For Jim Mattis, the former secretary of defense, the last straw was Trump’s abrupt announcement at the end of 2018 that he was withdrawing American forces in Syria, where they were fighting the Islamic State. This move would mean abandoning America’s Kurdish allies and giving Turkey and Russia the political plum that they wanted. Mattis, a strong believer in alliances, knew that a retreat from Syria would threaten the security of American troops elsewhere in the region as well as infuriate the Kurds and other allies in the anti-ISIS coalition, who would justifiably feel betrayed. Mattis urged
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