian regime of Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela. No one is arguing, except Maduro that the tons of medical supplies are urgently needed. The people of Venezuela are in dire need of food, medicine and an end to the hyper-inflation devastating the once prosperous nation’s economy. Over three million Venezuelans have fled the country and are moving across the border into Colombia.

But there is another side to the U.S. aid being shipped into Colombia, which is why many of the international aid agencies are wanting nothing to do with this. By sending the aid to neighboring Colombia, the United States has upped the ante to encourage military members, especially the junior to mid-level officers to cease their allegiance to Maduro. The aim is to foment regime change by backing the claims of the “interim President” Juan Guaidó who has called for a “humanitarian avalanche” with “caravans” to go to the Colombian borders to get the aid next Saturday.

The hope is that once the supplies, which the U.S. is shipping to the city of Cúcuta, on the border with Venezuela, reaches the bridge between the two countries, military leaders will defy Maduro and allow the aid to cross.

However, the U.N. and other aid agencies are balking at getting involved. “Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or any other objectives,” Stéphane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said last week. “The needs of the people should lead in terms of when and how humanitarian assistance is used.”

Right now, the border bridge on the Venezuelan side is blocked by a tanker truck and shipping containers. And Maduro is painting himself into a corner. He claims that there is no humanitarian crisis, that the United States is manufacturing a false claim to incite a military invasion.

Calling this false flies in the face of the facts. When three million of your countrymen flee and food stores are empty, hospitals are in dire need of medicine and your only supporters to your claim as President are those known “freedom loving democracies” as Russia, China, Cuba et al, it rings increasingly hollow.

Maduro’s Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez got some advice that rivals that of Baghdad Bob when he alleged that the US aid was contaminated with carcinogens “to poison our population” and described it as a “biological weapon”, as reported by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

The ante is further being raised by the presence of Senator Marco Rubio from Florida who was in Colombia on Sunday. “There comes a time in many people’s lives when they have to make a decision that will define them forever,” Rubio said. “That time has come for the Venezuelan soldiers.” Rubio called Maduro’s rule “a criminal regime willing to starve and kill its own people.”

Also, Richard Branson, the British billionaire, and philanthropist is organizing a benefit concert in Cúcuta this coming Friday. Branson said he hopes to raise $100 million for humanitarian aid.

Guaidó is calling for thousands of supporters dressed in white to march on the border to confront the border guards and allow the aid to pass. Colombians in Cúcuta are uneasy about the entire scene being played out in their midst. It is a city of 750,000 that has been inundated by Venezuelan refugees.

Other humanitarian aid is slated to be coming from the Brazilian border and from the neighboring island of Curaçao.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is continuing to push the Venezuelan military to decide, Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, said earlier this month at a press brief, “Members of the army are Venezuelan citizens. … Our hope is that they will be able to persuade Maduro, or they will simply disobey orders to continue the starvation of the people of Venezuela.”

Kevin Whittaker, the US Ambassador to Colombia, said last week that Maduro “needs to leave so his people’s needs can be attended to, so the Venezuelan economy can be put back on its feet, and so that Venezuela can once again be a normal country.”

Maduro is digging in his heels and last week denied entry to five members of the European Parliament who flew to Caracs to meet with Guaidó at his invitation. They were barred from entry into Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar International Airport and subsequently deported.

This next week will be very interesting to watch. All eyes now are on the Venezuelan military. On one hand, they’ve been very loyal to the Maduro’s regime. But the rank and file members have family members who are starving. They know that someday there will be a reckoning.

Photo: Wikipedia

Maduro Uses Greed to Maintain Loyalty of Top Military Leaders

Opinion: When the facade comes off, these leftist Socialist leaders who decry the evils of capitalism usually live in an opulent lifestyle that would make Bernie Madoff green with envy. Venezuela is a prime example.

Nicholas Maduro has a tenuous, illegal hold on the Presidency but he, like his predecessor, Hugo Chavez knows, that as long as the military supports him, the phony election shenanigans can be swept under the rug. Latin America has always been a hotbed of military coups and Venezuela has had plenty.

