Thread by @Charles_Lister

U.S. counter-#ISIS strategy & its insistence on ignoring/denying the #YPG’s roots helped give birth to problems like #Afrin today.

Everything was driven by short-term objectives, with their long-term implications constantly swept aside as inconvenient distractions.

Now look.

https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/1004736494551040011

Was the U.S. right [at the time] to partner with the #YPG? Absolutely.

Were sufficient, honest efforts put in place to balance the consequences of working with the #YPG? No.

The result = a profound imbalance & a security challenge that #Turkey was always going to hit back at.

#pt: The #YPG did a superb job at liberating territory from #ISIS control; they were a truly reliable partner.

BUT, the U.S’s creation of a profound imbalance in northern #Syria - ironically - created the conditions in which the #YPG stood to lose a great deal.

Look at #Afrin.

#pt: Now, w. #ISIS’s territorial control at all-time low & #Trump wanting to leave #Syria ASAP, what has U.S strategy given to the #YPG?

An unprecedented rise in influence '14-18, followed by an unsaid reality: ‘you’ll soon be on your own.’

= #Afrin
= #Manbij
= #Assad outreach

#pt: While watching things develop in northern #Syria over the years, my over-riding critique was of how short-termist U.S. counter-#ISIS strategy had been in design.

Why?

Because that, by itself *guaranteed* yet more sources of instability.

= That’s being born out every day.