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For the third or fourth time, the U.S. has double-crossed the Kurdish people.
For almost two decades now, the U.S. has used Kurdish militias as their proxy forces in Iraq and Syria, to fight groups the U.S. regards as terrorist, such as Al-Qaeda and especially ISIS. These Kurdish forces have frequently been referred to by U.S. elites as the U.S.' "boots on the ground."
Now the U.S. has suddenly pulled the rug out from under the Kurds, removing U.S. forces embedded with the Kurds in Syria in the dead of night. This frees Turkey to launch a long-threatened military offensive against the Kurdish fighters in Syria, whom Turkey brands "terrorists." Turkey is eager to wipe out the Kurds' militias.
The Kurds had cleared ISIS from Turkey's border. ISIS had laumched lethal rocket attacks into Turkish villages.
So much for gratitude.
Some background is necessary here. The Kurds in Turkey inhabit the eastern portion of Turkey. For many years they have been subjected to cultural genocide by Turkey, which banned their language, symbols, etc, among other repression. This prompted some Kurds to launch a guerrilla movement.
Turkey responded in the way that regimes virtually always do when faced with popular armed resistance movements, with repeated gross atrocities against defenseless civilians. Tens of thousands of Kurds died at Turkish hands.
Then a truce was reached, and the repression of Kurds was eased.
However after the current Turkish strongman, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came to power, he apparently was unhappy with the new arrangement, and reverting to the old policy of trying to force Kurds to be "Turkish." Once again Turkey instituted harsh repression and military attacks on the Kurds.
Erdogan has been chomping at the bit for several years to wipe out the Kurdish militias in Syria. Now that the protective U.S. umbrella has been removed, he's getting his chance.
This is the second time in recent years the U.S. has betrayed the Kurds, and there
were other times in the past. A few years ago, the Kurds of northern Iraq held a referendum and voted in favor of autonomy for themselves. The Iraqi regime responded with a military attack, driving the Kurds out of territory they had recently fought to take back from ISIS. The U.S. didn't back the Kurds at all.
The current betrayal has an awful antecedent which occurred in the 1970's. The Shah of Iran, at the time the world's worst dictator and who was installed as ruler of that nation by the CIA in 1953 in a coup that destroyed democracy in that country, had a spat with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The Shah used the Kurds of Iraq as a proxy force to fight the Iraqi regime. The Shah enlisted the help of president Richard Nixon and Nixon's evil henchman Henry Kissinger to supply arms to those Kurds. Israel also supplied weapons.
Then in 1975 the Shah cut a deal with Saddam Hussein, and the Kurds became expendable. President Gerald Ford, Nixon's successor, and Kissinger (now working for Ford) allowed the massacre of Kurds by Saddam Hussein to proceed, coldly brushing aside pleas for help by remarking that “One should not confuse undercover action with social work.” [1]
There have been other U.S. backstabbings of the Kurds, which I am not going into now because I want to get this out in a timely fashion.
The Kurds are an oppressed minority in all the countries they inhabit. They are spread out among Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, none of which will ever cede an inch of territory to a Kurdish state, nor treat Kurds as equal citizens. Unsurprisingly, the Kurds have long desired their own nation. But what's good enough for Jews isn't good enough for Kurds, it seems. The U.S. has long strung them along, using them as cannon fodder, while the Kurds hope that eventually the U.S. will enable them to achieve statehood.
But the U.S. has never intended any such thing, no more than it intends to force Israel to grant the Palestinian peoople statehood.
Being against a people's self-determination is the same as being against democracy. The most fundamentally democratic thing is self-determination.
The Kurds have been fighting the U.S.' wars in Iraq and Syria. Today Trump stood reality on its head, cynically saying he doesn't want America fighting other people's wars. But it has been the Kurds fighting America's wars. The U.S. screeches a lot about "terrorism," but won't shed its own blood to fight the terrorists. It gets others to fight and die for it, them abandons them, leaving them in the lurch.
And every day brags about how it's The Greatest Country On Earth, the most moral, the most humane, the freest, the blah blah blahest.
If the U.S. really believed in the values it professes ad nauseam, the Kurds would be its most cherished allies in that region. They are democratic, and so non-sexist that Kurdish women form all-female combat units that fight ISIS.
But the U.S. is much tighter with the likes of Saudi Arabia instead.
By your friends shall ye be known.
1] See "Kissinger and the Kurds," Kurdistan Commentary, Feb. 4, 2010, and "Telling It Like It Is: Kissinger and the Kurds," Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 18, 1996.