But once Chavez took over, he decided to do everything in his power to ensure that the military would never rise up against him or his personal successor. He used greed and bought the generals loyalty. Chavez began an inflated and arbitrary promotion system where the most loyal officers to the regime were rewarded with promotions to general or admiral. And those promotions came with all of the perks, highly inflated salaries, homes, etc.

Venezuela now has about 3000 flag officers, (generals or admirals) for an active military force of fewer than 300,000 troops. The United States is considered very top heavy with the most flag officers in our history. The U.S. currently has 920 flag officers with a total active force of about 1.3 million troops.

But the first cracks to appear in Maduro’s power came over the weekend. Back on January 23, opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president and called Maduro’s sham “re-election” rigged. So, this weekend four air force officers — three generals and a female major announced on social media that they were taking the side of Guaido.

One of the officers, Gen. Jorge Oropeza Pernalete said in a video that was on Twitter “In Venezuela, it is urgent and necessary to rescue democracy and restore the rule of law,” he stated. “I call on others to repudiate Nicolas Maduro and those who are with him in the regime who have taken power in an arbitrary and authoritarian way.”

Maduro wants to nip this uprising against his power in the bud. He immediately visited several military bases as a show of force and no doubt instill fear into the hearts of the rest of the generals. Because he knows, it won’t be the generals who rally to the cause of Guaido to turn the tide. It will be the junior and mid-level officers and enlisted men that may go up against him.

The ordinary people are starving and over 2 million have fled the country and streamed across the border into Colombia. It is the lower ranks of troops, like their poorer countrymen who are dealing with a scarcity of food, runaway inflation and a lack of medicine and health care. The generals have all of that. To keep the lower ranking troops in line, the Venezuelans have installed the Cuban system of the secret police in the military that keeps a watch on everything that transpires and any whiff of disloyalty is strictly dealt with.

There are also three paramilitary political militias that harass and bully the poor in the barrios and crush any kind of dissent. These militias run between 500,000 to 1,000,000 and are poorly trained but operate in large numbers to constantly keep a lid on things in the poorer, opposition neighborhoods. Maduro claims to double the number of those by April.

And behind all of this remains the specter of a U.S. armed invasion. While remote, Maduro keeps his officers in line by repeating this threat constantly. Many of his generals, fearing reprisals from the people or being extradited to the United States, as many have taken up illegal activities and drug smuggling, have remained loyal.

After the John Bolton flap over his “5000 troops to Colombia” cryptic notepad, President Trump has reiterated that “all options” remain on the table, including an incursion. But the stakes were raised by Guaido himself.

He has asked the United States for humanitarian aid for the starving masses. USAID has prepared pallets of food and medicine to help the people. Guaido has urged the military to let these humanitarian supplies thru. Maduro equates U.S. aid as a precursor to a U.S. invasion. At a rally for his supporters this weekend, Maduro said that Venezuela “was not a nation of beggars.”

While the EU (European Union) has infuriated Maduro and the Russians by announcing that they have recognized the legitimacy of the Guaido claim to the Presidency, it now is reaching a crisis phase. The Russians and Chinese are pouring cash into the country to help prop up the Maduro regime. But lately, it seems, that the Chinese are becoming convinced that perhaps Maduro must go. The Chinese government announced last week their desire to continue working with Caracas “no matter how the situation evolves”, which is hardly a ringing endorsement.

While the military leaders have so far, not cracked down on protests in the bigger cities, allowing U.S. aid to enter is a completely different animal. The time is now for Guaido to speak with some of these generals and assure some of them that their fate is safe in the next government.

And the U.S. rattling its saber with the “all options” statement may be the push that the military leaders will need in advising Maduro that it is time to exit gracefully and retire on a beach in the worker’s paradise of Cuba to avoid an all-out civil war that no one wants.

