ARTS
23 Books
Ronan Farrow reveals
the entertainment
industry’s attempts to
protect a predator
24 Author of the week
Megan Phelps-Roper on
leaving hate behind
26 Stage & Film
Willem Dafoe and
Robert Pattinson
battle insanity in
The Lighthouse
28 Television
Helen Mirren
gives a royal
performance
in Catherine
the GreatNEWS
4 Main stories
Chaos in Syria after U.S.
abandons its Kurdish
allies; Rudy Giuliani
causes more headaches
for the White House
6 Controversy of the week
Has corporate America
sold its soul to China?
7 The U.S. at a glance
Elizabeth Warren takes
heat at Democratic debate;
murder charge for Texas
offi cer who shot woman in
her own home
8 The world at a glance
Britain and the EU near
a Brexit deal; U.S. troops
deployed to Saudi Arabia
10 People
Naomi Campbell’s
unstoppable ambition;
when Harry Connick Jr.
met Ol’ Blue Eyes
11 Briefi ng
The impeachment of
President Andrew Johnson
12 Best U.S. columns
Nepotism and the Trump
clan; why trans athletes
have an unfair advantage
14 Best European
columns
Fury after Spain locks up
Catalan separatists
18 Talking points
Ellen DeGeneres’
friendship with President
George W. Bush; the lights
go out in California; Fox
News after Shepard SmithLEISURE
30 Food & Drink
High times at America’s
fi rst cannabis café
32 Travel
A truly wild safari in
northern Tanzania
33 Consumer
The best apps for buying
children’s clothingBUSINESS
36 News at a glance
Opioid distributors ready a
massive settlement; WeWork
starts to run out of cash
37 Making money
The travel industry’s hated
hidden charges
38 Best columns
A truce in the U.S.-China
trade war; how to rebuild
Big Tech the right wayCivilians flee the Turkish offensive in northern Syria. (pages 4, 16)Ge
tty,
AP
When President Trump gave a green light to Turkey’s invasion of
northern Syria last week, politicians and pundits from both the
Left and Right accused him of recklessly upending U.S. foreign
policy. (See Main Stories.) The Syrian Kurds now being attacked
by Turkey were America’s frontline troops in the five-year war
against ISIS. Betraying these brave allies, critics said, was a stain
on America’s conscience. But while Trump’s decision might ap-
pear ugly and strategically unwise, it is far from unprecedented.
He is, in fact, the latest in a long line of U.S. leaders to walk
away from the Kurds in a moment of crisis. In the aftermath of
World War I, President Woodrow Wilson championed self-deter-
mination for the non-Turkish inhabitants of the destroyed Otto-
man Empire. The leader of a Kurdish delegation arrived at peace
talks in Paris in 1919 with Wilson’s words bound into his Quran,
hoping his long-oppressed people would finally be granted their
own state. Instead, Wilson signed off on new national boundar-ies pushed by France and Britain that divided the Kurds between
Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
More disappointments followed. In the 1970s, the U.S. encour-
aged Iraqi Kurds to rebel against the regime of Saddam Hussein—
the chief rival of America’s close ally, the Shah of Iran. But a year
later, the shah and Saddam struck a deal. The U.S. cut off support
for the Kurds, thousands of whom were slaughtered by the Iraqi
military. Asked by Congress how he could justify this betrayal,
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger replied, “Covert action should
not be confused with missionary work.” Then in 1991, following
Operation Desert Storm, President George H.W. Bush hinted that
the U.S. might support a popular uprising against Saddam. Iraq’s
Kurds and Shiites did rise up, but American support never arrived
and they were gassed and gunned down in the tens of thousands.
Trump’s abandonment may have angered Syria’s
Kurds, but it surely can’t have surprised them.Editor’s letter
Contents 3
Theunis Bates
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