Trump's green light to the Turkish invasion of north-eastern Syria may well have been influenced by his personal financial interests in Turkey. But he did have an arguable case that his policy was in the interests of US imperialism.
The US policy of cooperation with the Syrian Democratic Forces against ISIS had angered Erdogan, who wanted to invade north-eastern Syria and crush the Kurdish-led autonomous administration. This had damaged relations between the US and Turkey. Trump's policy would have restored the longstanding close cooperation between the two NATO allies. Other sections of the US ruling class disagreed with Trump, for at least two reasons. Firstly, the Turkish invasion would divert the SDF away from the campaign against ISIS, allowing the latter to recover from its defeats and go on the offensive again. Secondly, the autonomous administration would be likely to turn to Russia for assistance in deterring the Turkish invasion. This would weaken US influence and strengthen Russian influence in north-eastern Syria, and would weaken US prestige and strengthen Russian prestige more broadly. The actual outcome was a compromise. The US withdrew its troops from the Turkish border, enabling Turkey to invade and occupy a strip of land between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain. However, some US troops remained in eastern Syria, where some oil fields are located. Russia sent some troops to deter a further expansion of the Turkish-controlled area, but made no attempt to pressure Turkey to withdraw from the area it had already occupied. The autonomous administration has been weakened, but still survives. Chris Slee ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Dennis Brasky <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, 30 September 2020 3:04 AM To: [email protected] Group Moderators <[email protected]> Subject: [marxmail] Juan Cole - Did Trump Throw Kurds under the bus for Turkey because of his Istanbul Revenue Stream? https://www.juancole.com/2020/09/because-istanbul-revenue.html -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#2072): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/2072 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/77200675/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
