Trump did not betray the Kurds
By Caroline Glick
10/11/2019


The near consensus view of President Donald Trump's decision to remove US special forces from the Syrian border with Turkey is that Trump is enabling a Turkish invasion and double crossing the Syrian Kurds who have fought with the Americans for five years against ISIS. Trump's move, the thinking goes, harms US credibility and undermines US power in the region and throughout the world.
There are several problems with this narrative. The first is that it assumes that until this week, the US had power and influence in Syria when in fact, by design, the US went to great lengths to limit its ability to influence events in Syria.

The war in Syria broke out in 2011 as a popular insurrection by Syrian Sunnis against the Iranian-sponsored regime of President Bashar al Assad. The Obama administration responded by declaring US support for Assad's overthrow. But the declaration was empty. The administration sat on its thumbs as the regime's atrocities mounted. They supported a feckless Turkish effort to raise a resistance army dominated by jihadist elements aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Obama infamously issued his "redline" regarding the use of chemical weapons against civilians by Assad, which he repudiated the moment it was crossed.

As ISIS forces gathered in Iraq and Syria, Obama shrugged them off as a "jayvee squad." When the jayvees in ISIS took over a third of Iraqi and Syrian territory, Obama did nothing.

As Lee Smith recalled in January in the New York Post, Obama only decided to do something about ISIS in late 2014 after the group beheaded a number of American journalists and posted their decapitations on social media.

The timing was problematic for Obama.

In 2014 Obama was negotiating his nuclear deal with Iran. The deal, falsely presented as a non-proliferation pact, actually enabled Iran - the world's greatest state sponsor of terrorism - to develop both nuclear weapons and the missile systems required to deliver them. The true purpose of the deal was not to block Iran's nuclear aspirations but to realign US Middle East policy away from the Sunnis and Israel and towards Iran.

Given its goal of embracing Iran, the Obama administration had no interest in harming Assad, Iran's Syrian factotum. It had no interest in blocking Iran's ally Russia from using the war in Syria as a means to reassert Moscow's power in the Middle East.

As both Michael Doran, a former national security advisor in the George W. Bush administration and Smith argue, when Obama was finally compelled to act against ISIS, he structured the US campaign in a manner than would align it with Iran's interests.

Obama's decided to work with the Kurdish-YPG militia in northern Syria because it was the only significant armed force outside the Iranian axis that enjoyed congenial relations with both Assad and Iran.

Obama deployed around a thousand forces to Syria. Their limited numbers and radically constrained mandate made it impossible for the Americans to have a major effect on events in the country. They weren't allowed to act against Assad or Iran. They were tasked solely with fighting ISIS. Obama instituted draconian rules of engagement that made achieving even that limited goal all but impossible.

During his tenure as Trump's national security advisor John Bolton hoped to revise the US mandate to enable US forces to be used against Iran in Syria. Bolton's plan was strategically sound. Trump rejected it largely because it was a recipe for widening US involvement in Syria far beyond what the American public - and Trump himself - are willing to countenance.

In other words, the claim that the US has major influence in Syria is wrong. It does not have such influence and is unwilling to pay the price of developing such influence.

This brings us to the second flaw in the narrative about Trump's removal of US forces from the Syrian border with Turkey.
The underlying assumption of the criticism is that America has an interest in confronting Turkey to protect the Kurds.

This misconception like the misconception regarding US power and influence in Syria is borne of a misunderstanding of Obama's Middle East policies. Aside from ISIS's direct victims, the major casualty of Obama's deliberately feckless anti-ISIS campaign was the US alliance with Turkey. Whereas the US chose to work with the Kurds because they were supportive of Assad and Iran, the Turks view the Syrian Kurdish YPG as a sister militia to the Turkish PKK. The Marxist PKK has been fighting a guerilla war against Turkey for decades. The State Department designates the PKK as a terrorist organization responsible for the death of thousands of Turkish nationals. Not surprisingly then, the Turks viewed the US-Kurdish collaboration against ISIS as an anti-Turkish campaign.

