It is dismaying that Turkey's military operation in north-eastern Syria is being spun in the American news media as an attack on Kurds, as weakening the fight against the remnants of Daesh (or the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) and hurting the United States' credibility with its allies.

I am compelled to set the record straight because the 67-year-old North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) alliance that Turkey has with the US is not temporary, tactical nor transactional.