As Far as Trump Is Concerned, the Kurds Have Done Their Job and Now Can Go to Hell

In hindsight, the Kurds should have known it’s impossible to rely on U.S. President Donald Trump. It’s enough to count the agreements Trump has broken – including his withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, his scrapping of trade agreements, his Israeli-Palestinian “deal of the century” that proved to be hot air, his freezing of aid to the Palestinians, and his colossal failure to forge new agreements or solve conflicts – to understand that this is a reckless system aimed at blowing up “old” orders just because Trump wasn’t a party to establishing them.

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His abandonment of the Syrian Kurds to Turkey’s expected rampage through northern Syria is just another step in the same march of folly. In Trump’s eyes, the Kurds, who paid in blood in the war against the Islamic State and proved themselves the most effective local force against this terror group, are nothing but a militia that has done its job and can now go to hell.

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– Haaretz Weekly Ep. 43

Haaretz Weekly Ep. 43Haaretz

>> Read more: Trump warns Turkey over Syria: I will obliterate your economy if you do anything off limits ■ 'Biggest lie by this admin': Lindsey Graham slams Trump for Syria withdrawal ■ Trump roundly slammed for allowing Turkey to attack Kurdish allies in Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proved that his unyielding stubbornness pays. After snubbing America’s demand that he not buy Russia’s S-400 missile system and announcing that Turkey would continue buying Iranian oil and gas in defiance of U.S. sanctions, he has made Washington fold on the Kurdish issue as well. Trump has given him a free hand to control northern Syria, build Turkish outposts deep inside Syria (more than 30 kilometers – 19 miles – from the Turkish border) and change the demography of Kurdish districts by turning this area into a “security zone” where he will resettle 2 million Syrian refugees now in Turkey.

The large-scale Turkish invasion of areas east of the Euphrates River will presumably begin in the next few days. The Kurds will meet it with inferior forces that are incapable of stopping Turkey’s armored corps and air force, and much of their territory will be transferred to direct Turkish control. Turkey is then expected to begin a massive campaign to arrest fighters from the Kurds’ People’s Protection Units, members of the Syrian Kurdish party and anyone else suspected of cooperating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, better known as the PKK, which Turkey considers a terror group.