Another humanitarian catastrophe may be just hours away at Koban, as per a recently-published

essay [reprinted infra] that explains the what, why, how, when, where of this impending tragedy, as
well as who is responsible for allowing it to occur; Obamas culpability is profound.

[The Siege Of Koban: Obama's Syrian Fiasco In Motion
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-05/siege-kobani-obamas-syrian-fiasco-motion]

This Q & A addresses specific issues that have not been sufficiently reported in the media.

{PKK denotes the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan), PYD denotes the Democratic
Union Party (Partiya Yektiya Demokra), YPG denotes the Popular Protection Unit (Yekneyn
Parastina Gel), KDP denotes the Kurdistan Democratic Party (Partya Demokrata), KRG denotes the
Kurdistan Regional Government (Hikmeta Herma Kurdistan), KNC denotes the Kurdish National
Council (Encmena Nitiman ya Kurd li Sriy), and KNK denotes the Kurdistan National Congress
(Kongra Netewiya Kurdistan).}

*

Why have there not been more than limited air-strikes outside Koban, where the locations of the
Islamic State are well-known?

The US Administration is bowing to those who oppose creation of an independent Kurdistan [many NATO
allies, the Arab Gulf Petro States, and Turkey]; these regimes fear both Kurds and Jews, and they fear
Kurds will use this status to create a good relationship with Israel. Also, the Islamic State has altered is
strategic approach to fighting, blending into the population rather than exposing itself to air-attack.



Has there been coordination between Kurdish forces of popular protection [YPG/PYD] and the US
coalition during the Koban battle?

No. If there were any, Koban would not be in this position. There may be communication by necessity
after the intensified siege on the city of Koban, but the US views PKK-affiliated groups such as PYD/YPG
as terrorists.



Has Turkey assisted Kurdish fighters in any way?

Turkey still views the PKK [which stands behind the PYD] as an enemy, despite steps that it has taken to
achieve a lasting peace through negotiations with the PKK; in recent days, however, Abdullah calan
[the founder and leader of the PKK] has called upon Turkish leaders to intervene in Koban, to no avail.



How significant has Turkish assistance been in humanitarian terms [i.e., allowing refugees into the
country and providing them with medical and other assistance]?

Turkey has opened its borders unwillingly [on-off] to more than one million Syrian refugeesnot
necessarily Kurdsand has provided and continues to provide them with aid. Because Turkey does not
allow other relief organizations into Turkey, however, so they must work with the Turkish Red Crescent,
which is controlled by military and security forces. Although they are routinely hostile toward the Kurds,
Turkey helps Syrians; Kurds hope to improve its security practices towards Kurds who are refugees from
Koban, to build an atmosphere of trust between the Turkish government and the Kurds in general.


We know that many people find the myriad Kurdish entities confusing, but pivotal is the need to ensure
that the KNC, the Kurdish National Council (Encmena Nitiman ya Kurd li Sriy), can unify those
that are not aligned with contiguous countries.


Noting that Peshmerga forces in Iraq have recently launched an offensive against the Islamic State, is
there coordination between Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria and, if so, has this helped Syrian Kurds?

Long-standing conflicts and alliances among myriad Kurdish entities are culminating in abandonment of
the suffering Syrian Kurds. Illustrating the inherent profundity and ironies that abound is PKK, the
ideology of which is not accepted by mainstream Kurds [in Syria, Iran, and Iraq], but which has been
accepted in Turkey [the very site of conflict with past (Ottoman and secular) and current (Islamist)
governments]. KNK is an umbrella for PKK [which opposes the KDP]; the KDP supports entities seeking to
establish a Kurdistan Regional Government in Syria] such as two umbrella organizations, local [KNC] and
international [Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria]. These, in-turn, compete with the PYD because the
latter rejects empowerment of any Kurdish forces that are not under its control. Linkage with
neighboring countries often explains the behavior of these groups; for example, the PKK relates with Iran
and Syria and the KDP relates with the US, European Union and Turkey. Ultimately, many Kurdish and
non-Kurdish groups oppose the strong nationalistic advocacy of the KRG/KDP.



Noting how bad the humanitarian situation in Koban has become, what steps should the US-led
coalition take to alleviate it?

