Trump fails to tell Kurds apart

Last week US President Donald Trump met with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Nechirvan Barzani in Davos, Switzerland.  

“It's great to be with President Barzani of Kurdistan…as you know, we left Syria, from the standpoint of the border, and that's worked out great with Turkey. It's worked out far better than anybody ever thought possible.  They have the so-called ‘safe zone,’ and I appreciate everything you've done to keep it as safe as possible. But, very importantly, as you know, we have the oil. And we left soldiers for the oil, because we took the oil and we're working on that. And we have it very nicely secured,” Trump stated at the meeting.

Let us not dwell on some of the more problematic views Trump expressed, such as the notion that the US withdrawal from the Turkish-Syrian border “worked out great.” The hundreds of dead and tens of thousands ethnically cleansed from that border by Turkey and her Islamist proxies probably do not feel that everything “worked out great.” Let us also not dwell too much on the notion that in Trump’s view, controlling northeast Syria’s oil is more important than anything else – the only thing worth leaving US soldiers there to “protect.”

The meeting showed clear evidence of something much more alarming than some leaders’ total lack of honesty, ethics and integrity.  Apparently, Trump could not understand that he was meeting with a leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq rather than a Syrian Kurdish leader.  What does Barzani have to do with the Syria withdrawal and the Turkish-Syrian border?  What has he done to keep Turkey’s Orwellian “safe zone” as “safe as possible”?

Nothing, of course.  Barzani leads a Kurdish administration in Iraq rather than Syria.  If the leader of the free world actually possessed a minimal understanding of who he was speaking with, he would have talked about Iraqi issues with Barzani. He could have stated that he understands how growing US-Iran tensions may put the KRG in a difficult position, reassuring Barzani that Washington will help the KRG weather the storm. He could have talked about the Iraqi Kurds’ contributions to helping stabilize Iraq, including their help in liberating territories in Iraq from ISIS’ control.  He could have reaffirmed his commitment to Kurdistan’s autonomy within a democratic and federal Iraq.

Trump betrayed a similar inability to differentiate between Kurdish parties last October when he sent Secretary of State Pompeo to capitulate to Turkish demands regarding Syria.  After Pompeo agreed to all of Turkey’s demands regarding a “safe zone” and effectively legitimized Ankara’s ethnic cleansing invasion of northern Syria, Trump announced another of his “great successes” – claiming that “…everybody has tried to make this deal for 15 years. They could never do it. It was only when it started — people started seeing how nasty it was going to be. It was going to be very nasty. Not only sanctions and tariffs, the war itself would’ve been very nasty.” 
 
Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, Trump could not have been referring to events in Syria when he said that everyone has been trying to a deal [between Turkey and Kurds] for 15 years or longer.  Instead, he clearly thought he had just resolved the Kurdish conflict within Turkey, between the Turkish state and Turkey’s domestic Kurdish parties such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).  He could not tell the difference between not only Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish parties, but Syrian and Turkish ones either.

If Trump thinks all the Kurdish parties are the same, then he could just as easily betray the ones in Iraq as he did the ones in Syria.  They are the same, after all.  If he lacks such a basic understanding of the Kurdish people and issues they face, the best that people in Kurdistan can hope for is that he not take too many phone calls from people like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and that he leaves policy to his better informed staff and officials.  If he leaves policy to his bureaucrats, then they will maintain standard operating procedures – which are to support a unified Iraq, a unified Syria and their Turkish NATO ally. 

The only way that government bureaucracies’ standard operating procedures are modified is via decisions from the top leadership. In this case, the top leadership lacks even the most basic understanding of the Middle East, and generally refuses to listen to advisors’ knowledgeable about the region as well (even just prior to a press conference at Davos, apparently).  As a result, the United States will also have to go on without a strategy or plan for the Middle East and its partners there, since these too require a leader who understands something about the region.

David Romano has been a Rudaw columnist since 2010. He holds the Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics at Missouri State University and is the author of numerous publications on the Kurds and the Middle East. 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.