Will the Kurds Be the Next Victims of Syrian Jihadists’ Genocide?

Samuel Johnson called second marriages “the triumph of hope over experience.” So is the Kurds’ agreement yesterday to end their control over much of northern Syria, relinquishing the safe haven to the al Qaeda-tied Sharia-supremacists who seized Damascus last year.

Unfortunately, the announcement comes as jihadis who helped achieve that feat have been murdering large numbers of other Syrian minorities, including Shiite Alawites and Christians. If that precedent were not chilling enough, confidence in the new regime’s promises to respect Kurdish rights is further undermined by the abiding determination of its sponsor, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to crush the Kurds. 

The U.S. has maintained a small force of special operators in the Kurds’s region to discourage Turkish attacks and counter ISIS. Presumably, they’ll now be withdrawn, increasing the chances that our Kurdish allies will be the next victims of jihadist genocide. 

This is Frank Gaffney.