Turkey is now trying to disrupt the Syrian Kurds’ control of Afrin. The United States has armed a Syrian Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units, that has played a crucial role in battling ISIS. In particular, the leadership of the largely autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq has close economic ties to Turkey and is skeptical of the Syrian Kurds. It raised fears across the region that the United States was trying to cement an autonomous Kurdish enclave. “The Trump administration’s announcement gave it a good excuse.”Is this bad for the United States?

Source: New York Times January 22, 2018 22:55 UTC