The U.S. government’s categorical opposition to the former Iraqi Kurds’ independence and the former Syrian Kurds’ self-rule, combined with maximal military demands on the Kurds based on minimal military aid, have helped make America impotent in the region.
By contrast, Russia intervened in the region in ways that helped its clients actually achieve their ends. Russia’s operational objective—securing western Syria for people who would secure Russia’s own naval own base—required closing the Turkish border. That in turn required cooperating with the Kurds who live in the northwest sector thereof.
But the Americans deferred to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s ruler, who did not want the border closed and who fears Kurdish power. Hence, as Turkish artillery pounded the Kurds, the Americans did not help. The Russians, however, helped the Kurds in the crucial enclave with supplies as well as with diplomacy backed by force.
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