Gesturing to Kobani with the smoke rising in several places in the town center, Goçak, at whose farm we are drinking tea, says, “This could be over in a matter of days if the U.S. would just increase their airstrikes.”

In their frustration, refugees and farmers weave ever more byzantine conspiracy theories to explain the reluctance of the West to do more. “This is a deal between the Turks and the Americans against the Kurds and to make sure we can’t have a state of our own in Syria,” says one gnarled farmer. Others lustily add Israel as a member of the conspiracy.

A few say the Turkish soldiers will intervene after Kobani falls in order to make themselves look good and are denying arms supplies now to deny the Kurdish defenders the glory of victory.