The eastern, southern and western parts of the city of Koban have been abandoned; about 300,000 are
in the city that has been surrounded and that is under attack by the Islamic State. More than 150,000
refugees have crossed into Turkey but, on the Turkish border, other Kurds are suffering at the hands of
the Turkish gendarmerie and security forces. People need everything [food, clothing and shelter].
Obviously, this situation will worsen unless the international community provides humanitarian
assistance ASAP. The refugees did not want to leave their villages and their city, but they fled atrocities
perpetrated by the Islamic State against them; indeed, Arab tribes that were considered neighbors of the
Kurds are attacking Kurds alongside the Islamic State.

*

What country has consistently gained ascendency in the Middle East and North Africa?

Iran largely controls the governments of Iraq *filling the vacuum left by Americas departure+, Syria [led
by Bashar Assad, a fellow-Shiite+, Lebanon [dominated by Hezbollah and greatly influenced by Syria],
Gaza [which has become increasingly dependent upon Iranian armaments], Yemen [where is forces in
Sanaa are emerging victorious+, and Libya *which has just concluded a national-reconciliation pact
endorsed by Algeria and supported, in-turn, by Iran].



What is the role of Russia in this arena?

Russia has supported strengthening the Shiite Arc *Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon] gaining, in the
process, a Syrian port (Tartus); superficially, noting Islamist turmoil within Russia, some Americans view
these countries as possible partners against radical Islamists. This is misguided because, for example,
Iranian agents in the Kurdistan section of Syria gather intelligence in coordination with the Syrian regime
and other radical groups.



What is the role of Iran in the plight of the Kurds and the empowerment of the Islamic State?

Iran, Turkey, and Petro Arab-States [in Saudi Arabia and along the Gulf] fuel radicals to create chaos in
the region, lest democracy cause regime-changes. All also fear that an independent Kurdistan could
provoke conflict with them all [and with their client-states], possibly empowering Israel as well.



Is it necessary for America to vet the members of the Free Syrian Army to determine whom to arm?

No. Whereas many elements of the FSA are Islamists, none of the Kurds share this ideology; indeed,
Kurds share values of western nations and identify with Jews, for both peoples have suffered at the
hands of comparable enemies in their efforts to survive.



What is the role of Turkey currently?

Turkey and Iran share the goal of watching the Islamic State destroy Kurds, thereby causing mass
migration of Kurds out of the region and undermining aspirations of independence in Iraqi and Syrian
Kurdistan; this demographic shift would preserve Iran's regional interests and, in return, Turkey would
remain whole and enhance its economy by pursuing oil-deals with Iran. That is why Turkey supports the
Islamic State and many similar radical groups that are comprised within the FSA.



What has America done to help the Kurds?

Obama has provided limited assistance to Iraqi Kurds via meaningless airstrikes, and American/Allied
forces have hit only two tanks and less than a dozen light cars/pickups.



Dont Kurds and Americans share common-interests?

Kurds feel America should join in efforts to disrupt radicalization in the region of any ilk, whether it is
neo-Ottoman, based in a Mullah-Crescent, or the result of the Islamic State taking-root.



Why has America not helped the Kurds, truly the only boots on the ground?

Apparently, Washington, Arabs, and Turks want the Kurds to leave forfeit territorial ambitionsno
matter how many are killed and/or relocated in the process; this would permit Turks and Arabs to create
a no-fly zone to be managed by Turks for the benefit of Islamists [both the Islamic State and radical-FSA
elements]. As a result, they would control the area and its resources in the name of protecting refugees
and providing humanitarian aid.



As a result, what do Kurds want to do, ASAP?

Kurds want to bring a delegation to Israel to discuss our common interests, for assistance is urgently
needed in multiple arenas: diplomacy, humanitarian, publicity/media, training, and military.



Another humanitarian catastrophe may be just hours away at Koban, as per a recently-published
essay that explains the what, why, how, when, where of this impending tragedy, as well as who is
responsible for allowing it to occur; Obamas culpability is profound.

[The Siege of Koban: Obama's Syrian Fiasco in Motion
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-05/siege-Koban-obamas-syrian-fiasco-motion]

This Q & A addresses specific issues that have not been sufficiently reported in the media.

