Playing ‘Kurdish Card’ in Syria Backfires on US As Turks Move In

Playing ‘Kurdish Card’ in Syria Backfires on US As Turks Move In

What the result will be of Turkey’s offensive against the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin in northwest Syria may not be clear for a while, but two things are already certain. Bad decisions in Washington provided the trigger, and Washington’s regional position will suffer as a result of Ankara’s Orwellian-named “Operation Olive Branch.” The offensive is…

Syrian Rebels and US Troops Have Been Clashing for Months, but Pentagon Has Been Keeping It Under Wraps

Syrian Rebels and US Troops Have Been Clashing for Months, but Pentagon Has Been Keeping It Under Wraps

Last August a Pentagon spokesman told CNN that US soldiers on the ground in Kurdish-held northern Syria were fired upon by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels multiple times in just the last week: US troops who had been performing a de facto “peacekeeping” role in northern Syria came under direct attack multiple times in the last week,…

Syria’s Kurds are Now Sharing the Sorry Fate of Most Washington’s Allies

Syria’s Kurds are Now Sharing the Sorry Fate of Most Washington’s Allies

Operation Olive Branch along Syria’s northern border, which has already resulted in military casualties suffered by both the Turkish and Kurdish sides, came as a surprise for those following the conflict carefully. There’s also no denying the fact that the bloody Turkish-Kurdish confrontation already resulting in a considerable civilian death toll is an avid example…

How Trump is Making the Middle East a Crueller Place

How Trump is Making the Middle East a Crueller Place

There really is no point any more in talking about >Donald Trump or US foreign policy. They do not exist. Indeed, the Trump “presidency” is about as real as “Palestine”. Both deserve inverted commas although the first fantasy would clearly represent white and largely Christian Americans trying to make their country great again at the expense of lesser…