The Human Stain

“In between rounds at his golf club, on both Saturday and Sunday, President Trump decided that he was done with Syria. He ordered the evacuation of a thousand U.S. Special Forces troops deployed to contain ISIS … As if on cue, on Sunday, hundreds of families and supporters of the Islamic State escaped from a detention center … the black ISIS flag was soon erected nearby.” Robin Wright in The New Yorker: Chaos in Syria: ISIS Detainees Escape as the U.S. Pulls Out.

+ “They trusted us and we broke that trust … It’s a stain on the American conscience.” NYT: Pullback Leaves Green Berets Feeling ‘Ashamed,’ and Kurdish Allies Describing ‘Betrayal.’

+ “Typically, you want the people who are giving input to have credentials and have knowledge of the area, but I know that’s not the case necessarily today.” WaPo: Unswayed by top advisers, Trump doubles down on decision to withdraw troops.

+ Trump Followed His Gut on Syria. Calamity Came Fast. (It’s difficult to measure the horror of this situation. A person who prides himself on not needing the facts, who requires daily briefings to be delivered in pictures, and whose only real interest is himself, is making life and mostly death decisions based on his gut.)

+ The Conversation: Kurds targeted in Turkish attack include thousands of female fighters who battled Islamic State.

+ “Recklessly or intentionally bombing hospitals is a war crime, but proving culpability amid a complex civil war is extremely difficult, and until now, Syrian medical workers and human rights groups lacked proof.” NYT: 12 Hours. 4 Syrian Hospitals Bombed. One Culprit: Russia. (And one very big enabler…)

+ And now Assad’s forces are moving in. For those scoring at home, the key winners so far are Erdogan, Putin, Assad, and ISIS. Key losers: The Kurds, and America’s reputation among its allies. It’s too bad Trump didn’t just shoot someone on Fifth Ave. Compared to what he has done, there would have been a lot less carnage. Here’s the latest from the NYT and CNN.