Photo: Wikipedia

5000 Troops to Colombia? It’s Probably Not What You Think

Opinion: Like everyone else, we all saw the yellow notepad that John Bolton may or may not have inadvertently showed to the press during a Monday briefing. On it was two hastily scrawled notes about supporting the Afghanistan peace talks and the other was the “5000 troops to Colombia” alleged bombshell.

Immediately alarms began going off everywhere, was this a sign of the return to gunboat diplomacy, yanqui imperialism, and gringo soldiers invading peaceful Latin American neighbors? If so, Bolton committed a huge gaffe of operational security (OPSEC) and it would go completely against what this administration claimed its stated goals were.

When running for office in 2016, President Trump stated he had an anti-interventionist policy in regards to the region. However, many of the members of his administration have quite a different take on things and several, including Bolton, are very-hawkish. Bolton himself labeled Venezuela as part of a “troika of tyranny” (Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua) speech he gave recently in Miami.

Venezuela was once one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America due to its huge oil reserves. All of that changed with the coup of Hugo Chavez. Chavez was an Army officer who founded a secret leftist organization within the military and tried to lead a coup in 1992. It failed and he was jailed for two years.

He was elected President and then abolished Congress and the judiciary and immediately created a parallel government staffed by military supporters picked by him. He embraced Russia and Cuba where bought weapons from both. He began funding left-wing movements across Latin America including a $300 million dollar investment in the FARC in Colombia.

Then he turned his sights on the life-blood of Venezuela, the oil industry. He turned over the very profitable Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., to his leftist buffoon buds, who promptly ran the business into the ground, all while lining their own pockets in the process. He kept enormous popularity with the poor by making them dependent on the government with endless handouts and government subsidies. When he died, his successor Nicholas Maduro further ran the economy of the country into the dirt.

Inflation was off the charts, people were starving and they were flocking to the nearly 1400-mile border with Colombia to escape this latest socialist “Eden”. The latest election was a total sham, which was denounced, not only by the United States but by most of the other countries in Latin America as well.

The United States quickly supported the presidency claim by the leader of the elected assembly, Juan Guaidó. The only countries that are approving of this sham election and speaking out against the U.S. support for Guaidó are those normal bastions of democracy and human rights, Russia, China, Iran, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

However, back to the notepad of Bolton, is this a sign of impending Yanqui invasion? Hardly. An armed incursion by the United States military would be disastrous for the U.S. politically in the region. So, one has to read the tea leaves in a very fluid situation, which can change on a moment’s notice and come up with a viable scenario. Which is why the official U.S. response to events in Venezuela is to say that, “all options remain on the table.”

So, what is most likely happening? Guaidó has reportedly met with the military leadership in the country. They have remained loyal to Maduro as the senior leaders are the most likely to have benefitted from his perks.

If some, but not all of the military decides to back Guaidó, the real prospect of civil war could occur. Then there would be the resultant need for humanitarian assistance and the 5000 troops could be part of a peace-keeping, humanitarian assistance force that would be required to help the already starving people of Venezuela. The 5000 troops would most likely include them from nations in the region with American logistical support.

The contingency planning for these type of operations is always on-going and it is certain that political overtures are being made to other countries in the region that share the US view. As in our own SOF “Truths”, the time for planning is now not later.

Competent Special Operations Forces cannot be created after emergencies occur.

It is clear Maduro must go, perhaps Bolton was just sending a subliminal message to the leadership of that fact. With the illicit gold trade and the amounts supposedly leaving the country, that should pay his socialist buds enough to buy him a nice beach retirement resort in Varadero.

5000 troops? Most likely a coalition of Latin American forces. Obviously, it isn’t as earth-shaking as a Yanqui invasion… but that is most probably what will transpire. Is it out of the realm for the gringos to invade? No, but very unlikely. But whether by accident or on purpose, John Bolton just gave Maduro something else to consider.

Photo: screenshot of Bolton news video

Mission Accomplished 2 for US SOF? No Easy Answers in Syria

President Trump ruffled quite a few feathers both here in the United States and abroad when he tweeted out a few days ago that our troops were being pulled out of Syria. The President said, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” which he said during the Presidential campaign of 2016 that he would pull us out of there once elected.

