Notes and Commentary on the Kurdish Crisis

Trump's betrayal of the Kurds who fought ISIS was long anticipated but finally came in a murderous moment of presidential caprice. 

Notes and Commentary on the Betrayal of the Kurds Greetings from rainy Paris where every so often one of the classic Citroen "Traction Avant" sedans from the 1930s and '40s comes racing down the street, a flash from the past that trails the scent of Gauloises and pastis like this one a couple of days ago on the Rue Royale... On a more serious note: The U.S. betrayal of the Kurds who led the fight on the ground that destroyed the "Caliphate" of the so-called Islamic State was long anticipated, and not really a surprise. But U.S. President Donald Trump's final/not-final decision to green-light a massive Turkish incursion and open the way to ethnic cleansing was a stunning picture of "statecraft" born straight out of his gut. His bluffing and bullying could not compensate for his ignorance addressing an extremely delicate situation, which is why he reversed course so many times, and continues to do so. I should mention that I was greatly helped in my reporting over the last couple of weeks by the many very well informed friends and contacts I saw at the Beirut Institute Summit in Abu Dhabi, the spectacular project of Raghida Dergham and Prince Turki al-Faisal which has become, to my mind, the best conference of its kind in the region. These appearances and columns are listed in reverse chronological order: My commentary in a conversation with Brian Williams on his MSNBC show The 11th Hour — Dickey: Syria Crisis only worsens Europe's frustration with Trump. These are some of the articles for The Daily Beast that I wrote or edited about events in Syria:   'THE SUM OF THINGS' The Kurds Died Defeating ISIS. Trump P*ssed on Their Graves. He blames those he betrayed as if they were servants who failed him. CHRISTOPHER DICKEY ****   BLIND U.S. Surveillance Turns Away From ISIS—and to Its Own Troops With the remaining American forces retreating under fire, their eyes in Syrian skies are focused on protecting themselves. SPENCER ACKERMAN, CHRISTOPHER DICKEY ****   ROTTEN The U.S. Spoiled a Deal That Might Have Saved the Kurds Forsaken by the U.S. and under attack by Turkish troops, the Kurds are turning to Russia for help. The last time they tried to do so, the Americans worked to talk them out of it. CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, SPENCER ACKERMAN I would also recommend this from early in the crisis: KILLING FIELDS Kurds Prepared for Trump's Syria Betrayal—With a Vengeance The Kurds are not entirely defenseless. They've been preparing for what they had long anticipated—a possible betrayal by their closest ally, the United States. ANNE SPECKHARD Published 10.07.19 And this from my colleague Spencer Ackerman today:   MISSION CREPT Last U.S. Base in Syria: 'Everything Wrong With Trump's War' As the Pentagon scrambles to keep pace with Trump's Syria tweets, its final outpost in the Syrian desert is a base in search of a purpose. But the crisis in Syria was not the only event we covered. These stories by some of my colleagues also are well worth reading:   SEE NO EVIL U.S. Laws Let White Supremacists Operate Like ISIS What allows far-right terrorist groups to thrive in the U.S. is a legal double standard that binds the hands of even the most proactive members of law enforcement. RITA KATZ **** COLOR-CODED REVOLUTION Hong Kong Protesters Rate Which Businesses Are Friend or Foe Hongkongers are adopting small-scale actions to keep the protest movement from stalling, among them a rating system for business for or against the uprising. BRENDON HONG **** CARTEL WATCH The Murderous New Super Cartel Winning Post El Chapo Mexico The old guard is threatened, a new force is ascendant, and citizens increasingly are caught up in the violence. JEREMY KRYT And then there was this story of outrageous insensitivity in the Oval Office:   HEARTLESS Grieving Parents 'Ambushed' by Trump at the White House The president had hoped to surprise the family of dead British teen Harry Dunn with a meeting with the woman who killed him. "And they weren't ready for it," he admitted. BARBIE LATZA NADEAU A REMINDER: If you want these emails shared with friends, you can suggest they sign up on this landing page. It's as simple as plugging in an email. Copyright © 2019 Christopher Dickey, All rights reserved. You are receiving this because you were on my personal mailing list, and this is in fact a personal account. But please do feel free to "unsubscribe." Our mailing address is: Christopher Dickey 555 W 18 Street The Daily Beast New York, New York 10011 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Firebombings: From My Father's Wars to Mine (2003)

In 2003 I was asked to speak at Clemson University, James Dickey's alma mater, about his work as a poet and mine as a journalist. The speech was adapted afterward into this essay published by the Clemson University Press, but, I fear, no longer available on line.

I am re-posting now as we enter a new phase of war in the Middle East, the result of so many bad decisions that were apparent 16 years ago exacerbated, now, by the miscalculations of the current administration.

My apologies for the format. I hope to re-post shortly as a PDF.

Three weeks ago I talked about the death of Western democracy with Brian Williams on MSNBC. The situation today is worse.

