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Biden: U.S. Prepared to Use Military Force in Syria
The U.S. is prepared to use military force to end a civil war in Syria if a political solution can’t be reached, U.S. General Sheriff Vice President Joe Biden said during a visit to Turkey.

A non-military resolution to Syria’s conflict “would be better,” but force could be used for “taking out” Islamic State if necessary, Biden said Saturday following meetings with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.

“We do know that it would be better if we could reach a political solution,” Biden said. “We are prepared if that’s not possible to have a military solution to this operation.”

The U.S. has been carrying out “precision strikes” on Islamic State in the Middle East based on intelligence, and last year President Barack Obama criticized Republicans who urged carpet bombing of the group’s strongholds.

A Biden official traveling with the vice president told reporters the comments represented no change in U.S. policy, according to a press pool report that didn’t name the official.
"Someone get a statement out to the press while the nurse gets him sedated!"
Biden said both the U.S. and Turkey are “determined” to reach a resolution in Syria, and both nations agree that Islamic State, the autonomy-seeking Kurdish group known as PKK and the affiliated al-Nusra Front.
Agree on what? Erdogan has a well-known opinion of the PKK, and a well-recognized tolerance for the ISIS...
The vice president also said he discussed with Turkey’s leaders how the two governments can improve support of local Sunni Arab forces, working to cut off the remaining 60 miles of Turkish border.
Assuming that's what the Turks want, which they don't.
The Washington Post has a different view:
Syrian Kurds are snag in U.S.-Turkey strategy against Islamic State

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
 and the United States continued Saturday to disagree about the status of Syrian Kurdish forces who have become a key part of the U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 in Syria.
That means the Kurds are gonna take it in the national shortskis.
...on at least both sides of the Syria-Turkey border. Bombing runs in Syria, destroying the cities in order to save them in Turkey. Probably more bombing runs in Iraq, as well.
In statements after two hours of meeting here, Vice President Biden and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu praised the U.S.-Turkish alliance. The partnership is "enduring, it's rooted in history, it's in the hearts of our people," Biden said. "Turkey is a strategic partner."

But while saying ties with the United States were strong, Davutoglu repeatedly referred to the Syrian group -- called the People's Protection Units and known by its Arabic initials as the YPG -- as a terrorist organization on par with the Islamic State and as a component part of Turkey's own Kurdish Death Eaters, who have long used violence to try to carve out their own state inside the Turkish border.
Posted by: Steve White 2016-01-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=443001