We currently have about 2000 troops, mostly Special Operations forces in Syria. They were initially sent there in 2015 by then-President Obama as the civil war in Syria reached a point where the Islamic State (ISIS) had taken advantage of the chaos and carved out a huge swath of Syrian territory as their own, calling it a “caliphate.”

Now the civil war is approaching its 8th year. ISIS is on the run definitely, now controlling just 1 percent of the territory they possessed a few years ago. They are locked into a small enclave around the town of Hanin where they have endured airstrikes from coalition partners.

Part of Trump’s reasoning is that he doesn’t want to help the Syrians (not a US friend in the region), stabilize their own country. While true, the situation remains much deeper than that. There are so many other players involved, it is an extremely fluid situation. Number 1 on the US agenda should be the Kurds.

The Kurds (Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF) were the Americans’ best allies inside the country. The U.S. Special Operations Forces inside Syria have provided training, advising and equipment to fight ISIS and they’ve (with massive US air support) made significant gains against the ISIS forces there. The SOF troops are the only buffer between the Kurds and the Turkish forces that have invaded from the north.

A rapid pullout of U.S. forces sends a bad message to any would-be ally in the region. The French, who worked with the Kurds in Iraq several years ago during the first Gulf War have said that they’ll step up and take the place of our SOF with the Kurdish people.

The Turks, while still technically a member of NATO are growing increasingly anti-West in their sentiments. They pushed into northern Syria because they feel that the Kurds are terrorists. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to launch a new offensive against the U.S.’s Kurdish allies unless the U.S. promises to cut off aid to them.

The Turks have supported non-Kurdish Syrian opposition groups, such as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) since the civil war began. Their biggest worry remains that gains made by Kurds in Syria would embolden the Kurdish population in Turkey to seek independence. Turkey has already launched two operations to help Syrian rebels capture territory from ISIS and the Kurds. And they are threatening more.

Russia has been a longtime Syrian and Assad ally. They provided the regime with air support, as well as troops on the ground. President Putin is trying to keep his biggest foothold in the region and at the same time spread their influence in the region.

The Russian air support which initially targeted ISIS has now spread to targeting other resistance groups including the FSA of Kurdish forces. This past winter a group of Russian mercenaries and Syrian troops attacked a joint US-Kurdish base in a “mistaken” operation and were decimated by airstrikes.

The Iranians, intent on spreading their influence in the region began by offering military advisory assistance to the Assad regime. But now they have several thousand troops in the area and are building bases close to the border with Israel, which they are also doing in Lebanon. The U.S. believes, and rightfully so, that the Iranians are preparing for a long-term presence in Syria. Tehran has spent $16 billion in the area to destabilize the countries of Syria, Yemen as well as Iraq.

So with the President calling for a United States withdrawal in the country, there is definite pushback even among his own administration and political party, calling it a big mistake. Back in June, the President floated around a plan for an all-Arab army to replace the U.S. in a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis warned against a premature withdrawal that bought some time for those in the administration that wanted to remain. However, with the news that the U.S. is indeed pulling out, Mattis announced he was retiring in February. Obviously, the reasoning behind the timing of Mattis’ retirement was in protest over this latest flap. In his letter of resignation, Mattis said that the President had a right to a Defense Secretary “whose views are better aligned with yours” on policy.

Now Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State (ISIS), has resigned as well. McGurk was an Obama administration appointee and was due to leave in February but his letter of resignation states that his last day will be Dec. 31.

McGurk in December 11 press conference called the idea of leaving Syria too soon reckless and added that the “enduring defeat of a group like (ISIS) this means you can’t just defeat their physical space and then leave.”

“Nobody is saying that they are going to disappear. Nobody is that naive,” he said. “So we want to stay on the ground and make sure that stability can be maintained in these areas.”

