The rapidly unfolding events in northeastern Syria in recent weeks call to mind the wistful Kurdish proverb, “We have no friends but the mountains.” Syria’s Kurds, it seems, are being abandoned once again by people they thought were their friends, including the United States. This latest betrayal began with a series of choreographed military, political and diplomatic maneuvers by which Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa made it appear as though he was compromising with the Kurds’ demands for continued autonomy when in fact he wasn’t. It was a sequence that seemed at least partly designed to superficially satisfy Washington, the Kurds’ long-time ally, and convince the U.S. to support a deal that the Kurds accepted only under duress. Sharaa’s plan appears to have worked, and now Syria’s Kurds are set to lose their autonomy and much of their ability to defend themselves. Before long, Trump was embracing Sharaa, Syria’s new leader and the former head of an al-Qaida-affiliated militant group.