Late Sunday night, the White House announced it would greenlight a Turkish incursion into northern Syria. “Turkey will be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation. … Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area,” the press secretary stated after President Trump spoke by phone with Turkish President Recep Erdoğan.

Trump may believe that supporting the stable, self-governing entity which Syrian Kurds, Christians, Yezidis, and Arabs have created in northeastern Syria is not a U.S. interest. Frankly, realists may agree that morality has no place in foreign policy. They are wrong on both counts.