In 2019, against the advice of many foreign policy and defense officials, President Trump abandoned our Syrian Kurdish allies, who were front-line in helping us eradicate the ISIS caliphate. Trump acquiesced to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s invasion, which caused an estimated 300,000 Kurds to become refugees. The Kurdish forces lost 11,000 fighters in the war against ISIS, and their abandonment sent a chilling message to American allies worldwide.
At the time, Joe Biden said, “Donald Trump sold out the Syrian Democratic Forces — the courageous Kurds and Arabs who fought with us to smash ISIS’s caliphate — and he betrayed a key local ally in the fight against terrorism.”
Fast forward to 2022 and another Turkish invasion is on the horizon that could overwhelm Kurdish forces, who now incarcerate more than 10,000 ISIS prisoners. The ISIS terrorists are just waiting for an opportunity to escape and restart their jihad. In January, there was a significant prison break at the Ghwayran prison in Hassakeh.
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Preventing the resurgence of ISIS is still an American priority and a prime reason we have 900 U.S. troops aiding the Kurdish forces. Our small footprint has given us disproportionate security influence, which could disappear in the blink of an eye with a full-scale Turkish invasion. Unfortunately, our NATO ally Turkey’s priority appears to be not ISIS but eliminating the Kurds.
Read more: The Hill
