Dareen Khalifa, senior Syria analyst for International Crisis Group via WP: “This is a battle the Syrian Democratic Forces would surely lose. The flat typography [sic] favors conventional warfare.”

(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and Defence-Imagery)

Indeed, the typography is too flat and favors conventional warfare… I know they mean topography, but it still sounds ironic.  The Turks have conducted airstrikes and artillery bombardment on sites in Kurdish-held Syria near the Turkish border.  The Kurds are firing back but there doesn’t appear to be any organized opposition.  Likely they are simply providing cover fire for the withdrawal of the rest of the Kurdish troops.  The American soldiers in the area are probably supporting the Kurds from the rear– all the Presidential order has done is to remove American troops from harm’s way.

The right thing to do would have been to use the threat of American sanctions to talk Erdogan out of invading Syria, but our *president has 119 active business interests in Turkey, including the [redacted] Tower in Istanbul, making it difficult for him to threaten economic sanctions when his own businesses would be affected.