Betraying the Kurds: A Historical Trend

We're not going to sit here and pretend the Kurds are perfect or that they've always represented our interests. There was a time when they were more aligned with Iran than the United States but...in recent history they've been of great help to the United States and what do we continually do? Fuck them over.Turkey with all the subtlety of dropping a piano at midnight has decided to launch an incursion into Northern Syria, where the bulk of the Kurdish YPG forces who helped the United States in the fight against ISIS are located.It must really suck to be our friends. We load 'em up with guns and money, then hang them out to dry once they've fulfilled our selfish needs. Hong Kong would probably refuse our help even if we offered it, based on our track record at least.We have this infectious short-sightedness that lasts through the years. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, we could have prevented the Taliban if we'd just stayed and helped them. We didn't. We could have helped the Kurds in the first gulf war, we didn't, they still helped us a little over 12 years later, then helped us again in the fight against ISIS. What do we do? Allow Turkey to run roughshod over the same.It's at this time we'd like to harken back to one of the core principles we were encouraged to abide by while in the Marine Corps, a quote by Chaos Actual, Jim Mattis, "Demonstrate to the world there is 'No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy' than a U.S. Marine. "Our ideals as a nation should always be such. That we are a true friend to those in need and a harsh, unrelenting foe to our enemies. You could probably list a thousand reasons why we shouldn't help the Kurds, but we can bet they have a thousand reasons not to help us, and they did.We're not entirely sure what a free and independent Kurdish nation would look like. What their morals or political leanings would be. We don't know, it, like many things in this life is a gamble, but the America we remember didn't betray our friends out of fear of what our friends would become.