The Turkish government and other traditional American allies may not be as willing to help the United States in the Middle East as they have in the past, retired Gen. Paul Vallely told
Newsmax TV on Thursday.
"I'm not sure if they want to help us that much" Vallely, who now chairs Stand Up America, told "America's Forum" host Ric Blackwell. "We don't have any friends anymore. They don't have a lot of confidence in the U.S. government."
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Vallely, who has been in Turkey three times in the past two years working with the United States' Syrian opposition liaison group, further commented that Turkey, like many other parts of the Middle East, has become an extremely dangerous place for Americans.
On Wednesday,
a group of radical nationalists in Istanbul attacked three U.S. sailors from the USS Ross guided missile destroyer. Members of the Turkiye Genclik Birligi, or Turkish Youth Union, forced hoods on the sailors’ heads and shouted things like "Yankee, go home" and threw objects at them.
Vallely said a similar attack occurred to one of his team members in Turkey, who was pulled from her car and severely beaten before police could rescue her.
"This is all part of the expansion of radical Islam," said Vallely. "Americans, particularly the armed forces today, are targets. Americans traveling abroad are targets in the Middle East. Everybody has to be very cautious today because when they can track you and follow you, whether you're in your hotel or out of your hotel and your armed forces are on leave or short duty, you can expect that you'll be a target. It's very serious business."
Vallely said he has also been in the Middle East five times over the past 24 months, and was requested to come by the Free Syrian Army, which was formed by officers who had defected from Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Syrian government.
"I went over with our team and vetted them out, working out of the Antakya in southern Turkey and went inside to Aleppo with 400 members of the FSA," said Vallely. "We vetted them out, we came back, we gave a report to Congress and the government and, of course, they did nothing with it."
And as a result, first al-Qaida moved in, and now the Islamic State (ISIS) has moved in to take up the void left behind, the retired general said.
"Since the FSA was not supported and not given the arms they required to have to fight, al-Qaida moved in in a vacuum there and that created that whole situation over there," said Vallely. "The freedom fighters now have been compromised to a great degree."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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