Back in 2015, media reports about the Kurdish YPG, a US-backed faction in Syria, suddenly started referring to a group called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which was in the same area, controlled all the same assets, and literally had all the same fighters.
Today, Gen. Raymond Thomas, the head of US Special Operations Command, revealed that this sudden rebranding was his idea, and that he told the YPG back then that they needed to “change your brand.” Within a day they were the SDF.
Gen. Thomas appeared quite proud of this semantic sleight of hand, insisting that the inclusion of the word “Democratic” in the new name was a “stroke of brilliance,” and gave the group credibility that they previously didn’t have as the YPG.
Whether anyone was really “fooled” is less certain, however. Turkey’s just as mad as ever about US support for the YPG, even if it’s done nominally to this SDF organization. Thomas conceded that the the YPG’s continued linkage with the PKK, at war with Turkey, is “fraught with challenges.”
Support the Kurds. Erdogan is a the real caliph of ISIL.
After all, he gave the same advice to the Al-Qaida affiliate and it worked for them when they changed their name from Al-Nusra to the Sham opposition and pretended that they were no longer associated with Al-Qaida. That got them full US media support, more weapons, and even an Academy Award.
Even our generals know and help the Muslim forces to change their names often . This is to fool people that these are different Muslims and maybe won’t do a whole lot wrong again . There are already maybe a thousand names from KLA to Muslim brotherhood but they so often have the same fighters with the same agenda . Kosovo and Bosnia Muslims that have joined ISIS say they are fighting for the same things in Syria just like they fought for in Yugoslavia . They can’t seem to understand why now the United States is against them . What I can’t understand was why the United States bombed for them in Yugoslavia .
Stroke of genius indeed. Not like the GDR existed for decades, with the name “Democratic” in its title despite the fact it was under the Soviet umbrella. This Thomas is an extremely intuitive and out-of-the-box thinker. Thank god we have creative guys like him at the helm for our extremely successful adventures overseas.