Donald Trump's shameful Syrian betrayal

Donald Trump’s decision to pull troops out of Syria is one of the most shortsighted foreign policy miscalculations in recent memory. The president’s actions leaves the West’s Kurdish allies at the mercy of Turkey. And Trump’s bizarre attempt at justification – claiming that he abandoned the Kurds because they didn’t help the United States in the Second World War – adds insult to injury. After thirty years of the US seeking to present what president George Bush called a “new world order,” a cynical American leadership is retreating – and the country’s friends are paying a heavy price.

Eastern Syria, which was one of the few relatively peaceful areas of the country, was slowly being rebuilt after being liberated from Isis. Now Turkey is bombing it. Ankara argues that the US partnered with elements of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and this gives Turkey a right to invade the region. The US has acknowledged Turkey’s security concerns, with American forces on the ground in eastern Syria even working with the Syrian Democratic Forces, the mostly Kurdish forces that have been fighting Isis, to remove any fortifications that Turkey said were a concern. But this wasn’t enough to stave off Erdogan.