@eldang @aadil don't you remember when it happened? The whole public debate was based on the premise that pulling out equalled abandoning Kurdish allies. The consequences were perfectly clear.

@ntnsndr @aadil The whole public debate in the US, because the US thinks the rest of the world always does its bidding. Turkey was already bombing the area; the US's choices were war with a NATO ally or getting its troops out of the way.

@ntnsndr @aadil I guess a lot of what I’m reacting to is the word “invited”. It’s possible that the US could have prevented this, at very great cost. But I find that the way people in “the west” discuss the rest of the world’s geopolitics just erases the agency of all countries other than the US, and this conflict was categorically not caused by the US. Unlike several of the region’s problems....

@eldang @aadil I agree that the presumption shouldn't be that US troops are everywhere as a default. But if they are already, we need to absorb the consequences of that, and withdraw in ways that aren't obviously reckless.

@ntnsndr @aadil That's fair. But once you take account of how determined Erdoğan was to have this war, Trump had only terrible options available. It's exceedingly rare that I sympathise with Trump, but I guess if anyone was going to manage to make me it would be Erdoğan....