The likewise ever-hawkish editors of the Wall Street Journal hold views similar to those of the WaPo editors:
Mr. Erdogan says the U.S.-armed Kurdish fighters in Syria, known as the YPG, have ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a domestic Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. On that exaggerated claim he justifies an exercise that could amount to ethnic cleansing. Mr. Erdogan last month proposed a “safe zone†extending some 20 miles into Syria from the Turkish border, where he would resettle millions of Syrian refugees. This could require the forcible resettlement, or worse, of Kurds already living in the area.
Mr. Erdogan seems to have believed that the U.S. would help in this exercise. But after a phone call with the Turkish strongman, Mr. Trump made clear that Turkey is on its own. That also means so are the Kurds, and the U.S. withdrew its troops from two border posts. A Kurdish spokesman tweeted, “We are not expecting the US to protect NE #Syria. But people here are owed an explanation.â€
This looks like a betrayal of the YPG, which lost 11,000 soldiers fighting against ISIS. America armed the Kurds in that fight, and they trusted the U.S. when they were asked to dismantle defensive positions near the Turkish border as part of the buffer-zone negotiations with Ankara. The Kurds are less likely to aid an insurgency in Turkey if they’re allowed to govern themselves in a safe area in Syria policed by the U.S. and Turkey.
Okay, let’s start with the Kurds. The Kurds did not fight DAESH on our behalf but to defend themselves and their homeland. They would have opposed DAESH under any circumstances.
I’m not as convinced that the Kurds are modern liberal democrats as the editors of the WSJ and WaPo and other U. S. worthies seem to be. It’s hard for me to believe that about any group whose heads of “political parties” are coincidentally traditional tribal chieftains. What I think has happened is that the Kurds have done a great PR job in Washington. Any hypothetical Kurdish state will necessarily be carved out of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran and I find it totally unsurprising that the non-Kurdish peoples of those countries are not down with the deal. If the Kurds want their own country they should do it the way other people do—they should seize it. And it is not in our interest to help them do so.
What in the world do the editors see as the endgame? Should the U. S. colonize all of North Africa, the Middle East, and West Asia? Presumably, they assume that everyone else in the world, e.g. the Russians and Chinese, would sit idly by as we did that.
Or do they believe that multi-ethnic states are unsustainable? What about the United States? Either way doesn’t that make them white supremacists?
Elitists and ethnocentrists who don’t believe lesser cultures can manage their own affairs. And Neocons who don’t believe Iran or Russia will sag under the burden of client states as do we.
Their reminder (to me) of a million Syrian refugees in Turkey makes me realize Turkey is bearing a heavy financial burden and no surprise they want to send them home. Too bad America can’t get by with that.
Refugee camps have a tendency to be permanent if not resolved quickly.
Last night on Tucker Carlson, Col. MacGregor gave his assessment of the ramifications of the Syrian pullout. Full disclosure: Col. MacGregor is an anti-neocon. He thinks President has checkmated Syria, Turkey, Iran, and the Kurds.
Turkey is now responsible for ISIS, and if ISIS comes back, it is their problem. Kurdish Syria is in Syria, and the Russians have guaranteed the Syrians that they would not lose any territory. A Turkish invasion would include Syria losing territory.
With the Kurds in Northern Syria, the Iranians will lose their landbridge to Hezbollah, Lebanon, and Syria.
Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iran have opposing goals in Kurdish Syria, and the US is no longer there to be the policeman.
The Kurds are not Arabs. The term “Islamo-fascism” was never so properly applied as to DAESH. Not only are they violent, radical, religious fanatics, they’re racists as well. The Kurds are well aware of that cf. DAESH’s treatment of the Yezidis. The Kurds will not come to a modus vivendi with DAESH. They’re more likely to cut a deal with the Turks which is what they need to do, anyway.
At this point in time the Democrats are going to hysterically oppose any and all Trump foreign policy initiatives, regardless of what they are. The ‘Whistleblower’ BS is a good example of it. The Kurds aren’t American. Besides, they have an existing proto-state already in northern Iraq. What do they expect the USA to do, recreate for them the empire of Saladin?