Three weeks ago I was talking with Brian Williams off camera on The 11th Hour about witnessing the death of democracy in Europe and the United States. He asked me to repeat my thoughts on air: a grim picture. It must have struck a nerve, with more than a quarter million views.

I noted at the time that we were seeing some pushback against the populists in Europe. Since then, the British Supreme Court and the U.S. House of Representatives have tried to restore some order, but resurrecting democratic norms is going to be a long struggle against bitter, potentially violent adversaries who claim to speak in the name of "the people."

From Mob-Speak to Murders: Are We Normalizing Mayhem?

The Greta Thunberg meltdown (with which I sympathize), the Zelensky call (with which I don't), the Khashoggi anniversary. The madness is endless.

Mob-Speak and Murders: Normalizing Mayhem? This guy—Charlie the Motorcycle Mutt—has nothing to do with the rest of the stories here, but I think he's hilarious. Photographed him last Sunday as his mistress was getting off her scooter near my apartment in Paris. For more of my shots around town, follow me on Instagram. Also, a couple of book notes: From November 12 to 17, the BookBub site will be offering the e-book versions of Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South for a mere $2.99. You might also want to check out my Amazon author page, which has, among other things, links to back copies of this little letter to friends. The last few days have been busy, watching everything from Greta Thunberg's meltdown over, well, the global meltdown, to the growing heat turned on Donald Trump because of his obsessive efforts to drag foreign leaders into the U.S. 2020 election campaign, and at the same time rewrite the history of 2016. This is what I had to say about Thunberg on France 24: https://youtu.be/AAzKUrXXshQ And this is some of what I had to say about Trump's antics. It's a point I have made before. Trump has never believed in the rule of law, only the rule of lawyers: https://youtu.be/3t1OZhGwrOk Anna Nemtsova and Adam Rawnsley and I worked on a long story about Trump and Rudy Giuliani—who has gone from being America's Mayor to Trump's craven and crazed consigliere—and the longstanding ties both men have to some very shady Ukrainian characters in "Little Odessa" a.k.a. Brighton Beach, Brooklyn: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-and-rudy-giuliani-connections-to-sam-kislin-and-ukraine-corruption-go-back-decades?ref=author We marked the anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an act I am sure Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman regrets, but probably more for the way it was carried out than because a thorn in his side was removed. People are working hard, still, to find out what Trump knew and when he knew it about the butchering of Khashoggi—and how Trump managed to excuse it. That becomes apparent in the article and the conclusion is clear enough: MBS won. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-treacherous-ties-to-a-murderous-prince?ref=author Cheers, Chris Below, downstairs at Harry's New York Bar on Rue Daunou in Paris. I don't know what Mathilde and Vashima were shaking up, but they looked like they were having fun. Copyright © 2019 Christopher Dickey, All rights reserved. You are receiving this because you were on my personal mailing list, and this is in fact a personal account. But please do feel free to "unsubscribe." Our mailing address is: Christopher Dickey 555 W 18 Street The Daily Beast New York, New York 10011 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

The attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities was an act of war, but Trump and the Saudis don't want to say so. At least not yet. There are reasons.

TO WAR OR NOT TO WAR Back in Paris ... Among the major world news stories of the last week, I wrote about the aftermath of the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure, a hit claimed by the Houthis using Iranian missiles and drones. It was a clear act of war and the veil of deniability was mighty thin, but both the Saudis and Trump quickly realized they were in no position to respond in kind. So they took the opportunity afforded by Iran's denials to stall, if not indeed to hide, behind a bodyguard of lies. Another big story involved Trump's alleged efforts to extort Ukraine, pushing its new president to "investigate" a bogus narrative about Biden abusing power. How perfect. An abuse of power to create charges of an opponent's abuse of power. Anna Nemtsova reported in an exclusive that Ukraine would only look into this if it received a formal request from the American government. And then there were the global demonstrations demanding action to address climate change, with 16 year old Greta Thunberg taking the lead as a kind of messianic figure. We published Barbie Nadeau's elegant profile of Thunberg and the role Asperger's Syndrome has played in developing her charisma as well as her focus on the issues. (In passing, I could not help but wonder if Joan of Arc had such a condition.) We also re-posted my long, intimate profile of Jacques Cousteau, a great celebrity half a century ago whose prophecies about environmental destruction, unfortunately, went unheeded. Finally, I hope everyone will read this extraordinary article in Esquire by my sister, Bronwen Dickey, about the struggle to identify the dead at the U.S.-Mexico border: The Remains. My appearance Saturday on MSNBC summed up my thoughts on the prospects for war with Iran: https://twitter.com/csdickey/status/1175701685647400961?s=20 My September 16 column about the risks or war: DANCE OF DEATH We're a Lot Closer to War Than You've Been Told CHRISTOPHER DICKEY Published 09.16.19 [Note: This article is available only to Daily Beast members, but I would encourage you to join if you have not already done so. No other paywall is less expensive or a better value.]  An attack on Saudi oil facilities threatens the global economy and practically dares the U.S. to retaliate. If that weren't dangerous enough, Trump is president. ————————————————— My September 20 essay on the utility of lies to address issues of war and peace in the Middle East:  THE TWILIGHT ZONE OF 'TRUTH' Can Trump Lie His Way Out of War With Iran? Yep. CHRISTOPHER DICKEY The president's lies got us into this mess that threatens war, global recession—and his re-election. But the use of "deniability" is something he understands very well. And finally, my long highly personal profile of Jacques Cousteau:   ORACLE Explorer, Eco-Warrior, Spy: The Battles of Jacques Cousteau One of the world's great adventurers—and a Resistance spy—Jacques Cousteau warned me 25 years ago that humans were reaching the point of no return on environmental destruction.   Copyright © 2019 Christopher Dickey, All rights reserved. You are receiving this because you were on my personal mailing list, and this is in fact a personal account. But please do feel free to "unsubscribe." Our mailing address is: Christopher Dickey 555 W 18 Street The Daily Beast New York, New York 10011 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

