President Donald Trump spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Dec. 14, 2018. The Turkish leader promised Turkey would take over security in northern Syria, and Trump agreed to bring American forces in northeastern Syria home.
Trump’s pledge caught the Pentagon and the State Department by surprise. After all, Erdogan made little secret of his desire to eradicate both Kurdish self-government in Syria and Kurdish militias. For decades, the United States agreed and acted in concert with Turkish policy, but by 2014, Turkey’s complicity with the Islamic State was too great to overlook. As ISIS besieged the predominantly Kurdish border town of Kobane in northern Syria, Turkey allowed ISIS fighters to transit its territory to resupply the organization and, in some cases, caught on video ISIS fighters who even fired into Kurdish positions from inside Turkish territory.
Of all the partnerships the U.S. enters with indigenous forces worldwide, the joint efforts with the Syrian Kurds were perhaps the most beneficial to U.S. security and warmest.
With Turkey at best disinterested in fighting the group and at worst complicit in its ambitions, the Obama administration decided to work directly with the Syrian Kurdish fighters on the front line of the fight against the Islamists, jihadists, and terrorists. The administration dropped weaponry and supplies to help the fighters break the siege of Kobane, the decisive battle that checked ISIS’s ambition and established the momentum that ultimately led to its defeat. With Turkey continuing to support ISIS, the U.S. sent military advisers and Special Forces to work in conjunction with the Syrian Kurds. Of all the partnerships the U.S. enters with indigenous forces worldwide, the joint efforts with the Syrian Kurds were perhaps the most beneficial to U.S. security and warmest. Ideologically, the Syrian Kurds are more Western and liberal than the Turks.
Betraying them sent shock waves throughout Washington. Defense Secretary James Mattis could not broker the duplicity. On Dec. 20, 2018, he wrote to Trump. “Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position,” he declared.
The following day, Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, also submitted his resignation based on what he saw as a reckless betrayal. McGurk subsequently joined President Joe Biden’s administration as the senior National Security Council official for Middle East issues.
Today, it is deja vu. After Biden scrambled to send F-16s to Turkey and repeatedly praised Turkey’s contributions to regional security, Erdogan began bombing Syrian Kurds, and he now openly threatens to eradicate their self-rule. He has bombed Syrian Kurdish forces near their American counterparts. That Turkey has not killed American troops is more luck than direction. More than 1 million Syrian Kurds are in peril of imminent ethnic cleansing. American credibility is as much on the line as when Trump sought to betray the Syrian Kurds.
Kurds often quip they have no friends but the mountains. With the way Biden treats allies, America simply will have no friends.
The difference between the Trump and Biden administrations on the issue is now twofold. First, whereas Trump appointees resigned in protest, no Biden aides do. The hypocrisy of Brett McGurk is especially striking as, in hindsight, his Trump-era resignation appears motivated more by opportunism than principle. Second, Trump’s team eventually walked back its abandonment of the Kurds — Biden’s team so far does nothing to prevent the Turkish onslaught.
If that does not change, the ramifications will be severe. Trusting Turkey to prevent a resurgence of ISIS is like trusting Pakistan to stop the Taliban. The Syrian Kurds are the proverbial finger in the dike preventing a resurgence of terrorism across the region.
The willingness by Biden’s team to betray allies and liberals unfortunately solidifies America’s new brand. It is not a good look, and it is one that will have severe ramifications for future coalition building. Kurds often quip they have no friends but the mountains. With the way Biden treats allies, America simply will have no friends.
