On Saturday, General Mazloum Abdi, the head of the Syrian Kurdish militia and America’s chief ally in the fight against ISIS , was wrapping up meetings in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaymani. He had been meeting with both the local Kurdish leadership and American officials. Together, the group drove in a convoy to the local civilian airport, where they planned to see Mazloum off on a short flight back to Syrian Kurdistan. By Michael Rubin in Washington Examiner on April 10, 2023.
I have watched a surveillance video from the airport: Five SUVs go by. Three seconds later, a drone-fired missile explodes along the side of the road.
American intelligence detected the Turkish drones in the area shortly before and warned the Turks they were tracking Americans; the Turkish operators responded that they did not care. While some journalists have speculated the Turkish attack deliberated missed and was merely a warning to Washington, the facts belie this. Because of earlier heavy rainfall, the ground was saturated and muddy. The missile reportedly penetrated deep into the ground before exploding, dampening the explosion and perhaps saving the Americans’ lives, not to mention Mazloum’s.
Erdogan’s calculation was cynical: He faces elections in six weeks.
His stewardship has tanked Turkey’s economy. Two decades of media incitement have also transformed Turkey into the world’s most anti-American country. By targeting Mazloum, whom Turkish propaganda regularly labels a terrorist, and killing Americans, Erdogan could appeal to the basest Turkish nationalist, racist, and anti-American impulses.
The question now is how President Joe Biden will react.
There is a troubling tendency in the White House to sweep incidents like this under the rug. The State Department already argues any reaction might play into Erdogan’s hands ahead of elections. To allow Erdogan to act with impunity, however, only encourages Erdogan to ratchet up his rogue behavior.
Rather, it is time to signal to Erdogan and the Turks that support him that certain actions cross a red line.
In addition, failure to react forcefully to a Turkish attack on American personnel at a civilian airfield undermines moral authority to respond to Iranians when they do the same thing. Biden might immediately sanction Bayraktar, the company that manufactures the Turkish drones which now spreads terror across Africa and the Middle East. The White House should discount Turkish propaganda that the Bayraktar drones were pivotal in Ukraine. Even President Volodymyr Zelensky says the Western media greatly exaggerated their impact on the war.
With Turkey targeting Americans, the White House should permanently shelve its proposal to sell F-16s to Turkey. In addition, the Pentagon should end any provision of spare parts, and the U.S. intelligence community should cease all intelligence sharing with Turkey.
That Turkish defense and intelligence liaisons dismissed U.S. warnings that Americans were present in the convoy is a scandal.
The State Department should impose Magnitsky Act sanctions against Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, who has overseen the targeting of displaced Yezidi and Kurds in three countries.
The Treasury Department should designate Turkish Intelligence Chief Hakan Fidan as a Specially Designated National, sanctioned and blocked from the United States. Not only was Fidan involved in the airport hit, but he also leaks like a sieve to Iran, a country with which he has long sympathized. He also is deeply complicit in Turkey’s logistical and military support for the Islamic State.
Simultaneously, the U.S. should convene an emergency meeting of the anti-Islamic State coalition without inviting Turkey. Successful counterterrorism requires cleaning house and brokering no Trojan horse. Finally, it is time to enhance military partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces, providing them with anti-aircraft weaponry as well as their own drones. They are simply a better ally.
To ignore the Turkish strike is to normalize it. That Turkey missed and no Americans came home in body bags is not a mitigating factor. Biden’s top responsibility is to protect Americans, not turn his back as adversaries declare open season on Americans.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.