Daily on Defense: Democratic presidential debate long on criticism of Trump’s Syria policy, short on what to do next

When Cooper repeated the question, Biden again gave a non-answer, and seemed to echo Trump’s response, which is to sanction Turkey and pressure President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Turkey is the real problem here,” Biden said. “And I would be having a real lockdown conversation with Erdogan and letting him know that he’s going to pay a heavy price for what he has done now.”

“We need to work with our allies, to work with Turkey and bring them out. This is an outrageous thing that happened here,” said Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. “And what do we do now? We continue that humanitarian aid, but then we work with our allies to say come back, Turkey, and stop this.”

THE WRONG WAY TO GET OUT: Frontrunner Sen. Elizabeth Warren agrees with Trump’s desire to bring U.S. troops home, but argued he was going about it all wrong.

“I think that we ought to get out of the Middle East. I don’t think we should have troops in the Middle East. But we have to do it the right way, the smart way,” Warren said. “What this president has done is that he has sucked up to dictators, he has made impulsive decisions that often his own team doesn’t understand, he has cut and run on our allies, and he has enriched himself at the expense of the United States of America.”

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard was the most critical of the U.S. mission in Syria, which she repeatedly called a “regime change war,” despite the fact the U.S. policy has been to remain focused on defeating ISIS and not taking sides in Syria’s long-running civil war.

“Donald Trump has the blood of the Kurds on his hand, but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime change war in Syria that started in 2011, along with many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheerleading this regime change war,” Gabbard said, who also charged that the U.S. was supporting “terrorists like Al Qaeda” in Syria.

‘DEAD WRONG’: It fell to South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg to counter Gabbard’s assertion that the U.S. was to blame for the death and destruction. “I think that is dead wrong. The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence. It’s a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values,” Buttigieg argued.

“A small number of specialized, special operations forces and intelligence capabilities were the only thing that stood between that part of Syria and what we’re seeing now, which is the beginning of a genocide and the resurgence of ISIS,” he said.

TALK OF SHAME: Buttigieg, a veteran who served in Afghanistan, was among the candidates who said U.S. troops were ashamed of the president’s action, which many feel amounted to a betrayal of America’s Kurdish allies.

“Soldiers in the field are reporting that for the first time they feel ashamed — ashamed — of what their country has done,” Buttigeig said. “When I was deployed, I knew one of the things keeping me safe was the fact that the flag on my shoulder represented a country known to keep its word. And our allies knew it and our enemies knew it. You take that away, you are taking away what makes America America.”

A MATTER OF TRUST: Democrats also asserted that Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds would have long lived consequences. “In terms of the Kurds, 11,000 of them died fighting ISIS, 20,000 were wounded. And the United States said, ‘We’re with you, we’re standing with you.’ And then suddenly, one day after a phone call with Erdogan, announced by tweet, Trump reverses that policy,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“Now, you tell me what country in the world will trust the word of the president of the United States. In other words, what he has done is wreck our ability to do foreign policy, to do military policy, because nobody in the world will believe this pathological liar,” Sanders said.

“How are we going to get people to trust us again?” said Julian Castro. “The first thing is we got to boot Donald Trump out of the Oval Office.”

“And just to connect the dots for a second, if you’re Kim Jong-un, for instance, why in the world would you believe anything that this president says to contain your nuclear weapons program, when he tore up an Iran nuclear agreement that we just signed four years ago, which was the strongest agreement to contain Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and now he’s abandoned the very people that we gave our word to?”

Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Susan Katz Keating (@SKatzKeating). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense.

Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!

HAPPENING TODAY: President Trump is scheduled to hold a news conference with Italian President Sergio Mattarella around 12 noon.

ALSO TODAY: Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are traveling to Ankara, Turkey to seek “an immediate ceasefire and the conditions for a negotiated settlement” in northern Syria.

But Turkish President Erdogan has already rejected the U.S. demand even before he meets today with Pence and Pompeo. “They say ‘declare a ceasefire’. We will never declare a ceasefire,” Erdogan told reporters yesterday. “They are pressuring us to stop the operation. They are announcing sanctions. Our goal is clear. We are not worried about any sanctions,” he said.

KURDS SAW THIS COMING: When U.S. troops departed, the Syrian Kurds quickly switch to plan B, an alliance with Russia and Syrian regime forces, a pivot move that reportedly had been in the works for more than a year.

