"Putin likely can't believe his luck"

[dajoki]

Trump has delivered what Russia wants in Syria — at zero cost — and 'Putin likely can't believe his luck'
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-russia-free-hand-syria-putin-cant-believe-luck-2019-10

"Putin likely can't believe his luck" at Trump's withdrawal of US troops from the Kurdish region on the border of Syria and Turkey, a Western military official from the anti-ISIS coalition told Insider.

Syrian troops entering Kurdish-held Rojava represents a massive victory for not only Syrian dictator Assad, but also Putin and the Iranians, who had long demanded the Americans withdraw from the corridor that links northern Iraq to eastern Syria.

"Putin continues to get whatever he wants and generally doesn't even have to do much," a NATO official told Insider. "He got to sit back and watch the Turks and the Americans unravel five years of success and not only did it not cost him anything, he didn't even have to try to make it happen. Small wonder he'd interfere on Trump's side in an election."

<<snip>>

[Mike 03]

1. Infuriating. But as for "at zero cost"

It could be at zero cost, but my fear is there is a cost, that something WAS or WILL BE given to Trump in exchange for this. That should worry all of us: what we don't know about what was promised for this apparently senseless capitulation to Russia, Turkey and Iran (and ISIS).

[5X]

2. It wasn't luck.

This has been part of the plan all along.