US President Donald Trump has entered the White House promising to cut or withdraw US troops from the Middle East. He seems determined to keep his promises. In December 2018, his national security team surprised his announcement of the withdrawal of troops from Syria. "We have defeated, so our troops will return home," he said. Turkey must take care of the rest of the organization. "But the president's advisers convinced him that his move was hasty and illogical, and ultimately Trump decided on the current policy of building a buffer zone along the Turkish-Syrian border. In short, such a policy is misleading even if international forces are involved. The sterile negotiations on buffer zones may seem good, but the policy of US envoy to Syria Jim Jeffrey reinforces extremism and exposes the Kurds to massacres reminiscent of the Serb massacres of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica a quarter of a century ago.
Understanding history
To understand why Jeffrey's policies on Syria and the Kurds are devastating, it is important to understand Syrian, Turkish and Kurdish history. In 2004, the Syrian government, which allied itself with the Islamists, sent forces of Sunni and Baathist Islamists to destroy the Kurdish identity in northern Syria. The Syrian government also allowed foreign fighters to enter Iraq to fight the United States. This explains why Syrian Kurds feel distrust of the Syrian government and the Syrian-Sunni opposition.
At the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, the Kurds consolidated their control over northern Syria. Although they were isolated and besieged not only by the Syrian and Turkish governments, but also by the Iraqi Kurdistan government, the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units managed to defeat the al-Nasra front of al-Qaeda.
This is just the beginning. Last week, I visited the towns of Qamishli, Raqqa, the capital of Da'ash, as well as the town of Ain al-Arab (Kobani), and saw destroyed buildings and burned vehicles, especially in Ein al-Arab, which extends to the Turkish border. Although the eye of the Arabs was not the only battle that took place in the region with a "push", it changed the course of the war and advanced the terrorist organization and occupation of the cities and villages that engulf it. Although American diplomats refused to negotiate with the Syrian Kurds during my first visit to the region for fear of a Turkish-American partnership, after Washington became convinced that the elimination of a "push", cooperation with the Kurdish militia needed to change America's attitude toward the Kurds.
Geoffrey's isolation zone in northern Syria on the border with Turkey is unlikely to succeed, as the Kurdish authorities in the region rejected the proposal, which it considered to be in the interest of Turkey.
Jeffrey and the State Department are now proposing a UN buffer zone. This will not be a costly project and will only lead to the disintegration of Kurdish power, since many Kurdish towns and cities, including Raqqa and Qamishli, are on the border, but as in the Serbian city of Srebrenica, the Kurds could be massacred in view of the possibility that peacekeeping forces Is not prepared to protect the civilian Kurds from a massacre by Turkish forces or their extremist agents.
In fact, the administrations of former US presidents Bill Clinton and George HW Bush were wise to stand up to Turkey rather than appease it. Of course, Jeffrey's policy of calming Turkey's mind is a bad and failed policy given that pre-Turkish Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan was a liberal, while it supported extremism after Erdogan. So what should I do now?
Jeffrey must retreat from the idea of a buffer zone; it will not serve Turkey's satisfaction, but encourages Erdogan to demand more. Washington's policy would be more prudent if it gave the Kurds administration in northern Syria. The United States must invest in the region and help rebuild. And encourages Ankara to deal with the region as a market. Trump is a turning point in Syria. He claims to have defeated a hawkish organization, but seems to be about to pursue a policy that will only lead to failure.
Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute
The sterile negotiations about the buffer zones may seem good, but the policies of the US envoy to Syria fuel extremism.