McGurk led the way for the secret talks with Iran where the Iranians released prisoners in return for boatloads of cash.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. called the Trump decision to leave Syria early an “Obama-like decision”. He added, “I don’t know what they’ve done, but this is chaos.”

There have been many positive results because of the albeit smaller but very effective U.S. Special Operations presence in Syria. ISIS has been largely destroyed and removed from nearly all of the areas that they controlled. The northeastern portion of Syria has been stabilized. The Iranian attempt at expansion has been blocked and the Russians have also have been checked as they are no longer the only power brokers in Syria.

What will probably happen now is that the country will again become destabilized as the Turks and their proxies will do their own bidding in the north? They’ve already been accused of massive human rights abuses in Syria and no one believes that will cease without the coalition there. The Kurds? They will bear the brunt of our leaving. The Kurds wanted their own autonomous mini-state within Syria. No one believed that would ever happen. But when the Turks bullied Trump and the U.S. into withdrawing, it is an ominous sign that worse times may yet lay ahead of our allies there.

Some of our troops will remain across the border in Iraq but any incursions into Syria now for our Special Operations Forces would be fraught with peril. Will any other members of the administration be able to talk the President out of an early withdrawal? That will bear watching.

Photo of US Special Operations Forces: DOD

Green Beret Medic Ronald Shurer II Receives Medal Of Honor

On Monday, President Trump decorated former Green Beret medic and SSG Ronald Shurer II with the Medal of Honor for outstanding heroism and bravery during a combat mission in Afghanistan in 2008. Amazingly enough, Shurer was once rejected by the military for a medical condition before he joined and was accepted shortly after 9/11.

Shurer saved multiple lives both American and Afghan, during a battle where the Special Forces troops were engaged with a numerically vastly superior insurgent force and were in danger of being overrun. But through his actions, not one of the critically wounded American men would die that day.

Shurer was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group and ODA 3336 when they were tasked with capturing a high-value target who was a part of the Hezebela Islami Gulbadin insurgent group. The mission took place in the remote Shok Valley in the Nuristan province of Afghanistan.

As the team of Green Berets and Afghan commandos were being whisked to the snow-covered ground along a frozen river and with a nearly vertical 60-foot cliff that the men would have to climb, through their imagery, the amount of enemy troops in the area suddenly became much clearer.

In an interview with the media last weekend, LTC Kyle Walton, who was a Captain and in command of the ODA, said the troops saw that “There were hundreds and hundreds of more compounds than we were able to see from our imagery.”

The men had to leap 10 feet from the CH-47 Chinook helicopter to the river due to the steepness of the terrain. They then had to assault straight up the near vertical cliff to where the high-value target (HVT) was supposed to be residing in this village.

Shurer recalled an eerie stillness as soon as the helicopter whooshed away. The men, all on foot with no vehicles or heavy weapons had just a shoulder carried a recoilless rifle as their biggest weapon.

Soon after the stillness was interrupted by 200-300 Afghan insurgents who rained down automatic weapons fire and rocket-propelled grenades on the vastly outnumbered team of Special Forces men and Afghan commandos.

Walton quickly broke his force into three assault elements but was immediately pinned down by the superior enemy fire that had wounded nearly all of the men. Shurer was initially at the base of the cliff, tending to several wounded Afghan commandos.

As President Trump would remind onlookers at the White House on Monday, “Blood was all over the place, it was a tough, tough situation to be in.” It was soon about to get worse.

SFC Dillon Behr, the A-Team’s Senior Radio Operator, was shot thru the hip and was bleeding out. Walton called for Shurer to come up to his untenable position on top of the cliff as there were too many wounded. They were pinned against the cliff and things were looking bad.

A-10 attack aircraft and F-16s screamed overhead, making close air support runs close to the Green Berets. They were trying to keep the insurgents pinned down but many of the Americans were peppered with shrapnel as well.

“When I called for Ron, there was a silence over the radio for a few seconds, because everyone realized what that meant — that it was bad,” Walton recalled. “He had to climb a mountain under fire with a couple other guys on the team. When he showed up, nearly everybody was wounded. We were under direct fire. We were pinned down with nearly nowhere to go except down that 100-foot cliff.”

