President Trump declares victory in Syria

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump declared a victory of sorts Wednesday as he announced a “permanent” cease fire between Turkey and Kurdish forces in Syria.

“Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand,” Trump proclaimed.

Flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump revealed he would leave U.S. troops near Syrian oil fields and lift economic sanctions imposed on Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent troops into Syria. In response to Turkey’s aggression, Trump increased steel tariffs to 50 percent and stopped negotiations on a $100 billion trade deal.

“Countless lives are now being saved because of the outcome we negotiated with Turkey,” said Trump, adding that there were no American casualties.

Trump also claimed that this ceasefire “could never have been made without this short-term outburst” that began after Erdogan and he spoke on the phone on Oct 6. Turkey informed Trump of the accord on Wednesday morning.

Not everyone agreed.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Fox News, “Why did the United States not negotiate this earlier? It would have prevented some of the violence against the Kurds. We could have secured the ISIS prisoners.”

The Kurds “fought shoulder to shoulder with us and yet this whole deal was Turkey and Russia. They didn’t even have a seat at the table,” Khanna said.

But Kurdish Gen. Mazloum Abdi thanked Trump via Twitter “for his tireless efforts that stopped the brutal Turkish attack and jihadist groups on our people.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., faulted Trump, saying lifting sanctions on Turkey “after despots like (Syrian Leader Bashar) Assad, Erdogan, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin already got everything they wanted is another nonsensical and counterproductive foreign policy decision.”

On Tuesday after a lengthy meeting in Sochi, Russia’s Black Sea resort, Erdogan and Putin announced they had reached a deal that would allow Russian troops to patrol the region.

Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation in Defense of Democracies said he found it “astounding” that Trump not only capitulated completely to Eregodan and Putin, but also “decided to remove sanctions before we see the outcome of the operation.”

“It’s not a permanent ceasefire,” Schanzer added. “On the one hand, it looks as if Trump can wash his hands of the mess in Syria. On the other hand, he has ceded valuable real estate to the Russians.”

Trump said that he would re-impose sanctions against Turkey if the NATO ally breaks terms.

He also used the occasion to take swipes at European leaders for not doing enough for the Kurds, to criticize pundits who faulted Trump for not stopping Erdogan and to compare himself favorably to President Barack Obama.

“Eight long years after President Obama’s ill-fated push at regime change, U.S. troops are still on the ground in Syria,” Trump argued.

And: “We were supposed to be there for 30 days. That was almost 10 years ago.”

Factcheck.org, however, failed to substantiate Trump’s claim that the mission had any timetable when the Obama White House announced it was sending special operations forces into the region in 2015.

U.S. Special Envoy James Jeffrey testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday that Trump did not consult him before announcing his decision to pull U.S. forces out of Syria on Oct. 6.

Asked about the administration’s suggestion that Trump could not have stopped Erdogan from invading Syria, Jeffrey responded, “It was a very real possibility. It was not inevitable.”

Aykan Erdemir, a former member of Turkish Parliament now with the Foundation in Defense of Democracies, lamented that a deal was not brokered during Erdogan’s meeting with Pence and Pompeo, but during “the Erdogan Putin meeting.”

Erdemir doesn’t think it is in Turkey’s interest to partner with Russia, but that Erdogan sees working with Putin to be in his own interest. He sees the Erdogan-Putin partnership as what happens “when a country’s policy revolves around one man and his inner circle.”

But after the announcement, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who had been highly critical of Trump giving a greenlight to Erdogan, tweeted, “Hopeful cease-fire will hold and appreciate President Trump’s commitment to making sure ISIS does not come back and get a windfall from Syrian oil reserves.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.