“Syria’s Kurds have publicly acknowledged courting the Syrian government and its allies over the past year. But much of the back-channel diplomacy, including the most recent talks, happened behind the scenes,” reported the AP. “Discussions between the Kurds, the Syrian government and Moscow began early last year as the Kurds grew nervous that the Americans would leave them in the lurch, Kurdish officials said.”

“We warned the Kurds that the Americans will ditch them,” Russia’s ambassador to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, told Russia’s Tass news agency

ALSO TODAY: The Association of the United States Army wraps ups its annual meeting and exposition, with Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville scheduled to talk about “Army Talent Management in 2028”

A WORD FROM MY EDITOR, SKK: My editor Susan Katz Keating, aka SKK, has been at the AUSA exposition this week. I asked for her impressions.

“My personal Tuesday takeaway is that I saw some new designs for revolvers that are being marketed to the U.S. Army. As a wheel-gun aficionado, this heartened me. I also ran into Medal of Honor recipient David Bellavia in the hallway, and had a brief stilted-Russian conversation with a military officer from one of the Baltic nations. Our russkiy chat translated into something along the lines of, ‘This is a big show and very interesting.’ Then I attended a sobering seminar on Left of Conflict (i.e., non-violent yet effective) operations, which Russia is quite skilled at (witness what happened in 2014 in Crimea).

ESPER TO NATO: Defense Secretary Mark Esper is preparing for next week’s meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, which comes as tensions rise between Turkey and other members of the alliance.

Esper issued a written statement Monday underscoring his harsh criticism of Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria, which he said “has resulted in widespread casualties, refugees, destruction, insecurity, and a growing threat to U.S. military forces.” Esper says he will tell NATO allies to take collective and individual diplomatic and economic measures in response.

“This unacceptable incursion has also undermined the successful multinational ‘Defeat ISIS’ mission in Syria, and resulted in the release of many dangerous ISIS detainees,” Esper said, calling Turkey’s unilateral action “unnecessary and impulsive.”

“President Erdogan bears full responsibility for its consequences, to include a potential ISIS resurgence, possible war crimes, and a growing humanitarian crisis,” Esper said.

JOE BIDEN DEFENDS HUNTER: While Hunter Biden has admitted that accepting a lucrative position on the board of a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice president showed “poor judgment,” the elder Biden defended him at last night’s presidential debate.

“Look, my son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. I carried out the policy of the United States government in rooting out corruption in Ukraine. And that’s what we should be focusing on,” Joe Biden said.

“I did my job. I never discussed a single thing with my son about anything having to do with Ukraine. No one has indicated I have. We’ve always kept everything separate,” he added.

In an interview with ABC News, Hunter Biden said, “I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father. That’s where I made the mistake … so I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever.”

WE ARM THE WORLD: The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has announced that U.S. military sales to allies and foreign partners totaled $55.4 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

“Allies and partners buy from the United States because we sell the world’s most advanced defense systems,” said DSCA director Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper. “Through the uniquely American approach to security cooperation, we also ensure our allies and partners have all the necessary training, education, and institutional capacity to effectively employ and sustain the equipment we provide.”

The Rundown

Washington Examiner: ‘Spoiler’: Turkey’s Erdoğan positioned to be Putin ally in NATO

Washington Post: Russia fills spot between Turkish, Syrian troops Russia starts patrols between Turkey, Syria forces

New York Times: How U.S. Will Execute a Withdrawal

Task & Purpose: As Syria plunges deeper into chaos, all sides are spinning like crazy to win the propaganda war

Talk Media News: Washington’s Words Fire Blanks At Turkey’s War Machine

Washington Examiner: US generals warn about underestimating military might of China and Russia

Wall Street Journal: The Hong Kong Crackdown Has Begun

Reuters: U.S. Wants China To Press North Korea To Be More Constructive In Talks – Pentagon Official

AP: Kim Vows To Fight U.S. Sanctions, Visits Sacred N. Korean Peak

New York Times: China Is Leasing an Entire Pacific Island. Its Residents Are Shocked.

