Commentaries

Historical Imperial Realities: US Betraying the Kurds in Syria - Again

TEHRAN (FNA)- It's a bitter lesson many in the Middle East refuse to learn, that the United States government cannot be trusted and depended on as an “ally” at all. Still, many client states and proxies refuse to see it, particularly the Syrian Kurds.

It is a mistake. But the cruel thing is, it feels like the mistake is theirs, for trusting Washington in telling them that they are the world’s next country - if only they could sacrifice more blood and fight a bit longer for the United States and its regional designs.



A background check, however, reveals that Kurds are ethnically Iranic. They are branch of Iranian peoples just like ethnic Persians. So if you are Kurd, you are also Iranian. There are also Kurds who think they are a separate race with a unique and unmixed history, their views are drawn from imperial inventions not older than 60 years.



And the world turns without them. No, there should not be an independent Kurdish state, because the world cannot keep making new countries for every ethnic group that decides to want their own country in a region as ethnically diversified as the Middle East. There are also different Kurdish ethnicities in Iraq and Syria. Here, it is equally silly and unfair to make these nations give up land and resources because another group of people, in this case Kurds, demands to take it over and has the backing of some foreign power. That is bullying on a large scale.



That they have not been able to secure “autonomy” recently should never be seen as the result of systematic mistreatment either, not just by regional powers, but by the international community as well. The bitter reality is that some Kurds are little more than an alliance of convenience or pawn for anyone in the region, and after a couple of years of substantial US support allowing them to grow a large, nominally autonomous territory in northeast Syria, the recent invasion of northern Syria by Turkey to push them back from where they once were is looking an awful lot like business as usual.



Here, Turkey has been complaining about growing Kurdish military gains and influence, and many Kurds believed rightly that a US betrayal was only a matter of time. The US endorsement of the Turkish invasion, even if it has come with admonishments not to attack the Kurds, is looking an awful lot like such a betrayal. The situation grows more regretful when you come to realize that the captured lands by Turkey are given to the Syrian terrorists all on the pretext that they should be given a foothold in the region to stand against any Kurdish expansion.



The illusion has always been that, having been the main US pawn in the region, fighting against ISIL, Washington would eventually back Syrian Kurdish calls for limited autonomy. That has not been the case so far, with the US (after failing to regime change Syria and desperate to appease Turkey) now supporting the Turkish invasion and opposing any Kurdish regional autonomy in Syria.



Under these circumstances, it is a terrible mistake on the part of Kurdish fighters to believe that the US interests are in keeping them placated forever. For instance, when the US finally backed the Kurdish attack on Manbij, it took months and it was on a limited scale. It was also immediately followed by a Turkish invasion. Within 48 hours, the US echoed Turkish demands for the Kurds to cede Manbij, which means the two-and-a-half-month Manbij siege was for America’s benefit, not the Kurds’.



Likewise, in the aftermath of a limited Turkish intervention on Syrian soil, the US is now demanding the Kurds leave the northern city of Manbij, which the Kurds fought and died to capture parts of during the past two months – backed by US warplanes.



That these two instances of US policy reversals happened less than a week from another should come as surprise to no one, much less the Kurds. They have become all-but-accustomed to this self-serving colonial policy. The US has let down and will always abandon its dispensable “allies” to protect its own illicit interests in the Middle East in any given opportunity.



And the US doesn't care if this is going to be damaging to its overall strategy in the region either, let alone lose the faith and trust of the only “real partner” it has in the war on ISIL in Syria – the Kurds. The War Party is always ready to take the strategy it itself initiated, nurtured and supported, and dump it into the trash. This is betrayal. Nothing more. Nothing less.



Expect no “Kurdish contiguous confederation” or a “united federal Kurdish region” in northern Syria, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Kurdish forces have served their military purpose for the War Party as shock troops and proxies against ISIL, and now they must learn again to live within the larger Syrian community as a group of people just like many other ethnic groups. This was all expected and it’s the new normal. Only, the Kurds didn't see it, or refused to see it, coming.

When choosing an ally, everyone should look for a party that would never leave them under any circumstances, be it joy and victory or hardship and difficulty when you are under attack by the entire world.