@skymayhew@UltraDane Obviously they don't care to comply with those "rules" to get an award, kudos to them really. I don't understand why you criticise their choice?
Masaad Fares Boulos, adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump for Middle East affairs, said in a statement to The New York Post that the primary reason the United States abandoned the SDF is the near total control exercised by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK, a US designated terrorist organization, over its leadership, decision making, and structure.
Boulos explained that for fourteen years PKK linked leadership submitted inflated numbers and false rosters of fighters to the United States, sometimes up to three times the real figures, in order to siphon salaries and benefits funded by US support.
He added that the group routinely arrested innocent civilians and handed them over to US forces as alleged ISIS members, only for investigations to later prove these claims false.
Boulos also stated that PKK affiliated elements would dress their own members in ISIS uniforms at night and carry out sabotage operations in areas under their control, then blame ISIS. This was done to create the illusion of a continued ISIS threat and justify ongoing US support, which he described as deliberate deception of the US administration and its forces.
He concluded by saying that empowered by years of US backing the group no longer follows Washington’s directives or those of US envoy Tom Barrack and continues to refuse recognition of the Syrian government and army despite international recognition of their legitimacy, damaging the credibility of the United States as the former sponsor of this organization.