Clash between US, Turkey becomes more likely as Turkish despot directs his forces toward US in Syria

Washington Times:

The U.S. and Turkish militaries are on a collision course, and the point of impact for the two NATO allies is the Syrian town of Manbij.

Turkish forces say the northern Syrian city, which is ground zero for U.S. operations in support of local Kurdish and Arab forces fighting Islamic State, is a prime objective of their current campaign against Syrian Kurds. The Turks say they will not curtail a Manbij assault because American troops are there, while a top U.S. general said last month that a withdrawal “is not something we are looking into.”

U.S. special operations troops based in Manbij have stayed largely out of Ankara’s way while the Turkish offensive remains focused on the Kurdish stronghold of Afrin, just over 200 miles north of Damascus.

But with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to invade Syria to put down Kurdish forces is proving politically popular at home, Turkey’s plan to expand Operation Olive Branch eastward into U.S.-controlled territory in northwestern Syria is unrolling like a slow-motion collision in which neither side has a clear way of tamping down the threat of open conflict.

“This is a dangerous moment” for Turkey and the United States, Sarhang Hamasaeed, director of Middle East programs at the Washington-based U.S. Institute of Peace, said Monday.

Ankara’s long-standing partnership with Washington in the region, along with the countries’ shared alliances within NATO, should be enough to keep American and Turkish forces from turning their guns on each other, Mr. Hamasaeed said in an interview from Baghdad, although the next few days could be tense.

“Both sides have an interest. … There is a will, too,” he said, “but there is a risk things could get out of control” quickly.

Tensions soared last week when Turkish officials announced that Ankara will move against Manbij if Syrian Kurds allied with Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, do not withdraw from the city.

Large elements of the YPG or Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) make up the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the U.S.-backed confederation of Arab and Kurdish paramilitaries that flushed Islamic State from its Syrian capital of Raqqa last year. U.S. forces continue to train and equip SDF fighters — including those tied to the YPG and PYD — in Manbij. Military leaders say the danger from Islamic State in Syria has not disappeared despite the terrorist group’s recent battlefield losses.

“If [the YPG] do not withdraw from Manbij, then we will go to Manbij, we will go east of the Euphrates,” Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said Sunday on CNN. Mr. Bozdag went further, adding that U.S. forces could be targeted by Turkish troops moving into Manbij if they are spotted wearing YPG “uniforms.”

“If they come up against us in such a uniform, we will see them as … terrorists,” he said. U.S. forces enraged their Turkish counterparts in 2016 when several American special operations advisers based in Manbij were photographed wearing YPG insignia.

Last week, U.S. Central Command chief Joseph Votel told reporters that the Pentagon was not considering any American withdrawal from Manbij and the surrounding areas.
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Since the rise of Erdogan, Turkey can no longer be seen as a reliable NATO ally.  He is an Islamist despot at heart as well as a man who hates the Kurds and their aspiration for self-government.  I would consider telling him that the US will consider removing Turkey from NATO as long as Erdogan is the leader.  If that happens the US should also support an independent Kurdish state and move US bases from Turkey to Kurdistan.

Meanwhile, the Russian-Turkey axis is in a meltdown.  The Turks have managed to anger all sides in with their operations in Syria.