Wrong Move, Trump!

A U.S. military commander, second from right, walks with Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) at Mount Karachok near Malikiya, Syria, April 25, 2017.

"In one decision, the Trump administration abandoned two allies: Israel and the Kurds."
"The American forces operating in the northeastern region of Syria, especially near​​ Al-Bukamal, bordering Iraq, constituted a final buffer between Iran and the Mediterranean Sea."
"Iran has a presence in Iraq and in Lebanon, of course, as well. The US buffer in Al-Bukamal stopped the connection between the two."

"The departure of US forces foreshadows the construction of a 'highway' that will offer a direct route for Iranians and Shiite militias between Tehran and Beirut. As a senior Arab diplomat explained to The Times of Israel, the development will allow Iranian Revolutionary Guards al-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani to drive straight from Tehran to the offices of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Dahiya, Beirut."
"Beyond Israel, it is impossible to ignore the future of the Kurdish region of Syria [and in Turkey as well]. The United States has abandoned those who were its most important allies in the war against the Islamic State."
"At one point the Kurds were the only force that managed to stop the Islamist terror organization.
After the Iraqi and Syrian armies suffered losses at the hands of Islamic State, the Kurdish YPG forces endured fierce battles, fought until their last drop of blood, and managed to stop the terror organization on a number of fronts [most notably, in the northern Syrian city of Kobani]."
"It is difficult to find fighters [both male and female] more heroic than the Kurds as they acted in the name of human rights and women’s rights. They were heroes, and especially heroines, who sacrificed themselves for humanity."
Avi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel

"I think it's fair to say Americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate, until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeat is enduring."
"Nobody is declaring a mission accomplished. Defeating a physical caliphate is one phase of a much longer-term campaign."
U.S. special envoy Brett McGurk, December 11

"We're not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders and that includes Iranian proxies and militias."
John Bolton, U.S. national security adviser, September

"Pulling troops out of Syria in an ongoing fight is a big mistake. Like walking away from a forest fire that is still smouldering underfoot."
"...Big winner is Iran, then Russia, then Assad. Wrong move."
James Stavridis, former U.S. Navy admiral, former NATO commander

Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) head a convoy of U.S military vehicles in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syria, April 28, 2017.

Yet another impulsive determination by U.S. President Donald Trump, ignoring the advice of his top-flight military advisers, and leading to the resignation of his Defence chief James Mattis. The Trump decision to withdraw two thousand American military members from their vital role in supporting the Syrian Kurdish-led militias against the presence of Islamic State in their last remaining stronghold while successfully appealing to Islamofascist jihadis to join them, to the point where despite losing thousands of their fighters their fighter strength is back to where it was when their geographic caliphate was still intact, leaves both the courageous Kurds and the Israelis in the lurch.

A scant two weeks earlier General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared there was still a long way to go for the U.S. in training local Syrian forces in prevention of an ISIL resurgence and to ensure the gradual stabilization of the country remains on track. It would require, he stated with the conviction of one who knows his trade and the situation before him intimately, 35,000 to 40,000 local troops in Syria's northeastern region to maintain security levels over the long term, while a mere 20 percent had yet undergone training. That speaks of long-term commitment.

Commitment is a will-o'-the-wisp concept to Donald Trump, he relies on his never-failing intuition to guide his decision-making, no hard facts on the ground need intrude on this instinctive, deep-seated process that reflects the certainty of his reliance on his inner moods and convictions. Expert opinion, boots and observations on the ground be damned. Everyone must fall in line behind his behind, preferably humbly if not obsequiously as befits a commander-in-chief's infallible and cunning decision-making, for his decisions are all of that; infallible and cunning and no one can persuade him otherwise.

He is the President of the United States of America. Look on his mighty works and despair -- with apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Despair is what the Kurds, the sole local fighting forces, both men and women, who have never hesitated to meet the Islamic State terrorists in fierce combat, determined to protect themselves from the jihadis' barbarian influx and intentions must be facing at prospects for their future. Sometimes surprises should surprise no one. Trump, after all, broadcasted just that intention -- to withdraw U.S. troops during the presidential campaign that brought him to the Oval Office. His decision was made not because he consulted with his advisers but because he disagreed with his advisers whom he failed to consult, knowing their advice and opinions and contemptibly dismissing them.

"This is, of course, an American decision", stated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no doubt as taken aback and concerned as anyone else, with how this will impact on the Islamic Republic of Iran's ongoing controlling and dominating inroads into Lebanon and Syria. A decision which will inevitably bring closer to reality the potential of an all-out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iranian Republican Guard Corps and their Shiite militias enlisted by Iran at the Golan Heights in a presumed effort at a pincer movement that would animate Hamas in Gaza in a concerted, three-pronged attack on Israel.

Aside from Iran, however, another country, a NATO member, Turkey, whose volatile Islamist president Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to get on swimmingly well with Trump, will be delighted. For Trump's decision gives Erdogan the green light he has long agitated for; that the U.S. discontinue its partnership with the Kurds, in essence protecting them by the presence of American military, from the intention of Erdogan to destroy the presence of Kurds adjacent the Syrian border with Turkey and as far beyond as he can manage.

A senior US official has revelead the US decision to withdraw from Syria was made following a Trump-Erdogan phone call last Friday, despite Trump administration denials.  EPA

"This is a clear declaration of war. We take Erdogan’s threats against us very seriously. He has repeatedly expressed his desire to occupy our land in northeast Syria."
"Our partners in the U.S.-led coalition are well aware of these Turkish moves because a Turkish attack against us can also impact the U.S. efforts to defeat [IS] terrorists."
Nuri Mahmud, YPG spokesperson

Now, it won't. The U.S. efforts have been summarily dismissed. And Erdogan has his green light. U.S. forces will be returning home. The Islamic Republic of Iran has free reign. Israel can prepare once again for its never-ending future of war. And the Kurds have once again been abandoned.