what the european powers should be doing in syria is spending a lot of money to establish a peacekeeping force along the turkish border that helps facilitate the withdrawal of kurdish militants and the return of syrian refugees.

that is their end goal, right? to facilitate the return of syrian refugees?

instead, they're threatening to suspend turkey from nato.

this is like breaking a product at a store, and then threatening to boycott the store when they ask you to pay for it. the europeans are out to fucking lunch on this; their reaction is truly outrageous, and should be invoking outrage by the liberal classes in this country.

again: i'd rather the united nations were taking the lead on this. this is exactly what a un peacekeeping force ought to be doing. we have an occupation by kurdish forces on arab lands, and an occupying force that is largely peaceful but won't leave. so, we should be able to orchestrate a staged, peaceful withdrawal.

but, the actors are taking absurd and outrageous positions that seem to have more to do with oil politics and conservative value systems than they do with human rights - so what should be the obvious outcome has become an impossibility, abandoning the turks to do the dirty work that the world should be helping them do.

europe needs to take responsibility for the situation, not pretend they're taking the high road by condemning an operation they should be a part of. their position is beyond wrong, and people supporting their position are beyond wrong, too.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this