Blog #5
Kurds/US Contain ISIS in Syria 
[Summarized from Jonathan Steele's article in the December 3, 2015 New York Review of Books.] 

The Syrian Kurds see ISIS (Islamic State in Syria) as their  number one enemy. They  are our boots on the ground in Syria. With help from US air strikes and increased supplies of weapons, the Syrian Kurds have retaken Kobani from ISIS and now control a long stretch along Syria's northern border with Turkey.

Joined by Turkish and Iraqui Kurds (and other minority groups including Sunnis terrified by ISIS's treatment) they have as many as 50,000 militia fighters, with 1/3rd to 1/2 being women.

The Kurds are the element that makes Obama's strategy successful. The US provides air power, aerial surveillance and  drone attacks on leadership, while local people provide the boots on the ground. With the Kurds taking territory from ISIS, Obama's claim that we have contained ISIS is justified.

(Incidentally, Republican presidential demagogues are praising the French president's strength because his planes have flown four to eight bombing raids in retaliation for the Paris murders. But Obama has presided over 2500 bombing raids to degrade ISIL (Isamic State in the Levant) over the past few years.)

For the Kurds, ISIS is the primary enemy. They have made an accommodation with Assad: he leaves them alone, they don't join the anti-Assad forces.

Turkey is a potential second enemy as Turkey has long feared an independent Kurdish state on their border. If Turkish, Syrian and Iraqui Kurds emerged with organized power from the current chaos, they might well challenge the Turks and try to carve out a Kurdish state.

According to Syrian Kurds, a No-Fly Zone over northern Syria enforced by Turkish and American planes is a ruse. It would allow Turkish planes to strike at Kurdish positions. (NOTE to Hillary Clinton: Beware backing a No-Fly Zone patrolled by Turkish planes.)

There are about 2.2 million Kurds in Syria, or about 10% of the Syrian population. Most Kurdish clerics are Suffis of the Sunni branch of Islam and, in contrast to the Syrian Arab opposition to Assad, none of the dozen Kurdish political parties in Syria is Islamist.