{PKK denotes the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan), PYD denotes the Democratic
Union Party (Partiya Yektiya Demokra), YPG denotes the Popular Protection Unit (Yekneyn
Parastina Gel), KDP denotes the Kurdistan Democratic Party (Partya Demokrata), KRG denotes the
Kurdistan Regional Government (Hikmeta Herma Kurdistan), and KNK denotes the Kurdistan
National Congress (Kongra Netewiya Kurdistan).}

*

Why have there not been more than limited air-strikes outside Koban, where the locations of the
Islamic State are well-known?

The US Administration is bowing to those who oppose creation of an independent Kurdistan [many NATO
allies, the Arab Gulf Petro States, and Turkey]; these regimes fear both Kurds and Jews, and they fear
Kurds will use this status to create a good relationship with Israel. Also, the Islamic State has altered is
strategic approach to fighting, blending into the population rather than exposing itself to air-attack.



Has there been coordination between Kurdish forces of popular protection [YPG/PYD] and the US
coalition during the Koban battle?

No. If there were any, Koban would not be in this position. There may be communication by necessity
after the intensified siege on the city of Koban, but the US views PKK-affiliated groups such as PYD/YPG
as terrorists.



Has Turkey assisted Kurdish fighters in any way?

Turkey still views the PKK [which stands behind the PYD] as an enemy, despite steps that it has taken to
achieve a lasting peace through negotiations with the PKK; in recent days, however, Abdullah calan
[the founder and leader of the PKK] has called upon Turkish leaders to intervene in Koban, to no avail.



How significant has Turkish assistance been in humanitarian terms [i.e., allowing refugees into the
country and providing them with medical and other assistance]?

Turkey has opened its borders unwillingly [on-off] to more than one million Syrian refugeesnot
necessarily Kurdsand has provided and continues to provide them with aid. Because Turkey does not
allow other relief organizations into Turkey, however, so they must work with the Turkish Red Crescent,
which is controlled by military and security forces. Although they are routinely hostile toward the Kurds,
Turkey helps Syrians; Kurds hope to improve its security practices towards Kurds who are refugees from
Koban, to build an atmosphere of trust between the Turkish government and the Kurds in general.



Noting that Peshmerga forces in Iraq have recently launched an offensive against the Islamic State, is
there coordination between Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria and, if so, has this helped Syrian Kurds?

Long-standing conflicts and alliances among myriad Kurdish entities are culminating in abandonment of
the suffering Syrian Kurds. Illustrating the inherent profundity and ironies that abound is PKK, the
ideology of which is not accepted by mainstream Kurds [in Syria, Iran, and Iraq], but which has been
accepted in Turkey [the very site of conflict with past (Ottoman and secular) and current (Islamist)
governments]. The PKK opposes the KDP, which supports entities seeking to establish a Kurdistan
Regional Government in Syria] such as two umbrella organizations, local [KNK] and international
[Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria]; these, in-turn, compete with the PYD because the latter rejects
empowerment of any Kurdish forces that are not under its control. Linkage with neighboring countries
often explains the behavior of these groups; for example, the PKK relates with Iran and Syria and the KDP
relates with the US, European Union and Turkey. Ultimately, many Kurdish and non-Kurdish groups
oppose the KRG/KDP due to its strong nationalistic advocacy.



Noting how bad the humanitarian situation in Koban has become, what steps should the US-led
coalition take to alleviate it?

The eastern, southern and western parts of the city of Koban have been abandoned; about 300,000 are
in the city that has been surrounded and that is under attack by the Islamic State. More than 150,000
refugees have crossed into Turkey but, on the Turkish border, other Kurds are suffering at the hands of
the Turkish gendarmerie and security forces. People need everything [food, clothing and shelter].
Obviously, this situation will worsen unless the international community provides humanitarian
assistance ASAP. The refugees did not want to leave their villages and their city, but they fled atrocities
perpetrated by the Islamic State against them; indeed, Arab tribes that were considered neighbors of the
Kurds are attacking Kurds alongside the Islamic State.

*

What country has consistently gained ascendency in the Middle East and North Africa?

Iran largely controls the governments of Iraq *filling the vacuum left by Americas departure+, Syria [led
by Bashar Assad, a fellow-Shiite+, Lebanon [dominated by Hezbollah and greatly influenced by Syria],
Gaza [which has become increasingly dependent upon Iranian armaments], Yemen [where is forces in
Sanaa are emerging victorious+, and Libya *which has just concluded a national-reconciliation pact
endorsed by Algeria and supported, in-turn, by Iran].



