Thursday, October 17, 2019
Political Mayhem Thursday: The Syria Problem
Just as impeachment looms, Donald Trump has a new problem, which he created. And it is one that has made a lot of people in his own party mad.
The Kurds are an ethnic group who are primarily Muslim, but include adherents to a number of other religions. The have no nation, though; they are spread across parts of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. They are intriguing in a number of ways, including a surprising degree of gender equality: almost unique in the Middle East (the other exception being Israel) Kurdish fighting forces include women.
The Kurds make governments in the nations where they live uncomfortable, because they tend to want to govern themselves. That works where they can has some degree of autonomy, but that is not an option in some of these countries.
In recent years, Kurds have supported US interests in the area, particularly in fighting ISIS. If you talk to an American veteran who served with or near Kurds, they usually are admiring of them.
Turkey faces some level of Kurdish separatism. They faced military conflicts with Kurds based in southern Turkey and northern Syria. So Turkey wanted to invade Syria to wrest out the strongholds they had there. They resisted because that would cross them not only with the Kurds, but US forces embedded with them.
And then Trump gave the OK to Turkey to do just that, and pulled out the US troops. This left our allies, the Kurds, with no choice but to align themselves with Russia and the Syrian government.
People knew this would disrupt balance in the region... and it is turning out they were right.
The Kurds are an ethnic group who are primarily Muslim, but include adherents to a number of other religions. The have no nation, though; they are spread across parts of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. They are intriguing in a number of ways, including a surprising degree of gender equality: almost unique in the Middle East (the other exception being Israel) Kurdish fighting forces include women.
The Kurds make governments in the nations where they live uncomfortable, because they tend to want to govern themselves. That works where they can has some degree of autonomy, but that is not an option in some of these countries.
In recent years, Kurds have supported US interests in the area, particularly in fighting ISIS. If you talk to an American veteran who served with or near Kurds, they usually are admiring of them.
Turkey faces some level of Kurdish separatism. They faced military conflicts with Kurds based in southern Turkey and northern Syria. So Turkey wanted to invade Syria to wrest out the strongholds they had there. They resisted because that would cross them not only with the Kurds, but US forces embedded with them.
And then Trump gave the OK to Turkey to do just that, and pulled out the US troops. This left our allies, the Kurds, with no choice but to align themselves with Russia and the Syrian government.
People knew this would disrupt balance in the region... and it is turning out they were right.
