Will America Abandon the Kurds?

“No friends but the mountains,” is a Kurdish refrain, reflecting on allies’ perennial betrayal of their cause. The latest, and perhaps deepest, cut has America allying with President Recep Erdogan of Turkey, who considers Syrian Kurds a threat to his vision of a renewed Ottoman Empire. Our long allies in the war on ISIS, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, are left to the mercy of Ankara’s Damascus proxy, President Ahmad al-Sharaa. For more than a week the Turkish-backed ragtag group of jihadists, known as the Syrian army, have been attacking Kurds in the country’s north and east. Rather than defending the Kurds, America is siding with Mr. Sharaa. “The original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground has largely expired,” our ambassador at Ankara, Tom Barrack, writes. From now on, he adds, the Jihadists of the Syrian army are our allies. “The Moor has done his work, the Moor may go,” is how the German playwright Friedrich Schiller, in his play “Fiesco,” framed such a cavalier tossing aside of an ally after his work was done. In this case it’s a group that has fought ISIS for America’s benefit and won. One of President Trump’s proudest achievements is the attack that, in 2019, resulted in the death of the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.That, and the SDF shedding blood to wrest Syrian territory from ISIS, all but sealed the caliphate state’s fate. After the Islamic State lost control of territory in northeast Syria, ISIS terrorists were imprisoned under watchful Kurdish eyes. This week, Syria’s army reached the prisons. Hundreds of battle-tested ISIS fighters walked out to freedom. The escape was a Kurdish “blackmail” ploy, Syria’s UN ambassador, Ibrahim Olabi, tells our Benny Avni. In reality, as videos document, Syrian soldiers, including some actually wearing ISIS insignia on their sleeves, greeted the detainees with “Allahu Akbar” salutes and showed them the way out. That all of that was done with America’s blessing undermines Mr. Trump’s record of defeating ISIS. The President considers ordering American troops out of Syria. The Kurds are forced to defend themselves. Can an ISIS revival be far behind?Plus, too, what about America’s Mideast allies outside of Israel? A growing bipartisan group in Congress is outraged. “We must protect the Kurds who were there for us in destroying the ISIS caliphate,” Senator Lindsey Graham writes on X. Adds he: “The powers of the Senate are real. Stay tuned.” A Democratic House member, Josh Gottheimer, chimes in, “Damascus must halt its advances immediately — or risk new crushing sanctions.”Mr. Trump sees in Mr. al-Sharaa a reformed and “tough” president who could be an American ally. Can a former Al Qaeda leader in Syria, though, be our man at Damascus? His goals are an end to sanctions and the beginning of American investment, but last year his troops massacred Alawis and Druze. Now they’re committing crimes in the Kurdish areas. Israel defended its Druze allies in the spring. Rather than defending ours, we’re turning our backs. Kurds were promised a state of their own after the defeat in World War I of the Ottoman Empire. The West never came through. Kurds are strewn across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. At crucial points, including when in 1988 Saddam Hussein gassed them at Halabja, America declined to save the Kurds. Now Mr. Barrack is doing Ankara’s bidding as our anti-ISIS comrades in arms are again friendless, and left to talk to the mountains.

Will America Abandon the Kurds?

Will America Abandon the Kurds?

More from the New York Sun

Ram Has Resurrected a V8-Powered Flying Dinosaur

Anti-Jeffries Petition Tops 1 Million Signatures as Progressives Seek a More Combative Speaker

Hochul and Mamdani Celebrate Democratic Election Gains, Not at Home but in Puerto Rico

Zoo Atlanta’s New Pandas Steal the Spotlight in Public Debut

GOP Lawmakers Erupt Over Trump’s Promotion of Stephen Miller

Incoming Texas Democrats May Flip Policies on Abortion, Data Centers, Schools

Scaling ‘Heights’ Higher Than ‘Hamilton’

Calls To End Schumer’s Reign Grow Louder but Viable Challengers Fail To Materialize

More from the New York Sun

Ram Has Resurrected a V8-Powered Flying Dinosaur

Anti-Jeffries Petition Tops 1 Million Signatures as Progressives Seek a More Combative Speaker

Hochul and Mamdani Celebrate Democratic Election Gains, Not at Home but in Puerto Rico

Zoo Atlanta’s New Pandas Steal the Spotlight in Public Debut

GOP Lawmakers Erupt Over Trump’s Promotion of Stephen Miller

Incoming Texas Democrats May Flip Policies on Abortion, Data Centers, Schools

Scaling ‘Heights’ Higher Than ‘Hamilton’

Calls To End Schumer’s Reign Grow Louder but Viable Challengers Fail To Materialize