Trump Followed His Gut on Syria. Calamity Came Fast.

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/world/middleeast/trump-turkey-syria.html

All the warnings were there. But President Trump’s reliance on his instincts, and his relationships, led him to ignore the consequences of a move that has emboldened Russia, Iran and the Islamic State.


Turkish troops and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters on Saturday near the border town of Ras al-Ain, during their assault on Kurdish-held border towns in northeastern Syria.CreditCreditNazeer Al-Khatib/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By David E. Sanger

Oct. 14, 2019, 9:29 a.m. ET

President Trump’s acquiescence to Turkey’s move to send troops deep inside Syrian territory has in only one week’s time turned into a bloody carnage, forced the abandonment of a successful five-year-long American project to keep the peace on a volatile border, and given an unanticipated victory to four American adversaries: Russia, Iran, the Syrian government and the Islamic State.

Rarely has a presidential decision resulted so immediately in what his own party leaders have described as disastrous consequences for American allies and interests. How this decision happened — springing from an “off-script moment” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, in the words of a senior American diplomat — likely will be debated for years by historians, Middle East experts and conspiracy theorists.

But this much already is clear: Mr. Trump ignored months of warnings from his advisers about what calamities likely would ensue if he followed his instincts to pull back from Syria and abandon America’s longtime allies, the Kurds. He had no Plan B, other than to leave. The only surprise is how swiftly it all collapsed around the president and his depleted, inexperienced foreign policy team.

Day after day, they have been caught off-guard, offering up differing explanations of what Mr. Trump said to Mr. Erdogan, how the United States and its allies might respond, and even whether Turkey remains an American ally. For a while Mr. Trump said he acted because the Islamic State was already defeated, and because he was committed to terminating “endless wars” by pulling American troops out of the Middle East. By the end of the week he added 2,000 — to Saudi Arabia.

One day he was inviting Mr. Erdogan to visit the White House; the next he was threatening to “totally destroy and obliterate” Turkey’s economy if it crossed a line that he never defined.

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[gratuitous]

1. Remember when Republicans were soooo worried about the U.S. cutting and running?

Well, here it is, and their very own Emperor and Head Cheese Donald J. Trump is the author and finisher of this cut-and-run episode. It used to be that the most dangerous place on the planet was between a Republican hawk and a camera. Today they're all incapacitated from an epidemic of sudden onset lockjaw. A bunch of people are being and going to be massacred, and none of them can speak out against it.

[TheBlackAdder]

2. That's while a Dem was president and the GOPers were just wetting their beaks on Russian money.

[NCjack]

3. The product of the gut is shit. nt

[NewJeffCT]

4. He wasn't following his gut

he got orders from Putin via Erdogan

[Enoki33]

6. .....and his offshore bank balance.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Part of the Deal

with Putin's Buddies. You give me Cash,I give you Oil. You give me Cash I give you access to World Monetary Funds.

[Newest Reality]

5. Oh, really?

That's disingenuous to refer to the decision as a gut reaction. Bullshit. Impulsive? That's very questionable if there is a particular modus operandi behind them, which we have every reason to suspect.

So, there may be inaccuracies in the overall reporting, but the overall implications are bothering, to me.

First and foremost, you never believe what Trump says about himself or his motivations or how he does it. All you will get is obfuscation and manipulation, not an honest revelation or appraisal. What is with the naivete here?

It doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to know that he has ulterior motives and does not make them clearly evident. Treating the superficial aspects of what he does as poor decision making or lack of information really misses the point here and is enabling.

At least, that is what I get from the facts we have so far. In that case, this article seems to be either missing the point or is a misleading point-of-view.

And that's just my humble opinion. Maybe I am being to critical and severe and biased.

[GeorgeGist]

8. Before buying this claim...

I'd like to read transcript of call.