Final Word from Thursday, August 6, 2015
The United State has no permanent friends or enemies, Henry Kissinger famously said, only interests. Another confirmation of this could be the new outbreak of war between the Turks and the Kurds, which reads like a passage out of George Orwell, where today's friends are tomorrow's enemies. Are the Turks, as part of their new engagement against the Islamic State, attacking the same Kurds who have been Nato allies in the war against ISIS? Ex-Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg wrote in HN yesterday that if the Americans are quietly acquiescing to this, it's the biggest case of treachery we have seen in recent years. It also puts the Czechs in an uncomfortable position. Their government plans to send more munitions to Iraq and will have the U.S. serve as the intermediary this time. Will the Kurds be given some of the munitions, as the Czechs would like, or will the Americans decline, out of deference to Ankara? [Czech Republic Turkey Kurdistan 1984]
Glossary of difficult words
outbreak - the sudden or violent start of something unwelcome, such as war, disease, etc.;
to acquiesce - to accept something reluctantly but without protest;
in deference to - out of respect for; in consideration of.