A week ago, Donald Trump gave Turkey the green light to invade Kurdish territory in Syria. Tom Walkom writes:
By withdrawing American military forces who had been protecting the Kurds, Trump has left them to the not-so-tender mercies of Turkey, their sworn enemy.
It’s an appalling way to treat America’s most valued allies in the fight against Islamic State terrorists. Trump, as usual, is explaining it in a most appalling fashion.
His latest rationale for deep-sixing the Kurds is that they didn’t help the Allies storm the beaches of Normandy in 1944.
It's all typically Trumpian. While the House of Representatives moves to impeach Trump for endangering American national security, Trump provides a monstrous example of precisely that.
It didn't have to be this way:
Theoretically, it didn’t have to work out this way. Theoretically, the U.S, could have established a no-fly zone along Syria’s northern border and shot down any Turkish warplane that entered it.
But to have two NATO allies fighting one another would put the entire alliance at risk.
Theoretically, the U.S. could embrace the notion of an independent Kurdistan carved out of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Rewarding valued allies for their role in the fight against ISIS might be the just thing to do.
But that would require Trump thinking things through -- something he's incapable of doing. So the messy Middle East keeps getting messier.
Image: Orange County Register
6 comments:
The Kurds have agreed rejoin Syria in hopes of staying put and staying alive. The Syrian army has moved north to protect the land and the people. All this brokered by Russia. The Turks now face real opposition both military and diplomatically. Since they are , in fact , invading Syrian territory they may claim that disarming the Kurds achieves their purpose and go home. We can only hope.
If there is a reasonable conclusion the US will have lost an ally, military bases , influence in the area and the trust of many allies. The winners will be Syria, Russia and Iran .
Another Trumpian plan FUBARed.
An independent Kurdish state was promised during WWI and delivered through the Treaty of Sevres as the Brits and French divvied up between them the former Ottoman Empire. This brought Ataturk to power. He scared the Brits and French shitless so they scrapped Sevres and substituted the Treaty of Lausane that parceled out chunks of the Kurds' historic homeland among all those lovely new countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey that the Brits and the French created.
The West couldn't deliver on their solemn promise to the Kurds when they were dealing with the vanquished Ottomans. How in hell would the Americans do that now when their influence in that region is so badly degraded?
Precisely, rumley. Trump sees no need for alliances. He's a lone wolf -- and a fool.
The problems we face today go back to the way Britain and France carved up the Middle East after World War I, Mound. The Americans never understood the mistakes the Brits and the French made. They would have done well to consult T.E. Lawrence before they ventured into the region.
I may have it wrong, but I think that Lawrence was too focussed on the Arabs to care much about the Kurds. Right now America doesn't seem to be focussed on anything that doesn't provide some daily amusement for Trump. Less predictable and more fun for the rest of us than simple commercial concessions, I guess.
Lawrence seems to have not given much thought to the Kurds, John. But his broader point was that the borders the British and the French drew were in no way connected to the facts on the ground. And the major powers are still blind to the facts on the ground.
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