Throughout the years of US-Kurdish cooperation, many have made the case that the Kurds are a better ally to the US that Turkey. The case is compelling not merely because the Kurds have fought well.

Under Erdogan, Turkey has stood against the US and its interests far more often than it has stood with it. Across a spectrum of issues, from Israel to human rights, Hamas and ISIS to Turkish aggression against Cyprus, Greece and Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean, to upholding US economic sanctions against Iran and beyond, for nearly twenty years, Erdogan's Turkey has distinguished itself as a strategic threat to America's core interests and policies and those of its closest allies in the Middle East.

Despite the compelling, ever growing body of evidence that the time has come to reassess US-Turkish ties, the Pentagon refuses to engage the issue. The Pentagon has rejected the suggestion that the US remove its nuclear weapons from Incirlik air base in Turkey or diminish Incirlik's centrality to US air operations in Central Asia and the Middle East. The same is true of US dependence on Turkish naval bases.

Given the Pentagon's position, there is no chance that US would consider entering an armed conflict with Turkey on behalf of the Kurds.

The Kurds are a tragic people. The Kurds, who live as persecuted minorities in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran have been denied the right of self-determination for the past hundred years. But then, the Kurds have squandered every opportunity they have had to assert independence. The closest they came to achieving self-determination was in Iraq in 2017. In Iraqi Kurdistan, the Kurds have governed themselves effectively since 1992. In 2017, they overwhelmingly passed a referendum calling for Iraqi Kurdistan to secede from Iraq and form an independent state. Instead of joining forces to achieve their long-held dream, the Kurdish leaders in Iraq worked against one another. One faction, in alliance with Iran, blocked implementation of the referendum and then did nothing as Kurdish-controlled Kirkuk was overrun by Iraqi government forces.

The Kurds in Iraq are far more capable of defending themselves than the Kurds of Syria. Taking on the defense of Syria's Kurds would commit the US to an open-ended presence in Syria and justify Turkish antagonism. America's interests would not be advanced.

They would be harmed, particularly in light of the YPG's selling trait for Obama - its warm ties to Assad and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The hard truth is that the fifty US soldiers along the Syrian-Turkish border were a fake trip wire. Neither Trump nor the US military had any intention of sacrificing US forces to either block a Turkish invasion of Syria or foment deeper US involvement in the event of a Turkish invasion.

Apparently in the course of his phone call with Trump on Sunday, Erdogan called Trump's bluff. Trump's announcement following the call made clear that the US would not sacrifice its soldiers to stop Erdogan's planned invasion of the border zone.

But Trump also made clear that the US did not support the Turkish move. In subsequent statements, Trump repeatedly pledged to destroy the Turkish economy if Turkey commits atrocities against the Kurds.

If the Pentagon can be brought on board, Trump's threats can easily be used as a means to formally diminish the long hollow US alliance with Turkey.

Here it is critical to note that Trump did not remove US forces from Syria. They are still deployed along the border crossing between Jordan, Iraq and Syria to block Iran from moving forces and materiel to Syria and Lebanon. They are still blocking Russian and Syrian forces from taking over the oil fields along the eastern bank of the Euphrates. Aside from defeating ISIS, these missions are the principle strategic achievements of the US forces in Syria. For now, they are being maintained. Will Turkey's invasion enable ISIS to reassert itself in Syria and beyond? Perhaps. But here too, as Trump made clear this week, it is not America's job to serve as the permanent jailor of ISIS. European forces are just as capable of serving as guards as Americans are. America's role is not to stay in Syria forever. It is to beat down threats to US and world security as they emerge and then let others - Turks, Kurds, Europeans, Russians, UN peacekeepers - maintain the new, safer status quo.
The final assumption of the narrative regarding Trump's moves in Syria is that by moving its forces away from the border ahead of the Turkish invasion, Trump harmed regional stability and America's reputation as a trustworthy ally.

