Because the president has no spine
It appears that the sequence of events was: Erdoğan said Turkey was about to invade Syria, and Trump said “Great! I’ll take our troops out!”
Donald Trump got “rolled” by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a National Security Council source with direct knowledge of the discussions told Newsweek.
In a scheduled phone call on Sunday afternoon between President Trump and President Erdogan, Trump said he would withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria. The phone call was scheduled after Turkey announced it was planning to invade Syria, and hours after Erdogan reinforced his army units at the Syrian-Turkish border and issued his strongest threat to launch a military incursion, according to the National Security Council official to whom Newsweek spoke on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. withdrawal plays into the hands of the Islamic State group, Damascus and Moscow, and the announcement left Trump’s own Defense Department “completely stunned,” said Pentagon officials.
I gather the Kurds aren’t feeling too overjoyed about it either.
“President Trump was definitely out-negotiated and only endorsed the troop withdraw to make it look like we are getting something—but we are not getting something,” the National Security Council source told Newsweek. “The U.S. national security has entered a state of increased danger for decades to come because the president has no spine and that’s the bottom line.”
No spine and no brain.
The American intervention in Vietnam 1962-75 was the greatest 20th C military atrocity since the end of World War 2. But the American non-intervention in Syria could be even greater. Time will tell.
It’s worse than that Omar. The US sitting at home would be non-intervention. The US actually persuaded the Kurds to abandon those positions so that they could be occupied by US troops. The US quite rightly thought that would reduce the chance of Turks and Kurds coming into conflict and thus kept the complex situation on the ground slightly simpler. Similarly, although ‘allies’, the US has not supplied the Kurds with any heavy equipment to speak of. Instead, US troops have supplied support with heavy equipment where needed. The Kurds have thus been the lightly armed spear tip used against ISIS, without ending up with a decently equipped army, regional security or even diplomatic cover it would seem.
The US has now abandoned them quite callously. At best they will loose a large chunk of their homelands and a good deal of security. At worst this will turn into a genocide.
Trump is filth frankly.