Betrayal by the Rogue State of America – The Bull in the China Shop

The betrayal of Rojava and the bolstering of Jihadist Syria

Sheri Laizer | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Scenes of fleeing families, the graves of opposition fighters being desecrated by armed, grinning jihadists, capturing Kurdish girls from the SDF, cutting off the braid of a female fighter after her death as a war trophy and threatening worse, like tossing SDF Asayish fighter, Deniz Çiya alive from an Aleppo balcony. These acts are war crimes and nothing else. Kurdish women are now symbolically braiding their hair in protest against the brutality. 1

As with ISIS overrunning the Yazidis in 2014, the barbarism that has been reignited in Syria is of the most grotesque kind based on race hatred and Islamic extremism.

Rudaw noted how in the gruesome braid video, “the militant is seen entering a shop, smirking, and holding up the braid, saying, “This is the hair of a haval” – Kurdish for comrade.

“Why did you cut her hair?” asks the other militant filming the scene, his tone dripping with sarcasm. The first replies, “She was already dead.” 2 See the video.

For Donald Trump and his envoy Thomas Barrack who are letting all this happen with equanimity, it is business as usual. For Trump, throwing his weight around on several of the globe’s stages, America is showing its strength, as he announced this week at Davos. French Prime Minister Macron’s open denunciation at the same event before Trump’s arrival led to Trump threatening a 200% tariff on French wines in revenge. 3

As former President Barack Obama had observed at a rally on November 1, 2025, during a government shutdown, “It’s like every day is Halloween, except it is all tricks and no treats. Vote!”4 Obama decried the “recklessness and lawlessness” undermining the country with Trump at the helm. Exasperated he admitted it was even worse than he expected.

Rogue state

So, has Trump’s America become a rogue state? The Oxford Dictionary definition speaks for itself: “a rogue state is a nation or state regarded as breaking international law and posing a threat to the security of other nations.

Kurds betrayed anew

The Kurdish city of Kobane (that successfully defeated ISIS after its siege of September 13, 2014, supported by US air power) currently endures a siege by the Damascus caliphate. Its citizens have been deprived of water and electricity. This time, Trump and Barrack have turned their backs claiming al-Jolani can deal with ISIS. Proof of how good al-Jolani can do this is in the liberation of ISIS prisoners from prisons during clashes with the SDF. Think tanks are trying to blame the Kurds for this. Kurds have staged angry protests across Western capitals.

ISIS raised its flag at Al Karama at the entrance to Raqqa straight after cars positioned outside the prisons collected those waiting to escape. 5

The Kurds are apparently no longer useful to the United States: they now have their own man, former Al Qaeda in Syria leader, Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, (Ahmed al-Sharaa) enthroned in Damascus, the $10 million bounty lifted from his head and rewarded by EU Commission President, Ursula Von Der Leyen with a 620 million euro support package (around $720 million) for recovery and humanitarian aid 6 But not even stealth is required for al-Sharaa to show his true intentions of advancing his Arab fundamentalist caliphate.

Affiliated armed contingents of the ‘Syrian Arab Army’ – his own support Arab Islamist base – kill civilians and armed groups alike based on their being from a minority reviled by extremists. ‘Pig’ is the refrain you can see and hear being chanted on social media videos.

Al-Jolani also his backers among the think tank commentators and propaganda recyclers on social media calling the Kurdish homeland in the north and northeast of Syria ‘Arab lands.’ Some tankies and active lobbying commentators like Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute 7 and Michael Arazanti 8 are supporting this abomination making comments on X including ‘pack up and move to Iraqi Kurdistan’.

Demographic change is apparently of no concern to these opinion influencers with their strong anti-PKK stance. He had claimed in 2018 that US ties with the YPG were hurting the US relationship with Turkey.9

The duplicitous role of American envoy, Thomas Barrack

Barrack is the descendant of Lebanese Maronite Christians that left the town of Zahle at the turn of the 20th century and established themselves in Culver City in the United States.