Shurer raced to Behr’s side and was attempting to stop the bleeding of his badly damaged hip. He even went to the extent of jamming his fingers in the wound to stop the bleeding. Then a bullet ripped thru another Green Beret’s arm and hit Shurer in the head and arm. He recalled it being like getting hit with a baseball bat.

Behr, thinking he was about to die, began to pray. Shurer slapped him across the face and startled the wounded man back to his senses. “Wake up! You’re not going to die today.”

Walton knew his situation was critical and his small team was in danger of being overrun. He called for an airstrike danger close, nearly on top of his own position. The team was in danger of being wiped out as much as the insurgents from the bomb.

As he called for the bomb drop, Walton says the last image he has is that of Shurer, draped over the wounded men, protecting them with his own body.

The bomb blasted the insurgents long enough to allow the Green Berets to make their escape down the cliff. As the dust settled, Walton recalls that the first image he saw was Shurer tending to the wounded.

Shurer had brought plenty of tubular nylon webbing that the team used to sling and lower Behr and the other wounded down the cliff to waiting helicopters to evacuate the team away from the firefight and live to fight again.

Another one of Shurer’s teammates, SFC Matthew Williams recalls that Shurer’s coolness under fire and the disregard for his own safety was the reason, so many of the men survived that day.

“His ability to manage an unmanageable situation and remain calm, collected and cool — always was that guy, hanging out or training or whatever,” he said.

“We’d been in engagements before, even on that deployment,” Williams added. “Nothing like that before. Luckily, we’re all incredibly well trained, we trusted each other, and it all just kind of worked for us that day. On our worst day.”

Shurer, when hearing the comments of his fellow A-Team members was humbled by the praise.“That means so much more,” he said. “I know these guys’ wives, their kids. Just knowing that … it’s very humbling for them to say that. Luckily, it all kind of worked for me to help those guys.”

Shurer and the nine other Green Berets were all awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third highest award for bravery after the battle. But several team members felt that Shurer’s actions deserved more recognition.

Shurer left the military a year later and joined the Secret Service. He then later joined the Special Operations Division where he’s served since 2011. He was asked to go to the White House where the decision to upgrade his award to the Medal of Honor was kept from him. He was told it was a work-related visit. But then the President broke the news to him.

During the ceremony, President Trump tapped him on the shoulder and his comments echoed the impressiveness of Shurer’s exploits.

He’s a warrior,” Trump said. “For more than six hours, Ron bravely faced down the enemy,” Trump added during the ceremony. “Not a single American died in that brutal battle thanks in great measure to Ron’s heroic actions.”

A year ago, Shurer was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer but he has continued to fight that disease with the same bravery he faced the enemy Trump said.

“He’s braved, battled, worked, he’s done everything he can, that cancer he’s been fighting it every single day with courage and with strength, and he’s a warrior,” Trump said.

The president added, “He’s the best dad and role model two boys could ever ask for.”

Shurer was accompanied by his wife and two sons, several of his 3rd SFG teammates and Afghan interpreters at the ceremony.

Photos: US Army

President Maduro Warns Military of Impending ‘US Invasion’

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has warned the military to be on alert after reports on Wednesday had the United States planning to invade the country. President Trump supposedly was calling for the invasion with his staff.

