Pundit: Entire Middle East Knows Not To Trust US

When it comes to the Middle East, writes David Ignatius in The Washington Post, America “has a nasty habit of recruiting local forces as proxies and then jettisoning them when the going gets tough or regional politics intervene.” It’s “one of our least endearing characteristics,” he says, and helps explain why Washington “is mistrusted in the Middle East” — “we don’t stick by the people who take risks on our behalf.” The pattern is repeating in Syria as the US-backed Kurdish militia group YPG “gets pounded by the Turkish military.” But Washington “isn’t responding to pleas” from YPG, which is now “appealing to Russia.” Ultimately, says Ignatius, “allying with the United States can be a dangerous proposition in the Middle East.”