WhatsappAs Abu Mohammad al-Julani’s forces, along with their Sunni Arab tribesman allies, finish off what remains of the Kurdish autonomous area in northern Syria, haunting videos and images have been released over the last few days. One of them, embedded below, unnerved me enough to change my planned article, which I had intended to write today.
The video of two captured female Kurdish fighters at the hands of Julani’s men, seemingly being dragged off to serve as some sort of sex slaves or forced into marriage with their enemies, is all you need to know that Trump’s foreign policy is an abject failure. The thing is, none of what we are seeing is a surprise. It was all predicted.
Trump was warned by members of his own administration (Gabbard and Rubio) as well as ranking senators like Lindsey Graham that Julani was still the same Jihadist he always had been. Trump decided to defer to his long-time business friend and now ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, instead. Julani, he insisted, had reformed. Unfortunately, we see something far worse than a man who still harbors fantasies of installing a Sunni caliphate across the Middle East and beyond. What we are witnessing is an abject and willful betrayal of the US long time ally – the Kurds.
Trump’s foreign policy is driven by friendships, personal favors, and backing strong horses. With this in mind, it is no surprise at all that he is backing Erdogan. After all, Barrack is not only an ambassador to Turkey, but he is backed through business and other endeavors by Qatar and the Turkish government. Given Trump’s reliance on friends rather than experts who have a much more holistic view of the region.
Trump’s rush to declare Julani “kosher,” thus allowing millions of dollars to flow into what is essentially an Al-Qaeda-run government, as well as giving Turkey the green light to arm the new Syrian army with state-of-the-art weaponry, has not only crushed the SDF (Syrian Kurdish army) overnight, but also put Israel into a dangerous position.
Already, there are calls within Syria to send the army to crush the Druze in Sweida after it is finished with the Kurds. If this happens, Israel will be forced to intervene and attack Julani’s forces, dealing a death blow to his nascent Al Qeida-style regime. That will no doubt bring Turkey into the conflict, sparking a war between the two biggest regional superpowers.
With Trump backstabbing Netanyahu in Gaza by bringing Turkey in and letting the Kurds get massacred in Syria, murmurs are now sounding in Jerusalem that the partnership with Washington may be far more problematic than helpful. At the end, Washington’s strategy appears to be the following: Allow Israel’s enemies to once again surround it so Israel will always need America. In turn America will always have its “pitbull” (ie Israel) to let off the leash when it needs.
It’s time for Israel to finally set itself free from the American leash and become the real regional and world leader it’s meant to be.
