Another Trump phone call opens door to slaughter of Syrian Kurds, our allies
President Donald Trump’s betrayal of the Syrian Kurds, America’s key ally in the fight against ISIS, is his most ignorant and morally bankrupt foreign policy move — so far.
On Sunday, in another reckless phone call, Trump gave Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a green light to attack the Syrian Kurds, our most steadfast ally in the defeat of ISIS. Trump then ordered the withdrawal of 50 U.S. troops from the Syrian border who acted as a preventive trip wire dissuading the Turks from invading.
Trump never consulted his own Pentagon or State Department or his Kurdish allies before this snap decision. By Wednesday, the Turks were bombarding Syrian Kurdish towns.
In one feckless move, Trump ensured the revival of ISIS, gifted Iran and Russia and warned off local forces anywhere from fighting alongside Americans in the future.
What was most stunning was Trump’s ignorance of the Kurds’ central role in defeating the ISIS caliphate. It was the Kurds who did the heavy fighting in Syria, allied with Christian and some Sunni forces.
The 2,000 U.S. forces then in Syria acted in a critical support capacity, but not on the front lines. The Kurdish-led force lost 11,000 men and women, while U.S. troops sustained only six fatalities.
If not for the Syrian Kurds, the caliphate would still exist — or America would have had to send in thousands more troops.
The betrayal of our Kurdish allies has so upset the U.S. military that just-retired Gen. Joseph Votel, former head of U.S. Central Command, said Trump’s decision “threatens to undo five years’ worth of fighting against ISIS.”
Contrary to repeated Trump claims, ISIS is not dead.
Kurdish-led troops, backed by 1,000 remaining U.S. forces, have been preventing any ISIS revival. The Kurds have also been guarding prison camps holding 10,000 EX-ISIS fighters and tens of thousands of ISIS wives and children.
But those Kurdish forces will now focus on protecting their cities, leaving huge swaths of Syria open to ISIS resurgence and prison camps without guards.
An ignorant Trump imagines Erdogan will keep ISIS down and manage prison camps. But Turkey will not. During the war against ISIS, Erdogan refused repeated requests from Washington to close his border to ISIS fighters.
The Turkish leader has repeatedly said his one reason for invading Syria is to act out Turkey’s historic enmity toward the Kurds.
Erdogan wants to establish a “so-called” safe zone inside Syria, 20 miles deep all along the Turkish border, which contains most of the Kurdish population. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds will be forced to flee into Iraq, becoming refugees.
The scenario is so ugly it has spurred a Republican backlash — including from many senators, Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, ex-u.n. Ambassador Nikki Haley and even televangelist Pat Robertson.
Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted: “Pray for our Kurdish allies who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump Administration. This move ensures the reemergence of ISIS.” Graham says he will “lead (an) effort in Congress to make Erdogan pay a heavy price.”
Unless the GOP stands up to Trump, and Trump to Erdogan, that’ll be too little, too late.
It’s Trump who precipitated this crisis. And the GOP who enables the feckless Trump.
We heard from Gen. Votel. Why not James Mattis, who resigned as defense secretary over Trump’s previous threat to quit Syria, or H.R. Mcmaster? Or Mike Pompeo?
If our Kurdish allies are slaughtered, all of Trump’s GOP enablers will be complicit in their deaths.