New York Times: These Sure Are Photos of Kim Jong-un on a Horse

Military.com: U.S. Navy Base Reports Damage to More Than 20 Structures Days After Typhoon Pummels Japan

Washington Examiner: Army bases in states with recreational marijuana see major uptick in soldiers testing positive for THC

Calendar

WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 16

7 a.m. 801 Mt Vernon Pl. N.W. — Final day of the Association of the United States Army’s three-day annual meeting and exposition, with Gen. John Murray, commanding general, U.S. Army Futures Command; Gen. Gustave Perna, commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command; and others. Full agenda: https://ausameetings.org/2019annualmeeting

10 a.m 419 Dirksen. — Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing ‘An Examination of US-Iran Policy,” with testimony from Brian Hook, State Department special representative for Iran. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings

10 a.m. 1030 15th St. N.W. — Atlantic Council discussion on “Iranian Public Opinion Under U.S. Sanctions,” with Nancy Gallagher, director of the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland; Assal Rad, research fellow at the National Iranian American Council; Steve Inskeep, host of National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition”; and Barbara Slavin, director of the Atlantic Council’s Future of Iran Initiative. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event

12:30 p.m 1030 15th St. N.W. — Atlantic Council discussion on “Afghanistan’s Fourth Presidential Election: Voting for Peace,” with Afghanistan Ambassador to the United States Roya Rahmani. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event

2 p.m. 2118 Rayburn. — House Armed Services Committee Subcommittees on Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities, and Subcommittee on Readiness joint hearing on “Resiliency of Military Installations to Emerging Threats.” Witnesses Robert McMahon, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment; John Henderson, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment, and Energy; Alex Beehler, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment; and Lucian Niemeyer, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment. https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings

4:30 p.m. 1521 16th St. N.W. — Institute of World Politics off-the-record discussion on “U.S.-North Korea Relations: The Post-Hanoi Summit,” with retired South Korea National Defense Minister Gen. Kim Dong-shin; retired Army Gen. John Tilelli, former U.S. and U.N commander for South Korea; Victor Cha, senior adviser and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation; and John Sano, IWP professor and former deputy director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service. https://www.iwp.edu/events/lessons-learned

THURSDAY | OCTOBER 17

8 a.m. 300 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. — IDEEA Inc. ComDef Conference on “Partnering for Rapid Change,” with Defense Undersecretary for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord. https://comdef.regfox.com/comdef-2019

8:30 a.m. 1250 South Hayes St. Arl. — Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology briefing on “The Intersection of Leadership, Transformation and Security.” Army Col. Stoney Trent, chief of missions in the Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, delivers keynote remarks on “Using AI to Transform and Secure the DoD.”

9:30 a.m. Capitol Visitor Center Rm. SVC-217 — Senate Armed Services Committee classified hearing on “The Situation in Syria and the Wider Region.” Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley testify in closed session. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings

1 p.m. 14th and F Sts. N.W. — Institute for Corean-American Studies symposium on “The Korean Peninsula Issues and United States National Security,” with Principal Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Indo-Pacific Affairs David Helvey. https://www.eventbrite.com

FRIDAY | OCTOBER 18

8:30 a.m. 2301 Constitution Ave. N.W. — United States Institute of Peace discussion on “What’s Next for Democracy and Women’s Rights in Afghanistan?” with Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif.; Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala.; and Nancy Lindborg, president of USIP. https://www.usip.org/events

MONDAY | OCTOBER 21

11:45 a.m. 1800 M Street N.W. — Foundation for Defense of Democracies lunch conversation marking the release of book, Shatter the Nations: ISIS and the War for the Caliphate, with author Mike Giglio; Brett McGurk former special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS; Bill Roggio, senior fellow at FDD and editor of FDD’s Long War Journal; Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at FDD; and Nancy Youssef, national security correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, moderator. Invite only, RVSP here.

WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 23

6 a.m. edt/11 a.m. cet NATO Headquarters, Brussels. — Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg press conference in advance of two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers. Streamed live at https://www.nato.int

THURSDAY | OCTOBER 24

All day NATO Headquarters, Brussels — Meeting of the NATO’s North Atlantic Council at the level of Defense Ministers. https://www.nato.int

8:30 a.m. 529 14th Street, N.W. — House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith delivers remarks on the future of U.S. nuclear policy, at a briefing sponsored by the Ploughshares Fund.