What's happening in Syria tonight above all represents a massive failure of US diplomacy. The US kept troops there to leverage US influence in peace negotiations to secure US goals. Now they're leaving in disarray & the opposite is happening - Iran & Russia are moving in.
If the US had been more realistic earlier about its (un)willingness to risk another war and take on Turkey on behalf of the Kurds the bloodshed of recent days could have been avoided. As it is, Russia, Turkey & Iran will make the final deal & the US will be absent.
Also, this deal is not a confirmed rescue for the Kurds long term. They’ve got no guarantees for the autonomy they’ve built. It’s a deal of desperation that puts them at the mercy of the regime, which views them as traitors for having invited US troops into Syria.
To be sure, this outcome will be welcomed by the masses of ordinary people who just want an end to it all, the uncertainty as well as the Turkish incursion. “We are feeling our Syrian identity,” a Kurdish woman in Qamishli told us tonight.
We can probably however expect to see some of the hardcore YPG Kurdish commanders eventually made to feel very unwelcome. Green buses to Qandil? (That’s the mountain in northern Iraq where their PKK comrades hang out).
