T. Belman. What bothers me the most about the Trump statements is that no mention was made of protecting the Kurds or pushing back Iran. What does this mean?
It was obvious to observers that Trump traded Turkey for the Kurds. It was more important for the US to be on good terms with Turkey than it was to create. an independent Kurdistan. I am hoping that the People’s Protection Units (YPG) will not be massacred and that the Kurds will accept a place at the negotiating table for drawing up a new constitution for all of Syria. Such constitution should give them some kind of autonomy as part of Syria. Erdogan has often said that he rejects an independent Kurdish state. Hopefully he will accept an autonomous Kurdish region as part of Syria.
That leaves the push back against Iran. I do not believe that Trump has abandoned that goal.
Just hours after Netanyahu dubbed Erdogan ‘anti-Semitic dictator, President Trump says Turkish leader the right man for the job in Syria.
Turkey will fill the void left in Syria by America’s impending departure, President Donald Trump announced Monday morning, praising Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a discussion with Erdogan on the future fight against ISIS in the war-torn country.
On Sunday night, a US defense official told CNN that the president had signed an order to begin the withdrawal of American forces deployed to Syria. The US currently has roughly 2,000 soldiers in Syria – mostly in the northeast – as part of the ongoing campaign against the ISIS terror organization.
President Trump pushed back against criticism of the move, saying that his administration had done “more damage to ISIS than all recent presidents….not even close!”
“On Syria, we were originally going to be there for three months,” Trump wrote. “And that was seven years ago – we never left.”
“When I became President, ISIS was going wild. Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We’re coming home!” he added.
The controversial decision was followed by the resignation of Mattis and of Brett McGurk, Trump’s special envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS.
It was later reported that President Trump spoke with Erdogan, and that he told the Turkish president that the situation in Syria was “all yours. We are done.” Erdogan reportedly promised to finish off ISIS.
President Trump later confirmed the conversation with Erdogan, saying he had a “long and productive call” with Erdogan.
“I just had a long and productive call with President Erdogan of Turkey. We discussed ISIS, our mutual involvement in Syria, & the slow & highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area. After many years they are coming home. We also discussed heavily expanded Trade,” Trump tweeted.
On Monday, the president praised the Turkish leader as “a man who can” defeat ISIS.
“President Erdogan of Turkey has very strongly informed me that he will eradicate whatever is left of ISIS in Syria….and he is a man who can do it plus, Turkey is right ‘next door.’ Our troops are coming home!”
The decision comes just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu accused Erdogan of being an “anti-Semitic dictator”, the latest in a series of jabs between the two leaders.
Clearly Trump has acted more responsibly and with much greater preparation and forethought than initial reports alleged. He kept his plan secret from his own top advisors, or at any rate some of them. But that may be because he didn’t trust them not to leak the plans prematurely or reign in protest before he was ready to announce it. Being devious and being irresponsible are not always the same thing.
Clearly Trump was following the advice of some analysts who have been monitoring the Syrian situation closely, such as the experts cited by AI Monitor. He propably even consulted with the Kurdish leaders. He is struggling to bring about a ‘deal of the century” in Syria that will result in a settlement that is reasonably fair to everyone, while at the same time giving the U.S. a viable exit strategy. It may or may not work, but it is a reasonable gamble. And it is probably reversible if the Kurds and America’s allies face a real catastrophe at the hands of Erdogan or Assad.