What is the role of Russia in this arena?

Russia has supported strengthening the Shiite Arc *Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon] gaining, in the
process, a Syrian port (Tartus); superficially, noting Islamist turmoil within Russia, some Americans view
these countries as possible partners against radical Islamists. This is misguided because, for example,
Iranian agents in the Kurdistan section of Syria gather intelligence in coordination with the Syrian regime
and other radical groups.



What is the role of Iran in the plight of the Kurds and the empowerment of the Islamic State?

Iran, Turkey, and Petro Arab-States [in Saudi Arabia and along the Gulf] fuel radicals to create chaos in
the region, lest democracy cause regime-changes. All also fear that an independent Kurdistan could
provoke conflict with them all [and with their client-states], possibly empowering Israel as well.



Is it necessary for America to vet the members of the Free Syrian Army to determine whom to arm?

No. Whereas many elements of the FSA are Islamists, none of the Kurds share this ideology; indeed,
Kurds share values of western nations and identify with Jews, for both peoples have suffered at the
hands of comparable enemies in their efforts to survive.



What is the role of Turkey currently?

Turkey and Iran share the goal of watching the Islamic State destroy Kurds, thereby causing mass
migration of Kurds out of the region and undermining aspirations of independence in Iraqi and Syrian
Kurdistan; this demographic shift would preserve Iran's regional interests and, in return, Turkey would
remain whole and enhance its economy by pursuing oil-deals with Iran. That is why Turkey supports the
Islamic State and many similar radical groups that are comprised within the FSA.



What has America done to help the Kurds?

Obama has provided limited assistance to Iraqi Kurds via meaningless airstrikes, and American/Allied
forces have hit only two tanks and less than a dozen light cars/pickups.



Dont Kurds and Americans share common-interests?

Kurds feel America should join in efforts to disrupt radicalization in the region of any ilk, whether it is
neo-Ottoman, based in a Mullah-Crescent, or the result of the Islamic State taking-root.



Why has America not helped the Kurds, truly the only boots on the ground?

Apparently, Washington, Arabs, and Turks want the Kurds to leave forfeit territorial ambitionsno
matter how many are killed and/or relocated in the process; this would permit Turks and Arabs to create
a no-fly zone to be managed by Turks for the benefit of Islamists [both the Islamic State and radical-FSA
elements]. As a result, they would control the area and its resources in the name of protecting refugees
and providing humanitarian aid.



As a result, what do Kurds want to do, ASAP?

Kurds want to bring a delegation to Israel to discuss our common interests, for assistance is urgently
needed in multiple arenas: diplomacy, humanitarian, publicity/media, training, and military.


*

The Siege of Koban: Obama's Syrian Fiasco in Motion

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog


Another humanitarian catastrophe may be just hours away at Koban. The latter is the Syrian Kurdish
town on the border with Turkey that is now surrounded by ISIS tanks and is being pounded day after day
by ISIS heavy artillery. Already this lethal phalanx, which fuses 21st century American technology and
equipment with 12th century religious fanaticism, has rolled through dozens of Kurdish villages and
towns in the region around Koban, sending 180,000 refugees fleeing for their lives across the border.
Self-evidently the lightly armed Kurdish militias desperately holding out in Koban are fighting the
right enemy-that is, the Islamic State. So why has Obamas grand coalition not been able to relieve
the siege? Why havent American bombers and cruise missiles, for instance, been able to destroy the
American tanks and artillery which a terrifying band of butchers has brought to bear on several hundred
thousand innocent Syrian Kurds who have made this enclave their home for more than a century? Why
has not NATO ally Turkey, with a 600,000 man military, 3,500 tanks and 1,000 modern aircraft and
helicopters, done anything meaningful to help the imperiled Kurds?

