The withdrawal of American forces from north-eastern Syria left then-allies, the Kurds alone to face Turkey, who soon overran them at significant humanitarian cost – but to hypocritical Donald Trump, that was actually saving them.
When Donald J Trump announced two weeks ago that he was pulling American troops out of north-eastern Syria, one media outlet headline summed up the result with searing accuracy. Beneath a photo of celebrating jihadists, the headline read: ‘Jubilant ISIS Prisoners Hail American Liberators’.
Unfortunately, that media outlet was the satirical website The Onion, but it did reflect one sobering fact, that if the consequences for the Kurdish people of the US withdrawal were not so devastating, then the whole episode, including Trump’s self-congratulatory “strategically brilliant” tweet would be utterly hilarious.
Further to this, Trump has announced today that his moves were responsible for “saving” the Kurds at the same time as the US Treasury announced it was dropping sanctions it had imposed on Turks following their offensive.
Meanwhile fears that the Kurds would open ISIS prisons allowing hundreds of jihadists to flee proved to be unfounded, the “sheer insanity” – as one Canadian politician termed the tweets – continued with the US President today declaring that the, “Kurds are safe and have worked nicely with us.”
The hypocrisy is jaw-dropping. Remember, these are the local partners the US has been allied with during this Syrian saga and lost an estimated 11,000 soldiers fighting ISIS under American direction.
Trump’s claim echoes his earlier tweet when he suggested the immediate result of the American withdrawal was: “The Kurds are much safer right now, but the Kurds know how to fight. And as I said they’re not angels, they’re not angels.”
So, POTUS is claiming that abandoning the Kurds and paving the way for a Turkish offensive on the hard-fought territory they were defending somehow made them “safe”?
Being “safe” meant that tens of thousands of people were displaced in a matter of a few days, dozens of civilians were killed.
That’s like taking your children to the zoo and putting them inside the lion enclosure believing them to be safer than outside. It doesn’t make any sense no matter which way you look at it.
But to The Donald, it all makes sense, somehow. He tweeted today: “Big success on the Turkey/Syria Border. Safe Zone created! Ceasefire has held and combat missions have ended.”
Maybe those combat missions have ended for Turkey and Syria, but the Kurds who were previously resident as recently as two weeks ago in the aforementioned “Safe Zone” might disagree. To them, Donald’s “Safe Zone” is actually home.
As for the US troops, they were last seen crossing the Iraq border where they were greeted by local Kurdish civilians with a barrage of rotten fruit and insults.
Meanwhile, the base that they had abandoned at Manjib, Syria, was being pored over by curious Russian troops, allies of the Syrian Army, who had the video including images of fridges stocked with Coca Cola, mockingly posted online.
Could anyone ever make this stuff up?
By Damian Wilson, UK journalist & political communications specialist
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