US Betrayal of the Kurds

[Childlike Empress]

A summary of the latest events regarding the relationship between the US and the Syrian Kurds with an appropriate headline: US Betrayal of the Kurds – A Lesson that Bears Repeating – For the Region and the World

The bizarrely intertwined events of the Syrian conflict are suddenly playing out in a less than logical manner, but in fact this big reversal for the Kurds – who make up about 10% of Syria’s population – is no surprise. Although they’ve not lost a single battle and have made real gains in their fight against the Islamic State (IS), they have suddenly found themselves forced to abandon the vast swaths of the territory they had liberated east of the Euphrates.

Now that the Turks have invaded Syria, there is no more talk of granting the Kurds the status of a separate federal region within a new Syrian state – something the Kurds very much want – much less the independence for which many of them have secretly dreamed. [...]

The Kurds have once again been cynically used and left with nothing. The duplicity and poor choices of their allies are a curse that has plagued Kurdish history, possibly dating back to the era of the legendary Kurdish military commander Saladin (Salah ad-Din), who vanquished the Crusaders. [...]

Although some think that the long term goal of US foreign policy (and the wish of Israel) is a Kurdish entity, here, in the aftermath of the failed coup in Turkey the Turkish government essentially blames the US for, is shown that the most dreadful even short-term ally one can have is the US Empire.

 

[Henri McPhee]

I agree with Childlike Empress. On that biased Channel 4 News in the UK the interviewer was interviewing a Turkish dissident and the interviewer said "but Erdogan is extremely popular in Turkey" as though that was an excuse for being a total liar, and supporting Isis and Al Qaeda ,and invading Syria and killing Kurds.

Months ago a bomb went off in Turkey killing many Kurdish students who were on a peace rally. That was probably done by Isis. The Turkish air force then almost immediately flew off and killed about another sixty Kurds in Northern Iraq. It's not logical. It's not Russian aggression, as the American and British media always seem to think.

Hitler was very popular in Germany before the second world war. He was elected into power. I'm glad Hitler didn't win the war.

It's becoming more and more obvious that the opposition in Syria is mainly Al-Qaeda. Those beheaders are supported by the CIA, and the American political elite, and by Israel and Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Then what if Assad goes?

 

[lionking]

Yawn. Should be in the CT section. More Russian propaganda.

 

[Henri McPhee]

Yawn. Should be in the CT section. More Russian propaganda.

What is Aleppo?

 

[Childlike Empress]

What is Aleppo?

 

[Arcade22]

The Kurds seem to have had the strange perception that being supported by the US in their fight against IS meant that they would support them against anyone else. I've been surprised by the amount of support they have received, a clear testament to the lack of faith the US has in the other factions involved in this conflict and the fact that Iraq has become a virtual Iranian client state together with Syria.

If anything the US has done a great balancing act by on one hand supporting the Syrian Kurds militarily and at the same time not completely losing its influence with Turkey. If the US would continue supporting them as they keep capturing Sunni Arab areas that would likely cause Turkey to stop supporting the US.

 

[lionking]

What is Aleppo?

Huh? Aleppo is a city in Syria. What else?

 

[Childlike Empress]

The Kurds seem to have had the strange perception that being supported by the US in their fight against IS meant that they would support them against anyone else. I've been surprised by the amount of support they have received, a clear testament to the lack of faith the US has in the other factions involved in this conflict and the fact that Iraq has become a virtual Iranian client state together with Syria.

If anything the US has done a great balancing act by on one hand supporting the Syrian Kurds militarily and at the same time not completely losing its influence with Turkey. If the US would continue supporting them as they keep capturing Sunni Arab areas that would likely cause Turkey to stop supporting the US.

FTR, ignoring the ill-informed cynicism of your comment, the US support of the Syrian Kurds has started on October 7, 2014, if you read the context of my chronology there at the very last possible time before the "Islamic State" terrorist group would have wiped out the (Kurdish-dominated) canton of Kobane.

 

[Childlike Empress]

Huh? Aleppo is a city in Syria. What else?

"What is Aleppo?" is a developing meme.

 

[lionking]

"What is Aleppo?" is a developing meme.

Adds nothing to the debate. Linking to yet another CT/pro-Russia/anti US site proves nothing at all. Developing meme? Hilarious.

 

[Border Reiver]

Newsflash - great power uses minority group to further own ends, but doesn't support all minority group's goals.

Powerful states have been doing this since there have been powerful states. While it sucks for the less powerful group, it certainly isn't surprising.

 

[TragicMonkey]

If there's such an interest in giving the Kurds a state, how about donating the Crimea? I heard it's no big deal if that changes hands.

 

[Belz...]

Developing meme? Hilarious.

Sure speaks volumes about people's ability to reason when the popularity of an idea is considered evidence for that idea's veracity.

 

[Arcade22]

FTR, ignoring the ill-informed cynicism of your comment,

I'll take this as an admission that you can't deny anything i wrote yet seem to want to attack it nonetheless.

the US support of the Syrian Kurds has started on October 7, 2014, if you read the context of my chronology there at the very last possible time before the "Islamic State" terrorist group would have wiped out the (Kurdish-dominated) canton of Kobane.

And this is relevant how exactly? If anything the Kurds should be grateful for the fact that the US did anything to help them. The main motivation of said help has obviously not been out of purely humanitarian reasons but primarily because they were one of the few non-shia groups that were willing to focus upon fighting the Islamic state and not Syrian government.

Again, if the Kurds expected the US to be okay with and even assist them in carving out one or more independent states in the middle state against the wishes of Americas regional allies they have obviously been misinformed.

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

None of the local nations want an independent Kurdish state. Not Iraq, not Iran, not Turkey and not Syria.
None of the great powers involved in the conflict care enough about the Kurds to support their wish for independence. So they supply them with just enough to damage IS, who would exterminate them, but not enough to become a threat to the allies of Russia and the US.
This has been pretty much going on for 150 years or more (Before that the Ottomans crushed all attemps of independence).
So its not as much the betrayal of the Kurds by the US, but rather the betrayal of the Kurds by everyone.

 

[Maya22]

"What is Aleppo?" is a developing meme.

Interesting political compass chart...

 

[The_Animus]

Adds nothing to the debate. Linking to yet another CT/pro-Russia/anti US site proves nothing at all. Developing meme? Hilarious.

No, they at least gave a source and commentary in the OP. Your posts in this thread, however, added literally nothing.

 

[The Atheist]

A summary of the latest events regarding the relationship between the US and the Syrian Kurds ...

I think Kurdistan is the new Poland.

Spike Milligan once said that the Poles are there for the sole purpose of having the **** kicked out of them.

Looks like the Kurds have inherited that mantle. The fact they fight equally amongst themselves probably doesn't help.

 

[ddt]

If there's such an interest in giving the Kurds a state, how about donating the Crimea? I heard it's no big deal if that changes hands.

No, the Crimea should be given back to the Goths.

 

[ddt]

I think Kurdistan is the new Poland.

Spike Milligan once said that the Poles are there for the sole purpose of having the **** kicked out of them.

Looks like the Kurds have inherited that mantle. The fact they fight equally amongst themselves probably doesn't help.

Yep.

The Iraqi Kurds have managed to carve out a reasonable measure of autonomy out of the 2003 Iraq war.

The Syrian Kurds do have amicable relations with the Turkish Kurds though, and that seals their fate. Because our "ally" in the region is a democratically elected leader who hates Kurds, has stopped the negotiations with the PKK, and has, since the failed coup, incarcerated without charge or trial more people than Hitler did in the same timeframe after the Reichtsag Fire. But he surely is a committed democrat.