Michael Rubin said in an opinion piece in the US magazine Washington Examiner, “If Turkey wants a buffer zone, the U.S. position should be clear: The Turkish army should withdraw from Syria, and evacuate perhaps 10 kilometers from the Syrian border in favor of international observers.
A buffer zone to separate the Turkish military and Kurdish forces might be a good idea, but if it is to succeed in its stated purpose rather than simply be cover for renewed Turkish ethnic cleansing, it should be on the Turkish side of the border rather than inside Syria.
Rubin said, “the drive for the buffer zone is fueled more by Ankara’s irrationality and Erdoğan’s desire to distract from his own economic failings and there simply is no reason to make the Kurds pay the price.”
It is noteworthy, Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official.
