Turkey has gathered forces on its southern border with Syria, as it prepares to make good on its plans to carve out a “safe zone” by pushing out Kurdish fighters who have been United States allies but which Ankara considers terrorists.
As President Trump pivoted from defending his sudden decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the region to warning Turkey against “any unforced or unnecessary fighting,” the Kurdish-led civilian administration in northeastern Syria mobilized for what appears to be an imminent invasion.
In a series of tweets, Trump insisted the U.S. has “in no way” abandoned the Kurds, who he called “special people and wonderful fighters,” and who he said were still being helped with U.S. money and weapons. At the same time, Trump renewed his threat to “destroy” Turkey’s economy and “their very fragile currency,” even as he called Turkey “an important member in good standing of NATO” and announced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would visit the U.S. Nov. 13.
Several reports have quoted U.S. officials as describing the Sunday call between Trump and Erdoğan as beginning well but ending badly as Erdoğan expressed his frustration with the so-called “security mechanism” that was intended to forestall any military operation.
Trump was hoping the prospect of a compromise, Turkey’s expulsion from the F-35 program, and some one-on-one time would mollify Erdoğan, who was said to have felt snubbed by Trump at last month’s United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.
“Erdoğan was adamant about Turkey going into Syria,” officials told NBC. “Even Trump’s offer of a White House visit wasn’t enough to deter him.”
Erdoğan’s insistence Turkey would launch its clearance operation against the Kurds unilaterally, dramatically raised the stakes. Trump could have warned Erdoğan that with American troops in the area he risked combat with a NATO ally. He could have countered with a raise of his own by moving more U.S. forces in the region to protect the Kurds. Instead he folded, ordering the relatively small number of U.S. special operations forces along the border to retreat to safer ground for their protection.
By all accounts it was after that phone call Sunday night that Defense Secretary Mark Esper was notified of Trump’s decision to tacitly approve a limited excursion by Turkish forces. By Monday morning U.S. troops had begun to abandon their outposts in the border region, which came as a rude shock to the Syrian Kurds who they had been advising and had no advance notice of their departure.
The Pentagon issued a carefully worded statement yesterday pushing back against the idea that Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, neither of whom were on the call, had been blindsided by Trump’s unexpected move.
“Despite continued misreporting to the contrary, Secretary Esper and Chairman Milley were consulted over the last several days by the President regarding the situation and efforts to protect U.S. forces in northern Syria in the face of military action by Turkey,” said chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.
The ambiguous wording that Esper and Milley were “consulted over the last several days,” has all the earmarks of the sort of carefully-crafted statement designed to appease a boss who insists he “consulted with everybody” and doesn’t like to be contradicted.
“I always consult with everybody,” Trump said Monday. It was Trump’s lack of consultation over his orders for an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops last December that led to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis submitting his resignation.
