THE DECISION TO PULL OUR TROOPS OUT OF SYRIA WAS A FOOLISH DECISION MADE ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT

Somebody better think about the long term effects of throwing the Kurds under the bus

By Tom Moran

First, the US has a long history of dumping on people who served US interests in dangerous situations. One need only look to 1975, when we abandoned tens thousands of South Vietnamese, Cambodians and members of tribes who fought the NVA and VC to further US interests.

It doesn't make any difference whether the Vietnam War was good or bad. Those folks put it on the line for the United States and ended up either in Vietnamese reeducation camps or Cambodian graves. All because the US ambassador to Vietnam didn't want to evacuate them with the NVA advancing because it would look like the US was giving up on South Vietnam.

And, think about what is going through the minds of Afghans who have taken the side of the US. They've got to be thinking what is going to happen to them when the US pulls out and leaves them high and dry. It doesn't take too much to figure out what they're thinking. After all, the US has been refusing visas to translators who worked with the US Army and were promised relocation to the US.

We have been working with the Kurds since the aftermath of the first Gulf War when Saddam nerve gassed Kurds in Northern Iraq. The Kurds have been the pointy end of the US spear for years in fighting ISIS. They were guarding ISIS prisoners who now are running free.

Now, to save themselves from genocide by the Turks, they are getting help from Assad and his Russian and Iranian friends. The Kurds have every reason to fear a Turkish genocide. The first modern genocide was the Turkish genocide of the Armenians just before World War I.

Gee, that's a great result. A murderous regime supported by the Russians and Iranians is going to win the Syrian civil war. What a great result.

People are going to be lining up all over the world to support the US after seeing how we treat those who help us. NOT. Sooner or later for some reason or other the United States is going to need foreigners to help us to protect a US vital interest. And, the people we ask for help are going to remember what we did to the Kurds.

And, sooner or later, the US is going to have to defend US troops from Turkish artillery or air attack. Isn't that a going to be pretty picture. US Air Force planes taking off from a US base in Turkey to bomb the Turkish Army and shoot down Turkish planes.

Turkey is a NATO ally. What happens there. We've already said we won't sell them F-35s because they bought a Russian air defense missile system. Sooner or later, Turkey will pull out of NATO or be kicked out and become a Russian supporting state.

And, what does that do for the future of NATO, our most important alliance? The current administration has been pretty darn negative about NATO. EVERY president since Truman has seen NATO as an important alliance both to guarantee peace in Europe and defend the US. NATO troops supported US troops in Afghanistan. Germans, Poles and others died there supporting the war on terror.

You can bet that Putin would love to see NATO break up. I'm sure the Baltic states will be thrilled to lose the protection of NATO. I remember when George W. Bush said he looked in Putin's eyes and said he saw someone he could work with. John McCain said he looked in Putin's eyes and saw KGB. McCain was right.

The decision to pull the US troops supporting the Kurds was a foolish decision made on the spur of the moment without any input from people ranging from Special Forces sergeants on the ground to top government diplomats.

It's going to turn out very badly for the US, both in the short run and in the long run.
We're going to have blood on our hands and we're going to be very unhappy when the Iranians gain power in the Middle East.

And, that's just for starters.

Tom Moran is a Houston Criminal Defense Attorney who represented defendants at both the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Moran has been admitted to practice before the International Criminal Court and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.