10 Comments

Meh… While I feel for the Kurds, they made their bed and now have to lie in it.

They were encouraged, by Russia amongst others, to make a deal with Assad. Instead they chose to get in beds with the Americans. Despite knowing how that usually ends.

Maybe it was greed for oil money that blinded them, but they have nobody to blame but themselves.

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The Kurds may indeed have taken some wrong decisions, but I shudder at the thought what awaits them when the Turks and the "moderate rebels" will have entered their villages. I hope that the Americans will not let their allies down this time. This is a matter of humanity, not of geopolitical considerations whatsoever.

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The Kurds continue to suffer from political whiplash: “she loves me, she loves me not…”. America needs to decide whether it’s only money or are there ethical considerations to which we must pay attention.

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When has the US ever been swayed by ethical considerations?

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More like "I love her, why won't she love me back after all I did for her, maybe one more extravagant gesture of selfless love will do it for real this time!"

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I have no problem with that. They get what they deserve.

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The priority for the Biden administration, and also for Trump it would seem, is and will remain Israel. That means, willing or not, support for its Greater Israel project.

If (or when?) a fight between Israel and HTS will break out, the US will want to support it and the easiest way will be with another front against the HTS by its SDF proxies. So they could still turn out useful, it might be early to dump them.

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Exactly, that is their only consideration.

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My admittedly straight SWAG is that this was part of the price Erdogan charged.

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The ancient Kurdistan does have a suitable basis to be an independent country, even in modern standards, due to the oil reserve in its region. However, in today's international politics, the prospect for an independent Kurdish state is bad. Even if Turkiye backs off and allows a portion of Kurdish area to go independent, Kurds will not stop there: they will want more land inside Turkie and they will encourage Kurds under the rule of other regimes to rise. Given the proximity of Armenia to this region, NATO meddling in Armenia may have an impact on the Kurdish situation as well. However, my understanding of geography in this area is really bad. Maybe mountains would block most such traffic.

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