O Say Can You Please Entry 15: “Syria”sly?
    And now, for a brief “reprieve” from the impeachment shenanigans, today, we’ll talk about what may very well be a genocide waiting to happen. As Patches O’Houlihan from the 2004 comedy Dodgeball would have said best, “The President can’t tame a turkey if it’s the month before Thanksgiving.” Speaking of Turkey, that nation has launched an invasion into Syrian territory to remove a perceived problem with the Kurds in the area. To explain who the Kurds are, they are an ethnic minority in Syria, Iraq, Iran, and of course, Turkey. They are seen as separatists and terrorists by the Turkish government, led by one Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He is the Turkish President and has held the position since 2014, but he’s actually been in charge for much longer (as the Prime Minister.) His reputation is that of an Islamist, autocratic strongman who has a strong nationalist bent. In other words, his character doesn’t show the kindness or understanding that a 21st century leader should have.
    Now, on to what caused this mess. The likely reason Turkey invaded Syria is because the US is pulling out of the conflict there on Trump’s orders. The last time the US left a conflict prematurely was in Iraq, all we all know that the withdrawal from there ended up being a huge mistake. The same will happen with Syria, but to an even more cataclysmic degree. Before Turkey got more involved, the war was reaching a stalemate, with the Euphrates River being the main dividing line. The Kurds held the northeast while the Syrian government held the southwest. The northwest was still dealing with rebel forces in the area, and Israel took the opportunity to occupy the Golan Heights in the far southwest. Also, ISIS had lost all of its territory by this point and was confined to the shadows, seemingly for good. However, the region was still a powder keg, and Trump and Erdoğan ignited it once more. The stated Turkish goal was to create a safe zone for millions of refugees, but a lot of doubt has been cast on that idea. Reactions to the matter from across the globe can be found in this article.
    Now, it is time to explain why President Trump facilitated this. However, I will warn that this section is mildly speculative, as the President’s only given explanation is that he was fulfilling a campaign promise to get our troops out of the Middle East. The first way to disprove that is to mention the US troops now deployed to Saudi Arabia for defense purposes. Another way to counter that argument is to point out that a premature withdrawal, like what happened in this case, is generally going to blow up in the withdrawing nation’s face. Finally, one more specific to this case is that the President has a conflict of interest with Turkey, thus leading to the American withdrawal, the Turkish invasion, and the resulting betrayal of the Kurds.
    That conflict of interest is the fact that Trump has his name on a pair of towers in the Turkish city of Istanbul as a part of his family’s real estate business. However, according to the New York Magazine article that I linked to earlier, the towers are actually owned by an ally of Erdoğan. This may have forced Trump’s hand into allowing the Turkish invasion to go ahead, as Trump could have lost a lot of money if he didn’t. This is corruption, plain and simple. Due to that corruption, our ability to be trusted as an ally has gone down the drain, only adding to the damage Trump has done to this great nation. Remember the Kurds when voting in 2020, for it is impossible to know who’s next to be betrayed by the President, just to serve his business interests.