The threatened Turkish assault and invasion of heavily Kurdish northern Syria, which prompted President Trump to withdraw American forces, has begun.
Try as one may to paint a nicer picture, this brings back repeated bad memories…
Unfortunately, for at least a half century, America has replaced Great Britain as primary “outside” user and abuser of the Kurds.
Inside, Kurds have let internal divisions and shortsightedness to allow Arab and Turk conquerors of their own millennially geographical majority territory to do this to themselves as well. Some Kurds even allied with Saddam Hussein, responsible for Operation Anfal and other Arab genocidal actions, which ultimately took some 200,000 Kurdish lives–including many gassed to death.
I had hoped that this time, in Syria, it would be different.
Yes, I knew of President Trump’s promise to disengage from the region militarily during his election campaign. However, I also hoped, with his own “thinking out of the box” moves already having a positive impact elsewhere, that he would rethink the nasty State Department-driven policies towards our loyal friends and allies, who suffered tens of thousands of dead and wounded fighting for America’s own causes as well. The late great William Safire of The New York Times wrote a series of articles about this Henry Kissinger-led disgrace in the ‘70shttps://kurdistantribune.com/henry-kissinger-realpolitik-genocide/.