On the latter issue, Trump has spent the better part of his term in office rebuilding America's credibility as an ally after Obama effectively abandoned the Sunnis and Israel in favor of Iran. To the extent that Trump has harmed US credibility, he didn't do it in Syria this week by rejecting war with Turkey. He did it last month by failing to retaliate militarily against Iran's brazen military attack on Saudi Arabia's oil installations. Whereasthe US has no commitment to protect the Kurds, the US's central commitment in the Middle East for the past 70 years has been the protection of Saudi oil installations and maintaining the safety of maritime routes in and around the Persian Gulf.

The best move Trump can make now in light of the fake narrative of his treachery towards the Kurds is to finally retaliate against Iran. A well-conceived, and limited US strike against Iranian missile and drone installations would restore America's posture as the dominant power in the Persian Gulf and prevent the further destabilization of the Saudi regime and the backsliding of the UAE towards Iran.

As for Syria, it is impossible to known what the future holds for the Kurds, the Turks, the Iranians, Assad or anyone else. But what is clear enough is that Trump avoided war with Turkey this week. And he began extracting America from an open-ended commitment to the Kurds it never made and never intended to fulfill.

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The REAL truth is....both of the forum idiots are OWNED.
-BOTH of them have no clue who their owner is.
-They are both card carrying narcissists.
^These are PROVED facts.

BOMBSHELL.

Kurds are being exterminated.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Spam!
Spam spam.....
Spam spam spam spam...
Spam with bacon
Spam with borscht...
Spam with kimchee.....
Spam with rotten red tide fish....
etc...
Stinking chumpfscum verminous Dildo Traitor

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It's a democratic hoax

Obama's fault...NOT Trumps!

Put the CORRECT BLAME where it belongs....

ASSHOLE!

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The REAL truth is....both of the forum idiots are OWNED.
-BOTH of them have no clue who their owner is.
-They are both card carrying narcissists.
^These are PROVED facts.

Holy fuck.
Give it up dumb bitch

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I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I noticed it always coincides with their own desires

Susan B. Anthony
1896

Impeach Trump

Your timing is a bit off. Three years off.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Nope!

The war in Syria broke out in 2011....NOT when Obama left office....MORON!

Obama did this and now Trump has to fix this!

He is!

You just dont like the outcome!

Learn how to fucking READ!

FOOL!

-------------------------
The REAL truth is....both of the forum idiots are OWNED.
-BOTH of them have no clue who their owner is.
-They are both card carrying narcissists.
^These are PROVED facts.

Edited: 10/13/2019 at 06:04 PM by Fish Killer

OMG How delusional is this guy?? ^^^^

From Lyin Fish to Denial Fish

it's not even amusing anymore.. just sad

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Zzzzzzz.. Zzzzzzz.. Braaaaaapp!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Trump removes the buffer, Turkey commits genocide.

This is clear to the average third grader.



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I was right.

The war was announced...a while ago!

Trump removed 50 troops out of harms way.

If you call that a 'buffer' you are a seriously lost sick man.

Oh wait....you are!

MORON!

-------------------------
The REAL truth is....both of the forum idiots are OWNED.
-BOTH of them have no clue who their owner is.
-They are both card carrying narcissists.
^These are PROVED facts.

Edited: 10/14/2019 at 04:27 AM by Fish Killer

Peacekeepers. They prevented the Turks from their murderous ambitions against the Kurds. Trump speaks to erdogan and capitulates. The military and intelligence community are blindsided. He gets the pushback and then commander bone spurs says they won't invade and incur because he has their economy in his hands. He says he will ruin it if they do. They do. He doesn't ruin their economy. He doesn't issue sanctions. Instead he blames the Kurds, says wrongly that they didn't fight with us in WW2 and proclaims that they only fought with us against Isis because it served their interests. Now everything bad that he was told could happen is happening so fast that even his short attention span cannot spin it. Ethnic cleansing. ISIS escapes and Russians selling arms to the Turks that they are using against our allies. The failure is total and complete. The timing on this failure is exacerbated by the Russian seduction of erdogan. This is why it's a bigger problem now. Obama did not invade Syria after their gassing in 2012. The people blaming him for not invading Syria are the same ones defending trump for not even engaging now.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

50 'peacekeeping' soldiers didn't prevent shit!

