https://archive.md/OpOIb

In fact, the American establishment’s routine, intentional misdirection by omission—or “misinformation,” if you like—about the SDF is emblematic of Washington’s strategic shortsightedness and the destabilizing effects of its continued military presence in Syria and elsewhere.

“SDF” is a euphemism. At its core is the Syrian element of a notorious, originally Marxist, U.S.-designated terrorist organization originating in Turkey called the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. For 40 years, the PKK has consistently promoted a violent, totalitarian, revolutionary mentality—albeit with some superficial ideological window-dressing for Western audiences...The PKK has engaged in terrorist attacks and clashes against Turkish security forces, as well as Turkish and Kurdish civilian targets primarily in Turkey—a NATO ally and home to half if not more of the world’s more than 30 million Kurds—but also in northern Syria, the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Europe, and elsewhere. Some 40,000 people reportedly have been killed since the PKK’s first attack in 1984.

Under the U.S. aegis, the PKK/SDF has expanded and consolidated its power and presence in vast swaths of northeastern Syria, despite several successful large-scale Turkish operations against it...By 2020, according to some estimates, the SDF had as many as 40–60,000 fighters, with 10–12,000 security service members and 30,000 police in areas under its control, working with what is reportedly a 900-man U.S. military contingent.

That this policy was implemented is remarkable given that Washington formally recognized the PKK as a terrorist group in the 1990s, a designation that persists to this day. How this happened provides a window into the way Washington typically works. It also reflects many of the policy pathologies—limited attention to ground truth in the area under consideration, and preference for immediate and sometimes dubious fixes over strategic considerations, often regardless of the impact on core American interests—that have characterized the U.S. foreign and security policy process, particularly since the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.