For almost two decades now, the U.S. has used Kurdish militias as their proxy forces in Iraq and Syria, to fight groups the U.S. regards as terrorist, such as Al-Qaeda and especially ISIS. These Kurdish forces have frequently been referred to by U.S. elites as the U.S.' "boots on the ground."
Now the U.S. has suddenly pulled the rug out from under the Kurds, removing U.S. forces embedded with the Kurds in Syria in the dead of night. This frees Turkey to launch a long-threatened military offensive against the Kurdish fighters in Syria, whom Turkey brands "terrorists." Turkey is eager to wipe out the Kurds' militias.
The Kurds had cleared ISIS from Turkey's border. ISIS had laumched lethal rocket attacks into Turkish villages.
So much for gratitude.
Some background is necessary here. The Kurds in Turkey inhabit the eastern portion of Turkey. For many years they have been subjected to cultural genocide by Turkey, which banned their language, symbols, etc, among other repression. This prompted some Kurds to launch a guerrilla movement.
Turkey responded in the way that regimes virtually always do when faced with popular armed resistance movements, with repeated gross atrocities against defenseless civilians. Tens of thousands of Kurds died at Turkish hands.
Then a truce was reached, and the repression of Kurds was eased.
However after the current Turkish strongman, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came to power, he apparently was unhappy with the new arrangement, and reverting to the old policy of trying to force Kurds to be "Turkish." Once again Turkey instituted harsh repression and military attacks on the Kurds.
Erdogan has been chomping at the bit for several years to wipe out the Kurdish militias in Syria. Now that the protective U.S. umbrella has been removed, he's getting his chance.
This is the second time in recent years the U.S. has betrayed the Kurds, and there
were other times in the past. A few years ago, the Kurds of northern Iraq held a referendum and voted in favor of autonomy for themselves. The Iraqi regime responded with a military attack, driving the Kurds out of territory they had recently fought to take back from ISIS. The U.S. didn't back the Kurds at all.
The current betrayal has an awful antecedent which occurred in the 1970's. The Shah of Iran, at the time the world's worst dictator and who was installed as ruler of that nation by the CIA in 1953 in a coup that destroyed democracy in that country, had a spat with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The Shah used the Kurds of Iraq as a proxy force to fight the Iraqi regime. The Shah enlisted the help of president Richard Nixon and Nixon's evil henchman Henry Kissinger to supply arms to those Kurds. Israel also supplied weapons.
Then in 1975 the Shah cut a deal with Saddam Hussein, and the Kurds became expendable. President Gerald Ford, Nixon's successor, and Kissinger (now working for Ford) allowed the massacre of Kurds by Saddam Hussein to proceed, coldly brushing aside pleas for help by remarking that “One should not confuse undercover action with social work.” [1]
There have been other U.S. backstabbings of the Kurds, which I am not going into now because I want to get this out in a timely fashion.
The Kurds are an oppressed minority in all the countries they inhabit. They are spread out among Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, none of which will ever cede an inch of territory to a Kurdish state, nor treat Kurds as equal citizens. Unsurprisingly, the Kurds have long desired their own nation. But what's good enough for Jews isn't good enough for Kurds, it seems. The U.S. has long strung them along, using them as cannon fodder, while the Kurds hope that eventually the U.S. will enable them to achieve statehood.
But the U.S. has never intended any such thing, no more than it intends to force Israel to grant the Palestinian peoople statehood.
Being against a people's self-determination is the same as being against democracy. The most fundamentally democratic thing is self-determination.
The Kurds have been fighting the U.S.' wars in Iraq and Syria. Today Trump stood reality on its head, cynically saying he doesn't want America fighting other people's wars. But it has been the Kurds fighting America's wars. The U.S. screeches a lot about "terrorism," but won't shed its own blood to fight the terrorists. It gets others to fight and die for it, them abandons them, leaving them in the lurch.
And every day brags about how it's The Greatest Country On Earth, the most moral, the most humane, the freest, the blah blah blahest.
If the U.S. really believed in the values it professes ad nauseam, the Kurds would be its most cherished allies in that region. They are democratic, and so non-sexist that Kurdish women form all-female combat units that fight ISIS.
But the U.S. is much tighter with the likes of Saudi Arabia instead.
By your friends shall ye be known.
Herr Doktor Heinz "Henry" Kissinger of Death.
1] See "Kissinger and the Kurds," Kurdistan Commentary, Feb. 4, 2010, and "Telling It Like It Is: Kissinger and the Kurds," Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 18, 1996.
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