US finally pressing Turkey to close its Syrian border.

via The Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration is pressing Turkey to deploy thousands of additional troops along its border with Syria to cordon off a 60-mile stretch of frontier that U.S. officials say is used by Islamic State to move foreign fighters in and out of the war zone.
The U.S. hasn’t officially requested a specific number of soldiers. Pentagon officials estimated that it could take as many as 30,000 to seal the border on the Turkish side for a broader humanitarian mission. Cordoning off just one section alone could take 10,000 or more, one official estimated.
It’s unclear how Turkey will respond. Turkish officials said they agree that tighter border control is necessary, and have begun implementing some measures. They suggested that the Pentagon troop estimates are inflated, but declined to give a number of their own.
In return for doing more to fight Islamic State, Turkey is seeking more financial help from Europe to deal with its 2.2 million Syrian refugees, as well as support for a safe zone in Syria—an idea that has been shelved by the Obama administration as too risky and complicated.

This is big stuff people.  Europe is finally willing to deal head on with the illegal immigrant problem.  That means the border needs to be sealed and they're pressing the US to press Turkey.   I don't think for one moment that this initiative is coming from the Obama admin.  This is backdoor moves by France and the UK to get this issue settled.

Why did it take so long?  Something is brewing inside the govts of the West....

“The game has changed. Enough is enough. The border needs to be sealed,” a senior Obama administration official said of Washington’s message to Ankara. “This is an international threat, and it’s all coming out of Syria and it’s coming through Turkish territory.”

What's not being said?  That Turkey should cut off support of ISIS.  I don't know what's prompting this but things are changing.  More to come I'm sure.