Sometimes I wonder if Trump really is just special or if this kind of lunacy will continue with the next Republican. I’m gonna guess the latter.

We are currently in the middle of a tenuous ceasefire in Northern Syria between the Turks and YPG Kurds. There’s been some rattling from sources saying it’s been breached, but the AP reported last night that it’s still officially holding. The YPG are migrating south, away from the safe zone, which will likely benefit everyone long term. The border battle with Turkey and any attempt to make their own state were never going to end well. Fair or not, they reside in the legal state of Syria and that reality has to be taken into account. We could not simply provide security for them to remain autonomous into eternity.

Of course, because Donald Trump is in the middle of this, having pulled out a small contingent of U.S. troops over a week ago, that means we will now get some of the hottest of hot takes on the matter.

Take this for example.

US officials tell me ALARM BELL RINGING among diplomats in DC that U.S. could one day be held responsible for Crimes Against Humanity for ethnic cleansing of Syrian Kurds by opening the door to it, watching it, encouraging it (Trump's tweets and statements) and not stopping it.

— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 19, 2019

If this is true, then it shows how truly unprepared and idiotic many U.S. officials are. We should be seriously scared at the incompetency being shown by anyone who would suggest this.

Before we get into the legal details here, just think about how little sense that tweet makes. This NBC reporter is asserting that Donald Trump and the United States could be criminally liable for “crimes against humanity” due to withdrawing troops from a war zone.

Further, this assumes that those who helped foment the civil war in the first place, costing 500,000 lives, and then did nothing to protect civilians are somehow not liable. So Obama is off the hook, but Donald Trump is going to the Hague for pulling back 50 advisors in the middle of a decades long border dispute.

Makes sense.

As to the legal realities at play, Gabriel Malor lays it out.

This is absurd and irresponsible, a journalist once again misbehaving on Twitter for clicks.

The Rome Statute defines crimes against humanity. Notably absent from that definition is any liability for nonparticipants. Further absent is liability for states as states. https://t.co/0hEoedh3Sw

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) October 19, 2019

And, of course, neither the U.S., nor any U.S. commanders, are committing a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population in Syria.

It's just absurd. A bad journalist repeating obviously bad comments on Twitter for clicks.

Pay for journalism, they said. HAH

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) October 19, 2019

What’s really going on here is that the Kurds are communicating with friendly U.S. officials in Washington to try to bait the United States into reacting against Turkey. That’s why you see tweets like this as well.

Kurdish commander Gen Mazlum Kobane makes an urgent appeal, telling @NBCNews Syria's Kurds face what could become “the biggest ethnic cleansing operation of the 21st century… happening in front of the American army's eyes.” He blames Turkey and Trump. Coming up @NBCNightlyNews

— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 19, 2019

This is ludicrous. Are Turkey overstepping and causing deaths? Yes, they are. Is there any actual genocide or ethnic cleansing currently going on? No, there’s not and it helps no one to play into such hysteria. Perhaps Turkey could cross that line, but asking the YPG to pull back from a border they’ve been attacking with the insurgent PKK for decades is not “ethnic cleansing.” It’s complicated, as has been laid out in detail many times already.

And to pretend that what’s happening now is somehow the “biggest” ethnic cleansing operation of the 21st century ignores the hundreds of thousands of deaths during the Syrian civil war and the tens of thousands killed by ISIS via targeted persecution during the Obama administration.

In the end, no, Donald Trump is not criminally liable for what Turkey does. He’s not guilty of crimes against humanity for not putting U.S. troops in a meat grinder in a vain hope to stop sectarian violence. Such suggestions are patently insane.

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