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Trump to Kurds: Ethnic-Cleanse Yourselves

October 18, 2019
Trump to Kurds: Ethnic-Cleanse Yourselves
A Turkish-backed Syrian fighter stands over corpses in the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain on October 17, 2019, during Ankara's deadly offensive against Kurdish forces. (Photo by NAZEER AL-KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)

Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and Mike Pompeo just made a deal with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to give his Syrian Kurd enemies five days to ethnically cleanse themselves.

Ten days after Trump green-lit Turkey’s attack on the Syrian Kurds, he sent Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo to Turkey to “make a deal” with Erdogan.

And make a deal they did.

Here is the deal: The Kurds have five days. After that, the “pause” will end, and if the Kurds haven’t abandoned their homes, Turkey will go back to killing them so that their homeland can be repurposed to accommodate the population of Erdogan’s choice.

And in exchange for giving Turkey everything it wanted in the first place, Trump backed off even from the sanctions he threatened in an attempt to pretend he hadn’t given away the store.

In other words, Erdogan gets a slice of Syria, the displacement of the Syrian Kurds, a warm welcome from the president of the United States, and no sanctions.

The Kurds get: Screwed.

And we get: What?

We must be getting something, because Trump called the deal an “amazing outcome” and a “great day for civilization.”

And we have it on good authority from Fox that this president “never lies.”

Philip Rotner

Philip Rotner is a columnist whose articles appear in national publications and on his website, philiprotner.com. Philip is an attorney who has practiced for over 40 years, both in private practice and as the general counsel of a global professional services firm.  Philip’s views are his own, and do not reflect the views of any organization with which he has been associated.