In my country, the Munich Agreement is still perceived as one of the most important lessons of history – the lesson being that western allies are not to be relied upon and that meeting the demands of fascist authoritarians only leads to further demands.
The recent betrayal of Kurds by the USA, via their imbecilic and barely literate president, has many similarities. And many more will follow, including mass graves.
The behavior of Turks, as I observed it on Twitter – before turning away in disgust – is jingoistic and racist, celebrating the violence being perpetrated and cheering the prospect of Kurds being driven into the desert. It drives home another similarity – Turks see Kurds just as Germans saw Slavs prior to WW2 – as lesser, as subhuman, as beings not worthy of consideration. Racism towards Kurds is, at this moment, one of the most prominent and defining features of being a “true Turk”.
Turkish persistent denial of the Armenian genocide is a stain on the country’s reputation and now they are starting another one. And the USA, the self-appointed world policeman, just watches and supplies weapons. Turkey is in NATO after all.
The Turks apparently bracketed some of the remaining US troops with heavy artillery fire. Fortunately for them, and unfortunately for anti-Trump politics, none of them were injured.
The “withdrawal” is a scam; something like 50 of the remaining cohort of about 2000 Americans returned home. Now, however, the Turks are driving the remaining Americans off.
As a cynic, I’ve got to admit it makes me want to laugh, seeing NATO countries shooting heavy artillery at each other.
Eh? It is absolutely consistent with the country’s reputation as a nasty, duplicitous, violent racist shithole.
Also: Trump pointed out that the Kurds didn’t help us in WW2. Just as you’d expect, this is wronger than Wrong Ron McWrong, winner of last year’s “Mr. Wrong” competition. Not only was there a battalion of Kurds on the Allied side in WW2, one country conspicuously absent from our side was Turkey. It’s like the Cheeto in Chief is trolling us, but I wouldn’t credit him with the wit.
Honestly, I wouldn’t want to be in charge of USA’s foreign relations. Middle East is in such a horrible state that it’s impossible to do anything there that somehow doesn’t backfire. Keep out? Then all the radicals and religious zealots are free to do whatever they want. Keep status quo? Impossible. Interfere more? USA got their hands dirty enough
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I also don’t like the message that this actions sends to the rest of the world. Besides playing the “world policeman”, in many parts of the world (and especially in middle-eastern countries) USA are considered equal to the “West”. And actions like this make the “West” (and by extension the western set of values) look bad and also serve as useful arguments for other big powers (China, Russia) in pursuing their own disdainful goals.