LIAR!

-------------------------
The REAL truth is....both of the forum idiots are OWNED.
-BOTH of them have no clue who their owner is.
-They are both card carrying narcissists.
^These are PROVED facts.

Actions. Not words. What happened when the 50 peacekeepers withdrew? You may not know. You may know and not accept it. But it's a direct connection.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Promises made, promises kept. Crazy isn't it?

The Turks announced their intension BEFORE Trump withdrew.

LONG before!

It was WAR or remove the troops!

Trump removed the troops.

He took them out of harms way!

He's not a WAR MONGER like you and your ILK!

We should have never been there....BUTTTTT thanks to OBAMA we were!

ASSHOLE!



-------------------------
The REAL truth is....both of the forum idiots are OWNED.
-BOTH of them have no clue who their owner is.
-They are both card carrying narcissists.
^These are PROVED facts.

Its amazing how you believe that this was promise made and kept. He did this on his own after Mr. Art of the deal got rolled by Erdogan. Erdogan punked Trump, got weapons deals with Putin because of it and got to murder a noisy minority that used to have the our protection. The stable genius that knows more than our generals had no idea of what he did until the massacre was underway. He promised to ruin Turkey's economy if they did this. Is Turkey's economy being ruined? Is this economic sanction the work of the Senate and the House in response to Trump's sodomy? How many innocents will be murdered in the time it takes for the sanctions that do not exist yet to stop Erdogan from killing all of the Kurds. What happens when the Kurds and the Syrians join forces to repel the invading Turks? What happens when all of the ISIS prisoners escape and regroup? What happens when Russia, who supports Assad and Erdogan supplies both sides of the coming war with Russian hardware? What happens when this war blows up and becomes a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran?

50 peacekeepers weren't there to fight off an invasion, they were there to make sure Turkey knew that if they started invading and killing Kurds, Americans would be killing them. You don't seem to understand their symbolic presence or their symbolic absence.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Sanctions and tariffs on Turkey. So much for that theory. Next?

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I :heart; Q

What part of the Turks gave ample WARNING of the invasion...dont you fucking understand?!?!

Are you DAFT???

Oh wait...YOU ARE!

Trump was NOT going to be part of a HUGE WAR....not for YOU....NOT FOR YOUR ILK!

You're a fucking WARMONGER!

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The REAL truth is....both of the forum idiots are OWNED.
-BOTH of them have no clue who their owner is.
-They are both card carrying narcissists.
^These are PROVED facts.

Nope Stinky Fish.
Them and American air power did, however....
As to pigblo's talk of sanctions: laughably stupid.
Your orange messiah won't do shit. He'll talk a lot for a short while, forget what he said, manufacture another fake crisis for his adoring herd of lemmings to be hysterical about......
And nothing whatsoever will result from it. The Turks will accomplish their mission of genocide, all the expenditure of lives and our money for defeating Isis and al-Qaeda will be for naught.
And your mighty tangerine traitor will still collect his royalties on Istanbul Chumpf Towers.
Stupid, stinking putie loving trollbot traitors......
duuhhh......



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It's a democratic hoax

Turkey would never risk US retaliation. Trump green lighted this BY REMOVING THE TROOPS. We are the superpower. We do not take orders from erdogan. We could crush his invasion force in the time it takes to print the press release announcing its defeat. Trump didn't avoid a war, he caused a slaughter.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.