The resignations followed Trump's betrayal of the Kurds; Is the Bidens team on principle?

President Donald Trump radius by telephone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on December 14, 2018. The Turkish leader promised Türkiye would take charge of security in the north Syriaand Trump agreed to repatriate US forces in northeast Syria.

Trump's commitment surprised the Pentagon and the State Department. After all, Erdogan has made no secret of his desire to eradicate both Kurdish self-government in Syria and Kurdish militias. For decades, the United States accepted and acted in concert with Turkish policies, but by 2014, Turkey's complicity with the Islamic State was too great to ignore. As ISIS besieged the predominantly Kurdish border town of Kobane in northern Syria, Turkey allowed ISIS fighters to transit through its territory to resupply the organization and, in some cases, filmed ISIS fighters even firing on Kurdish positions from inside Turkish territory.

With Turkey at best disinterested in fighting the group and at worst complicit in its ambitions, the Obama administration decided to work directly with Syrian Kurdish fighters on the front lines of the fight against Islamists, jihadists and terrorists. The administration dropped weapons and supplies to help fighters break the siege of Kobani, the decisive battle that curbed ISIS's ambitions and established the momentum that ultimately led to its defeat. As Turkey continues to support ISIS, the United States has sent military advisors and special forces to work in conjunction with the Syrian Kurds. Of all the partnerships the United States has entered into with indigenous forces around the world, the joint efforts with the Syrian Kurds have perhaps been the most beneficial and heartwarming to American security. Ideologically, Syrian Kurds are more Western and liberal than Turks.

Betraying them sent shockwaves throughout Washington. Defense Secretary James Mattis could not negotiate this duplicity. On December 20, 2018, he wrote to Trump. Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other issues, I think it is right that I resign my position, he said. he declared.

The next day, Brett McGurk, the president's special envoy for the global coalition against ISIS, also tendered his resignation based on what he considers a reckless betrayal. McGurk later joined President Joe Biden's administration as the National Security Council's top official for Middle East issues.

Today, it's déjà vu. After Biden rushed to send F-16s to Turkey and repeatedly praised Turkey's contributions to regional security, Erdogan began bombing the Syrian Kurds, and he is now openly threatening to eradicate their autonomy . It bombed Syrian Kurdish forces close to their American counterparts. That Turkey did not kill American troops is more luck than leadership. More than a million Syrian Kurds face imminent ethnic cleansing. American credibility is just as much at stake as when Trump sought to betray the Syrian Kurds.

The difference between the Trump and Biden administrations on the issue is now twofold. First, while Trump appointees resigned in protest, no Biden aides did. Brett McGurk's hypocrisy is particularly striking because, in retrospect, his resignation in the Trump era seems motivated more by expediency than principle. Second, the Trump team finally backed down on its abandonment of the Kurdish team. Biden has so far done nothing to prevent the Turkish assault.

If this does not change, the consequences will be serious. Trusting Turkey to prevent an ISIS resurgence is like trusting Pakistan to stop the Taliban. The Syrian Kurds are the armed wing that prevents a resurgence of terrorism in the region.

The Biden team's willingness to betray its allies and liberals is unfortunately solidifying America's new brand. This is not a good idea, and it will have serious consequences for future coalition building. Kurds often joke that they only have friends in the mountains. With the way Biden treats his allies, America simply won't have any friends.