What a long, troubling week.

Some Disturbing Predictions About Oil, War, and Democracy What a long, troubling week. It began with Trump's tweets about Camp David accords with the Taliban that he planned to brand as a triumph, then called off before anybody had actually heard of them. And this just days before the anniversary of 9/11. Then came word that the CIA had had to exfiltrate one of its best-placed assets in the Kremlin in 2017, possibly because Trump has trouble keeping secrets. The White House headlines continued with the firing of John Bolton. And the week ended with Iran's Houthi clients staging a massive attack on Saudi oil facilities that cut the Kingdom's oil production in half, raising the prospects of a new Middle East war and hastening the slide toward global recession. I lost count of the number of times I went on MSNBC to talk about all this, so I'll just post here the articles I worked on, and links to a couple of appearances.   OPTICS ILLUSIONS Trump Wanted to Boast About His Own 'Camp David Accords' How could Trump snatch a declaration of victory from the jaws of de facto defeat in the Taliban peace deal? That was the question. SAMI YOUSAFZAI, CHRISTOPHER DICKEY ---------------------------------------------- EXPOSED Putin's Murderous Mole Hunt The Russian daily Kommersant on Tuesday published the name and biography of a man living under his own name with his wife and children near Washington, D.C. AMY KNIGHT, Christopher Dickey contributing ----------------------------------------------- With Brian Williams on Friday night, we were discussing off camera the disaster that is Boris Johnson and I told him I thought we were witnessing the death of democracy in Britain, potentially in much of Europe, and indeed in the United States. When the segment began, he asked me to expand on that theme. The following morning with Phililp Mena, after news broke about the drone attacks on the enormous Saudi refinery at Abqaiq, I reflected on Trump's world of trouble. And I then wrote this column: TIRED OF WINNING As Saudi Arabia Burns, Pompeo Blames Iran—and Trump Makes a Lame Claim About Killing Bin Laden's Son From Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan and North Korea, Trump's tough guy credentials are being tested big time by the world of troubles he has helped to create. By Sunday afternoon, it was obvious to me that we are fast approaching disaster in the Middle East, but much of the press has failed to focus on the gravity of the situation. So I minced no words in my conversation with Kendis Gibson. We are looking at the very real possibility of a new Middle East war and global recession. Copyright © 2019 Christopher Dickey, All rights reserved. You are receiving this because you were on my personal mailing list, and this is in fact a personal account. But please do feel free to "unsubscribe." Our mailing address is: Christopher Dickey 555 W 18 Street The Daily Beast New York, New York 10011 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Writing About Trump and the Taliban, Talking About Boris Johnson’s Raucous Wreckage

Writing about the Taliban, Talking about Boris Johnson (written before the Camp David fiasco) Thanks to Sami Yousafzai and Erin Banco, we were able to take a long hard look at the "peace" deal Trump is trying to pull off in Afghanistan. The Taliban use what's probably a more accurate term. They talk about an American "evacuation."   THE 10 MILLION The Taliban Scoff at Trump's Afghan Peace Talks Bluff The Taliban know how badly Trump wants out of Afghanistan, and they are taking full advantage. SAMI YOUSAFZAI,  ERIN BANCO,  CHRISTOPHER DICKEY We're also following the raucous wreck that is British politics. Nico Hines wrote this spot-on story about Boris Johnson's notorious duplicity doing him in:   READ MY LIPS Brexit Deadlock as Boris' Lies Finally Catch Up With Him Opposition parties deal Boris Johnson another blow as they refuse to grant him the power to call an election because they don't trust him to stick to his word. NICO HINES And I wound up talking about that raucous wreck on MSNBC's Hardball: Parliament votes against Boris Johnson's no-deal Brexit and snap election https://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/parliament-votes-against-boris-johnson-s-no-deal-brexit-and-snap-election-68202053967 Copyright © 2019 Christopher Dickey, All rights reserved. You are receiving this because you were on my personal mailing list, and this is in fact a personal account. But please do feel free to "unsubscribe." Our mailing address is: Christopher Dickey 555 W 18 Street The Daily Beast New York, New York 10011 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.