While most fixate on the betrayal in Trump’s decision to withdraw troops and leave the Kurds to the mercy of Turkey, the real betrayal goes back further – the original sin of US indifference to the Kurds’ predicament and the whole matter of America’s own self-interest in international relations.

During Gulf War I in 1991, with American forces deep inside Iraq and Saddam Hussein on his knees, the US called on the Kurds – long brutally oppressed by the Saddam regime – to rise-up and help in the overthrow of the brutal Baathist Government.