If Turkey Attacks American Troops In Syria, How Should The United States Respond?
Today’s downing of a Turkish drone should be both a shot across the bow and an inspiration for the future. To stop ethnic cleansing, it behooves the United States to help all of its allies defend themselves from the predation of dictatorships wielding drones.
ByMichael Rubin
Published20 hours ago
Just days before Azerbaijan wiped the indigenous Armenian enclave in Nagorno-Karabakh off the map, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Yuri Kim declared to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “We will not tolerate any attack on the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The genocidal intent was clear. Azerbaijani soldiers wore armbands with the image of Enver Pasha, mastermind of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, and the slogan “Don’t run Armenian you’ll just die of exhaustion!” Upon capturing Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh and a city historically almost entirely Armenian, the Azerbaijani government named a street for Enver Pasha. To Armenians, Azerbaijan’s arrest of the region’s Armenian political leaders has obvious parallels to the 1915 arrests—and subsequent executions—of prominent Armenian leaders, an event that scholars say marked the beginning of the Armenian genocide.
While growing numbers of Congressmen complain or sign letters demanding action, the Biden administration does little to help displaced Armenians or punish Azerbaijan for systematically violating every diplomatic agreement and ceasefire they signed. While realists in the White House view Armenia-Azerbaijan in isolation and may even see opportunity in the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh to enable an elusive peace, they are wrong on both counts. Unilateral action justifies unilateral reaction, even if delayed by decades, while ethnic cleansing unpunished signals its utility to aggressors.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/10/if-turkey-attacks-american-troops-in-syria-how-should-the-united-states-respond/
