Turkish President Erdogan says he will "strangle" US backed force in Syria.

A US special forces fighter near Raqqa, Syria. Reuters. 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says he will "strangle" a US backed Kurdish force in Syria. Reuters. The US has planned a 30,000 strong border force to protect Kurdish areas in Syria. Both Syria and Russia have denounced the move, but the strongest condemnation came from Turkey, a US ally. Erdogan called the force a terrorist army who's only purpose is to target Turkey. The Kurds say they need the new force to protect threats from the Turkish and Syrian governments. The US supports the Kurds because they helped them fight ISIS and want to make sure they don't return. 

My Comment:

For a supposed ally, Turkey spends a lot of time threatening us and our interests. They have never been good allies. Indeed, they focus in Syria was never ISIS. It was always the Kurds that they wanted to fight and only went after ISIS after they started to attack inside the borders of Turkey. 

Indeed, before ISIS started targeting them, Turkey was essentially a de facto ally to ISIS. They allowed thousands of ISIS recruits to cross the border into Syria and bought oil from ISIS. As long as ISIS targeted their enemies, the Kurds and Syrians, they didn't care. Once ISIS turned against Turkey, they started fighting them and were able to clean out the border area of both Kurds and ISIS, but it's always important to note that before that, they were on the other side of the war. 

It's not surprising that the Syrians and Russians are upset as well. The Syrians, of course, want their country back. Outside of the Idlib area, the Syrian government has taken back most of their country. There remain some other small areas under rebel control and a few ISIS holdouts remain in the deserts, but the largest remaining territory they haven't recovered is the Kurdish northwest. They are understandably upset about the creation of a force that will likely threaten the recovery of their country. 

The Russians are also upset because they want Syria to be a vassal state and military base. The advantage they gained from propping up the Assad regime, at a high cost in lives and treasure, is nullified if the United States gains another ally and base in the region. Plus their Syrian allies are angry as well. 

So what is our reason for this move? I think part of it is loyalty to the Kurds. They were our best allies throughout the war against ISIS, with only the Iraqi Army coming close. The Kurds earned our support, and if we betray them now it will make it much more difficult to gather allies in future conflicts. There is something to be said for rewarding our proxy armies when the war ends. 

We also need a new ally in the region. Though Iraq is likely to remain in our sphere of influence, the Iranians are increasing their influence there. And our Turkish allies are unreliable at best. We need to counter Russian moves in the region and keeping the Kurds are our friends will accomplish that. 

The Kurds aren't the best allies though. Turkey has a point about the PKK being terrorists. Though the Kurds we support aren't the same they are fellow travelers. Given the far left politics of the PKK and the fact that they are undeniably a terror group, we should keep a close eye on our new Kurdish allies. 

I don't know what the long term solution to the Kurds in the region is. An independent Kurdish state would probably the best outcome, but nobody in the region would like that. The most realistic one is a federal solution where the Kurds have a semi-autonomous state while still under the de-facto control of the Syrians. That is what has happened in Iraq, despite a few hiccups and would likely be the best solution in this case.

 Once again though, the Turks would object. The view the Kurds as a threat to the Turkish identity and don't want to tolerate any free Kurds. They also don't want a potential base for Kurdish radicals to stage attacks out of. As long as that is the case I don't see a decent solution for the Kurds in Syria...