Another week and another excuse to decry President Trump for imagined or manufactured malfeasance. Democrats and media have suddenly found a war they like; they are howling over Trump’s supposed betrayal of our Kurdish allies in Syria when he directed the US military to withdraw from Syria. Too predictable and now somewhat irrelevant, Democrats protest everything Trump, but NEOCON Republicans also criticized Trump. The Commander-in-Chief seemed to stand alone, but tough decisions are typically lonely.
Some Americans cringed because the media told a tragic tale. If you believe the press, it sounded awful. After pitching in to help us defeat our mortal enemy, ISIS, America is abandoning the courageous Kurds to be ravaged by the brutal and merciless Turks. Under the corrupt Islamist, Erdogan, Turkey is not a sympathetic actor, but Turkey is still a NATO ally. And, there is so much more to the story.
First, you must understand who the Kurds are. Until WWI, the Kurds were a nomadic ethnic clan herding goats and sheep in the northern mountains of the Middle East. After national boundaries were imposed, these tribes became minorities in Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Armenia, and Georgia. Never having had a Kurdish nation, these tribes began agitating for an independent Kurdistan. However, none of the nations where they live support their goals.
Mostly Sunni Muslims, they organized as Marxist political parties in each of these countries demanding independence and often resorting to violence to that end. The Kurds are generally viewed as terrorists by their host nations. Allying with the USA in Iraq, they achieved some autonomy there with American support and still control a portion of northern Iraq. In the Syrian civil war, the Kurds were negotiating with Syria for some measure of autonomy, but ISIS got in the way threatening yet another oppressive regime. So ISIS became a common enemy to both America and the Kurds; hence cooperation was a mutually convenient opportunity.
Since the Obama Administration, the US had been trying to secure Turkish cooperation in defeating ISIS, but Turkey saw the Kurds as a greater threat. It was the Obama Administration that made the agreement with Turkey to create a 20 mile buffer zone to keep the Syrian Kurds from uniting with the Turkish Kurds and allow us to conduct military operations into Syria from Turkey. But Turkish support didn’t really manifest until the Trump Administration assured Turkey we would not facilitate a Kurdish state on their southern border.
The Kurds have been fighting with their host nations for decades and in particular Turkey, but since we both needed to destroy ISIS, we were able to basically suspend Kurdish hostilities with Turkey while we defeated ISIS. All sides knew this, so with ISIS annihilated all sides were always going to renew their struggles. The Kurdish conflict with pretty much everyone else has always been there; it was just put on hold.
There are other intractable factors. Turkey has absorbed some two million Syrian civil war refugees; they are desperate for them to return home, so they don’t want Syrian Kurds prolonging the war and further delaying repatriation. And then there are those ISIS prisoners Democrats are wailing about and warning may escape. Most of those ISIS prisoners are Europeans nationals, but as you would expect the Europeans are not helping and looking to the US to handle them. Trump is not going to let us be left holding the Jihadist bag again. He has admonished Europe to help solve this, but of course they demur. So if ISIS prisoners escape, they are most likely returning to their European homes. Then the EU will be forced to deal with them.
President Trump and the American people are most appreciative of Kurdish assistance in defeating ISIS, but make no mistake – it was in the Kurd’s interest too. Trump also pointed out that the Kurds were handsomely compensated with money and equipment which made them stronger and a more viable political entity. Trump pledged to pressure Turkey to exercise restraint, but the Kurds must also help by dropping their demands for independence and negotiate for available autonomy.
When you consider the entire situation, it becomes quite obvious the age old Kurdish dilemma has no easy solutions and may indeed be impossible to solve. So with no further vital American interests and no discernible solutions, the Commander-in Chief must decide if this conflict is worth anymore Americans lives. It is not.
Unpopular with the press, Trump made the right decision. Keeping a campaign promise, Trump is not getting America into drawn out futile wars. Though Democrats and Republicans are whining, the American people are war weary and they support our President putting our military first. Americans will reward Trump in 2020 for bringing our sons and daughters home from unending foreign entanglements.
“They will stumble repeatedly; they will fall over each other. They will say, 'Get up, let us go back to our own people and our native lands, away from the sword of the oppressor.” Jeremiah 46:16
