“The Kurds Were not in Normandy”: Distortion and Genocide in the Middle East

Prior to holding the Office of President, Donald J. Trump was into business. He built a business empire in the real estate sector and made numerous investments outside America. One such country where he has a high rise building in his name is in Turkey.

In 2016 Trump became the nominee for the Republican Party often tagged the party of business. He went on to beat the candidate for the Democratic Party, Hilary Rodham Clinton, by a vote of the electoral college. Clinton won the popular vote.

Trump’s victory returned to power America’s business clique that counts the country’s arms manufacturers. It is against this backdrop that Trump ordered the withdrawal of support from the Kurds in Northern Syria, justifying the pull-out by stating that the Kurds were not present in Normandy during the Second World War (II).

The Kurds were the underdogs of the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres which granted independence to Iraq, Syria, and Kuwait but refusing the possibility of a Kurdish nation. Spread out between these countries and Turkey, the Kurds who hardly identify themselves as Arabs like the Sunnis and Shias do soon became an oppressed minority.

Sadam Hussein went as far as using chemical weapons against them in retaliation for their support for Iran in the Iran-Iraq war and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been bullying them. However, hard-won autonomy finally came for the Kurds in Iraq following Sadam Hussein’s ouster.

Since then, the Kurds have been very active in supporting America’s efforts against terrorism in the region. Long before this, however, the Kurds, had been valuable allies. Though they could not assist the allied forces during the Second World War in Germany, because largely impoverished in the mid-20^th century and located far away from the troubles in Europe, they were very active in supporting the push back against Nazism in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. More recently, The Kurds provided much-needed ground boots while America executed airstrikes in the Syrian campaign.

Therefore, Trump’s claims of Kurdish absence in Normandy to justify withdrawing support from the Kurds serves other purposes. The Kurds have been an invaluable American ally for decades. As such, they are truly vindicated when they say we abandoned them. I am convinced that it is the interests of the American business class, at the head of which is America’s Head of State, that has taken over American politics in the Middle East once again.

Trump thinks America’s seventh President, Andrew Jackson, was a hero. President Andrew Jackson illegally tossed the Cherokee nation off their land and pursued them right into Oklahoma. He handed their land over to the slave owners in contravention to a Supreme Court ruling. The danger lies in the American public trailing the political class, to make excuses for the President when he makes similar mistakes or fields comparable indecorous practices as his model, President Andrew Jackson.

The Kurds are currently facing the threat of genocide as the Turkish and Syrian militaries benefit from US troop pull-out to pound the Kurdish forces. I think it is shameful that we abandoned our Kurdish allies because of the motives of dubious politicians. It is a matter of democratic duty that where Americans think that the President is fielding domestic and/or foreign policy that is improper, as I think is the case with the withdrawal of US support for the Kurds, that they take action to hold him accountable. Personally, I am of the opinion that Trump’s Middle East policy is one of many other lapses in his decision-making which justifies the on-going impeachment.