Lets see. The US is making perfunctory air strikes. Yet with no boots on the ground in the context of
close urban combat in a city of 50,000 - a major air onslaught would result in massive civilian casualties.
Although Obama already has much blood on his hands, he is apparently not ready for a Gaza-on-the-
Euphrates.
So then why doesnt Turkey put some infantry and spotters on the ground - highly trained boots
that are literally positioned a few kilometers away on its side of the border?
Well, Turkish President Erdogan just explained his governments reluctance quite succinctly, as reported
by Bloomberg on Saturday:
For us, ISIL and the (Kurdish) PKK are the same, Erdogan said in televised remarks
today in Istanbul.
And thats literally true because from Turkeys vantage point the Koban showdown is a case of
terrorist-on-terrorist. The Kurdish fighters in Koban are linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK.
The latter has waged a separatist campaign of armed insurrection and terror inside and around Turkey
for 30-years and has long been considered Turkeys top security threat. In fact, Turkey has received
untold amounts of US aid, equipment and intelligence over the years to help suppress this uprising.
Thats the reason that PKK is officially classified as a terrorist group by the U.S. and the government in
Ankara.
And, no, the Syrian and Turkish Kurds so classified as terrorists are not some black sheep cousins of the
good guy Kurds in Erbil and northeastern Iraq that CNN parades every night as Americas heroic ally on
the ground. They are all part of the greater Kurdish nation of some 30 million who inhabit southeastern
Turkey, northeastern Syria and Iraq and western Iran. Taken together, these Kurdish enclaves comprise
the single largest ethnic population in the Middle East that does not have its own state, and which has
been a source of irredentist conflict and instability for decades.