His business background made him a friend of fellow billionaire, Donald Trump. He had brokered Trumps $400 million acquisition of the Plaza Hotel along Central Park in NY City in 1986 with his bosses at the time, the Robert M. Bass Group, staying in contact thereafter. Author, Michael Wolff reported that Barrack, Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were a “set of nightlife musketeers” in his book, Fire and Fury. Epstein’s black book references his two sidekicks.10

Barrack became a senior advisor to Trump during his first Presidential campaign in 2016 and chaired Trump’s inaugural committee raising $107 million for his fund.

Barrack had previously set up a real estate and private equity company known as Colony Capital, rebranded as Digital Bridge and acted as its CEO over a thirty-year period enriching himself and disappointing his investors’ returns. When still trading as Colony in 2020, during the Covid pandemic it “defaulted on a $3.2 billion in debt backed by hotel and health care properties, according to the Financial Times.”

It had also taken over Michael Jackson’s Neverland back in the 2008-2009 economic crisis while the singer remained living there. Barrack increased his wealth by expanding into the property rental market under his company, Colony Starwood Homes, taking advantage of foreclosures.

UAE backers

Two 2016 meetings with UAE national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nayhan, led to federal prosecutors alleging he had been acting as an agent of the UAE and offering access to Trump. 11 In 2017, via his investment management firm, he received funds totalling $374 million while lobbying for the UAE 12 and helping it exert its influence within the Trump administration.13 When Trump was inaugurated in 2017, he appointed Barrack chairman of his inauguration fund, raising $107 million.

Barrack was arrested in Brooklyn on federal charges of illegal lobbying on behalf of the UAE and stepped down from Digital Bridge. His successor, Marc Ganzi diversified into digital real estate such as cell communication towers and data centres. 14

In July 2021 Barrack was charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the Justice Department, and with obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI about his UAE contacts during a 2019 interview with federal agents. Trump distanced himself at the time until his friend was acquitted in 2022.

According to Business Insider, Barrack also recommended that Trump hire an old friend, Paul Manafort, as campaign chairman. Manafort was eventually sentenced in 2019 to seven and a half years in prison for tax fraud and working as a foreign agent for Ukraine. Trump pardoned him in 2020. 15 Trump had also pardoned the violent protestors that overran the Senate.

He then rewarded his old friend, Barrack by nominating him in December 2024 to become the US Ambassador to Turkey citing Barrack’s experience managing a global equity firm as proof of his qualifications! 16

In his official visits to Lebanon in 2025 before and after the ‘ceasefire’ between Hezbollah and Israel to Lebanon, Barrack has insulted Lebanese journalists and meddled in Lebanon’s internal affairs to the benefit of the American-Israel relationship pushing against the Axis of Resistance, seeking a divorce between Iran and Hezbollah with the Lebanese government.

Do not rely on the United States to save you – US Special Envoy to Syria

Once again, the Kurds have misplaced their trust in the United States as an ally. The US is not a ‘friend’ but an exploiter of Kurds as with their partners in oil and gas in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Barrack stated: The role of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as the “primary anti-ISIS force on the ground” has “largely expired” as the Syrian government is ready to assume security responsibilities.17

Suit you, Sir?

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Business with ISIS – Updated Turkey: Nato’s Islamic State Member The Resurrection (Ba’ath) Party – Before the Iran-Iraq War Syria: A ‘Caliphate’ by Any Other Name — Would Smell the Same Iraqi Kurdistan – “Sold Out!” – Part II Hiding in Plain Sight: Turkey’s ISIS Links, Al-Baghdadi’s Last Refuge and the Jihadist-Controlled “Safe” Zone Iraq – The Cynical Swindle Interview with Kurdish hostage, Huseyin Baybasin Martyrs for Millionaires: The Black-Market Politics behind the Theft of Syria’s Oil What makes a good NATO ally? The Case of Turkey