The Kurds' conundrumAmerican Thinker, Oct 16, 2019, John D. Dingell III
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The news media claim that Trump's neutrality puts the Kurds in a bad spot. Not so. The Kurds have a a quality military force in Syria, which has been hardened and sharpened by years of warfare. They are well supplied, and their recent agreement with the Syrian government will assure continued supplies. The Russians have also become involved against the Turks, but they have no treaty with the Turks. Putin just laid waste to his efforts to curry favor with the Turks. This will have repercussions in the years to come. Putin has screwed up, and the United States can benefit from his crude perfidy.
No one is going to help ErdoÄŸan regenerate the Turkish army and its command structure. Turkish air power will rule open territory, but the Kurds will dominate the Turks in every city and village. ISIS tore up Turkish armored units in 2016 with far less military aptitude. The Kurds defeated ISIS. The Kurds will fight the Turks to a bloody draw. The Turkish military is going to be bled white. It is only a shadow of its past self. This will not help ErdoÄŸan politically. He will be gone soon.
The major problem the Kurds face is geographic. Their territories have no deep-water ports or navigable rivers. Their territories are islands among territories controlled by other ethnic groups. They cannot create a viable nation-state, even if they unite (and they are riven with dissension). President Trump cannot give them a maritime outlet. The Kurds have to unite and strike a solid deal with someone who can provide them with one. That is not the United States. Without unity and a maritime outlet, any Kurdish state will be at the mercy of its neighbors. And their part of the world is short on mercy.
The best possible outcome of the current mess is the Kurds striking a solid deal with one or more neighbors: Syria, Iraq, or post-ErdoÄŸan Turkey. The status quo ante was a frozen war that served no one well. Trump's actions offer the possibility of bringing this mess to a relatively quick conclusion without abrogating international treaties. The previous frozen war served no one's interests and would have resulted in far greater loss of life than the current conflict.
President Trump is the only adult on today's world stage.
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