As a matter of fact, Erdogan has been pursuing a rapprochement with the Turkish Kurds for the better
part of the last decade and had actually made progress in quelling the violence and initiating a
political solution. Yet Washingtons two latest campaigns of regime change could not have been
more inimical to a peaceful resolution of the regions long-festering Kurdish problem. And, of course,
the historic roots of that problem were served up by the West 100 years ago when its strip
pants diplomats carved out borders that gave practically every major ethnic group their own nation,
except the Kurds.
In that context, the Bush/Neocon destruction of Saddams dictatorship in Iraq paved the way for
fragmentation of the Sykes-Picot borders and the de facto partition of Iraq, including a rump Kurdish
state in the northeast. Then Washingtons foolish delusion that it was spending $25 billion to train and
equip an Iraqi army added fuel to the fire.
The so-called Iraqi army was never a national military arm of the Iraqi state because the
latter had already failed owing to the onslaught of the US liberation and occupation. Instead, it was a
glorified Shiite militia whose members had no interest in dying to protect or hold Sunni lands in the west
and north. So the Iraqi armys American arms, abandoned wholesale and then captured by ISIS,
literally created the necessity for the Syrian Kurds to mobilize and arm themselves in self defense.
Presently, another rump Kurdish state rose along much of Turkeys 560-mile Syrian border.
The original trigger for that development had actually been Anderson Coopers War to liberate the
Syrian people from the brutish but secular regime that ruled them in Damascus. It too set off forces of
fragmentation and partition that have now come home to roost in Koban.
Thus, after the Arab spring uprising in 2011, the US ambassador to Syria pulled the equivalent of what
we now call a Yats or an organized campaign to overthrow the government to which he was
accredited; and in short order the R2P ladies aid society in the White House (Susan Rice and Samantha
Powers) made the State Departments maneuvering to undermine Syrias constitutionally elected
government official policy, proclaiming that Bashar Assad has to go.
In no time, the Kurdish enclaves in Syria essentially declared their independence, and reached a modus
vivendi with Damascus. Namely, they would keep Assads main enemythe majority Sunni Arabs-out
of the Kurdish enclaves on the central and eastern Syrian border with Turkey in return for being left
alone and exempt from visitations by the Syrian air force.
Needless to say, that looked to the Turks like collaboration with Assad - whose removal from power
ranks far higher on Ankaras priority scale than making war on ISIS. On the other hand, Turkeys
proposal to staunch the flood of Kurdish and other Syrian refugees across its border by occupying a 20
mile buffer zone inside Syria is seen by the Kurds as a plot against them. As Bloomberg explains,
Kurds say the plan is aimed at crushing their nascent autonomous administration, carved
out during Syrias three-year civil war as Assads government lost control of their part of
the country. Turkey says the Syrian Kurds are collaborating with Assad and should have
been fighting him.
Meanwhile, the modern-day George Washington of the Kurdish peoples, Abdullah calan, who has
languished in a Turkish prison on an island outside Istanbul since 1999, warns that if Turkey does not
come to the aid of Koban his negotiations with Erdogan might end and the three decade civil war
which had resulted in 40,000 Turkish deaths might resume. Yet as one expert in the region
further explained to Bloomberg, coming to the aid of the Kurdish militia affiliated with the PKK would go
beyond the pale for Ankara:
Its unthinkable for Turkey to go beyond that and assist PKK-linked groups such as the
Syrian Kurds, according to Nihat Ali Ozcan, an analyst at the Economic Policy Research
Foundation in Ankara.
No Turkish politician can explain to the public why the government is aiding the PKK
and its affiliated groups after fighting against it for 30 years, he said by phone.
In short, the regions logical bulwark against ISIS - the huge, modern, lethal Turkish military - is
stymied by a tide of Kurdish irredentism that Washingtons regime change policy has elicited all
around it and within Turkeys own borders. In fact, it now has two rump Kurdistans on its borders and
its huge internal Kurdish population bestirred and mobilized in a pan-Kurdish drama. Rather than
progressing toward internal political settlement, the Kurdish political leadership in Ankara-which has
supported Erdogan in return for lavish economic development funds in Kurdish areasis now openly
critical:
The people of Koban feel deserted and furious, Faysal Sariyildiz, another pro-Kurdish
legislator, said yesterday.
The current activities of the Turkish military on the border check-by-jowl with the ISIS militants laying
siege to Koban say it all. On the one hand, they are managing the flow of Syrian Kurdish refugees
desperately fleeing across the border. At the same time, they are systematically attempting to stop the
inflow of native Turkish Kurd fighters streaming toward Koban to join the defense of their
kinsmen. Ankara clearly does not want Turkish Kurds to become battle-trained in urban warfare. So far,
however, they have apparently not fired even a single round of artillery at the ISIS-manned American
tanks that are within a kilometer of an epic slaughter in Koban.
Vice-President Biden was right for once. Washington has no real allies in the region because they all
have another agenda. Turkey is focused on its near enemy in the Kurdish regions and its far enemy in
Damascus, not the ISIS butchers who have laid claim to the Sunni lands of Euphrates valley in parts
of what used to be Iraq and Syria. The Qataris want Assad gone and a new governmenteven one
controlled by ISISwhich will grant them a pipeline concession through Syria in order to tap the giant
European market for their immense natural gas reserves.
Likewise, the Saudis want to destroy the Assad regime because it is allied with their Shiite enemy across
the Persian Gulf in Iran and because they fear their own abused Shiite populations which are
concentrated in their oilfield regions. Consequently, they see the fight against ISIS as essentially a
pretext for escalating their war against Damascus, and are not even interested in bombing the non-ISIS
Jihadi like the Nusra Front that they see as allies in the campaign against Assad.
At the end of the day, Obamas air campaign amounts to nothing more than a glorified international
air force training exercise. Pilots and air crews from the UK, Denmark, Belgium, France, Australia, Saudi
Arabia, the UAE, Jordan etc. will get to run a few live fire sorties at politically correct targets. So the
Brits will bomb in Iraq but not Syria; the Saudis will bomb ISIS targets close to Assad-held territories, but
not Nusra Front positions; and the Qataris will go along for the ride pretending to help, even as they
preserve deniability that they ever dropped an actual bomb for that day down the road when they seek
to make a pipeline deal with the Islamic State.
Never in recorded history has a fading imperial power conducted a more feckless, pointless,
and strategically irrational war. The ISIS beheadings are surely barbaric, but they pose no threat to the
security and safety of the American people that cant be handled by enhanced domestic vigilance and
police protection. After all, isnt it evident after 20 years of the so-called war on terror that somewhere
on the planet earth failed states and god-forsaken desert and mountain redoubts will always give rise to
radical sects and violent gangs that cannot be exterminated with bombs and drones?
Indeed, the real lesson is that by inserting itself into tribal and sectarian conflicts in these pockets of
anarchy Washington only succeeds in generating more of the same. That is exactly what the siege of
Koban is all about.
So maybe Joe Biden could explain this to the big thinkers in the White House. If the Turks are unwilling
to stop an easily preventable mass slaughter by ISIS on their own doorstep what kind of fractured and
riven coalition has Washington actually assembled? And how will this coalition of the disingenuous, the
hypocritical and the politically opportunistic ever succeed in bringing peace and stability to the
historic cauldron of tribal and religious conflict in Mesopotamia and the Levant that two decades of
Washingtons wars and regime change interventions have only drastically intensified?