When America previously abandoned allies in the Islamic world, it at least got something in return --

[TexasTowelie]

When America previously abandoned allies in the Islamic world, it at least got something in return — not so with the Kurds


Lindsey Graham might well be the closest that Donald Trump has come to owning a dog, but even the sycophantic senator from South Carolina was momentarily outraged by the president's decision to betray America's Kurdish allies in Syria. Graham promised that he would not sit on the sidelines and watch "a good ally, the Kurds, slaughtered by Turkey" before he dutifully returned to the sidelines to watch.

About 11,000 Kurdish fighters have died in the brutal five-year war against Islamic State in Syria. Turkey's close ties with Russia led the Pentagon to expel them from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project out of fear that Ankara would share defense secrets with the Kremlin. Yet Trump didn't hesitate to sell out our battle-proven allies to curry favor with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the autocratic president of Turkey.

Kurdish homelands span portions of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Turkey has long feared the emergence of a Kurdish state, and Erdogan argues that Kurdish fighters are supporters of PKK terrorists in Turkey. Trump gave Erdogan space to launch an offensive against the Kurds that could all too easily descend into ethnic cleansing.

We might expect such an act of betrayal from someone with no loyalty to anyone but himself, but the United States has a long history of abandoning its allies in the Islamic world.

Read more: https://www.inlander.com/spokane/when-america-previously-abandoned-allies-in-the-islamic-world-it-at-least-got-something-in-return-not-so-with-the-kurds/Content?oid=18537568
(Spokane Inlander)