Abandoned on the battlefield-The U.S. has a moral obligation to keep the Syrian Kurds safe, instead of giving Turkey a free run

• U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent decision to pull American troops out of Syria is a body blow to the Syrian Kurds, the unsung heroes of the war against the Islamic State (IS).
• The decline of the IS actually began in Kobane, a largely Kurdish-populated Syrian town on the Turkish border, in January 2015.
• It was after the battle for Kobane that then U.S. President Barack Obama realised the real strategic potential of the Kurdish rebels.
• The Kobane experience was repeated in nearby towns.
• Since Mr. Obama sent some 50 commandos to advise the Kurds in 2015, the number of American troops has grown to at least 2,000.
• In the territories east of the Euphrates that are part of the Rojava, the U.S. has built massive military infrastructure — it has at least a dozen military bases, including four airfields.

         Success story

• This American-Kurdish partnership has been a success story.
• Within three years of its formation, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has defeated the IS in most of the territories the group held.
• The IS, which once claimed territories as big as the United Kingdom, has now been confined to some narrow pockets on the Iraqi-Syrian border.
• But the U.S.’s support for the Kurds and their military victories has irked another country in the region — Turkey, a NATO member and an American ally.
• The YPG (the main component of the SDF) has close ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Kurdish militant group on the Turkish side which is seen as a terrorist organisation by both Ankara and Washington.

         Support and betrayal

• The U.S. has a history of supporting and betraying the Kurds.
• In theory, the U.S. pulling out of an illegal war is fine — the American intervention has neither congressional approval nor the UN Security Council’s nod.
• But in practice, since the U.S. intervention has already started shaping the reality on the ground, the pull-out should have been an orderly one.
• The U.S. has the moral obligation to ensure the safety of the Syrian Kurds.

The Hindu