“You cannot lower your guard for even a second, because we will defend the greatest right our homeland has had in all of its history, which is to live in peace,” Maduro said. “A military intervention on the part of the US empire will never be a solution to Venezuela’s problems.”
Maduro alluded to a report by The Associated Press that Trump had asked his aides why the US couldn’t simply invade Venezuela. According to the report, former State Secretary Rex Tillerson and ex-national security adviser H.R. McMaster took turns explaining the possible fallout.
Both officials are no longer at the White House.
The report also detailed a meeting between Trump and four Latin American leaders in which the US president raised the idea, only for it to be rejected by his counterparts. The White House has refused to confirm the report’s validity, saying it will not comment on personal conversations.
Last year, Trump told reporters that he was “not going to rule out” a military option, saying it was “certainly something that we could pursue.”
Trump has described Maduro as a “dictator,” saying he should no longer be in power. Under Maduro, Venezuela has witnessed a significant deterioration of human rights and the erosion of democratic institutions.
More than 130 people were killed and hundreds more injured in 2017, when a Supreme Court order to strip the opposition-held National Assembly triggered months of anti-government protests. Venezuela has continued to struggle with exorbitant inflation and chronic shortages of basic supplies, including food and medicine.

With their people starving and a total meltdown of the economy, nearly a million Venezuelans have been flocking across the border into Colombia. The currency of the country is next to worthless.

In many places, the barter system is making a comeback. In one place a haircut cost five bananas and two eggs or a sack of corn flour. Water is being rationed although it is plentiful, the infrastructure has shut down.

Inflation is running at impossible levels for the government to keep up with. Medicine, food, and water are all in short supply.

To read the entire article from Deutsche Welle, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Trump Administration Weighing Terrorist Label for Iran’s IRGC

There is an ongoing debate in the Trump administration on whether the United States should label the powerful Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. The move is seen as using everything in their power to halt Iran’s force projection in several areas.

While some warn a designation could pose risks to US personnel and installations overseas, it would allow the White House to freeze IRGC assets, impose travel bans and levy criminal penalties on top of pre-existing economic sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump.
“The United States is trying to change malign behavior of the Iranians and deter their aggression,” said Chris Costa, the executive director of the Spy Museum and a recently retired special adviser to Trump on counterterrorism. For that goal, “the special designation is a very important tool,” he said.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in favor of the designation, sources familiar with his thinking say.
“There’s lots of things that are being discussed, things that will prove, we believe, very effective at the end goal-which is, at the end of the day, what matters, right?” Pompeo told CNN in a recent interview. “The end goal is to convince the Islamic Republic of Iran to be a normal country.” He declined to discuss specific plans for future sanctions and designations.
But labeling an official state military as a terror group, particularly a group with the reach and force of the IRGC, would be unprecedented and could expose US diplomatic and military officials to additional hazards, some warn.
The powerful military and security body is key to Iran’s influence in the Middle East, often linked to Iran’s support for terrorism. The organization controls wide swaths of the Iranian economy, including the energy sector.
The IRGC “provides weapons, training for regional proxies, regional forces … it focuses on terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah, the Houthis,” Costa, the former National Security Council counterterrorism adviser told CNN. “They’re a regional spoiler.”

Many in the intelligence community have always felt the IRGC is a terrorist group and saying that labeling them as such will not increase the threat level for US personnel in close proximity to them anyway.

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

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Russia Withdrawing Troops and Aircraft from Syria

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the Russians have withdrawn a large number of troops and aircraft, according to state-run news agency Tass,

Putin said they withdrew more than 1,000 military personnel and more than 20 aircraft from Syria in the last few days.

“Only over the past several days, 13 planes, 14 helicopters and 1,140 personnel have been pulled out [of Syria],” the Russian leader said, state news agency Tass reported. Putin explained that Russia has been removing its forces from the Middle Eastern country since he visited in December.
Tass also reported on Thursday that the Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Essen had “accomplished” its mission in the Mediterranean and is headed back to the city of Sevastopol, on the Crimean Peninsula. Russia has a permanent task force in the Mediterranean, with a naval base located in the Syrian coastal city of Tartous.
Putin praised the Russian military’s success in Syria, saying the “army clearly demonstrated its growing potential and better coordination among military units in the struggle with terrorists.”
Earlier this month, Assad said in an interview that he believes the conflict will come to an end in “less than a year.” He added that his army will take back “every inch” of the country, claiming that he has the “support” of his people.
Assad’s army has turned its attention to the country’s southwest region, as the last remaining pockets of rebels have been defeated near Damascus and Homs. Now, the military aims to reconquer the opposition-held area near the border of Jordan and the disputed Golan Heights, which are claimed by Israel and Syria.
But the region has recently become more complicated, with neighboring Israel launching strikes on Iranian-backed militias, which support Assad, stationed in the region. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Iran and Tehran-backed militias began withdrawing from the disputed Golan Heights border with Israel last week, as part of a Russian-brokered deal with Israel.

