Why did the United States have to keep arming Kurdish fighters to fight ISIS? And why did Trump need two thousand U.S. military personnel in Syria if they were close to triumphing over the caliphate? Erdogan argued that his forces could ensure ISIS didn’t creep back to power—and that they didn’t need the Kurds, an enemy of the Turkish regime. “You know what? It’s yours,” Trump told Erdogan. “I’m leaving.” One senior administration official summed up the sentiment: “Trump was like: You want that pile of dirt, Erdogan? Fine.” Without thinking it through or conferring with any of his government’s
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