This morning I received a phone call from my daughter Claire.
Claire, an Intensive Care Unit nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago who also travels around the world with disaster medical response teams, spent several weeks in Iraqi Kurdistan earlier this year giving daily training seminars to the nurses from the Intensive Care and Coronary Care Units at the Azadi Teaching Hospital in the city of Dohuk.
Claire, an Intensive Care Unit nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago who also travels around the world with disaster medical response teams, spent several weeks in Iraqi Kurdistan earlier this year giving daily training seminars to the nurses from the Intensive Care and Coronary Care Units at the Azadi Teaching Hospital in the city of Dohuk.
See posts from 4/4/2019, 4/11/2019, 4/13/2019, and 4/20/2019)
 | Claire with Saadia Alturki, head of nursing education with the Kurdistan Ministry of Health. |
But today Claire was heart-broken and worried sick over the invasion this morning of Northeastern Syria by Turkish forces for the purpose of displacing - or perhaps wiping out - the Kurdish population of that region.
"Dohuk isn't that far from Syria," Claire said. "People cross back and forth across the border from Kurdistan to Kurdish Syria all the time. A lot of people in Dohuk have family in Syria. I can't imagine what they're going through. Everybody must be so frightened."
We talked, as many Americans doubtless talked today, about how shamefully and tragically our country has betrayed the Kurds after the U.S.-backed Kurdish militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces fought for years as strong, loyal, American allies in the war against ISIS and were instrumental in bringing down ISIS in Syria, capturing over 5,000 Islamic fighters and guarding the camps where the captured ISIS fighters are currently imprisoned. Over 11,000 Kurdish soldiers lost their lives fighting - with weapons supplied by the U.S. - against ISIS.
And after the Syrian Democratic Forces fought beside their American allies and gave their lives to defeat ISIS, our country promised, rightfully so, to protect the Kurdish people of northern Syria from Turkish aggression.
To this end the United States brokered a deal with the Kurds to placate Turkey: if the Syrian Democratic Forces dismantled their defensive fortifications along the Turkish border and pulled back their troops from that area then the U.S. military would guarantee their safety.
The Kurds kept their part of the bargain. And no sooner had they dismantled their defenses along the Syrian-Turkish border than Donald Trump repaid their trust with a double-cross by immediately pulling American troops back from the Syrian-Turkish border, saying of the Kurds,
"Dohuk isn't that far from Syria," Claire said. "People cross back and forth across the border from Kurdistan to Kurdish Syria all the time. A lot of people in Dohuk have family in Syria. I can't imagine what they're going through. Everybody must be so frightened."
We talked, as many Americans doubtless talked today, about how shamefully and tragically our country has betrayed the Kurds after the U.S.-backed Kurdish militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces fought for years as strong, loyal, American allies in the war against ISIS and were instrumental in bringing down ISIS in Syria, capturing over 5,000 Islamic fighters and guarding the camps where the captured ISIS fighters are currently imprisoned. Over 11,000 Kurdish soldiers lost their lives fighting - with weapons supplied by the U.S. - against ISIS.
And after the Syrian Democratic Forces fought beside their American allies and gave their lives to defeat ISIS, our country promised, rightfully so, to protect the Kurdish people of northern Syria from Turkish aggression.
To this end the United States brokered a deal with the Kurds to placate Turkey: if the Syrian Democratic Forces dismantled their defensive fortifications along the Turkish border and pulled back their troops from that area then the U.S. military would guarantee their safety.
The Kurds kept their part of the bargain. And no sooner had they dismantled their defenses along the Syrian-Turkish border than Donald Trump repaid their trust with a double-cross by immediately pulling American troops back from the Syrian-Turkish border, saying of the Kurds,
 | “They didn’t help us in the Second World War, they didn’t help us with Normandy,” |
The Turkish attack against Kurdish Syria began today. Turkey's objective is to obliterate the Syrian Democratic Forces and drive the Kurds out of Northeastern Syria.
| And so, thanks to the unhinged capriciousness of this vile worm that enough Americans voted into the White House, |  |
 | ...and the greed for power of this heartless monster, Turkish President Recep Erdogan, |
...another war has begun,
...the destruction already underway,
...civilians already fleeing their homes,
...another terrible humanitarian crisis already in the making.
It's been predicted that in this war half a million men, women and children will die.
"You know, Mom," said Claire, her voice choking up, "of all the countries I've been to, I never met anyone so happy to see Americans as the Kurds."
Not anymore.
References
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/politics/turkey-syria-us-anger-ramifications/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/middleeast/six-questions-syria-us-intl/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/08/opinions/syria-kurds-republicans-filipovic/index.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/military-leaders-warn-trump-abandoning-ally-grave-mistake-2019-10?fbclid=IwAR3qr6QgYli6hFXEMFjy0mSCrd_kR8thnRoIxSZ0U5JPZ7XjZRRTOLsRkfI
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/politics/turkey-syria-us-anger-ramifications/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/middleeast/six-questions-syria-us-intl/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/08/opinions/syria-kurds-republicans-filipovic/index.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/military-leaders-warn-trump-abandoning-ally-grave-mistake-2019-10?fbclid=IwAR3qr6QgYli6hFXEMFjy0mSCrd_kR8thnRoIxSZ0U5JPZ7XjZRRTOLsRkfI
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