Furor over pulling troops from northeast Syria began with troubling Trump phone call and White House statement

Washington Post logoThe furor over the decision to pull U.S. troops out of northeastern Syria began late Sunday night with a poorly conceived White House statement about an ominous telephone conversation between President Trump and the Turkish president.

The results have been rapid and remain unpredictable — and, in the view of critics, amount to the abandonment of America’s Syrian Kurdish allies to a massive Turkish military assault.

As Turkish forces hovered on the Syrian border Tuesday, U.S. officials said the attack could come within hours. On Twitter, Trump wrote that the United States had provided arms for the Kurds and warned that any “unforced or unnecessary fighting by Turkey will be devastating to their economy and to their very fragile currency.”

View the complete October 8 article by Karen DeYoung and Kareem Fahim on The Washington Post website here.