Friday 11 October 2019

Syria, Kurds And Turkey Explained

Listening to the talking heads discussing the Syrian invasion by Turkey, you would be forgiven for thinking that the whole thing is complex but it isn't really, you just have to see through the spin and know a bit of the history behind it.
As part of the War on Terror following the 9/11 attacks in New York, George W Bush and Tony Blair launched wars to oust Saddam Hussein of Iraq and the Afghanistan Taliban but by removing them it allowed Bin Laden's terror group, Al Queada, to flourish and file into Iraq and Afghanistan bringing bombs, death and mayhem.
In the following years Al Queada grew, renamed itself Islamic State (IS) and crossed the border into Syria and brutally took over it's towns and cities.
The Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, battled them but he wasn't popular with the West so they didn't want to arm his military directly so sought to find elements on the ground who could mount a serious challenge to the battle hardened fighters of IS.
Several aborted attempts ended up in the US giving weapons and training to groups affiliated to Islamic State and Al Queada so the weapons were simply handed over to the enemy to use against Western troops.
The Kurds proved to be the West's closest and most effective partner and they were given the arms and backing to take on IS which they did effectively and forced them out of Syria.
Syria's neighbour, Turkey, has been fighting a long battle against the Kurds which it deems terrorists and in removing IS, the Kurd's ended up controlling large sections of Northern Syria, right along Turkeys border.
America, deeming job done and now having no further use for the Kurds, have retreated and given tacit approval for Turkey to mount this operation and Turkish forces have entered Kurdish-held areas with the plan to forcibly remove them and settle the millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey back in their own country.
The Kurds have justifiably said that they have been stabbed in the back by America for who they did most of the fighting for and the threat of IS regrouping grows and so the cycle of war, death and killing goes on.
What happened after 9/11 must have eclipsed even Bin Laden's wildest dreams and it hasn't finished yet. 

1 comment:

Liber - Latin for "The Free One" said...

The Kurds were fighting for their benefit, not for anybody else. The impact on IS was a side affect.

Turkey is a NATO ally.

The Kurds will get plenty of help from Iran and Russia.