Having announced his intention to invade Kurdish territory in northeastern Syria last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the invasion may now start at any moment. Over the past several days, Turkey has been adding troops to the border area.
The invasion is oft-threatened, based on Erdogan’s hostility toward the Kurdish YPG. Previously he demanded no Kurds be allowed west of the Euphrates River, and having accomplished the bulk of that, he is now focusing on east of the Euphrates River.
The Pentagon had warned last week that they considered any invasion “unacceptable,” but Erdogan revealed on Monday that he’d spoken to President Trump, and that Trump has expressed support fo the military operation.
While the White House wouldn’t confirm an endorsement of the invasion against US-backed Kurds, they did confirm that Trump had spoken with Erdogan about Syria during a recent telephone conversation. US Special Envoy James Jeffrey did, however, say he believed the invasion was “a bad idea,” and suggested everyone from the president on down had told Turkey that.
Let’s hope this isn’t another Daddy Bush incident wherein our Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, told Saddam that we had no fight in the oil dispute between Kuwait and Iraq, and then came the “This will not Stand” idiocy that started all the killing and destruction in the Middle East.
……………….and the “Iraqis throwing babies out of incubators” propaganda from the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the US when she testified as an “eyewitness” before the Congress. When in fact, it was all made up.
Possible. It’s also equally possible that Trump is keeping up the decades long American tradition of double-crossing the Kurds. Either way, the waters just get murkier in the Levant.
If Turkey starts swallowing up Syria, Russia may well swallow up Turkey, with Georgia as a snack on the way. That’s one way to ensure access to warm-water ports. So what about NATO… would Europe unite to wage another world war, or shrug and say “you reap what you sow”? Dangerous but interesting times these are.
Let’s indulge in a bit of speculation.
Notwithstanding his Neocon advisers’ opposition — Bolton et al — Trump wants out of Syria. But those Neocons dream of perpetual instability culminating eventually in Assad’s replacement by a US — which is to say, an Israeli — puppet.
Trump cares more about getting America out — ie an “America First” plan — than the Neocon “Israel First” plan. So Trump sees Turkey as a way to hand-off his Syria problem, which of course means throwing the Kurds “under the bus”. That in turn will motivate the Kurds to make an accommodation with Assad for protection from the Turks.
Interesting situation.
My take too. Neicons were given plenty of space to spread their wings in Syria, accomplishing nothing — worse, got US in untennable position in the region with not a single country on our side. Even Saudis got a hint, abandoned sinking “rebel” ship and made nice to Putin. Apart from Israel…
But this is a lot that cannot help it but to overreach — and their self-pity and righteous anger grows at every attempt to make them face accountability for many a disasterous moves in the Middle East.
So Trump decides it’s ok to kill Kurds today and that is the basis of US foreign policy? Total insanity.