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CITYWATCH TODAY--What the actual fuck. With the entire world denouncing his feckless, unconscionable abandonment of US-allied Kurds in Syria to Turkish atrocities, desperate Kurdish civilians vowing to act as human shields, and a humanitarian crisis already underway, Little 'Oops-What-Did-I-Just-Do' Donnie is now flailing to defend himself by arguing - or more accurately parroting what some right-wing yahoo wrote - that hey the Kurds didn't help us in World War ll and what's up with that?
In what might impossibly generously be called a press conference, Trump babbled about spies in the White House and ISIS going back to their homes in Europe before quoting "a very, very powerful article” by one Kurt Schlichter, from which Trump learned Kurds "didn't help us in the Second World War, they didn't help us with Normandy" - maybe because they were busy being slaughtered by the Turks - and they're only interested in "fighting for their land," and besides we already gave them so much "in terms of ammunition, in terms of weapons, in terms of money, in terms of pay," but still, "With all of that being said, we like the Kurds."
Without admitting it, he also quoted Schlichter on the PKK – the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Schlichter calls "a bunch of commie terrorists" and "reds (who) are no friends of ours" - and only stole part of Schlichter's argument - "Let’s be honest – the Kurds didn’t show up for us at Normandy or Inchon or Khe Sanh or Kandahar" - because, like the PKK, he's likely never heard of those other weird-sounding places, just like he probably doesn't know that over 10,000 Kurdish fighters died fighting ISIS for the U.S., or that all the autocrats he now loves and supports - Russia, Israel, North Korea, Saudi Arabia etc - were then likewise elsewhere.
In truth, he has...no...idea...what...he...is...doing. And he is killing people. On the ground amidst well-founded fears of an ISIS resurgence and the swift arrival of Turkish atrocities, says one longtime US Special Forces soldier serving with Kurdish forces, "I am ashamed for the first time in my career." He says the Kurds, who had met the terms of every agreement, are "sticking by us" and continuing to guard ISIS prisoners. "They are not abandoning our side (yet)," he said. "They are pleading for our support. We are doing nothing. This is insanity." But sure, let's talk about Normandy.
(CityWatch guest columnist Abby Zimet writes for Common Dreams where this perspective was first posted.)
-cw
