Kurds and Syria

Christians who have watched a few news clips, but often know very little history, are getting stirred up about the Kurds, and claiming that Donald Trump is betraying them. They want US troops to remain and protect them.

I don’t often say this, but on this one, Donald Trump is right. Further US meddling in Syria, whatever the motivation, will just add more harm to the harm that the US has done in the region.

A few myths about Syria and the Kurds need to be exposed.

• More of the same will not help in Syria. The UK, France and the United States got involved in Syria in another of their “regime change” plans. The game plan was for their special forces to train fighters to be paid with Saudi money to fight against the Syrian government. They allowed Turkey to channel a large number of Sunni jihadis from all of the world to support their plan.

• Like most US war efforts in recent years, this vile plan failed when the US, French and UK special forces ended up training, supplying and paying radical Sunni Moslem groups associated with Al Qaeda. This has been a disaster for the Syrian people that the nation will take years to recover from, long after CNN has lost interest.

• The Kurds have a long history of being manipulated and used by Western powers, and then being betrayed. Nothing has changed. The US, UK and France will no allow a Kurdish political state to be established on the borders of their NATO ally Turkey. To establish a better future, the Kurds should stop relying on fickle Western powers, and learn to live at peace with the people they live among.

• Before the first World War, some Kurds assisted Turkey with their persecution of Assyrian and Armenian Christians. This is one reason why they are not trusted by their neighbours.

• Donald Trump did not defeat ISIS, despite his claims. The US unwittingly contributed to the emergence of ISIS when it treated Sunni allies in Iraq really badly, by using them, and then deserting them. With more rational policies, ISIS would never have existed.

• The United States cynically and deliberately allowed ISIS to advance deep into Syria in an attempt to bring down President Bashar al-Assad. Unfortunately, this plan unravelled, when ISIS got out of control.

• Although not reported by the Western Media, by the time Trump got serious about defeating ISIS, most of the hard fighting against ISIS was done by the Syrian Arab Army west of the Euphrates, and Shia militias in Iraq, while the US just dropped bombs.

• The US allowed ISIS to gain control the important Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, by bombing the besieged Syrian defenders, then pretending it was a mistake.

• The Kurds did not defeat ISIS, as many of the western media are claiming. They were mostly reluctant fighters. They only fought seriously, if they were paid more money.

• Rather than engaging in street by street fighting, their tactic was to block the roads out of a town or city, and then wait while the US bombed the crap out of the people within, civilians and ISIS fighters. When the pressure got too intense, they let the ISIS forces escape in the direction that US advisers wanted them to go. This is why so many ISIS forces are still free and ready to fight.

• The ancient Syrian city of Raqqah was almost wrecked by US bombing using this tactic. Large numbers of civilians were killed.

• Many of the areas currently controlled by the Kurdish forces are populated by Arab peoples, not Kurds. They are being held as bargaining chips. In a few places, Kurdish forces have engaged in ethnic cleansing.

• The Kurds have been well paid for every battle the fought. They have kept their uniforms training and massive amounts of military equipment that the US supplied them for their work.

• Christians who are worried about the persecution of local Christians have woken up a bit later. The radical Sunni groups that the US supported in Syria have been persecuting Christians and destroying churches in Syria for years. Church’s with links back to the days of Paul in Damascus have brutally treated. I cannot understand why a Christian nation would support groups that are hostile to Christian, but the US did the same in Iraq too.

• The Western media do not acknowledge it, but President Assad has led a secular government that protects all religious minorities. He is the one who has been seriously protecting Christians, but liberal western media are not interest in that.

The US, French and UK should get out of Syria, before they do more harm, and let the Syrian people decide their own fate. So, I am pleased that Donald Trump is at lost doing what he promised to do before the election, and withdrawing from his nation’s stupid war.
Unfortunately, to add insult to injury, the US is imposing sanction on Syria to prevent the destruction and infrastructure that they destroyed from being rebuilt. That is ugly.

I cannot understand why a superpower that cannot govern itself, and is tearing itself apart, thinks that it should decide what is good for other nations. The evidence of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, not to mention Cambodia and Vietnam, show that these do-good efforts produce greater disasters, than the problem they try to solve.

According to the news today, the Syrian Arab Army is moving into areas of NE Syria to protect the Kurds from the Turkish invasion. If this is confirmed, it is their best hope. Over the last fifty years, Syria has accepted large numbers of Kurdish refugees and given many of them citizenship, which few other nations are willing to do. Hopefully, the western trouble makers will allow this to happen and not destabilise this negotiated peace to spite the Russians who have helped it happen.