President Trump has reportedly been seeking the help of Putin to curb the Iranian military presence in Syria. Their basing of rockets, especially along the Golan Heights on the border with Israel will only lead to further warfare in Syria and beyond.

To read the entire article from Newsweek, click here:

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Trump’s VA Nominee Wilkie A Polarizing Figure, Will He Work For All Vets?

President Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, Robert Wilkie is a very qualified, conservative Washington insider, who has over three decades of experience navigating the minefields of D.C. politics. And he has a tough job to do manning one of the nation’s largest bureaucracies that is always under the microscope.

Wilkie is no stranger to polarizing people and issues. In fact, rather than run from them, he seems to relish and embrace them. As a young man, Wilkie was an aide to Senator Jesse Helms from North Carolina who bashed Martin Luther King and called gays, “weak, morally sick wretches.” Wilkie described Helms who died in 2008 as a mentor and lists his accomplishments in U.S. defense as cornerstones of his own beliefs.

Wilkie also worked for Trent Lott, the conservative Senator from Mississippi who lost his Senate Majority post for defending the segregationist views of Strom Thurmond who unsuccessfully ran for the White House.

More recently, Wilkie worked in the Defense Department for Donald Rumsfeld and returned to the Pentagon recently in the Trump Administration working in military policy. He’s shown he’s never one to back down from a fight, even when the issues are quite polarizing. Now he’s tabbed to run the VA which it seems is always under fire.

Wilkie and his father were frequent visitors to Civil War battlefields and they have a heritage of family members who fought for the Confederacy. Wilkie was active in and participated in many events with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group which celebrates the birthdays of Confederate leaders and generals.

He has stated that he no longer attends those meetings or counts himself as an active member since the commemorations which were once a means to memorialize soldiers and family members but now have become “part of the politics that divide us.”

But on the flip side, he also brings a very experienced military background to the table. His grandfather served as an artillery officer in the 82nd Infantry Division, (now the 82nd Airborne Division) in World War I. His father was an artillery officer who was severely wounded in Vietnam. Wilkie served in both the Navy Reserve with the Joint Forces Intelligence Command, Naval Special Warfare Group Two and the Office of Naval Intelligence.and the Air Force and is currently an Air Force reserve officer.

He is a trusted member of Jim Mattis staff at the Department of Defense and has contacts going back several generations in Congress.

But while he can, and has gotten things done, he also took a stand on several particularly divisive issues including, in 1993, he publicly defended Helms’ choice to support an organization whose logo included the Confederate flag. In 1997, Wilkie fought against a Democratic proposal in 1997 to ensure equal pay for working women. And just this year, he took a stand for President Trump’s policy for justifying a ban on transgender troops serving in the military.

Wilkie will need to show a willingness and passion for fighting for and defending all veterans rights, whether he agrees with the cause or not, and not just blindly be following an agenda.

Wilkie got the strongest possible recommendation from Mattis who is a very respected Defense Secretary in an administration that has gotten a lot of criticism. He’s also gotten the recommendation of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. And he has already been approved by the Senate twice before for different posts so, the confirmation process wasn’t seen to be a major block.

Wilkie was surprised by his appointment by the President, who announced his nomination in May. Wilkie was happy working as Undersecretary for personnel and readiness under Mattis but agreed to take the position out of a sense of duty.

One big sticking point was erased when Wilkie announced that there won’t be privatization of veterans health care. And he’ll inherit a bloated agency beset with poor morale due to political infighting that is also beset with a myriad of problems.

The veterans of the country will be watching and they’ll expect changes, positive changes be made soon.

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