Totten interviews Dr. Sherkoh Abbas, leader of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria. The interview finishes with Abbas saying the following:
‘Full scale civil war. It has already started. Syria could change from a failed dictatorship to something that looks like Somalia or Afghanistan, or—at best—Lebanon during its civil war. The fighting will continue and Syria could become a haven for Islamists.
The United States should work with Russia and create a federal system. Russian interests can be guaranteed in an Alawite state while American and Israeli interests can be guaranteed in Syrian Kurdistan.’
The longer this goes on, the worse it will likely be. Of course, the goal of a Kurdish state requires the current chaos in the region to be amplified even further. The Kurds see a window, however, and they do show strong support for the U.S,, as Totten notes:
‘Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamist groups have never been able to get much traction in that community. The Muslim Brotherhood is an exclusively Sunni organization, and it’s also, for the most part, an Arab one. Rather than viewing Islam as “the solution” to what ails them, most Kurds in Syria as well as Iraq view freedom and independence as the solution, along with an alliance with the U.S. and Israel.’
I fear that the goal of working with Russia is mostly a dream; a dream led by the same type of liberal internationalist thinking that led to what amounted to Kofi Annan’s time-wasting pronouncements regarding a collapsing Syria. It’s unclear for many at the moment what to do otherwise.
The Kurdish developments bear watching.
Totten’s new book: Where The West Ends.
Related On This Site: Longer odds, lots of risk: Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest’s Via Media: “The Rise Of Independent Kurdistan?”
Does Islam have less of a hold on the Middle East due to an individualizing Muslim world…if so does this partially explain why there is such a strong Islamic resurgence?: Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest: ‘What Did The Arab Spring Really Change?’…
Liberal Internationalism is hobbling us. If America doesn’t lead someone who probably doesn’t share our values will…Via Youtube-Uncommon Knowledge With Fouad Ajami And Charles Hill
Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest: ‘Is Manaf Tlass’s Defection a Sign That Assad’s Regime Is Cracking?” From Foreign Affairs-’Former Syrian General Akil Hashem on the Uprising in Syria’…From Slate: ‘In Aleppo, Syria, Mohamed Atta Thought He Could Build The Ideal Islamic City’…Michael Totten At World Affairs: ‘Syria’s Regime Not Worth Preserving’…
